can see clearly why Boortz refuses to let pro-life people highjack his show. One can also understand why the Republican party has been unable to convince the rest of America that they should be in power. These comments should be Exhibit A to anyone who wonders why the conservative movement has failed.

Those of us who believe in small government and the free market and a strong national defense are essentially without a viable political party to represent us. The Republicans will continue to lack credibility as long as it tries to force religious precepts on the rest of the country and the Democrats will never push for small government and the free market because of the socialist extremists on their books. The Libertarians have...

and what they wanted are meaningless in a changing society. They are not divine beings - they were human like the rest of us, living in a society that is very different than the one we have today. They were not God - they did not set down concrete rules of law. The constitution has been amended numerous times on issues that they left quite open for debate.

Their religious beliefs and their views on abortion are no more relevant to me than Osama bin Laden or Ghandi or Grover Cleveland or my next door neighbor. They were men with opinions based on religious beliefs. We have lots of those.

Husker I do not "know" when life begins - I only know what I "believe". I happen to believe that a fetus is a life - however that is based on my own religious beliefs. At the same time I understand that I can not impose my personal religious beliefs on someone else nor would I want to live in a country which does that.

Therein lies the problem: a government that can not use the religious beliefs of some of its citizens to make that decision must look at other considerations, like viability or scientific theory.

No, it's not perfect but there is a perfect way to make sure your religious beliefs on abortion are not violated: don't have an abortion.

Plant life, animal life - all of those things are a form of "life" that is not entitled to the "right to life" guaranteed by the Constitution. Cell life - cells don't have the "right to life".

Our government by necessity has to determine what form of life is entitled to the "right to life" and thus is entitled to the power of government to protect.

The religious right would like to see a sperm/cell combination protected from the moment of conception because of their religious rights. PETA would like to see all animal life entitled to the "right to life". Anti-death penalty people want all living humans covered and of course, the religious have a very strange dichotomy in their views on this subject. Presumably people...

in hearing any discussion of why a fetus is a life from the moment of conception that is NOT based on someone's personal religious beliefs.

Is there any scientific or secular reason to believe it?

Boortz does not allow callers to discuss abortion on his show because they never have anything different to say about it - the pro-life callers ALWAYS rely on their personal religious beliefs to bolster their objections to abortion. If the pro-life group had anything new or different to say about the issue, it might be a discussion worth having on his show. As it is, however, it's just the same old thing.

Boortz's objections to the pro-life group, and more broadly to the religious right in general arise from the damage they are doing to the political landscape. In this two party system, the Republicans are the only party who will fight for smaller government and the free market. Yet they are in bondage to the religious right...