Word: triggers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Warner Bros. cartoons, these types never formed alliances; their fate was always to awaken one another's madness and trigger the chase. It is the genius of John Cleese's plot to imagine them leagued together for a London jewel robbery, which they pull off perfectly. This is when Cleese, Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks, enters the picture as Archie Leach, a barrister hired to defend yet another member of the gang. Though Cleese has written himself some nice screwball-comedy turns, Leach is no Cary Grant. He is really a grownup Tweety bird, an innocent with...
...starmaking stint as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns to this, his fifth film as Dirty Harry Callahan, Eastwood has built a durable celebrity on his unique brand of Zen surliness. By now his character need hardly cock an eyebrow, let alone a trigger, to send supervillains hurtling to their deaths. "Go ahead, punks," he might snarl as a new legion of psychopaths butts up against his belligerence. "Make my career...
Since then, the U.S. has promulgated new, hair-trigger "rules of engagement" for the gulf. They specify that commanders need not wait until their forces are fired upon before unloosing their own weapons. All they need is some convincing indication that a ship or plane is approaching with hostile intent. Doubtless influencing Rogers' decision was the fact that his ship had just been engaged in hostilities. Following reports of Iranian speedboat attacks on two neutral ships, the Vincennes sent a helicopter to investigate. The Iranians fired on the helicopter, triggering a firefight that Flight 655 had the foul luck...
...denouncing the P.R.I.'s authoritarian ways and its well-established reputation for election fraud, the opposition forced Salinas into a corner. Political commentators warned that the ruling party had to win by a margin large enough to establish Salinas' authority and credibility but not so large as to trigger charges of fraud. As confusion over the vote mounted, it became evident that while the P.R.I. had gained the presidency, the days of one-party rule were numbered. "This country," predicted Mexican Political Scientist Jorge Castaneda, "will never be the same...
America's tongue-tied denial may be rooted in the way the destruction of Flight 655 brutally conflicts with the nation's self-image. Americans do not see themselves as trigger-happy gunslingers; that black-hat role was played by the Soviet Union in 1983 when it brazenly shot down a Korean airliner. Terrorists are supposed to be the ones who cause death in the air -- not the nation upholding the civilized rights of free passage in the Persian Gulf...