.
Maybe it's the fable of the 'Ugly Duckling'?
Given that such a "standard" has been historically applied to demonize TEH STOOPID EBIL COMMIE LIBRUHLZ, I am reluctant to adopt it in any other walk of life.
Looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck....its a duck.
Ducks do not cluck, moo or meow. A duck quacks.
If there is:
cash delivered (looks like)
hostages released (walks like)
hostage says captors said no one released until the other plane arrives with the cash. (sounds like)
It is a ransom paid.
@M2C --- Suppose we encounter each other walking one day, and I pick your pocket and take your wallet. Suppose you don't discover this until later. Further suppose that we encounter each other again the next day and you grab my iPhone from me. When I demand my iPhone back you say, "No, first you give me back my wallet..and there better not be anything missing!"
If I comply with your request, did I pay "ransom?" Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, right?
The US "paid" Iran $400 million the US previously seized from Iran, which was a payment for military equipment the US never delivered (after the Shah was overthrown and Iran went from Our Good Buddy to The Axis of Evil).
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12370848/ransom-iran-400-million
But because there's a Nig....er, Nazi Kenyan Marxist Socialist Indonesian Communist Terrorist Muslim in the White House, you see geese which look just like ducks to you. Thus proving my point about the danger of this aphorism.
I know the story. The Iran-contra was the same thing. Call it what you want. I call both of them ransom.
"Nig....er, Nazi Kenyan Marxist Socialist Indonesian Communist Terrorist Muslim in the White House,"
Why do feel that language is ok when you are speaking about our President?
