Judge Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s nominee to the the United States Supreme Court, is an excellent choice to succeed Antonin Scalia. Like the late justice, his approach to the Constitution is wonderfully constitutional, as he affirmed in his remarks Tuesday evening ~

“It is for Congress, not the courts to write new laws,” Gorsuch said. “A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge, stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands.”

Source: Washington Free Beacon

 
 
Judge Gorsuch began his career clerking for Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. Later, he was a high-ranking official in the George W. Bush Justice Department. And he was apparently so well-respected ten years ago that he was unanimously confirmed to his current position as an appellate judge with the 10th Circuit in Denver. Why even the audacious Barack Hussein Obama approved!
 
You wouldn’t know it from the lefties’ loud protestations in the last few days, but Democrats had no problem at all with Neil Gorsuch ten years ago. Here’s the group (via Fox News) of Democrat senators – past and present – who voted to confirm him to that Federal Appellate Court in 2006 ~
 
• Barack Obama
• Joe Biden
• Hillary Clinton
• John Kerry
• Charles Schumer (NY)
• Ron Wyden (OR)
• Dianne Feinstein (CA)
• Patrick Leahy (VT)
• Patty Murray (WA)
• Dick Durbin (IL)
• Jack Reed (RI)
• Bill Nelson (FL)
• Tom Carper (DE)
• Debbie Stabenow (MI)
• Maria Cantwell (WA)
• Bob Menendez (NJ)

 
But suddenly ~

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday he has “serious doubts” about Gorsuch. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued a scathing statement citing Gorsuch’s stance on assisted suicide, and saying nobody who believes individual rights are “reserved to the people” can support his nomination.

 
Good grief 🙄
If these hypocrites weren’t playing partisan politics – and of course if the Dems actually cared about selecting a justice with fidelity to the Constitution (as opposed to someone who would legislate from the bench) the Gorsuch confirmation would be a slam-dunk.

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Related:

Democrats fuming over Gorsuch backed him in 2006
Democrats Demand That Gorsuch Be ‘Mainstream,’ Won’t Explain What That Means
The best thing about Neil Gorsuch? His stance on religious liberty for ALL Americans ~

What sets Gorsuch’s bravado on religious liberty apart is his robust and proper understanding of the Establishment Clause [Which is where the whole separation-of-church-and-state went off the rails].
 
This is, of course, one of the most bastardized and confused portions of the Bill of Rights. As Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah (A, 100%) points out in his 2015 book, “Our Lost Constitution,” what was meant to keep the federal government from creating a state religion has – because of bad decisions and cultural platitudes – is now falsely understood as the “separation of church and state.”
 
In reality, James Madison articulated the purpose of the Establishment Clause succinctly during a House floor debate over the First Amendment in 1789: “Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience.”
 
In our current context, however, this understanding has led to the wrong-but-popular belief that the Establishment Clause somehow mandates that any just laws that remotely smell like religious ones are unconstitutional (abortion, marriage, etc.) and – even more commonly – that all religion imagery should be scrubbed from any public space.

Pro-Life Activists Praise Gorsuch Nomination
One Way Neil Gorsuch Will Carry Scalia’s Legacy on the Supreme Court

Gorsuch is the Anti-Trump
Enter Gorsuch – on cue, enter pro-Democratic media

Did you happen to catch the new commercial featuring Matt Damon announcing the involvement of Stella Artois (Belgian beer brand of BevAnheuser-Busch InBev) in the water charity he supports?

Stella Artois said on Tuesday it would donate $4.8 million over the next four years to Water.org, which uses microfinancing to fund projects like water wells and taps.

Source: NASDAQ

 
Business Insider put a humorous spin on the news: “Matt Damon is trying to solve the water crisis by getting people to drink more beer,” but I gotta say I’m impressed. And pleasantly surprised. I know Damon is part of that Hollywood hypocrite gun-control crowd however – unlike many other celebs – he hasn’t jumped on a soapbox and condemned his fellow Americans in a profanity-laced rant lately. He even says he’ll pitch clean water to Trump (should be interesting…).
 
 
It’s encouraging to see that Water.org sounds like an apolitical organization, i.e., no hidden leftist agenda. As they describe themselves…

For more than 25 years, we’ve made it our mission to bring water and sanitation to the world. Through market-driven, financial solutions, we’ve transformed millions of lives — giving women hope, children health, and communities a future.

It sounds like a responsible, well-planned approach that includes direct input and involvement from the communities they serve ~

When you connect the right local partners and participants with the right expertise and resources, the results are solutions that work.

Essentially they’re helping those in developing nations help themselves to obtain the clean water they so desperately need.
 
There are a couple other charities with similar models for water provision which are doing an enormous amount of good as well. Blood:Water partners with African grassroots organizations to address the HIV/AIDS and water crises. And Samaritan’s Purse ~

Providing clean water, coupled with health and hygiene education, is perhaps the most effective measure we can take in preventing infectious disease. Samaritan’s Purse works around the world to provide clean water and promote safe hygiene practices.

As a bonus – because these two organizations are Christian – the populations they serve in Jesus’ name also get to hear the good news of the Living Water.

Just wanted to salute Damon for trying to effect change in such a positive manner (as opposed some of his fellow celebs like oh – MADONNA!) and for using his wealth and status to make the world a better place – not a ruder, cruder, nastier one.

 
[Also, I love him in the Bourne movies! 🙂 ]
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Related:
Safe Water = Good Life

Uh-oh. Leftists are nearly apoplectic. Not only has Trump ordered an EPA media blackout…

Emails sent to EPA staff since his inauguration on Friday and reviewed by the Associated Press detailed the specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency’s social media accounts.
 
Trump — who at a meeting with automakers Tuesday insisted he was “an environmentalist” — also ordered a “temporary suspension” of all new business activities at the department, including issuing task orders or work assignments to EPA contractors.

He’s also acting to advance Keystone XL, Dakota Access Pipelines…

President Donald Trump signed executive actions Tuesday to advance construction of the huge Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, moving aggressively to overhaul America’s energy policy and dealing a swift blow to Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change.

It’s really more than they can cope with.

 
You see, progressives love massive bureaucracy. Every new agency they can create is another little fiefdom, enabling the Left to evade the Constitution – and tax and regulate the hell out of the private sector. Under the Obama Administration, the EPA became a rogue dictatorship, issuing new mandates at whim, totally disregarding the effect on average Americans.
 
When unaccountable public officials have the authority to redefine plowed farm fields as ‘mini mountain ranges’ or place regulations on ponds, ditches and puddles – they have WAY TOO MUCH POWER.

 
Late in December – perhaps sensing the winds of change blowing in D.C. – and just as winter was settling in, the EPA actually moved to Fine Alaskans For Burning Wood To Keep Warm ~

Civil fines by Fairbanks North Star Borough — which includes the cities of Fairbanks and North Pole, with a total population of about 100,000 — could be assessed in coming days against residential polluters. The E.P.A. could declare the entire area to be in “serious” noncompliance of the Clean Air Act early next year, with potentially huge economic implications, including a cutoff of federal transportation funds.

Source: New York Times

 
Writing at The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson explains what some clueless, un-elected bureaucrat in Washington D.C. doesn’t understand about winter in our 49th state ~

Like most people in Alaska, the residents of those frozen cities are burning wood to keep themselves warm this winter. Smoke from wood-burning stoves increases small-particle pollution, which settles in low-lying areas and can be breathed in. The EPA thinks this is a big problem. Eight years ago, the agency ruled that wide swaths of the most densely populated parts of the region were in “non-attainment” of federal air quality standards.
 
 
That prompted state and local authorities to look for ways to cut down on pollution from wood-burning stoves, including the possibility of fining residents who burn wood. After all, a declaration of noncompliance from the EPA would have enormous economic implications for the region, like the loss of federal transportation funding.
 
The problem is, there’s no replacement for wood-burning stoves in Alaska’s interior. Heating oil is too expensive for a lot of people, and natural gas isn’t available. So they’ve got to burn something. The average low temperature in Fairbanks in December is 13 degrees below zero. In January, it’s 17 below. During the coldest days of winter, the high temperature averages -2 degrees, and it can get as cold as -60. This is not a place where you play games with the cold. If you don’t keep the fire lit, you die. For people of modest means, and especially for the poor, that means you burn wood in a stove—and you keep that fire lit around the clock.

 
Here’s a nutshell version from Matt Kibbe (Conservative Review) ~

 
Now clearly we can’t let industries and individuals run roughshod over the environment; God instructs us to be responsible stewards of all creation. But it’ll certainly be nice to see the Trump Administration restore some level of sanity to the out-of-control EPA.
 
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Related:

Navajo Nation vows to fight EPA for toxic mine spill ~ The EPA is much better at making messes than cleaning them up
Progressives impede progress; DAPL blocked again
EPA’s war on American productivity
 
Update: 1-29-17
Forgot about this article when I was writing this post. It further demonstrates how the “P” in EPA stands for “power” – not “protection” ~ EPA Let Pollution Fester At 302 Sites For Years, Sometimes DECADES

Those sites are part of the EPA’s Superfund program, which is intended to clean the most dangerous and polluted places in America. But the agency has either been unable or unwilling to decontaminate many of the locations, allowing pollution to fester, a DCNF analysis of more than 1,300 active Superfund sites found.