Present or not, Saddam's trial to continue - World - theage.com.au

What I want to know is, why don't they just drag the man's butt in there and force him to attend the trial? Since when do defendants in a trial get to set the rules? What kind of crazy system do they have over there, anyway?

One More

Here is a nice shot by a birch tree outside our hotel in Green Bay.

Vacation Pics Part 2

Here is another shot:

Vacation Pictures

I decided to take a few pictures while we are here, so I started with some shots of Schatzie. Here is a nice one outside our hotel:

On Vacation

MaryAnn and I are taking some time off for "R & R" - reading and relaxation. Right now we are in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Not exactly your ideal resort getaway spot, but the weather is beautiful and the price was right. Schatzie is along with us, but she doesn't know how to read, so she is just relaxing.

We are staying in a Candlewood Suites hotel, which is ok. The first night we got here, the room air conditioner wasn't working right, so we had to move to another room. Unfortunately, we didn't figure that out until AFTER we unpacked everything, so moving into a different room was quite a hassle. Fortunately, it was just across the hall, so we didn't have to go very far. We also got an upgrade to a larger suite for the same price, so it worked out ok.

We found a neat little used book store / coffee shop called "The Attic". Why they call it the attic, I don't know. There didn't appear to be anything other than the ground floor, and it didn't look like an attic. However, I picked up some pretty good books at a cheap price, so who cares what they call the place! On the window is painted the words "Good Books - Great Coffee". I told MaryAnn that two of the most pleasant sounding words in the English language are "Books and Coffee". If I ever open up a book store, I think I'll call it "B.C.".

Here are the books I picked up:

Faith Alone by R.C. Sproul
The Talmud and the Internet by Jonathan Rosen
Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas ed. by Anton C. Pegis
The Contemporary Christian by J.R.W. Stott
The Matter Myth by Paul Davies and John Gribbin
God - The Evidence by Patrick Glynn
Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson

I've finished reading the book by Patrick Glynn. He is a recovered atheist who posits that we are living in a "post-secular" world. The sub-title of the book is "The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World". I thought it was a good read, although much of the information I have read previously in other books. I'm not very good at book reviews, so if you're interested you can read some good (and not so good) reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761519645/104-2112399-0537549?v=glance

I have started reading The Matter Myth by Davies and Gribbin. I know its a bit outdated (it was published in 1992) but I have seen the book referenced by other authors enough times that I thought it would be a good idea to read it. Read some reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671728415/qid=1124838850/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-2112399-0537549?v=glance&s=books

I'm also reading some books that I brought with me:

The God Who Risks by John Sanders
Encountering Evil - Live Options in Theodicy ed. by Stephen T. Davis
Stone Campbell Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1
Across the Spectrum by Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy
The Canon of the New Testament by Bruce Metzger
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades by Robert Spencer

Another book that I bought to read on vacation, but that I finished before we left, was a book called

Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Levitt and Dubner. This was an interesting book, especially the authors' conclusions about cause of the dramatic decline in the youth crime rate in the 90's. Whether or not his conclusions are true, it is an interesting (and troubling) hypothesis. A recommended read. Here are some reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/006073132X/ref=cm_rev_prev/104-2112399-0537549?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155&s=books&customer-reviews.start=1

I know that there is no way to get through all of the books I brought along, but if I can knock out a few of them, and get started in the majority of them, I'll he happy. Linc-Up classes at Lincoln Christian College begin the week we get back, so my reading time will be greatly diminished. I have a paper to write while I'm up here in preparation for the first class, so I'd better get started on it.

According to a recent report by George Barna, Most Adults Feel Accepted by God, But Lack a Biblical Worldview:

"...in spite of the fact that most Americans consider themselves to be Christian, very few adults base their moral decisions on the Bible, and surprisingly few believe that absolute moral truth exists. These are among the findings from a new national survey conducted by The Barna Group among a representative sample of 1002 adults. "

The Church in America is a mess. Maybe the whole Church worldwide is a mess too, but I can't comment on that because I don't know enough about it. I do know about American Christianity, because I'm part of it.

"Overall, then, just one out of every six adults (16%) claim they make their moral choices based on the content of the Bible."

This is not surprising, because most adults have hardly read the Bible, let alone understand what it says enough to base a moral choice on its contents.

Notorious Muslim Cleric flees Great Britain

In the London based "Times Online", notorious Muslim cleric Bakri Mohammed stated that he is forbidden by Islam to inform police of any known planned terrorist attacks:

"In the telephone interview, Mr Bakri Mohammed said that he would return to Britain to clear his reputation, adding that he had never committed a crime. But the cleric reiterated his belief that it would be "against Islam" for him to inform the police of any terrorist attacks that he knew were being planned in Britain."

"I say publicly, Islam forbids me to report any Muslims, even if he is oppressive, you see, to the British police," he said. "Islam forbid me, that don't mean I know about crime."

This should be a warning to the American government (as if they don't already know). Muslims are forbidden by their religion to inform against other Muslims. Regardless of what some American Muslim leaders claim, we should base our understanding of Islam on how the majority practice it.