"the road to freedom: how to win the fight for free enterprise". his newest book is coming out in september of 2015, the conservative heart, thanks for being with us. >> c-span created by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by your local, capable satellite provider. this weekend on booktv and inside look at campaign contributions, coverage of the louisiana book festival land war waged in cyberspace plus books about improving public education, the life of general george custer and the mia's coverage of national security issues. for a full schedule visit our web site booktv.org. 40 hours of nonfiction books and authors. booktv, television for serious

readers. >> the idea of the book came out of the experience paul and i and many other people at the observatory half of the people coming to us with the same questions over and over and over again. not only are we tired of answering them that the answer is we have been giving really weren't satisfying or they wouldn't keep asking them. in a lot of cases the questions that are being asked are not the questions they are talking about but the questions being assumed before they ask. to want to give an example of what i talking about. in september of 2012 live in birmingham, england. i was there to give an astronomy talk that the science festival. if you can't read the tea should it is god's that and maxwell's equations and there was light.

as it turned out, the day of my talk in birmingham, england happened to coincide exactly with the visit of pope benedict to england to birmingham. the british journalism covered it, i agreed to to be interviewed in order to publicize the science festival but all they wanted to do with ask about the post, except the questions were things like when was the last time the pope interfered with your work and what is your biggest conflicts with the pope, complete the of the field of the cause for one thing they are assuming there's a conflict we never experienced. the pope had supported us quite a bit. they were not happy they were not getting damage there was a story they wanted and so finally one of them asked me would you baptize an extraterrestrial?

i answered only she asks. got a good laugh. that was what i wanted. they all laughed can't fennecs davey reported in the paper as if it was some big vatican pronouncement about aliens. there it was. at least they got that part right. why that reaction? why did they ask that question in the first place? it is a popular question because we figure it will sell head. but why? why do people ask us to that question so often? i think in the case of the journalists, it is presented to the trick question. consider the context. they're looking for ways to make the pope looked bad. has the pope tried to suppress your work? the reporters were looking for a juicy story, ways to make me

look stupid or take my church look stupid. for them with you baptize an extraterrestrial was a trick question. if i had said yes, i will baptize the tea i would have looked cosmically naive. and would have been saying for public human being and a backwater planet as something to tell people bright enough that they can send space ships across space and time. on the other hand if i said no i wouldn't baptize et, i would be admitting christianity has no universal significance. i would be saying it is just for us stupid yokels on planet earth, not significant in the grand scheme of things. either way they thought they had me. so when i just blurted out the first thing i could think of only if she asks i actually wound up turning the tables on them because i made baptism not my decision but et's.

>> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. here's a look at the best-selling nonfiction books according to the los angeles times.

that is this week's list of nonfiction bestsellers according to the los angeles times. >> tell me what it was like teaching literature at the military academy and how you got there and how you got to this book.ht the while ago in 1997. we were at peace than. i wrote an earlier book about the transition from peace to war which at first was very wrenching, seemed pretty clear to me i was preparing my students to go to war. this book complicate that story because it became clear to me the longer the war went on wasn't so easy and my students, going back to multiple deployments and coming home is hot enough as it is that harder when you know you have to go back in a year's times a this is

about that space in between war and peace, resurrecting a challenge from an earlier war. >> in 97 you knew or felt you were preparing your students to go to active duty. >> to active duty, we didn't know what they would be. preparing for every eventuality but certainly when the war started, taught very specifically about it. >> what was the greatest difficulty you had as a professor at that time? >> when we first went to work? i think knowing what my students might have to do, knowing they might not come back was an abstract concept. now it is a very real concept that face -- shapes what we do in the classroom, not that the individual or discussion of any individual changes of we have a

deeper context in which all these discussions come on, life-and-death, courage and cowardice and all these issues in all literature. >> did you have any concerns about going to piece? >> before i went there. going there -- what i was going to do and all the different aspects of the students's lives and different aspects, i learned one doesn't go to west point diss teach english, you are enmeshed in a deeper and broader community. >> how long did use ted haggard challenges and struggles changed? >> struggles and challengess had

a great sense of fulfillment and the connection i have with my students who report to me from all manner of places. how important the literature they studied at west point remains. >> what is the greatest take away you would like your readers to have from this book? >> i would like and to understand more fully in a nation in which a small percentage of citizens gone uniforms, about the richness of the intellectual and emotional richness of the lives of soldiers and to be able to bridge that gap which i fear some time this -- >> the u.s. senate gaveling in a few moments for a rare weekend session as lawmakers resumed consideration of cost house passed a spending bill that would fund most government agencies through september of

next year. a first vote on the measure could come late this evening. majority leader harry reid has expressed his intention to vote on a number of president obama's nominees before concluding the 113th congress. among them surging general nominee and the top post at the social security mad ministration. also anthony lincoln's nomination to serve as deputy secretary of state. consideration of a number of judicial nominations also expected. live now to the senate floor on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, the giver of every good and perfect gift thank you for this season of giving that reminds us of your blessing of