[GSlob]

This ocean cruise would be still more exquisitely pleasurable if [for the benefit of the conservative guests] the ship carried a large cage with few liberals on suicide watch. The guests would be strolling by to look at them, offer condolences and maybe a carrot or a cracker.

[Restorer]

Conservatives recognize that even with the emerging ''new media'' forces of talk radio, the Internet, and Fox News, the majority of Americans have their opinions shaped by the liberal ''old media.'' The intellectual battle ahead will be long and difficult, partly because it is not just a challenge of ideas but of getting those ideas out to the people.

The big difference is that liberals generally don't view our disagreement as an intellectual battle. They see no need to think about their positions, as they view them as accepted fact, and their amen chorus in the media just reinforces this view.

In the long run it's impossible to win a battle if you refuse to recognize that you're in one.