> Point of information: you only need to change direction when you're
> tacking against the wind. When the wind is behind you, you can go
> straight ahead.
Indeed. In fact you're only said to *be* tacking when you're going more or less upwind.
I love analogies, particularly sailing analogies, and I actually liked Wojtek's. Politics does seem a lot like sailing: By indirection find direction out. It's one of the reasons why I approve of people like Ahmadinejad.
However there's more than wind to consider. There's current, for example. You can be making three knots course-made-good through the water and still be falling farther and farther away from your intended anchorage, if the current is running four knots against you. This often happens in the waters around New York, actually. And when it does happen, you stop trying to outsail the elements. You drop anchor and wait for the tide to turn.
And then of course you can always tack blithely onto a sandbar and go aground. I think of the Democratic Party as a vast sandbar, or rather mudbank. Mudbanks and shallow water have an intimate connection, of course.
-- --
Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com http://cars-suck.org
When one does a foolish thing, it is right to do it handsomely.