BL, well, la-di-da! I am in your age range, single, also raised by a WWII veteran, mother was ill most of the time so my dad practically raised my brother and myself, and my brother was divorced twice. Do I pass judgment on my brother? No.

We all can’t live perfect lives, you were super-lucky not to make mistakes – several of my friends made mistakes in their lives and relationships and are paying for them now (poor things) and no, I don’t judge them either. Yes, “it can be done” but it’s not easy, especially in this day and age where style rules over substance most of the time, and that’s how kids are brought up now. I think there’s a phrase, “you should walk a mile in my shoes before judging me” and you would be well inclined to heed it.

Wish I could come and stand guard for ya all.

I wonder why bl makes such a dimwitted pitch: They imitate the great conserv. past, but cannot equal! Who is their equal in the past? All of those great people she mentioned, like “Buckley, Reagan, Thatcher, Jean Kirkpatrick, Sen. Helms, Rev. Falwell, Ruth Graham (late wife of Billy Graham). ” don’t do what Ann, Rush, and Sean have to do: reveal themselves every time they speak.

It’s easy for us to cast stones at brave people like Beck, Levin, Rush, Laura, Tammy, Michael Reagan, Sean, Neal, etc., because we have them at a disadvantage: we know a lot about them because they revealed their lives to us. You and I haven’t told them all about our failings, shortfalls, crimes, etc.

It’s easy to criticize these Socrates of our times, but you wouldn’t be able to replace them with your sparkling clean moral record, bl. Your cleanliness wouldn’t have anything to say that could connect with us mere mortals.

For Rush, Laura, and the rest of the talk radio hosts it’s relentless. Three hours a day of searching your mind and soul for ways to relate to an audience of millions. And Ann has to do it through books with intense content (truths, for those who can take it), plus doing news channel segments throughout the year and then more intensely in order to publicize her books.

Buckley wrote great books, but he broke up the intensity a bit and wrote a lot of fiction. His appearances on tv were mainly confined to PBS, and didn’t have to make a living in front of hostile cameras and audiences as Ann does.

And speaking of having to earn a living with their talent, bl, have you ever tried doing it like they have? No, I didn’t think so. If you had to make your way in this world with a skill or talent, you would know the answer to your question, Where are those conservatives??

They aren’t people like you who’ve never tried anything but birthing babies, which isn’t a talent.

She walks like a duck (lib) acts like a duck (lib) so my guess is she just might be a duck (lib)

But maybe not. But she does have a strange way of living what she says she believes.

Its about being doing the RESPONSIBLE thing. Whether its standing by your child who does foolish things or by owning up to your own mistakes and correcting the consequences as best as you can.

It’s all about the EFFORT to do the right thing.

And anyway, who’s to say what the right thing is for any one person. It’s when one person’s “right thing” spills over into a demand in another’s life that we have problems.

But hey, people have their imperfections and always will.

2nd: The audience is stupid as well. No one is going to observe that the host asked loaded questions, or that they were rude, or any of that nonsense. All they hear is a bleeding-heart liberal question, a stumbling conservative answer, and a 15 minute follow-up briefing of the liberal talking points.

Besides that, Ann Coulter’s body language, aggressive/combative demeanor, sarcastic answers, non-smiling composure is NOT going to change even 1 person’s mind. YES SHE IS 100% RIGHT, but the liberals have set her up to simply look like a bitch, and it is working.

Again, why bother? Why hurt your own cause? —That seems counter-productive.

You throw concepts out without thinking – that is a liberal tactic. And it was the point I was trying to make earlier – everyone can (and usually does) make a mistake – it is our ability to forgive (i.e. if you will see the humanity of it) and as that person to get up, take responsibility, dust yourself off and then try never ever to do it again.

Reagan wasn’t perfect – he was a democrat, he was divorced, he was from California. He saw the failings in his life, set about to change them and became a much better person. And then he set about trying to help America.

And for your own example – look at Sarah Palin – a great example of someone living what they believe and the Dems set out to annihilate her and you bought into it. She was a hypocrit to you, not a person trying to do the right thing in a world gone wrong.

And you have to wonder why there isn’t anyone out there – Bush spent 8 years being damned if he did, damned if he didn’t and Gov Palin took shots that a lesser person would have never survived.

And it’s because of people like you who claim to be on our side but hit out just as bad as those on the left.

Conversions don’t come by preaching to the choir – they come by taking the risk of walking into the enemy camp or at least up to it.

It’s nerve racking. You could always….always, rely on somebody coming along to be bold enough and say “STOP”, “I am here to just protect and serve”.

For all of your certainty about how crucial to our side is behavior that looks like you (”Low income people, never felt the need to use drugs, mess around before marriage, 2 great kids after the fact”), let me remind you: there are thousands of men dying or ready to die for you every day who don’t live up to your ideals. Yet they are as crucial to our cause as the Ann’s, Rush’s, and whomever else you disapprove of.

Have you ever suited up with the BEST American men in this nation? I have. I jumped out of airplanes with them and went to war with them, and let me tell ya: they don’t always look like Reagan, Buckley, and Falwell. For you to cry out that “No one on our side looks like me!!!” sounds like a petulant woman who’s had too much time on her hands over the years, and has never been asked to sacrafice and DIE the way some of us with broken marriages, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and yes, even drug use in our past have.

So it hurts me to see them go along and do what the other side does.

Of course it hurts you! You’re so righteous that EVERYTHING hurts you! HERE’S A CLUE: When you’ve actually accomplished something besides raising two kids without having more hardship come your way, let us all know. Until you’ve done something a little more skilled, talented, and brilliant like address millions of people every day without fail for 20 years, let us know. When you’ve left your little comfort zone to put on a US uniform and done something that risked your life every day for years on end, come back and tell us again how let down you are in “our side”.

Something tells me that a little more experience outside of domestic civilian life would color your perspective a bit.

But it stinks that she is the poster child for all that crap that came out of the 60’s. You don’t have to be married, have kids, stay home with the family. That was the libs big thing. What does she do? Sit with these Fox guys, married men, with her minis and say let’s talk politics. Gives them all a look that says “You shoulda married me you fool”. How does that come off as conservative?

This is about the biggest nonsequitor I’ve come across in some time. Frankly, BL, there’s nothing wrong with Ann and how she appears on the news shows. You’re just jealous. Whereas Ann can appear in an 8-minute segment under glaring cameras and an audience of millions while remaining beautiful, articulate, and hilarious (in other words, everything you aren’t), you only see her as making the men around her horny! You’re pathetic!

Get over yourself, BL.

Why bother?

And what about her daughter? That young girl easily could have followed the “girls gone wild” mentality of her generation by having an abortion, but she came from a Conservative family and a fetus was allowed to live.

If all you can see when you look at people who don’t make their personal life decisions OUR problems to deal with [Rush, Sarah Palin, etc], is people with a fourth wife or out-of-wedlock pregnancy, I ask you all to back off a bit and remember: He who points at the moon is not the moon.

Don’t expect perfection from those who explain Conservative thought. Ask yourself: Are their life decisions impacting on me? If the answer is ‘no’ [which it is in both Rush and Sarah's daughter's cases], then you need to employ a little understanding in this thing called life, don’t ya’ think?

And another thing, Brad: Your complaint that Ann’s “schtick” isn’t “bringing people to our party” betrays your depth of conviction to Conservative principles, or lack, thereof. Conservatism isn’t a “party”. Country-club Republicans are the type who express your sentiment concerning true believers of first principles of our nation’s Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and over 200 years of respecting the rule of law. They are called Conservatives, and the country-club types are the shallow lunkheads who don’t understand those of us who live on next to nothing yet preach a Conservative message. The merchant class knows how to count members in their party, but they don’t know how they got there.

Without the Ann Coulter’s, the Thomas Paine’s, and the Rush Limbaugh’s, the “Party” wouldn’t have a Reagan. Or a soul.