My favorite fiction authors are Arthur Conan Doyle (hence my avatar), Joyce Carol Oates, Harry Turtledove, and William F. Buckley Jr: not Buckley's spy novels, although they're very good, but his other fiction. If you can imagine this, he wrote a novel about Elvis Presley's hitch in the Army, and his fictional friendship with a young German boy, that was excellent: "Elvis in the Morning."

Harry Turtledove writes fantasy, for which I have a very low tolerance; but he's also the outstanding author of "alternative history," which fascinates me. His books in this area deal with such topics as, What if Robert E. Lee's army had been mysteriously supplied with AK-47 rifles? What if the earth had been invaded by hostile aliens at the height of WWII? What if the Spanish Armada didn't sink, but conquered England - - - and William Shakespeare led a revolt against them? He does his homework, and makes historical figures fascinating by putting them into unexpected situations. This stuff is like catnip to me. If I were a cat, I mean.

But I haven't read much modern Christian fiction that appeals to me. Ted Dekker is good, if your brain is tired and you need "mental chewing gum;" but the "Christian horror" genre irritates me by its very nature. I don't have anything against horror movies, if they're not occultic or dirty; but I've never read a "Christian horror" book that didn't involve preposterous theology. I appreciated the strong anti-abortion message of Frank Peretti's "Prophet," but his theology is all over the place.

William F. Buckley Jr. was the absolute best, although his son, Christopher, has gone left, and supported Obama. (However, some of his books are very funny.) Then there are the "conservative classics" that have already been mentioned, which helped form my thinking as a teenager: Edmund Burke, Ludwig Von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, Russell Kirk, and, greatest of all, Whittaker Chambers' "Witness," which is one of the most well-written books I've ever read.

The problem you run into with conservative authors is that they tend to be Catholic, like Buckley. But then, there's a huge Catholic strain running through American conservatism in general, probably due to the abortion issue. (Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingram, etc.) That's why I don't recommend Buckley's non-fiction to young people: he was so good, and so smart, that his Catholicism might lead them astray.

I am, obviously, a very "traditional" conservative: my heroes are Goldwater and Reagan, not Bush or Gingrich.

As for the authors you named, I have very little use for them, although they've done good, patriotic work. Ann Coulter irritates me because she wastes her intelligence and insight by being intentionally provocative. I don't regard Rush Limbaugh as a true conservative at all, but merely a spokesman for the Republican Party. I think Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are arrogant, egotistical popinjays. None of these people are serious writers. They're entertainers. That has a place, and is not unimportant; but they're not literary people. Dick Morris is simply a disgruntled Democrat who has a personal grudge against the Clintons. Bill Bennett is the closest thing to a real writer in your list; but he, too, is a Catholic. Sigh......

I'm not in favor of censoring anything, even pornography. (I'm in favor of driving it out of production by prosecuting it under the existing prostitution laws. Sex for money is prostitution, whether it happens in a motel room or on a movie set). I wouldn't recommend the "commentators" you mentioned; if it weren't for the public library, I wouldn't even read their books. Stick with the classics. With one exception: the "Politically Incorrect Guide to...." series is excellent.

That's what irritates me about Rush and Ann and Sean: they've dumbed down conservatism so horribly. If he were still alive, Edmund Burke would roll over in his grave.

Wait a minute......