re: I overlooked an axis
Maybe I jumped the gun a bit trying to connect this topic to current reality. It has to eventually, else what's the point, but perhaps it should stay in the clouds a bit longer. I wasn't trying to provoke a partisan fight.
I have a technical quibble, Tom:
"Staying the course" does not mean using the same tactics over and over again. It means continuing the fight until you win, using whatever methods end up working. Maybe "staying the course" is less clear than something like "not giving up."
Actually, the phrase is perfectly clear and does mean using the same tactics over and over again. The "course" being the direction set, the bearing taken, the planned route. To "stay the course" means to stick with the plan. To "stay the course" in war means to stick with the strategy one started with.
"Not giving up" is ambiguous, because it's not clear whether it refers to giving up on the plan (course), or on the goal. And therein hangs a tale...I just cut a couple of paragraphs that wandered into current events and the rhetoric of "cut-n-run" as a threat to national security....but that's for another thread.
Besides, I need to go see what vortex SDAI-Tech1's fallen into this time. Wish me luck...