Personally, I would prefer it if unittest got rid of all the various
ways to spell "assert" and just let test cases use the assert statement.
I use nose for most of my stuff which supports/allows use of the assert
statement.  I think my test cases are better for it.

(crap, crap, crap. I was scrolling through the messages and my finger slid
off the button on my laptop.  I pressed it again without really looking.
I didn't realize the mouse was no longer over the scrollbar's thumb and,
too late, saw that I had clicked the Remove button of this message "msg84360".  
I hope I clicked the cancel button soon enough.  If not, can it be
"unremoved" programmatically?  I have the text of the message if need be.)