Yipes! I'm a hard-core liberal and it would never occur to me to want federal licensing of doctors. You're a real conservative statist! The states handle medical licensure and with the increasing availability of internet information on physicians' malpractice history, I don't see a huge problem.

I disagree with Mr. Chapman. Republicans, especially truly conservative Republicans, most emphatically DO get it. Because at least some of these folks are true to conservative principles, they know that they do not need to propose, much less enact, any sort of health care reform. Health care reform is a concern of the Left. My guys are the ones who discovered (or 'invented,' if you're a conservative) the whole health care issue. From a truly conservative standpoint, there simply is NO large set of health care problems in this country. So what if there are people who can't afford health insurance, or who do not have access to high quality health care? Real conservatives just don't see such things as problems because real conservatives...

Look, I'm trying to take you folks on the Right seriously. Every day I read columns and posts that make it clear that you believe the very existence of this country is at risk, and a very high level of risk, at that. So, if the problem is so serious, then it would seem reasonable that you folks would take it seriously. Nice, peaceful tea parties are one thing---defending your country is quite another, and you conservatives assert, with a great show of fear and hatred, what you think the stakes really are. If you don't see what follows from your own views, you're not seeing very clearly.

Conservatives no there is just no such animal as a 'right-wing terrorist.' And this columnist provides no evidence whatever that the mobilization of force and firepower she saw had anything to do with anyone's fear of such non-existent threats. As a matter of fact, a much smaller display of force (3 guys in black, body armor, and one of them with an HK MP5 in his arms) was present in Boston's South Station. I just think everybody wanted to show the flag on 9/11 so we'd feel safe.

Conservatives aren't serious about deling with health care issues. Consider this sentence from Mr. Armstrong's column: "If the real issue of reform was to reduce the overall cost of medical care in America, the health care reform debate would center on medical malpractice tort law, promoting healthy lifestyles and dealing with the high end of life costs."

Conservatives want tort reform, but they most certainly do NOT want the government doing anything about "promoting health lifestyles." Individuals should be able to do what they want, conservatives always tell us, and no nasty big-government, nanny-state liberals have any business telling people to stop smoking, etc. Nor do conservatives really care about "high end of life...

You know as well as I do that conservatives simply do not believe anything you (or any other teacher) would say about the workload of a high school teacher. Conservatives just know--because they keep telling each other so--that teachers are all lazy, incompetent, amoral, left-wing parasites who are, as you noted, always working on new ways to lure students into homosexuality and socialism. Why do you think I changed my approach on TH, moving away from anything resembling reasoned debate and adopting the strategies of ridicule and smear that conservatives use so well?

If you try to offer evidence and argument to today's conservatives, it's like running your head into the proverbial brick wall. Just haul off and say something...

There is a very simple solution to the health care issues, and I'm surprised I don't see TH readers propose it more frequently. Here it is: Make health care and health insurance entirely what economists call 'market goods.' Price and availability of health care would be determined solely by the market. The quality of health care would depend upon each individual's purchasing power, which means that the more money you have, the better the health care to which you would have access.

Problem solved.

Medved shows here just how much of a CINO he really is. He's pushing the same old moderate position that has been so disastrous for the Republican Party. As I've said in a number of posts, this is, in my opinion, an ideal time for the Republican Party to transform itself into a hard-Right party, in fact, an ultraconservative party with a coherent ideology. The RNC list of 10 points of agreement among Republicans is a feeble version of what ought to be done. there needs to be a statement of conservative principles that will govern the Republican Party. No big tent, no Medvedian inclusion--just a pure conservatism. Now is the time for conservatives to define themselves, develop a coherent ideology, and exclude all who regard themselves as...

You fail to understand, or perhaps are unable to understand my point. In the 20th century the opposition to racism and segregation, both here and in South Africa, was mounted first by the political Left. If you knew anything about the ideology in which you claim to believe, you would know this, because you would know that conservatism stood opposed to ending racist policies both in this country and in South Africa. The doctrinal point that eludes you is this: conservatism must defend the traditions of the society in which it exists, and must, whenever possible, try to return to traditional principles and social structures if these have been transformed by ideological enemies (that is, the Left). Of course, most American conservatives,...

The day the country lost its sense? There have been so many days.

The day Bush 43 was elected, or whatever it was that got him into office.

The day anybody at all started taking people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter as serious anythings.

The day Bill Buckley started 'National Review' and found an audience.

The day the Tea Party began