IN RESPONSE TO THIS POST, READER ERIK JOHNSON EMAILS:

While “High Noon” is an excellent refutation of Tom Friedman’s errroneous Western-posse hypothesis, one need look no further than “The Searchers,” the greatest Western ever made. John Wayne gets a posse together (the UN) to hunt for his niece, but then ditches them when they don’t have the stomach to stalk the Apaches (Iraq) who kidnapped (terrorized) his family (the US and its allies). He takes one cousin (Britain), albeit reluctantly, in a relentless search for his niece, whom he eventually finds while destroying a good part of the tribe that performed the kidnapping (terror). He returns her safely (regime change) to family friends so she can live a normal life (democracy and freedom).

In my very humble opinion, Tom Friedman has not watched enough of the great Westerns. Otherwise, he’d find perfect parallels in these two movies. Whenever anyone calls someone a “cowboy,” I think of John Wayne and Gary Cooper — who better represented our American ideals? Whoever thought of “cowboy” as a term of denigration? It’s the highest compliment you can pay an American!

Indeed. That’s about the size of it. . . .

Heck, has Friedman even seen City Slickers?

Meanwhile Scott Rogers emails from Washington University School of Law:

Here at WashU’s law school we’ve been showing different movies to that highlight aspects of the law. This message went out yesterday. I only mention it per your link to Geitner Simmons.

“In view of the international events taking place this week, the award winning Japanese film–A Taxing Woman–which as to be shown this week in the Harris Institute International Film Series will be postponed. In its place we will show as A Paradigm of American Justice, the classic film–High Noon–starring Gary Cooper (who won an Oscar for his role) and Grace Kelly. The film will be shown at 2 pm in the small courtroom.”

Bravo.