Conservative vs Liberal

A lively discussion is going on over at Balloon Juice about the 'definitions' of Conservative and Liberal as those descriptors are perceived today.

For the last several years, I've tho't things were changing rather dramatically, and that the old reliable labels were becoming inadequate.  A couple of examples:

1. If you think you have the right to own any weapon you want and to do whatever you want with it, then that's a pretty liberal interpretation of the 2nd amendment.
2. If you want to make it illegal 'to desecrate the flag', then you're in favor of greatly expanding the government's authority; and so you're not a conservative.
3. If you want to limit US involvement in armed conflict; &/or you want to limit the capacity of the government to exert deadly force then you're neither conservative nor liberal - you're just kinda normal.

Gimme some more.