I went to the movies to see No Country for Old Men the other day. Very violent, tough movie, but I have not seen a screen villain as vividly rendered and lingeringly unpleasant as Javier Bardem is in this picture since Henry Silva played the angel-dust-snorting hit man in Sharky's Machine with Burt Reynolds. Bardem is not to be believed, he is so intense and eerie.
Thanksgiving was...peaceful. In all of my adult life, I have rarely seen Americans so in need of a vacation, a break, a place to go that is safe and comfortable. I have rarely seen Americans rush toward the Thanksgiving weekend with such need and commitment. This country is coming apart. And people are in a lot of pain about that. Eight years of these lunatics raping everything they see has been exhausting. Americans are exhausted. Our system is breaking down, slowly, and people are, when they get honest about it, frightened about what that means, short and long term. Iraq is a mess and they botched that so badly. Now, some say Iran is next. How can that be?
The American military is staffed by brave, highly trained, competent people. But it's run by idiots. Idiots who are going to kill a lot of innocent people and get some of us killed along the way.
Go see No Country for Old Men. It's a metaphor for Iraq and the post 9/11 world.