Where the Way is Dark and the Night is Cold

Anton Chigurh of No Country for Old Men-fame may not actually be out there wreaking havoc along the U.S.-Mexico border, but a piece by Mary Anastasia O'Grady in today's Wall Street Journal contains a projection that is no less troubling in its scope.

Tally all this up and what you get is Mexico on the edge of chaos, and a mess that could easily bleed across the border. The U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., warned recently that an unstable Mexico "could represent a homeland security problem of immense proportions to the United States."

In a report titled "Joint Operating Environment 2008," the Command singles out Mexico and Pakistan as potentially failing states. Both "bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse . . . . The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels."

You're a Headache in a Suitcase, You're a Star

Despite suffering a historic defeat at the hands of Jason Bourne in the inaugural Running Down a Dream "Bad-A" contest, Anton Chigurh, ahem, Javier Bardem kept a stiff upper lip, trudged ahead, and came home tonight with a little piece of hardware from something my friends and I like to call "The Oscars".

Well, maybe it's not just my friends that call it that, but you get the idea.

Bardem won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the stiff-legged, terribly coiffed, and criminally insane Anton Chigurh in the film No Country for Old Men.

Next Christmas, when the officially-licensed, Coen brothers signed Anton Chigurh action figure, complete with an oxygen-fueled cattle stun gun and a removable toupee, is flying off of the shelves at toy stores around the nation, please don't come here expecting to hear from someone who is surprised.