There's a long discussion at The Corner at National Review Online about neo-conservatives. Jonah Goldberg even wrote a two-part article (1 2) about neocons, who they are, what they want, etc.
The only useful thing I've managed to pick up is that neo-conservatives are ex-liberals, and that the term "neo-conservative" itself was coined by liberals to disparage their former comrades.
And there are a lot of ex-liberals in the conservative camp. There are those who milk it, like David Horowits, and those who don't make a big deal out of it, like nearly everybody else. But there certainly are a lot of people who indentify themselves as former liberals turned conservative. (Bill Williams for one and James Lileks for another.)
I don't think that this really describes me. I wasn't even a liberal in high school, and by the time I was in college I was pretty well set as a conservative.
I bring this up because I'm wondering where the ex-conservatives are. Are they in the liberal camp? I don't recall hearing about them, except for that guy with the book expose about the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. So there are some, but they're not as common as ex-liberals.
Does this mean that adherents of conservatism stay longer? Or have all the dissenters been killed off? Or is it merely observer bias?
I was standing on a bus platform talking to an ex-girlfriend and her brother? new flame? something like that. As sometimes happens in dreams, I was outside myself (above and behind) listening to myself talk. We were catching up, talking about what's happened in the last few years.
Then she got on a bus and went home, or at least to her parent's house. I offered to escort her because it seemed wrong for her to go by herself. For some reason none of the other four people in the conversation wanted to go her way. So I went home too.
Nothing as exciting as my wife's pregnancy dreams which typically contain vivid images, heightened sexuality, the whole hormone package. (Last night she dreamed about being chased by zombie Alzheimers' patients.)
I need to brew some more beer. What's left of the Improv Stout is in 12-oz bottles and I'm nearly certain that it was bacterially contaminated.