Never heard of this flag display before. I remember well the Iranian hostage ordeal.

I'm off to bed, and I'll sleep with a renewed sense of pride in being an American.

While I'll stay awake and nurse a renewed sense of disgust at President Carter. That there are over four hundred flags there rather than four is still a disgrace, and always shall be.

Stuff your Habitats for Humanity up your ass, sir. If there's any room there next to your head.

I had a HUGE "Nuke Iran" sign in my college dorm room window in 1979. It faced towards the dorm quad and was impossible to miss - the letters were two feet high and covered the whole window. It stayed there the whole semester.

Today that would be considered "horribly intolerant" and "racist".

Back then I never heard a single complaint from anyone. Not any students. Not any college administration. Nada.

Ahhh, the good old days when speech really was free.

Hell, on some college campuses, they make you take down the FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES because it's "non-inclusive."

It's like, no shit? That's the fucking point, jackass!

And how is that even legal? How the fuck is it legal to prevent or attempt to prevent any American citizen from flying our country's flag anywhere, anytime, in our own damn country.

Anyway, if Tom Flynn had to do it, it's just as well that he did it a quarter-century ago. Probably get himself arrested now.

"You're being insensitive to foreigners."

"So? They want to kill me just to watch me die."

"RESPECT THEIR CULTURE OR BE SUED!"

Feh.

I was a kid then, too, but the avenue of flags rings a bell. Lately, with talk of energy crisis, inflation, trouble in Iran, and now Avian flu (then, it was Swine flu), I feel like the 70's are being rerun.

Wow. Anyone remember when and how the hostages were released?

Anyone remember the words, "October surprise"?

Iran-contra ring a bell? Arms for hostages?

Hostages kept LONGER as illegal deals were made to arrange their release only after Reagan was sworn in?

Hello?

I'm still a long way from mastering the amnesia required for happy head-nodding on blogs like this...

What a great way to start the day. May those flags wave forever.

BTW-Building on the previous comments, the other day we were discussing media lies about Katrina and waxing nostalgic talking about when the perfidious media were exposed for the first time by C-SPAN.

Just about the first time I noticed this was when I watched an academic conference on Acid Rain. Anybody out there old enough to remember that? Acid rain was an earlier version of Global Warming. The media fiction was that contaminants from the factories in the Midwest were getting into the atmosphere and rain was washing them in back down on the ground causing the flora in the northern climes to die. This "devastation" was seen from New England to Scandinavia.

There was a lively discussion and the notion was largely debunked. The nightly news, however, with a bit of nipping and tucking, reported an entirely different conclusion than what I saw with our own eyes. What a revelation. Naturally, I thought that report was an anomaly and the people at the news studio were idiots. Soon enough, I learned the truth that the media have lied to us since the beginning of time.

So, C-SPAN, now a pawn of PC was at one time merely an impartial eye recording proceeding without editorializing and academic conferences were about sharing knowledge and facts, not showcases for leftwing propaganda.

"October Surprise," you mean the theory about GHWBush flying to Paris in an SR-71 to arrange to stall the hostage relief? The conspiracy theory which was investigated and dismissed for complete lack of evidence? I thought only complete whackjobs believed that kind of stuff?

So, uh, Tubino, care to explain how Mossad blew up the WTC or how the Japanese Mafia created Hurricane Katrina with a secret Russian weather machine or how Cheerios are actually just the 'Os' from Alpha-Bits?

Erp, I also remember reading in the Reader's Digest, I think it was 'round 1979 or so (my mom had a subscription) that by 1997, all the petroleum would be used up, and automobiles would be outlawed by 1987.

It' s funny how the same people who don't want 'Intelligent Design' discussed in schools because it is 'unscientific' and just part of 'an agenda' ... have no trouble with injecting Global Warming into every aspect of the curriculum

What anignorant troll you are turbino:
The "October surprise" was debunked by a Congressional investigation and much of the conspiracy theorists most damning evidence was discovered to be bogus.

As to the timing, there are two credible, Occam's Razor, type explainations: One, is Iran knew holding the hostages was costing their new government more harm than good, but waited until Carter was out of office out of spite for Carter. Two, they were scared that the new "cowboy" president would do something rash.

Finally, most ignorant of all is mixing Iran-Contra with this as that deal had nothing to do with th Iranian hostages but hostages held in Lebanon and Syria...

You may not have the amnesia, Tubby ol' chap, but you have the delusions.

starve it. it does not reason. it merely burps up nonsense.

No no no, I think we should never discourage moonbats like tubino from spreading the word about the "October Surprise" and other hare-brained conspiracy theories. It makes moonbat heroes like Jimmah Cattah look like the absolutely stupid fools that they are.

For the conspiracy to be true, Reagan and his running mate Bush the Elder had to have more influence and power in the world than the sitting President.

Now who would you rather have as President? Some cardigan-wearing toothy southern jackass who, as the incumbent, needed help from Canada to rescue a paltry portion of hostages from a known location, or a man who had enough power and clout to make an end-run around a sitting President and force the jihadis to release all of their hostages by simply talking to them?

Only a deranged moron would think that Presidential impotence in the face of foreign terror is a good thing.

And yes, I remember it very well (I was in the process of getting kicked out of my second university. I like to think it was all a big misunderstanding).

There was a tremendous sense of national frustration, disbelief at what seemed to be our unwillingness to do anything about this. Ross Perot, (that crazy sumbitch), had hired Bull Simons earlier in 1979 to take a team in and go get two of his EDS employees out of an Iranian prison. That goofy bastard WENT IN himself before the rescue. Most Americans didn't understand why if he could get it done, why couldn't Carter?

Trivia, as a result of the rescue mission's failure (helicopter and a C-130 collided in a sandstorm at a refueling point - at the time we didn't have aerial refueling capabilities for helicopters), the company I used to work for was given a contract to develop terrain following radar and computer guidance systems for C-130s. It's the MC model. Cool plane.

Oh, and another thing; Cyrus Vance was an idiot.

The more I think about the after-effects of Carter's non-response to Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the closer I come to thinking the label "History's Greatest Monster" was no joke.

I remember the return of the hostages very, very well. They brought them to West Point (where I was "incarcerated" at the time) for their reunion with their families. They ate in the mess hall with us and we saluted them as they left by lining the entire Corps of Cadets up along the route their buses were taking.

It was quite a stirring moment.

In my alter-ego as I.J. Reilly, I put up a similar remembrance blog at Red State. http://i-j-reilly.redstate.org/story/2005/8/30/111223/847

Check out the link to the CIA officer's account of being held hostage. He goes into detail as to why the Iranians waited until Reagan was elected.

"the company I used to work for was given a contract to develop terrain following radar and computer guidance systems for C-130s. It's the MC model. Cool plane."

So you worked for T.I.? I also worked on that airplane, and on that same radar. I replaced all of the T.I. radar display systems with a digital system, integrated to the Nav system. Spent years on that during the mid to late '80s. Got to fly on it many times. Flew for 5 to 6 hours through Utah, Arizona, and California at about 250 feet. Great planes, and the Special Ops guys that flew them were crazy. These were Combat Talon I's. Our system never made it on the II's.

THWACK!

And tinytube's shrivelled nutsack jets serenely out of the ballpark, assisted in its flight by the intelligent and sane commenters on this blog.
That was frigging hilarious. But really guys, you don't have to do it. Starving it is just as good.

MON, I was at E-Systems, we worked on Combat Talon II models. Nav software.

Here is an interesting (if lengthy) analysis by a Marine Corps Major describing the aborted rescue mission, why it failed, and interestingly, the remarkable impact it had on how our military reformed itself to be able to accomplish joint operations of this magnitude. There was something positive that came out of this failure.

warning: extra-geeky military analysis

Dave-- I've seen the II's up close at E-systems. (I also did radar work on RC-135's). Spent a lot of time in Greenville. God, I hated that place.

MON, heh. We lived there for 5 years. Real happenin place. 20 miles in any direction to buy a 6-pack.

I probably passed you at the gate or the cafeteria (I was there 86-91). I did some work on the 135s too, as well as AF1, and a few of the head of state aircraft.

Dave,

We used to bring a technician along on our trips whose sole job was driving to the next country for booze. The trips to SOCOM at Hulbert Field, Florida were much more fun.

"For the conspiracy to be true, Reagan and his running mate Bush the Elder had to have more influence and power in the world than the sitting President."

Only in one situation. Christopher Hitchens made the convincing case that THAT can happen with Kissinger-Nixon and Vietnam... secret negotiations. It can happen.

And no, the simple facts are that papers that have surfaces since then have SUPPORTED Gary Sick's theory. It was not debunked.

And you offer nothing but conjecture to explain the timing anyway.

Wrong about the hostages too in iran-contra.

Once again, no substance from you all.

Why don't you talk about Fitzgerald and Plame any more? Heh. This is too easy.

LOL, look at it trying to backpedal.
Ahhhh
STARVE

OT:
Acid rain was an earlier version of Global Warming. The media fiction was that contaminants from the factories in the Midwest were getting into the atmosphere and rain was washing them in back down on the ground causing the flora in the northern climes to die. This "devastation" was seen from New England to Scandinavia.

There was a lively discussion and the notion was largely debunked

Umm..according to the EPA this is a regulated problem and nothing like "debunked". Where do you get your information?

Certainly not from the EPA.

Ah, well if you won't accept the findings of the US government, which I believe is headed by a conservative Republican, you are unlikely to find the Canadian government's finding any more convincing.

But what about the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection? If Jeb Bush's government statement doesn't sway you, then I guess that the Adirondack Council's statement regarding ongoing acid rain damage won't move you either. But what about the Republican Representative from the Adirondacks?

I could go on, but I trust that I have at the least demonstrated that acid rain is still very much a live issue and has been nothing like "debunked".

As for the acid rain comments, an experiment I did in high school in the 1978-1979 time frame showed that the average pH of rain in my backyard in Rutland, Vermont was in the 4.0-4.3 range. I had no way to establish the cause of the lowered pH ("normal" rain is 5.5-7.0, and pH is a log scale), but it was quite clear that the rain falling then was definitely acidic.

Never ever forget what happened and never allow this to fade from memory REMEMBER THE ALAMO REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR