A great big thank you to Michelle for letting me guest-blog on her site this week. It’s been quite an experience and I’m very thankful that she deemed me worthy to cover for her.

You might think my favorite part of it was my fight with Andrew Sullivan and, sure, that was fun, but the highlight has been all the emails from Michelle’s readers. She has some really smart people reading this site, and I loved “meeting” some of them. I also got an email from my old college professor, a long-lost friend and a really cool guy I briefly went to high school with, all because of this week.

But the best has been getting the emails from NY conservatives, amazed to discover there are others like them. I know the feeling. In my past life, before I worked in politics, I too have kept quiet while friends and co-workers had the “how big of an idiot is Bush?” debate or listened to them trash America because they felt it made them sound intellectual. I only became involved in politics after the 2000 election–after I realized I didn’t have a single friend that thought it was Gore trying to steal the election, and not the other way around. It’s been incredible hearing from NY-based conservatives and hearing their stories about being the hated minority in this great city.

I guess if I want to leave any parting words with you all, it’s that conservatism is a movement worth fighting for, and that I would encourage even the smallest involvement within your own communities. Our online community is amazing, and growing all the time, but there needs to be a brick&mortar companion to it to really advance our views and our causes. If you live in NYC, check out my conservative calendar at Rightevents.com, if you live elsewhere, particularly in very blue areas of the country, think about starting a site like it.

And do come visit me over at my regular site, Alarming News. There’s a fun comment section and I frequently use hip-hop and indie rock lyrics for post headlines. What more can you want?

Thanks again, Michelle, I hope you had a relaxing vacation. I look forward to reading you here soon.