“This country is hard on people.”

That line, spoken by an ailing ex-sheriff, captures the relentless grimness of No Country for Old Men. A stoic Texan stumbles across the carnage from a drug deal gone bad and makes off with a satchel full of cash. A crisis of conscience causes him to return to the scene and he soon finds himself being tracked by a psychopathic killer charged with finding the money.

The movie was adapted from the book by Cormac McCarthy. I was critical of his spare, stilted writing style in The Road (his most recent book), but it translates well to the screen here. Perhaps that’s because this is a movie about hard men who don’t have a lot to say. All of the performances are good, but Tommy Lee Jones is especially good as the small-town sheriff who is baffled by the brutality that has come to visit his little corner of the world. The Coen brothers have always done noir with flair and this is probably their best film in a decade.

In a speech to a local chamber of commerce today, Governor Pawlenty remarked that Minnesota “is overemphasizing social services and welfare at the expense of some
other key priorities, like K-12 education, like higher education, and
like transportation.” While I don’t agree with his characterization that we are “overemphasizing” spending on health care and social services, those costs are beginning to crowd out our ability to increase spending in other key areas. In fact, we just discussed this in today’s session of the emerging leaders program in which I’m participating. The state demographer gave an excellent lecture on the dramatic shifts that are changing the face of Minnesota, including a rapidly aging population. By 2020, the number of Minnesotans age 65 and older will increase 53%. And a substantial number of aging boomers will need expensive medical care, pushing up our public health care costs.

The governor was addressing a business crowd, an audience that is concerned with public investments that will boost worker productivity (like transportation and education spending). But I don’t think that’s an excuse to toss out a not-so-subtle dig at the people served by programs like MinnesotaCare. Besides, the lion’s share of rising health care costs can be attributed to the unprecedented aging of our population. What the governor should be advocating is a national solution that makes health care affordable for everyone.

A trailer for the upcoming Star Trek film is now online. I like the iconic use of the Enterprise, although the first few seconds had me half-expecting to hear Pete Bob Seger start belting out “Like A Rock”. And, man, Spock is starting to sound old. I hereby volunteer to serve as the human vessel for his katra when the time comes. A little Vulcan mojo might help me score with the ladies.
Three-quarters of you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about, do you?

I’m going to a movie this afternoon with a friend (Atonement), which means that I’ll probably miss the first half of the Packers-Giants game. So, nobody tell me the score until I’ve had a chance to watch the whole thing on my TiVo (which, when skipping the commercials, should only take a couple hours). One of the nice things about not living in Green Bay is that I can go see an epic romance on game day and not have my masculinity questioned.

Bobby Fischer is dead and the world is a little less weird. We’ll probably never see another chess rock star again and maybe that’s a good thing. Look how this one turned out.