You are throwing out the baby with the bath water. You hear one or two things you don’t like with them, and then you discard everything else they have to say.

Conservatives do the same with Obama and the current characters on his stage. They hear one or two things they don’t like and then turn off everything that follows.

I am so sick of this “trash all that I don’t agree with” mentality. Why can’t we meet in the middle and find truth where truth is found.

The gospel is a perfect guide and middle ground. Both parties exhibit particles of the gospel. Both have principles we should be embracing.

We shouldn’t be arguing if the government is to take care of the poor, we should just be doing it as individuals. Once we sanction the government with powers to do such, we weaken all of us who should influenced to do so.

Corporations are money pigs. Yes, their should be some regulations as to allowing all workers in the organization to take part in all aspects of profit, not just a wage, but to shut down corporations and cripple them is to take away the very money machine you need to pay for the welfare services of the masses. You can’t have it both ways.

There is a middle ground. We don’t need to “kill” one side to achieve victory. Otherwise, we are just as evil as we accuse the other of being.

That painting gave me pangs of frustration and worry. Mostly, I feel it is a manifestation of a growing idolatry in the church as well as in the rest of the country. Jesus’ wounded hands holding the Constitution? Pretty soon there will be a painting of Christ holding “Atlas Shrugged.” Perhaps they should paint Christ in the midst of the sinful corner dwellers ministering to them and letting them know that he understands their struggle.

I hate Glenn Beck’s politics, but I love him as a saint. As a convert, I feel a kinship with him. I know if I had dinner at his house I would have a great time. But I don’t need anyone else quoting Cleon Skousen (the radical Mormon right’s Hugh Nibley)or Ayn Rand to me anymore.

Maybe someone should do a painting of Nibley and Skousen fighting with medieval weapons…

I think repentance also functions in this way. By turning our lives around (and towards God), we become active, instead of simply following the trajectory of our past actions.

I actually think its more bark than bite. When you look back, there is really only a couple scenes of violence. But we experience Inglorious Basterds as a “violent film” because there’s always that constant, looming threat of violence. Each of the chapters is tense, and they work their way up to a crescendo that sometimes ends in violence (usually a quick burst, lasting only 3-4 seconds), or doesn’t end in violence. Either way, the audience feels a palpable sense of relief as the tension lifts.

You won’t experience Basterds as a “violent film” if you see it a second time because the threat of violence is removed — you know ahead of time what is going to happen. Instead, you marvel at the filmmaking itself, the way Tarrantino “conducts” a scene and plays the audience like an orchestra.

That The Blind Side is in the list is definitely weird. Probably something to do with ads in Variety, the timing of promo DVD’s to Academy members, etc. My top snub would Moon, with Sam Rockwell.

9. The Blind Side. Pablum. A nice (but not Oscar-worthy) performance by ever-likeable Sandra (I think she’s “Sandy” now) Bullock, but the movie didn’t feel real to me, even though it was “based” on real events. No depth to the characters.

8. Up. I don’t see this as even the best animated movie of the year (that would be Fantastic Mr. Fox). Not nearly as good as the Toy Story franchise. For me, a good movie is one devoid of stretches where I’m running basketball plays in my head. This didn’t qualify.

7. District 9. I admired the inventiveness and was somewhat caught up in the plot. That’s about the best I can say. I’m not a big sci fi fan.

6. Avatar. Agree with Clay on this one. Beyond the oh’s and ah’s for the 3D special effects there wasn’t much else. Simplistic TV plot and as for social issues—about what you’d expect in a junior high school discussion group.

5. A Serious Man. Matt’s right—it’s not nearly the best Coen Brothers movie, but that’s like saying a dark Bordeaux isn’t the best See’s chocolate—it’s still pretty darn good. But I felt the movie let us down with some tedious diversions and an unfathomable ending, so it slips to number five on my list.

4. Up in the Air. A superb vehicle for showcasing George Clooney. Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick were perfect in their parts. Still, I was expecting better and was a bit let down. Not as good as Michael Clayton.

3. An Education. This could have been my top movie. Thoroughly enjoyable throughout. I could quibble a bit at the false dilemma the movie wanted you to believe Carrie Mulligan’s character faced—after all, she was getting a superior education and surely teaching wasn’t such a low profession as it was made out to be. But it was easy to overlook this and just go with the conceit. The movie presented extremely well-rounded characters who were perfectly-realized by the actors who played them.

2. Inglourious Basterds. I haven’t been drawn to past Tarantino movies for the same reason Clay pans this movie—gratuitous violence. I almost didn’t see this one for that reason. I went with a Missouri attitude (“show me”), but I have to say I was sucked in by the quality of the acting and the drive of the story. It was an alternate reality, of course, but I somehow bought into it and managed to think of the violence as something like a Roadrunner cartoon.

1. The Hurt Locker. I saw this when it first came out before there was any hype to speak of. I found it more gripping than any “action” movie I’ve seen in years. I couldn’t even think about basketball because I was on the edge of my seat throughout wondering whether Jeremy Renner was going to get his guts blasted all over Iraq. I suspect that if I had any actual experience in the Iraq war I would have found fault with the movie. As a lawyer I simply cannot watch courtroom TV shows or movies because they are all so unrealistic. The examination questions are absurd and would never be allowed in a real courtroom. And there is never any background music in a real courtroom to let the jury know when an important answer is forthcoming. But since this wasn’t a courtroom movie, and since I have no firsthand experience with war, I was totally absorbed in the drama and the character.

These are the movies I would have given Oscar nominations in place of the bottom four on my list: (1) Me and Orson Welles (Christian McKay should have received an acting nod), (2) Crazy Heart (Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal received acting nominations, why not the fine movie?), (3) The Young Victoria (for costumes and pomp if nothing else), and (4) The Messenger (Woody Harrelson with a bravura performance. Finally, there was one movie that was ineligible but was as good as any of them—the HBO movie Taking Chance, with a wonderful performance by Kevin Bacon.

I also agree that “Zion comes about when we are so unified as a people that there are no poor among us. This is the point I believe Skousen and Beck miss.” The contentious rhetoric that Beck spews is antithetical to the teachings of our Savior, who ministered to the poor, served the sick and the underclasses, and reached out to sinners with compassion and nonjudgment.

Meyer represents the culture she comes from aptly.