1)The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture (Scott Klusendorf) – This book makes a compelling pro-life argument and help us to cut through the many smoke screens and false trails to the one issue behind all others in the abortion debate. In a way the only drawback is that it does this so effectively in the first chapter that it becomes a victim of it’s own success and the following few chapters seem a bit superfluous . However later chapters approach the issues from different angles and are very rewarding. Informing and crystal clear without being any heavier than it needs to.
(David Allen) – a brilliant life management system - simple, comprehensive and common sense without getting dogmatic. David Allen argues convincingly for running your life from the bottom up rather than top down (against books like 7 habits) and shows you how. I’ve read it twice and am still applying the lessons. 
3) Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (Jung Chang) – a heartbreaking study of the cost of Chinese communism told through the real life stories of three generations of Chinese woman starting with the author’s grandmother – a Chinese warlord’s concubine.
- Iron Maiden. 
CD package. Heavy Metal guitar heroics with as much creativity and intelligence as free jazz.
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My friends have a theory that if you tell a kid for 6-8 years that there’s a magical, semi all knowing entity named Santa and then pull the rug on them later, it will be harder for them to believe in God. The idea is that if I can’t trust that what you told me about Santa is true, why should I believe you about God. I think they raise a good point...
It will be easier to focus on the true meaning of Christmas if you go ahead and pop the Santa sleigh into neutral, tie the gas pedal to the steering wheel with a bit of festive ribbon and ghost ride Santa over a cliff. Killing Santa would allow you to focus on Christ’s birth...
My fingers felt a tiny crackle of lightning just typing the sentence, “We can combine Santa and Jesus.” God is a jealous God. If you try to make Santa the fourth member of the trinity, or put a red hat on Jesus, please buy at least 10 copies of the Stuff Christians Like book first, because then at least people will have something funny to read at your funeral...
“I know it’s hard to say
We’ll throw it all away
But the odds are we’ll be better off”
“The devil is not the nature that is around us,This album is a grower, full of surprise and depth on every level.
But the nature that is within us all”
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(Photo: Max Roper)
(Photo: Max Roper)“This world’s like a wounded martyr worried if his commitment is gone”but where U2 want to save the world MM just want to “set it on fire.”
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write a short essay (or video essay) telling us about what Christmas means to you and what you’re doing this year to help give back to your world. There’s really no right or wrong answer here but we’re looking to hear stories from those who are truly giving back. The most creative, heartwarming, and compelling will be culled through by our judges and we’ll pick our winners.
I, man, am regal - a German am INever odd or even if I had a hi-fiMadam, I'm Adam, too hot to hootNo lemons, no melon, too bad I hid a bootLisa Bonet ate no basil, Warsaw was rawWas it a car or a cat I saw?
Rise to vote, sir, do geese see God?"Do nine men interpret?" "Nine men," I nodRats live on no evil star.Won't lovers revolt now? Race fast, safe carPa's a sap, Ma is as selfless as I amMay a moody baby doom a yam?
Ah, Satan sees Natasha. No devil lived onLonely Tylenol not a banana batonNo "x" in "Nixon", O, stone, be not soO Geronimo, no minor ego"Naomi," I moan, "A Toyota's a Toyota"A dog, a panic in a pagoda
Oh no! Don Ho! Nurse, I spy gypsies - run!Senile felines, now I see bees I wonUFO tofu. We panic in a pewOozy rat in a sanitary zooGod! A red nugget! A fat egg under a dog!Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog
, the lyrics also make sense - in a Dylanesque psychedelic stream of conscience kind of way.
When you realise the dreams you had for your child won't come trueAnd yet like Jeremiah, the writer of Lamentations, he has fashioned something beautiful, and quite probably enduring, from the pain.
whatever valley you must go through, Jesus will meet you there
or 7 digital.
I always love how Pixar subverts the common kid’s movie morality or storytelling, and this was no exception…How often do we hear, “hang on to your dreams and believe in yourself”? Yet this little Disneyism would define the bad guy in UP, not the good guy.Greg@RabbitRoom.Com
Two of the three central characters are cranky old men, which is a wonder in this era…"Up" doesn't think all heroes must be young or sweet, although the third important character is a nervy kid...who, for once, isn't smarter than all the adults.
The opening montage of the man and his wife was one of the most well created bits of film-making I have ever seen, I think– at least as far as animation is concerned. I honestly can’t think of anything that comes close to touching that. In the span of what couldn’t be more than five minutes, you walk through an entire marriage, it’s up’s and downs– real stuff too, not corny. And they do it all without saying a single word.Russ Ramsey@RabbitRoom.Com
Dave@BannaneryPublic.Com
The wordless ten-minute (ten!?) montage of Carl Fredricksen’s life at the beginning of the movie is a far more touching, beautiful, and real love story than any romance movie you’ll see this year.
I hadn’t heard or seen anything about the opening 15 minutes (keeps getting longer folks!) which included the “silent movie” life flashing past your eyes. It was like getting knocked over by a ton of bricks…even though you only saw Carl’s wife for a few minutes…she was someone you came to love. And that made her passing that much more sad...Boy did I bawl.Jim A.@RabbitRoom.Com
I watched the crowd filter in and find their seats and I wondered at what an eclectic pilgrimage they were. Young boys and girls came hand in hand all covered in blushes, laughter and delight. They came in families, by the dozens, herding children with candy and eyes peeled wide. Groups of young men sauntered in adorned with attitudes like costume jewelry, their pants slung low and clattering with chains. Elderly couples stepped down the aisles deliberate and slow to settle themselves patiently into their seats. The middle-aged, the old-aged, and the barely aged at all filled the theater and hushed to hear the whisper when the lights went low. What a privilege it is to have the trust of your audience. Such is Pixar’s legacy that people who would otherwise turn up their nose at a mere ‘cartoon’ came in droves to fill the house based on the trust of a studio’s name alone. It’s a precious and delicate thing.Pete Peterson@RabbitRoom.Com
“What thrilled me about the movie…was the obvious care taken in producing it. The people at Pixar are like potters…They obviously love what they do…I thought it was a beautiful piece, indeed”.Marcus Hong@RabbitRoom.Com
Here’s my frustration with Pixar: they’ve ruined so many movies for me. Not their own movies—other studios’ movies. They keep pumping out one great animated movie after another, so by now I’ve foolishly begun to associated computer animation with high-quality movies. Naturally, then, when I watch a movie like Monsters vs. Aliens, it ends up being pretty disappointing, because there’s no depth or maturity or plot behind the formulaic humor and self-empowerment follow-your-dreams schmaltz.
Up is a computer-generated movie about an old man flying to an imaginary land in a totally impractical vessel—a house suspended under thousands of helium-filled balloons. Yet it feels much more real than nearly any adventure movie you’ve ever seen...
...What all this means is that I am now a slave to Pixar for life. From now on, I will have to go see every movie of theirs in theaters as soon as it is released…
here’s my recommendation for Disney: hand Pixar two bags full of money with dollar signs on the side, and tell them to make whatever movies they want to make.
