This is why no-one writes thank-you notes anymore

Samuel Alito, newly approved Supreme Court justice, apparently thought he was doing the right thing when he sent some letters out the other day, thanking folks for their prayers and support. And, it looks from the text of the letter he sent to James Dobson at Focus on the Family, he hoped Dobson would read the letter over the air.

But several activists, including Barry Lynn, executive director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, took issue with the thank-you note, saying it wasn't very judicious of Alito to write them.

Dobson -- who's locked horns with Lynn over about a gazillion issues -- calls Lynn's remarks and others like them "nothing short of ridiculous."

"He simply wrote asking me to thank those who prayed for strength and wisdom during the past few months," Dobson wrote in a statement released late Wednesday. "Many of those same Christians also pray daily for the president. We are called to do this in I Timothy 2:1-2, which urges believers to pray for those in authority and leadership over us."