Samwise. Hmm. It's nice that J.P. invites people to be guest columnists, but we really need to stop letting him choose our nom de plumes for us. I had to look "Samwise" up in Wikipedia and it turns out I'm a hobbit. A very nice hobbit - J.P. says Samwise was the real hero in the Lord of the Rings trilogy - but still...

Maybe because I'm not all that tall, I'm a little touchy about being given a Hobbit name. I'll try to get over it.

My real name is Samantha, I'm in my late twenties, married, with two daughters, attending college part-time and trying my very best to be a good wife and mother because I firmly believe those are the most important jobs in the world.

With my first column the whole world learned that my mother was a lifelong alcoholic dying of cancer, so I guess I'm hanging it all out there from the very beginning, and I plan to carry that attitude forward to the political and philosophical stuff. The world seems to be forgetting the most important lessons about God, individual liberty, and dignity, and I'd like to make some kind of difference if I can by expressing things from a young mother's perspective.