The Iranian Hostage Situation

"When I was first taken hostage and a gun was thrust to my head, I said to myself this cannot happen," reflects Barry Rosen.

For Rosen and the other former hostages held in Iran for 444 days three decades ago, it could be thirty years....or thirty seconds. Sometimes it almost seems like not a day has gone by.

When he was captured, Rosen was the press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. He is one of the original 52 Americans who were held for the duration. Most of the time he was blindfolded, faced mock execution, and endured other forms of physical and mental abuse.

The coverage of this event made Ted Koppel's career. The television show Nightline was created to follow the events.

From Wikipedia:

The program had its beginnings on November 8, 1979, just 4 days after the Iran hostage crisis started. ABC News president Roone Arledge felt the best way to compete against NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was to update Americans on the latest news from Iran. At that time, the show was called: "The Iran Crisis—America Held Hostage: Day xxx" where xxx represented each day Iranians held hostage the occupants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

America was captivated by this event. We wondered how our once mighty "take no crap from anyone attitude" was turned against itself. We were impotent and left with only "diplomatic" solutions by our leadership. The failed hostage rescue only demonstrated more that we were helpless with out new leadership.

When Ronald Reagan was elected president in November of 1979 the Iranian regime knew that their time holding Americans and America itself hostage was drawing to a close. While President Reagan was giving his inauguration speech the hostages were being flown out of Iran.

My Marine artillery instructor told us he was in the flotilla waiting for the orders to land in Iran the week leading up to the release. The expeditionary force was to occupy the military while another special forces mission was launched to rescue the hostages. We had people on the ground and knew exactly where the hostages were located. They would be coming home. Period.

The Iranians knew this and knew that war the United States would not end well for them.

This was a very low period for America and with the Reagan administration a resurgence of national pride began that can still be felt today.

Welcome home hostages.

Lawyer wants to get rich, er uh, I mean help sad family

The family of a teenager who authorities said hid in the wheel well of an airplane in North Carolina before falling from the sky over Milton has hired a Florida law firm to pursue legal claims in his death, the firm said yesterday.

The battered body of Delvonte Tisdale, 16, was found in a quiet subdivision in Milton in November. Milton police initially suggested that Tisdale was murdered, but former Norfolk district attorney William R. Keating said last month that Tisdale stowed away on a USAirways flight in Charlotte. The law firm representing the family believes lax security is to blame.

Lax security is to blame? Lax security at an airport? Wow. 

First, I'm pretty sure the KID is to blame. He got ON THE AIRPLANE illegally. 

Secondly, how can an airline be held responsible for the death of a passenger who did not follow the pilot's orders to fasten his seat belt? How can the airline or airport be held responsible for a person who did not even buy a ticket on the airplane, which is a contract between the purchaser and the airline to deliver the passenger to a destination? No contract existed. Hmmmm, maybe I should have gone to law school....

Dumbass of the week

Fountain-Falling Texter in Court for Alleged Theft

Woman Considers Suing After Mall Fall Becomes a Viral Video Sensation

The problems continue to pile up for the Pennsylvania woman who became the unwitting star of a viral video after she fell into a mall fountain while text messaging.

In the hours that followed Cathy Cruz Marrero's appearance on "Good Morning America" today to talk about the fall and its aftermath, she was in court for a status hearing on charges of five felony counts, including theft by deception and receiving stolen property.


Marrero, who works at a store in the Berkshire mall in Wyomissing , admitted that she laughed, too, at first. But after being laughed at by millions, she said, no one has taken her feelings into consideration.
She learned that her fall went viral from her nephew, who called to tell her it was on YouTube.

So she's suing the mall for letting the video out. She keeps saying I didn't have anything to grab on to. WHO CARES! You went into the water with one hand on your phone and one hand on your purse (that is your purse right?). You are an idiot and should just be thankful you didn't end up seriously injured because of your ignorance. 

Look on the bright side and realize how many people you have brought joy and happiness to (ME INCLUDED) by watching you walk in to the fountain. I guess from your logic if you were in your car and struck by another motorist because you ran a red light while texting it would be the other driver's fault? Grow up and take some personal responsibility for your actions. But since you like to use other people's credit cards to buy stuff you haven't learned that lesson yet. YET.

Best tag line this month...

Fark.com headline tag:

Johnson & Johnson address tampon supply issues. Say they've plugged the holes in their distribution network, will have things running again in a month

Johnson & Johnson, already under fire for a string of product recalls, has another public relations issue on its hands after its o.b. tampons temporarily disappeared from stores and little was said about what happened.

O.b. users, many of whom have a cult-like loyalty to the product, said they were outraged when they could not find the brand in stores late last year. They asked clerks why shelves were empty and demanded answers from J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, already under fire for recalling over 200 million bottles of Tylenol and other medicines.

J&J admitted that it had experienced a temporary supply interruption with o.b., apologized to women inconvenienced by it and has started shipping the goods again. It has not said exactly what happened.

Wait, a multi-billion dollar company doesn't know what happened to interrupt one of their most popular products? To quote my good friend Jack, "I call bull-shit."

Yes, that is a Bedazzled tampon puppet. I know, the genius is just too much to bare.