Tuesday, April 22, 2008

No Country for Old Men

This is off the path of what typically is found on this site.

I'm ambivaent about the issue of abortion. My position is basically constitutional; the states should decide, it's not a federal issue. And many people both on the left and right are not comfortable with the way privacy was used to decide Roe v. Wade. I say this only to introduce a slice of Americana as found in the book "No Country for Old men", a great book that was made into a great movie that won best picture. Here's the last paragraph of the opening to Chapter 7.



Here a year or two back me and Loretta went to a conference in Corpus Christi and I got set next to this woman, she was the wife of somebody or other. And she kept talking about the right wing this and the right wing that. I ain't even sure what she meant by it. The people I know are mostly just common people. Common as dirt, as the saying goes. I told her that and she looked at me funny. She thought I was saying somethin bad about them, but of course that's a high complement in my part of the world. She kept on, kept on. Finally told me, said: I don't like the way this country is headed. I want my granddaughter to be able to have an abortion. And I said well mam, I don't think you got any worries about the way the country is headed. The way I see it goin I don't have much doubt but what she'll be able to have an abortion. I'm goin to say that not only will she be able to have an abortion, she'll be able to have you put to sleep. Which pretty much ended the conversation.