Up in heaven John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Howard Hawks, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Howard Hughes, Clark Gable, Douglas MacArthur, George S. Patton, Theodore Roosevelt and other deceased macho Americans of consequence are beside themselves with rage, punching the refrigerator door and kicking holes in the wall over the terrible humiliation visited upon the dignity of this country by Sony Pictures Entertainment and U.S. exhibitors. Check out Twitter now and listen to what people (including many industry types) are saying…”you contemptible pussies!” With government officials having determined that North Korea was behind the Sony hack attack and with SPE and exhibitors having totally caved in response to a Sony hacker’s emailed (and almost certainly bogus) threat to attack theatres that might show the now-cancelled The Interview, everyone is red-faced and fuming. It sounds like sentimental conservative horseshit to pine for the hallowed traditions of honor, backbone and courage and resolve that used to be…well, at least part of the fibre that constituted the American character, but today’s decision makes it seem as if those qualities are fading fast if not evaporated altogether. This is the most humiliating episode in U.S. foreign relations since the failed 1980 attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran by the Carter administration.