Is the sky blue? Was Armstrong the first man on the moon?

Do I really live in a world where US troops invaded an Iranian embassy and took hostages? (Calling them prisoners doesn't make it sound one whit better.) Was this only possible because Ted Koppel is no longer anchoring Nightline?

(The discussion may now dissolve into a muck of detail about embassies vs. consulates vs. who knew what and when they knew it, why the Kurds didn't think it was a good idea, and most of all, how this Doesn't Matter at All in the grand scheme of things. Knock yourselves out. But anyone who isn't at least a little alarmed by the ironic symmetry has no sense of poetry.)