Profound discussions o' the evening

Profound questions #1 that came up:
How does Hollywood portray Christians?
My sister is writing a paper on this topic, and I'm having more fun with the topic than she is. The rules for the paper is this: Pick a group, and discuss how Hollywood has portrayed them, citing just 3 movies to support your point. My sister chose Christians as her group to investigate, and we discussed what movies would be good to use. She ended up deciding on Simon Birch, Saved!, and The Big Kahuna. Three VERY different movies. Each with unashamed Christians as main characters, and each portraying Christians in a different light. The only unifying thesis statement we could come up with between these three is "Christians are portrayed as being well-intended but misguided, doing the wrong thing at the wrong times, but normally with good intentions." In Simon Birch, the priest and Sunday School teachers were both trying to do right, but doing it all wrong. Even Simon Birch, the hero of the story, with completely pure intentions, says the wrong things at the wrong times and hurts feeling or causes trouble. In Saved!, which I have yet to see, the main character, a Christian going to a Baptist high school, makes a bad choice with what she rationalized as good reason, and ended up ostracized and failing her goal. The Big Kahuna, my favorite of the three, is a philosophical movie with the Christian character discussing his rationalization for discussing his faith with business clients- a good thing portrayed as being very out-of-place and misguided.
Bringing these three movies for me is a fun challenge. Hollywood isn't always right, but they sure make interesting observations sometimes. I enjoy it.

Profound discussion #2:
What rights or privacies do we give up for the sake of technology, convience, or security?
This is a question we've discussed at length in my computer ethics class, and my dad had interesting things to say about it, being in an industry where privacy is a day-to-day question. Do we give up our privacy at grocery stores and let them know what we buy for discounts? Do we allow the government to do data mining to protect our national security? Does the convienence of a cell phone outweigh the fact that the calls we make- who we call, when, and how long- are kept in a database? We want to read the New York Times online, but is that worth giving them our name and demographic information? The issue of privacy, online or otherwise, is one that will either come more and more to the forefront of discussion, as more and more rights are taken away, or will not be mentioned in publice discussion, to the peril of us all. As a society, we need to either decide where we will have outrage and draw the line, or be prepared to give up the privacy and personal information that we now take for granted.
Interesting discussions.