Good Choice

President Bush has nominated Judge Samuel Alito to be the next associate justice of the Supreme Court. Conservatives nationwide are applauding this pick, here are a few highlights of Alito's career from US News:

In 1997, Alito authored the majority opinion upholding a city's right to stage a holiday display that included a Nativity scene and a menorah because the city also included secular symbols and a banner emphasizing the importance of diversity. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Alito was the sole dissenter on the Third Circuit, which struck a Pennsylvania law that required women seeking abortions to consult their husbands.

Also, he struck down a Pennsylvania school board "anti-harrassment" policy, saying There is no categorical 'harassment exception' to the First Amendment's free speech clause."

His Judicial Philosophy

As Senator Jim DeMint said “Judge Alito is one of the most respected judges in America. His constitutional credentials are unquestionable and his judicial philosophy is verifiable."

A quote from Alito himself "Most of the labels people use to talk about judges, and the way judges decide (cases) aren't too descriptive. ... Judges should be judges. They shouldn't be legislators, they shouldn't be administrators." (The Newark Star-Ledger May 2005)

He is a member in good standing of the Federalist Society, the influential group of conservative lawyers who advocate an originalist reading of the Constitution that sticks closely to text and the history of the writing of the Constitution. (msnbc.com)

The left is not happy. Here are a few choice quotes found on MSNBC.

"It is sad that the president felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America, instead of choosing a nominee in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. He said Alito "would make the court less diverse and far more conservative."

“The far right has now forced the president to choose a nominee that they think has views as extreme as their own,” Kennedy said. “There are many serious questions about whether Judge Alito is a mainstream nominee fit to fill the seat of Justice O'Connor."

Now the question remains, what will happen to him in the Senate? There are serious doubts he will be confirmed before they adjourn around Thanksgiving.

Be True to the Meaning

Why do we celebrate holidays? I have been thinking about this recently because Halloween is on Monday. Halloween has always been the one holiday that I feel uncomfortable about celebrating. Normally I am overflowing with "holiday spirit," and drive everyone around me crazy. But what exactly is it that bothers me about Halloween? Is it the pagan roots? Many of the other holidays we celebrate have incorporated pagan traditions.

It isn't the traditions or the actual rituals we go through on the holiday that are important, it is the foundation of the day, the origins. Why do we mark these days? We celebrate a holiday to honor someone or some event, and we set the day aside as a holy day. Christmas is to honor Christ's birth, Thanksgiving to honor God's safe deliverance of the Pilgrims to the New World, Easter is to celebrate Christ's rising from the dead. On all of these holidays I embrace the "true meaning" of the day, rather than the modern day celebration that it has become. I want someday to tell my children that Christmas is not about Santa and presents, but about Jesus Christ. So wouldn't it be a double standard to celebrate Halloween for what it is today and not for its "true meaning?" I shouldn't be setting aside as special a day that grew from ancient Celtic traditions involving spirits of the dead and pagan rituals. I love the holidays that point to the hope and salvation that Christ brings, not the day that points back to the bondage of fear and evil that held these ancient pagan people.

Welcome

I have, over the past few months, been following the blogging of friends and family and have found it to be an excellent way to keep connected. So welcome to my blog, where I will ramble on about my life, my experiences, and my loves as I wander on my journey through this life.

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If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. ~ C.S. Lewis