Always take the waitress' s advice

Early 1980, stopped at a casual restaurant with some business associates in Atlanta after a client meeting.

We ordered our burgers, and returned to discussing the hot topic.

The Iranian Hostage Crisis.

In February of 1979, our world wide problem with radical Islam really began.

Iran had been run by a pro-Western set of "benevolent dictators" for years. A self-appointed family whose sons became "Shah", which means king.

No dummy he, he forbade Islamic traditions in Iran. Chadors were illegal. He stopped the separation of the sexes. He replaced Islamic law with Western law.

He was Saddam Hussein in better clothes. An autocrat. But one that pushed modernization and Westernization of Iran while he stuffed his pockets with Iranian oil money which he controlled. (Not too different from the Saud family, except they have cloaked themselves in Islamic tradition and bought off the Islamic clerics with their money. In addition to having a ramp built to the King's bedroom so that he can drive his Cadillac right in and hop into bed. Oh by the way, the ramp was built by the bin Laden Construction Company. Osama bin Laden's father's company.)

So, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shia cleric self-appointed himself as the leader of an Islamic Revolution in Iran to oust the Shah and put himself in control. He worked it for years from London and France since the Shah had exiled the Ayatollah years before. In late 1978, the Shah had lost control of the country and ran away from Iran like a sissy. With his kabillions of dollars. In February 1979, the Ayatollah became the new autocrat in Iran. Non-Western, anti-modernization, fundamentalist Islamic.

In November of 1979, Iranian students stormed the American embassy and took 66 hostages. (No wonder the State Department is having a hard time recruiting folks to work in the world's largest, newest, and stupidest embassy. The one just finished in Baghdad. How would you like to be there and watch the American military withdraw and leave you there?)

ABC News began a late night news watch in November 1979 called "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage". When it debuted, it had huge ratings because of the newsworthiness and interest of America. After months of not much happening, the program was changed to "Nightline" and began to discuss other news topics in addition to what was happening in Iran. It took 444 days to gain the hostages release.

So, we finish our burgers and none of us has come up with a solution to this humiliating, untenable situation in Iran.

As the waitress brought our check, my boss asked her, "What do you think about the situation in Iran?"

"Nuke the raghead motherfuckers and let 'em eat sand for a thousand years."

Always, take the waitress's advice.