stay the course??? mmmm..

Let's see how many courses we know have open-ended successful outcomes??

Well, the analogy must come from sailing on the oceans, as in "stay on course, mark such and such, bearing such and such, speed such and such." These types of courses have specific navigable requirements however. They go from point A to point B and so forth, with an end point necessary to facilitate the proper charting of the course in the first place. These courses, and their ever important course corrections, require prior knowledge of hazards, location of key celestial and terrestrial triangulation vertices, and capacity to change course in case of emergencies and obstacles. The only way one could endlessly stay on course would be for the watercraft to have suffered severe damage to its steering systems: broken or stuck rudder, loss of propulsion (set adrift from staying on course), loss of command and control function, and so forth.

Golf courses, have 19th holes of course. The last hole, the finishing stop, the end of the course, the goal so to speak of staying on course until the outcome is achieved. Several things can get one off the course, most important of which is threatening and bad weather (lightning, tornado, high dangerous winds, massive flooding downpours, etc.) or some other catastrophe in the capacity to actually stay on course and play (injury to self or party, loss of balls, crash of carts, dropping of clubs in lake). In each of these sorts of cases when staying on course is no longer intelligent, safe, healthy, useful, the parties choose to immediately go to the 19th hole and claim satisfaction that they arrived at the goal.

Race courses--such as auto, motorcycle, horse, and so forth--are closed looped, and thus staying on course is relatively easy in terms of knowing where the course is going. Completing each circuit represents the fine tuning of the knowledge required to stay on course, but likewise increases the chances of being taken off course. All sorts of crises make getting off course critically important for survival. Hell they shoot horses don't they???

Distance race courses for running, ride and tie, triathlons, etc. are more open-ended yet have all manner of safety and health checks, backup systems, provisions and equipment support, and so far forth. Thus if a runner/rider on the Western States Marathon, or Tevis Cup Ride and Tie, wishes to stay on course, to the finish line (ah yes, forgot to mention that these courses have finish lines where the course officially ends), that person must abide by the decisions of officials evaluating and judging that individuals capacity to stay on course. Many problems get people yanked from the course, and only those who exhibit the best strategies, tactics, equipment, and most of all training, are allowed to stay on course to compete until they reach the finish line and achieve the goal.

There are lots of other courses too: curricula, technical training, safety screenings, rudimentary skills acquisition, testing of manpower and equipment, etc. All of these have clearly defined check points, benchmarks, checks for understanding, analyses, achievement criteria, and other markers that determine if the path of the course is optimal and meeting the objectives as outlined before beginning the course. We can certainly see why Bushco is trying now to deny that they ever mentioned staying on course in the first place. It was idiotic for them to phrase it that way; they have demonstrated that they do not belong on course; they have failed to specify their desired outcomes; they simply are not on course, except possibly one that is headed for crashing on some sub-surface rocks that will destroy the ship and all aboard.