Bombs Bursting In Air, Or Not

It appears that while Americans were eating barbecue and lighting bottle rockets in celebration of our nation's independence, North Korea was setting off some fireworks of its own. CNN reports that the communist nation launched seven missiles, of various ranges, all of which landed in the Sea of Japan. According to the report, U.S. officials believe the longer range Taepodong-2 missile, which some analysts claim can hit the western U.S., failed after approximately forty seconds, thus resulting in the watery splashdown. There's been a string of protests to the missile tests, which are considered strongly provocative, and the U.N. Security council meets today to discuss the situation. While the tests are provocative, the failure of the longest range missile is an indication that North Korea is not yet as big a threat to the world at large as the nation apparently aspires to be. Scrappleface has an amusing take on the situation.