Every day in history is like a snowflake from heaven’s snowflake garden. It’s unique and it is fragile. Put it in your brain before it melts. This is what happened on October 5, 1986…

This is personal. The Guffaw hates the Iran-Contra Affair with a blinding, searing hatred, which can fuel the most irrational of emotions and can still cause the most ill-thought of reactions. This grudge has been held and nurtured for the decades and allowed to mature into a fine wine best served after being microwaved for 4 minutes (think about that, it is pretty harsh). That’s what happens when the Guffaw, still in elementary school, cannot watch any cartoons because the Oliver North and the Iran-Contra hearings are on every channel all the time.

Thanks to Oliver North and the Sandistas, the Guffaw can't say much about this picture...

On October 5, 1986, some dude named Eugene Hasenfus was captured (why couldn’t you run faster Eugene, my 3rd grade television viewing schedule was dependent upon it) by the Sandinistas of Nicaragua after his plane was shot down. Anyway, Eugene confessed (I’m sure after being asked politely over afternoon tea) that he was shipping weapons for the Contras, who were fighting the commie Sandistas with the whole thing set-up by the CIA.
A quick aside, past 7-year old Guffaw says so what He-Man was on, will evil Skeletor break into castle Greyskull and possess all of its powerful, magical secrets? We’ll never know. Present-day Guffaw says who cares does Nicaragua have oil or a multitude of baseball prospects? No. (just kidding, communism is a false political ideology that only works on paper and wasn’t able to overcome national identities. The Sandistas were going nowhere).

Basically, the United States was selling weapons to Iran to release hostages and some of the proceeds went to Contras. President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. Bush denied any involvement (they knew) and Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North basically took the fall because he was making it happen (this is all after Congress had made it illegal to fund the Contras in 1984 because the Contras had a habit of brutally murdering and torturing their opposition). Sure the Reagan administration should not have been doing any of this, 11 Reagan administration official resigned because of Iran-Contra. No one ever returned the Guffaw’s half-hour to watch GI Joe battle the Cobra Commander, that is the real tragedy of the Iran-Contra affair (seriously, Eugene you couldn’t have put in a little more hustle?).