Reader, the year of this Alamo-like standoff was 1971.
The rhetoric was deliberately over the top -- Bauer called it a Cold War-like standoff -- but the message was clear: the Obama administration regards vacancies on the court as a threat to its agenda.
"We would like the standoff to be over, and we would like it to be a peaceful ending," said Noam Katz, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, "but we are not going to be discussing negotiations publicly".
It could come off as an affectation, and read like standoff-ish arrogance in print.
Increasingly, the situation looks less like a standoff with Mr. Hussein and more as if Mr. Hussein has attained the upper hand.
It is a mutual dependence that at times seems more like a standoff: Russia has the gas; Ukraine has the pipes.
"It looks like a standoff, but this is crunch time for I.N.S.," said Max Castro, a senior research associate for the Dante B. Fascell North-South Center of the University of Miami, and an expert on Cuban issues.
Granted, it felt more like a standoff as the Palestinians waited to see whether Israel would either reciprocate by loosening restrictions on their movement or nudge Palestinian fighters back into action with another assassination.
It seemed like a standoff happened every 15 minutes; meanwhile, two kids (one 12, one 14) were killed in drive-bys on Saturday night.
There are more than a hundred SWAT raids a day mostly over narcotics—and it's actually amazing that more cops and more homeowners don't end up in standoff situations like Louise's or worse, end up like Richard Dale Kohler.
