But it has changed. Brawn has overtaken Brains. The early Bond movies were about a guy much like the Bond of the books, who won through cleverness rather than brute strength. This made him somebody we could reasonably dream of being: the savoir-faire, the worldly wit could be practiced in front of a bedroom mirror; the clever weapons and trick gadgets seemed like they COULD exist even if one didn't know where or how to obtain them. The exploding watch, the armed DB-7, the three-minute miniature scuba tank weren't such a stretch, after all. Even when the movies went off into left field with world-dominion villains and impossible chase scenes, Bond still came off as someone who sought to outwit his enemies and pursuers rather than take them on mano-a-mano. Which, IMO, is what's wrong with the Daniel Craig Bond. He's all pumped-up muscle and savage-killer instinct. He loves to wade in and get bloody, to make up for the fact that he's rather easily fooled. He can run several hundred yards dodging bullets, then dive underwater and stay long enough to struggle with an elevator grate and finally get it open, then swim to the surface carrying a dead body. This is the stuff of Batman movies, routine thrillers, not James Bond. What made us all love James Bond is that we knew, in our hearts, that with a little help from Q, we could BE James Bond. Now that he's just a shirts-off, gym-rat Terminator with an English accent, he's lost a great deal -- if not all -- of that charm.

I felt like I was watching over my teen son's shoulder while he played a violent game on his computer. One action sequence after another with very little narrative glue to hold them together. A Bond with no savoir faire, no dry wit, no nifty toys -- more a demi-Superman able to leap tall buildings and outrun speeding bullets. Those flicks are a dime a dozen, but there's only one James Bond and this ain't him. Bond always avoided violence unless there was no alternative. And someone please explain to me how, in this supposed "prequel" we're supposed to believe that, having lost his lady love, this lumpen killing machine is going to turn into the suave, clever, slightly tongue-in-cheek James Bond of "From Russia With Love." It takes more than a tuxedo, dude.

That I wouldn't expect to see or hear from very young men put in a no-win situation. They're not Ghandi, fer Chrissakes. They're going to talk that way. Until they start shooting at the kids, I have no problem.

In whatever direction this report takes us, it would certainly be helpful if we resisted the administration's tendency to demonize anyone who doesn't dance to our tune. I'm talking in particular about the Iranians, who are rapidly turning into the Bad Guy du Jour in everyone's analysis of our options in the Middle East. Would it not be helpful to start thinking of Iranians as people like ourselves, who love their children and who only want to wake up in the morning with hope in their hearts and breakfast on the table? Our "U.S. vs. THEM" attitude toward the rest of humanity has gotten us nowhere. Part of it being an increasingly smaller world is that we have the opportunity to look our neighbors in the eye and, hopefully, see that they are not as different from ourselves as we've been told they are.

This guy gets confirmed because he can sort of admit that what billions have known for years might just be true. On top of that, we get to hear, one more time, how shamelessly pompous and windy our senators are. Makes ya wanna bite yer tires.

If there was any remote hope that Bush was going to "get" that he's screwed up big-time and is rapidly running out of options, just listen to him lay down preconditions for talking to Iran. We need them, not the other way around, but Bush is still doing his Alpha-male act, as if he's the one calling the shots.

Nothing's going to change until there's some kind of coup and he's forcibly removed from office. Not sure what happens then; maybe Cheney calls home the troops then disappears up his own tailpipe.

Gad, what a mess!!

McCain knows no one is going to escalate this war, so he can go on record supporting the idea with no concern that it'll be tried and fail, thus leaving him with egg on his face. Those who support escalation will remember his lone stance as they nurse their wounded egos, and those who don't will forget it as other issues take center stage. It's pure politics, and McCain himself is turning into a purely political animal with no detectable principles of his own.

They probably didn't say "take out." In fact, the Scots of that era didn't speak anything remotely recognizable as modern English. Did you, film scholar that you are, actually think the rest of the dialogue, minus that one infraction, was spot-on true to the original?

Really, you should feel free to express yourself here but cut down on the nasty language aimed at other letter-writers. You do not come off as a person whose Heart is sufficiently Brave to say such things to anyone's face.

To people who will NOT say that going into Iraq in the first place was a mistake. That means idiots or tongue-biters. Hallelujah.

Are they content to risk life and limb while their Numbnuts-in-Chief ponders whether to shit or go blind?