I’m suspicious. By now most are familiar with the efforts of the NY Times to aid and abet the enemy.

In yet another disclosure of secret anti-terror activity on the part of the United States and cooperating allies, the NY Times seems to be, once again, working to defeat the U.S. in the war on terror.

But the curious thing is their interest in the movement of money to the terrorists. I wonder why this might be.

Could it be that folks associated with the NY Times are involved in sending money to the terrorists?

Could this be an effort to warn American leftists to be careful in how they send money to support the enemy?

Could this be an effort to tell those very prominent anti-Americans among us to cool it sending money to the terrorists; the trail to your door may be getting hot?

There is something suspicious going on here; more than meets the eye.

I’ve put together four Amazon Listmania lists for those who want to easily and quickly purchase the children’s books that go along with the “Five in a Row” (FIAR) series, a popular homeschool supplement.

Five in a Row Volume 1 Book List

This list includes:
• The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
• Lentil (Picture Puffins) by Robert McCloskey
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
and more…

Five in a Row Volume 2 Book List

This list includes:
• Giraffe That Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton
• Three Names by Patricia MacLachlan
• Wee Gillis (New York Review Children’s Collection) by Munro Leaf
and more…

Five in a Row Volume 3 Book List

This list includes:
• The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
• Andy and the circus, by Ellis Credle
• The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
and more…

Five in a Row Volume 4 - Book List

This list includes:
• Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
• The Raft by Jim LaMarche
• Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell
and more…

It has now been over a month since I completed the book Presumed Guilty by James Scott Bell, and as I thought I had already written a review, I had moved on to other reading materials. It has come to my attention that I never posted a review and so here I am, the last of the ACM Reviewers for Presumed Guilty, so I’ll get right to it. :-)

In short, I really enjoyed this book. This book was not slow moving in any sense of the word. Mr. Bell jumped straight into the conflict of the story, amost before we even knew the characters well enough, and the book was hard to put down after the first few chapters.

The plot had several unexpected twists and turns and in the course of the story the gospel was clearly presented through the doubts and personal struggles of the characters. The only caveat I would offer with this book is that there is an element of darkness and evil that the more sensitive reader might be inclined to want to avoid. Despite the fact that the author deals with real and difficult problems, there are some who may prefer to stick with more benign subject matter than pornography, murder, addiction, adultery and evils that exist even within the church.

Consider the responses from Mom2Mom Connection:

After I finished it, I wanted to get away from it for a while because it contained so many distasteful images for me. Then I realized what the author’s main message was, and how he skillfully wove a tale that allowed me to see how faith in God can bring a family through ANYthing, even something as disgusting as what took place between the pages of Presumed Guilty.

Contrasted with that of Two Talent Living:

I received this book, started it, skimmed through some of it, and made the decision I would not read it. It is because I simply do not want the dark, graphic images in my mind. I don’t even want the ones that are there now because I checked the book out and read/skimmed parts of it.

In short, the book is about a popular pastor of a megachurch who is accused of murdering a young woman of questionable reputation. (Sorry, due to Google searches, I’m not spelling it all out here.) His wife is trying to find out the truth. I realize this sound rather innocuous, but as it all plays out, all kinds of things happen that I’m simply not going to write about on this blog.

I don’t know where the line is to be drawn for Christians regarding what we are to put into our minds. Perhaps there are some Christians who can read this kind of book and not be impacted spiritually and emotionally by it. I don’t know. I’m not their personal Holy Spirit and I guess it is enough of a gray area for a lot of folks that Christians have to make their own choices. For me, it is not enough that the characters are Christians trying to work out their faith in extremely difficult circumstances. That “redeeming” aspect of it doesn’t erase the images, storylines and dialogue that become a part of me when I read something like this.

If you’re looking for a thrilling mystery, a page turner that will keep you awake too long at night, and a book that integrates real faith into the lives of characters with real character flaws and struggles, then this book is for you! I would pick up another James Scott Bell book in a heart beat.

***

Note: This book was given to me from Active Christian Media as a gift from the publisher for the purpose of review.

Read this. Kid puts injured snake out of its misery, neighbor girls’ parents report animal cruelty, 13 year-old is charged with felony. Amazing.

Richard’s mom, Terry, said she doesn’t see why the case went that far.

“He wasn’t committing a crime,” she said. “He was putting an injured animal out of its misery - this is ridiculous. If you’re going to charge him, then fly strips should be illegal. And what about mousetraps?”

She said the police should apologize to her son.

She’s got a good point.

That’s the hilarious headline on Yahoo where an ABC retread runs the pro-terrorist news operation.

I wonder who else is mourning Zarqawi’s death? The Democrat Party maybe?

From the Yahoo headline it looks like the American media is mourning his death too.

I guess we took out one of the liberal’s generals.

And they wonder why we think they’re anti-American and pro-terrorist.

Hilarious.

It’s not often that I find something on NPR worth linking to, but this article is pretty good.

After listening to the results of this project for several weeks, I knew I could do three minutes, too. Certainly not on world peace or the search for meaning in an increasingly distracted world or anything as grave and serious as all that, but on a belief just as true.

I believe in barbecue. …