The Stars My Destination
Another Russian Soyuz rocket has suffered a catastrophic failure: "Major Tom (Coming Home)"-link. The silver lining to this dark cloud is that the failure is different from the failure which caused the loss of another Soyuz in August… meaning the problem might well be systemic to the Russian space program: Wayback Machine. Oh, wait, that's not a silver lining, that's a yet darker cloud. That means this failure is every worse news. The United States is entirely dependent upon the Russians to ferry our astronauts to & from the International Space Station, & yet Russian rockets are failing at an appalling rate for a wide variety of problems; fear not, though, because our helplessness & utter dependence on the Russians is exactly according to President Obama's plan. The reliability of the Russians was one of the keystones behind Mr. Obama's dual decisions to cancel Project Constellation & simultaneously retire the Space Shuttle fleet; alas, time has proved that the only thing the Russians do reliably is build rockets that fail.

"You know what… you know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go 'according to plan.' Even if the plan is horrifying." Nobody panic, because President Obama's plan was always to be dependent on the Russians. Everything is therefore going according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying.

The Rebel Black Dot Christmas Song of the Day
Louis Armstrong & The Commanders, "Cool Yule" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"He's gonna have a bag of crazy toys,
To give the groanies of the girls and boys,
So dig, Santa comes on big.
…
Have a Yule that's cool!"