Multivarious Friday Links

Oh yes, I upped the ante. You didn't see that prefix coming. Now let's get to what I've been reading this week.

• Behold Microsoft's new ad campaign (in comparison with which, the new Mac user claims, the Apple ads still rule).
• Behold the battle for New Hampshire.
• As a Chuck Palahniuk fan, and having read his novel Choke, this article on how we view sex addiction as a culture was intriguing.
• Assessing the mystique of Sarah Palin, the sexy Puritan.
• Speaking of Palin, here is a conservative woman, formerly in favor, now powerfully against.
• Rest in peace, Paul Newman -- you god of the movies, actor of actors.
• After the towering (and deserved!) success of portions of The Dark Knight being filmed for IMAX, Michael Bay announces similar plans for Transformers 2.
• While we're on the subject, after the mess called Spider-Man 3 (part 2 in that series is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I'm not bashing the assembled crew, just the final product), it looked like the Spider-Man series would be going in a wholly new direction: no Raimi, no Maguire, no Dunst. But now, with a beloved script for number four, and plans to direct four and five back-to-back, Kirsten Dunst says she'll be back (along with Raimi and Maguire, too!).
• Christians in America and the idolatry of security.
• Henry Abbott, quoting someone else on the golden age of cheating in college basketball.
• Ladies and gentlemen, your very own, San Antonio Spurs! Notes on returning to training camp, Ginobili out through mid-December (!), and getting over the sting of the loss to L.A. and getting back to work.
• John Hollinger, ESPN/NBA stat geek extraordinaire, gives us the rundown of his predictions for the upcoming NBA season in the Eastern Conference.
• Mark Love owns all of us! First, he details what it means to share good news (also a class he taught at ACU I never got to take!); second, and equally important, he spells out what it means to make a good playlist, how a computer can't cut it in comparison, and how all of this speaks to eschatology over against teleology. Amen, brother.
• Sam Mendes is a gifted director (cue Paul Newman/Tom Hanks piano scene in Road to Perdition), and the trailer for his next film, Revolutionary Road, had my wife and I in raptured silence. Let us applaud the post-Titanic reunion of such gifted young actors as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
• Jim Wallis on principles for a healthy way forward for the economy, and calling Wall Street to true repentance.
• In a number of SBC-controlled bookstores across the country, a magazine with female ministers on the cover is taken off the shelves. That's the spirit.
• Speaking of which, women answering the call to ministerial leadership.
• RIP GOP?
• George Will, ever the cool head, assessing the crisis and bailout situation.
• Ben Witherington quotes James Howell on Christians and American politics. Read it if only because it is better than anything I'll write on here on the same subject. Plus, he quotes Yoder and Hauerwas, so he must be onto something.
• Deep, uncontrollable, interminable and gutteral, belly laughing at Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. My goodness, that woman is good. If only she and Amy Poehler could do once-a-week political sketches forever.

This ought to automatically be posted by Blogger early Friday morning, as I will be in Houston for a wedding. (What a wonderful thing to return to Texas.) That should help explain why all of the links are only through Wednesday. Regardless, have a great weekend, and see you Monday.