Confucius* has some things to say about the repercussions of the shocking loss of most of the senior officials in the Polish government—near Katyń no less—but they’ll have to wait for a more propitious moment. Confucius would like to make a brief emendation to the Czar’s post regarding the use of ILS. Everything the Czar writes is correct, but the fact is that while the Polish Tupolev had ILS equipment, the Russians do not use ILS.

In a previous life, Confucius had to look into ILS (and MLS which was supposed to be the next big thing until GPS lapped it) somewhat deeply. The then-Soviet Union used a different standard called RSBN and the latest iteration is called PMRG. The Smolensk field may have had PMRG—which is not compatible with ILS—or it may have not had an instrument-landing system, perhaps relying on a military precision-approach radar (PAR). Either way, the Russians ground equipment couldn’t have flown the plane into the trees—unless one is willing to believe they snuck in an ILS system for that purpose. Which some sad souls will doubtless be willing to believe because of their inability to cope with genuinely random, senseless tragedy. (If you want to talk conspiracy, let’s talk the recent bombings in the North Caucasus…)

St. Casimir, ora pro nobis.

*For those who came in late: Confucius is the Gormogons’ Œcumenical Volgi.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.