January 20, 2006

444 DAYS?:

Safe at Home: 25 Years Ago, a Gift From Major League Baseball Helped Iran Hostages Reconnect With America (Les Carpenter, January 20, 2006, Washington Post)

It was a small thing really, barely bigger than a credit card, tucked unpretentiously in a small black case. For each of the 52 American hostages who bounded off the plane, free at last, the ticket stuffed inside the box was another of the trinkets that piled up around them. A modest reward for the cold, metal muzzle of a shotgun pressed against their faces.

Modest? I 've always thought it made the ordeal seem nearly worthwhile.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2006 10:55 PM
Comments

Anyone see that Marvell Wynne Jr, whose father played major league baseball for the Padres, Cubs, and Pirates in the 80s, just got picked number 1 in the Major League Soccer draft today?

Father plays professional baseball. Son play soccer.

The future is now. The future is ours.

And just wait til the children of all the recent immigrants from futbol-loving countries start contributing.

Bwwahhhaahhhhaa.

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at January 21, 2006 3:18 AM

Hitting a curve isn't genetic, but any doofus can kick.

Posted by: oj at January 21, 2006 7:29 AM

While listening to NPR between cell-phone calls in my S.U.V. yesterday, I heard a piece about
how the hostages were released while JIMMY CARTER was president, running an interview of Carter, and impliedly giving him credit for "ending" the hostage crisis.

What an Orwell moment! Right out of the Ministry of Truth. As we recall the facts, the little sheet heads over there released the hostages as a kind of inauguration day present for Reagan, he having pledged to take care of the matter promptly upon his accession to office.

Posted by: Lou Gots at January 21, 2006 8:30 AM

I wouldn't be surprised if the people who work at NPR don't even know that what they're saying isn't true.

In another 25 years, there will be very few people who know the truth about anything in the past and if Bush and the conservative resurgence doesn't succeed in breaking the back of the liberal control of our culture, all references to a past that don't mesh with the fiction and fantasy of the left's world view, will be wiped clean.

Posted by: erp at January 21, 2006 9:30 AM

Marvell Wynne Jr — Reminds me of the Futurama episode with "Hank Aaron the 24th", the worst Blernsball player ever. Even Hank Aaron's head called his descendent a "fungo".

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at January 21, 2006 2:22 PM

I'm with OJ that the pass might have made the captivity worth the trouble, but I remember one baseball-hating writer at the time asking (about the life-time passes): Haven't these people suffered enough?

Posted by: Foos at January 21, 2006 2:43 PM
« WE CAN'T BE TERRORISTS, WE CARE TOO MUCH: | Main | THE NECESSARY HERESY: »