The American Spectator

Before the holiday which dare not speak its name commences, we are visited by one that in some ways has retained its original trappings. Thanksgiving Day, whose celebration predates the formation of the United States government, has somehow managed to survive secular attacks; though the idea of exactly who we are to thank is getting a bit confused.

While President Bush in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation states, “[W]e thank God for His blessings and ask Him to continue to guide and watch over our Nation,” the Republican governor of my state of Connecticut, Jodi Rell, proclaimed, “I urge all our citizens to join me in expressing our deepest gratitude to those who touch our lives everyday and in extending a healing hand of hope to those who need it most.”

So, as a good and loyal Nutmegger, I will thank a few folks who have touched my life in the past year. But in keeping with the proper religious nature of the holiday, I’ll express my gratitude to those who have done so in ways that speak to higher things.

p>My first bouquet of thanks goes to 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Suhrheinrich, who, writing for the majority in the ACLU v. Mercer County — where a display of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse was allowed to remain — stated what most conservatives have been shouting for years: br> /p>

The ACLU makes repeated reference to “the separation of church and state.” This extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.

br> In anticipation of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and musing on the mess it has made of the 1st Amendment, he went on to deliver the judicial quote of the year: “Thus, we remain in Establishment Clause purgatory.” The Wisdom of Solomon it seems, is alive and well, at least in Kentucky. p>Although it continues to take some odd political stances, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops scored a bull’s-eye earlier this year by fulfilling its most important role, which is to inform the faith of American Catholics. In response to an odious, disingenuous document released by 55 Catholic Democrats — in which they contended that although their party supports abortion and gay marriage, they are in accord with the Church on issues like the death penalty, immigration, gun control and increasing the minimum wage — the USCCB released this :