I love Celebration of Discipline. Right now I'm reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.

If by shrugging it off I meant that I didn't allow it to take hold in my life, then yes it would be better. But I mean that I avoid the real root of the issue, and by telling myself "Oh it's just a coincidence" etc I'm either pretending that it's not something I need to deal with on a spiritual level or I try to fight it in my own strength instead of relying on God.

I don't usually categorize things as spiritual attacks, but sometimes I just know they are, or I at least wonder if they are. But being honest -- most of the time I either shrug it off or try to ignore it because I'm afraid that if I approach it as a spiritual attack I'll get the "weird" label. Which is a shame. I should have more courage to own up to my own faith than that.

I like NB's observations, but I've never been a fan of the delivery, laugh track or no. Sorry.

Is it just me, or did that trailer totally rip off The Blues Brothers?

Sir, your top 10 list is full of win.

Some of Ricky Gervais' stuff is funny (I enjoyed "Ghost Town") but most of the time he seems really arrogant.

All I got was an ad.

I liked Drag Me To Hell, but I admit that I probably wouldn't have liked it so much if I wasn't a big Evil Dead fan. I really liked Star Trek, too.

I don't disagree in any way that a Hollywood and TV execs would do well to learn that people like to see movies with less gratuitous sex and profanity, but I think it's specious to make it sound like the end of the production code was the only (or the most significant) contributor to the decline of theater ticket sales. Ticket sales started to decline in the late 40s/early 50s, just as television was becoming widespread across the US, and while the production code was still very much in effect. That's also when people started moving out of urban centers and into suburbs -- making it much easier to watch TV than to go back into town to the theater.

That said, I do wish Hollywood and TV would wise up to the fact that there is a much bigger audience to be had today if only they could resist the temptation to stuff a normally good film with unnecessary and unwelcome junk. A creative, well-written story wouldn't hurt either.