This month’s Palestinian elections are pivotal for the future of statehood. Israel opposes the campaigns of all 
Hamas officials, who are projected to win up to 30% of the votes. Despite being on the terrorist watch list, Hamas is demonstrating a willingness to join the democratic process – which they had previously refused to do.
Condemned for not supporting democratization – and now blocked from being apart of the elections.
Please Israel – can you stop being so schizophrenic?
As Judge Alito is interrogated by the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, too many Americans will click the channel away as they yawn at the thought of caring about the newest nominee to the Supreme 
Court. Despite this fact, I thought I’d post a little tribute to our nation’s highest court.
If confirmed, Alito could move the court to the right since he would be replacing the more centrist Sandra Day O’Connor. This has far-reaching implications… everything from the power of the president during war times, to affirmative action and abortion.
I don’t know enough about his record to make an informed decision about whether or not I support his nomination – but I was a bit weary when I saw the spokeswoman for Concerned Women of America stand up and shout how wonderful the man is… My mom receives their propaganda, which has accused public schools that encourage environmentalism as “agents for earth and animal worship”. I read this stuff with my own two eyes and nearly pulled my hair out.
I realized today that I could only name five justices – so I wonder – how many can you name? (answer found in comment section)
First – I know Nick already told the story on his site, but seriously.. I’m so excited that I feel the need to repeat it. He took me ice skating at an outdoor rink in Milwaukee and 
in the middle of the rink, he pulled out the following doctored photo. (The original said “I
like Nick” as pictured on my earlier entry.) Then, before it totally registered, he said it – “Esther – I love you”. I was so touched, I nearly cried.
Neither of us had ever used the “L” word before, but I felt very comfortable responding with an “I love you too”. =)
In other news, the World Missions Summit in Louisville is over and it’s nice to be back in Oregon – definitely a slower pace than life
during the WMS.It was great to see friends from all around the world – especially the amazing people I met while in Jordan.
Carolyn, Liz, Bethany, Leah and I stayed at my cousin’s house about 20 minutes from the conference center which was a huge financial blessing for all of us.
Nick drove almost 8 hours to spend his last day before his trip to New Zealand with me and to be able to meet some of the people I talk about from
last year. Actually he is posting video clips from his trip on his blog – so everyone ought to check those out – I’m pretty impressed.I’m a bit partial to Eurasia, for obvious reasons; however, I do think we had the best exhibit – I mean seriously – we had a yurt for goodness sake. (Click here for the Eurasia blog).
New Years was pretty low-key for there being about 4,000 people in one big room. There was a band that tried to sound like the DMB, and free food – complete with a chocolate fountain. All-in-all it was a nice way to end one year and begin another.
