[beyond the sea]

Ping .......... for when you get back.

This is excellent!

[TheForceOfOne]

Well said, but irreversible damage may have already been done. You have a good perspective on the situation.

[Bahbah]

I am so glad that I found FR. Sometimes I'm just grateful for a good laugh. Mostly, though, I find myself compelled to think very hard about my positions and attitudes and to defend them, if only in my own mind, or to alter them when I am persuaded. To those on the pro-life side in the recent events, you gave me comfort and I thank you. To those who felt differently, it was somewhat akin to having a vehement disagreement with a family member where there is always so much more than just one divisive issue. I want conservatives to stick together and to keep on winning, because I believe that the future of this country depends on it. So here I will be, trying to earn my "crusty old timer" badge.

[oceanperch]

Agree

[McGavin999]

We've been through this so many times in the past that you'd think we'd know by now that we must not give in to the pot stirrers.

The name calling on both sides got a little out of hand, but face it, this was an extremely emotional subject.

Like you said, we are a family and in all families there are squabbles and because we are so close those squabbles can get pretty nasty. Now we have work to do and we need each other if we are to get anything accomplished.

[Quix]

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! I much agree--especially about the enemy's skills at dividing and conquering.

---

I just posted this on the following thread requesting prayer for Bush:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1375834/posts?page=35

Were President Bush to be removed, the encroaching demonic forces so eager to shred our land to smithereens would flood in with greater force and immediacy than folks can imagine. Even were Bush more inauthentic than I think he is, the fact that he claims to be submitted to God in prayer and the fact that he acts greatly more Christian than . . . other critters and the fact that he engenders sooooo much focused prayer for him and for our country stands for a great lot.

In any case, I do not believe that most even sensitive believers realize the press toward chaos which would result from such an attack on Bush. It would not be a relatively smooth Kennedy Johnson type thing. Many more assaults would come in quick follow-on, if not simultaneously. This is not just liberal pique against President Bush out of normal human jealousy—which is bad enough.

LITERAL DEMONIC HOARDS SEEK TO SHRED OUR LAND TO SMITHEREENS. Their sole job is satan’s passion for theft, death and destruction. Prayer and right living; Spirit-led submission to God Almighty and loving actions and hearts toward one another is all that stands in the way. Terri in Florida was not a good sign. It was good that Congress made the effort. But the poll figures even with stacked questions were not wonderful.

I’m reminded of the audiences’ reaction to CLOCKWORK ORANGE 34 years ago in Hollywood. The audiences’ reactions proved the nihilism in the film. Fast forward. Terri in Florida. The culture of death and meaninglessness, destruction, has advanced wholesale.

PRAYER FOR PRESIDENT BUSH IS NOT JUST PRAYER FOR THE PRESIDENT. IT IS PRAYER FOR YOUR OWN SURVIVAL in any semblance of a normal mode for a while longer.

---

i THINK AND FEEL that this call to prayer has a greater sense of urgency and import behind it than even my usual. What is your sense Alamo-Girl?

It is not even too far fetched to me . . . to wonder . . . there have been a LOT of noisey things on FR recently with Terri and now with cherished OLD TIMERS leaving in dismay.

Can it be that FR has been under extra demonic attack, too?

Or is Quix just being too Quixy?

[WhiteGuy]

"My humble opinion and suggestion to all is in these times of contention and confusion, that we remind ourselves who the real enemy is and where the battles ought to be fought."

Well said.

The real enemy is government.

[CDHart]

"It has worked well for them in the past and they count on it working again for them now and in the future. "

You're right. In the early '70s we got involved in politics in Florida, and those on the conservative side spent more time tearing each other down than they did fighting the real enemy.

Carolyn

[Fzob]

From one crusty bugger to another, Well said.

[P.O.E.]

The left is counting on us tearing ourselves apart from within for that is the very philosophy upon which their strategy is based…foment division and hatred then attack at the breach.

Like pickpockets at the circus, they count on your distraction.

[T'wit]

>> After all, why should the crusty buggers be treated any differently than someone who signed up last week? Are they more intelligent, are their arguments more cohesive…persuasive?

Hell yes.

Well, I shouldn't speak for other crusty buggers.

P.S. Please look up the word "buggers" in a good British dictionary.

[clamper1797]

Good Post Bob

[Rightly Biased]

Bob J

Thanks for your sane post. I sometimes wonder where we would be without so many of the "oldtimers" Who stuck it out with JimRob and John as they tried to hold this forum they believed in together.

Myself joining on 11/01/01 lurking for about a years time before.I think back then most lurked for a longtime before they joined Now so many just find us join and post. Sometimes I wish The mods and Jim were tougher with those gnu-b's. I aint so sure I'm still not a gnu-b when I see a thread you or some one else from the 90's post.

I guess I'm saying thanks for sticking it out.

RB <><

[freeangel]

Great "anti-opus" thoughts. And, oh, so true as I rely on most of the "old-timers" perspectives to keep my point of view in based in reality.

[DouglasKC]

But they do have one thing new participants don’t and that is perspective. In a way us curmudgeons can help provide a sense of continuity and historical perspective to events that newcomers cannot. Sometimes, we are the glue the bridges Free Republic from one crisis to the next. I believe the recent Sciavo issue is one of those times so I am going to ante again and prove to Jim that his investment is worthy of it’s returns. I ask other old timers to chime in and pull their weight as well.

Well said Bob. Just thinking back to some of the huge topics that dominated FreeRepublic...Y2K, *every* election, Elian, Whitewater, Vince Foster...etc. one comes to realize that what is constant is the thread of conservatism that runs through them all. Us old timers are the conservative base that helps to guarantee that the board never goes to far leftward no matter how far politics and culture go to the left.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Count me in.

[roaddog727]

Quite right.

One Team dedicated to the preservation of our Democratic Republic - not for the formation of a Socialist nanny-state.

[retrokitten]

Wonderful post. I don't think I'm an old-timer, but I'm not a newbie, either. We've got to keep our eyes on the larger picture.

[GRRRRR]

To: Junior_G

Hey, I was gonna say that! Blah blah blah...it's amazing to me that we FREEPERS just can't realize we are so different but SHOULD be united in just one central goal--BEATING DEMONRATS!!!

WE are supposed to be the GOP of the big tent etc...but as soon as we hit some bump in the road, all I see are peeps over-reacting and jumping ship...

Come on people! IT's not just one battle...it's going to be a long, long war!! We may not get everything we want, we will NOT get anything from the RATS without a fight. THEY took everything they stole over a 50 year or so period of time...the INCREMENTALLY have created this JUDICIAL Tyranny, such that WE THE PEOPLE can't change it in just 4 years...it will take ANOTHER Republican President and then ANOTHER and ANOTHER...and more REAL GOP Senators and Reps...not these stinking RINO's like the 5 or 6 well known ones like Snow and Specter...

Chill out, let's get what we can get this year, then the next and so on..

Leaving FR because we all don't have the exact same opine..sheesh, nose-meet the knife!

G

102 posted on 04/01/2005 5:04:09 PM CST by GRRRRR (America the Wonderful! Optimism beats Pessimism Every Time!)

[wita]

Shouldn't have to be said, but the troops are always losing sight of the ball, failing to see the big picture, meandering around the straight course to victory, whining about chow, and other inane stuff, all reasons for leadership, sergeants, generals and such, to continually bring eyes that can't see back in to focus.

Never ever lose sight of who the real enemy is, and what happened to a certain general who divided his forces in the face of superior generalship, and a force who knew who the enemy was, and fought till none of the main force were left standing, including the general.