Checkpoint by Nicholson Baker Chatto & Windus $105 Ben and Jay chat in a room in a hotel in Washington, DC, in May of this year. Jay tells Ben he is going to shoot US President George W. Bush. 'The guy can't be allowed to get away with murder. Period,' Jay says. 'The government shouldn't execute him, because the government shouldn't be in the business of taking people's lives. It has to be an individual. Which is me.' Ben tries to talk him out of it. 'Are you going to go off and do something that's going to totally unhinge the world even more than it is unhinged? Are you going to cause bloodshed?' asks Ben. Jay says: 'I'm going to prevent a certain amount of bloodshed. By causing a minor blip of bloodshed in one human being I'm going to prevent further bloodshed.' The debate gets more heated as the afternoon goes on.
