Larry Schweikart: FreeRepublic.com – the First Web Warrior Site [correction at 158, 193]

Guest Piece by America’s History Teacher, Larry Schweikart Today, with a host of conservative websites producing exceptional; content that the Hoax News media refuses to cover, including uncoverdc.com, Breitbart, TheLibertyDaily, Hot Air, and others, it is useful to remember that at one time there was really only one such site. When conservatives had not been vocal, let alone active, www.freerepublic.com (http://www.freerepublic.com) became both the mouthpiece and the gathering place for activism for conservatives.

It’s hard today, with the hundreds of on-line news and commentary sites, to imagine a time when there were few opposition voices to the liberal media. CNN had been founded in 1980 as a cable-based alternative to the “big three” of ABC, NBC, and CBS, and two years later the Washington Times was founded as a conservative alternative to the Washington Post, New York Times, and the only slightly less political USAToday founded that same year. And I do not mean to imply that CNN was “conservative,” only that it was the first to even attempt to challenge the big three.

In 1988, Rush Limbaugh launched his hugely successful national radio show. And that was it: for several years, conservatives had the Washington Times and Rush. Not until 1995 did the DrudgeReport, considered conservative-leaning at the time, appear and make a splash with revelations about Monica Lewinsky’s dress that eventually provoked the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

VDO.AI But already another force was building. Jim Robinson, a California-based software developer who specialized in writing accounting software for fruit growers), had been active on the early Prodigy bulletin boards. At the time Prodigy operated much as today’s Twitter, with a certain word limit before a person had to start a new paragraph and link to it. As Robinson noted, Prodigy was not only clumsy but expensive and he found himself spending a great deal of money just to post on Prodigy every month. “Instead of posting,” Robinson mulled, “maybe I should start my own bulletin board.” He began developing software for a conservative bulletin board in 1995.

A registered Democrat (as was his wife), Robinson “didn’t pay much attention to politics before [Bill] Clinton.” Or, as he put it, “Clinton got to me.” Robinson, a pro-life Christian conservative, was especially put off by Clinton’s private immorality. To solve the Prodigy problem, Jim’s son John—also a software developer—urged him to get his own server. John thought the new internet had great promise.

The original FreeRepublic.com had an html-code foundation, didn’t have a data base, and Jim had to create his own internal search engine. He, John, and a “Freeper” known as Doughty One (Jim’s business partner) launched Free Republic in 1996, just as Clinton was getting re-elected amidst scandal. At first, Jim did virtually all of the posting of articles (while still working a full-time job with his company). Within a few months, the site had 1,000 users, and by the end of 1997, 4,000.

Freepers could post articles from all other sites—Drudge was an early favorite—but also could make comments on the new, which was frequently more informative than the news itself. Soon, Robinson was spending so much time on Free Republic “I didn’t have time to do my own software work.” At that time, he had a company called Software Solutions that had gone public under the name Protosource Corporation, and which was grossing between $2 million and $3 million a year.

At that point, Robinson admitted, “I found out I was the world’s worst manager. The worst,” he added for emphasis. The company had ballooned up with a marketing department, an internet company, a computer training company and so on. The board of directors fired Jim from his own company. But he was allowed a year on his contract and complimentary hosting on the company’s web server. Then the company discovered Robinson’s Free Republic was eating up all of its bandwidth, and Jim was forced off. He started Electronic Orchard as the hosting site for FreeRepublic.com.

By then Free Republic had taken off, first by bringing along many of the older Prodigy posters, but also gaining a new audience of Clinton critics. One of the early Freepers was Lucianne Goldberg, who would become a confidant to Linda Tripp in the Clinton impeachment saga (and mother to neverTrumper Jonah Goldberg). Lucianne left early. As Jim saw it, “She just wanted to form her own website to copy FR.” Not only were anonymous posters present, but soon it became clear that Mark Levin (screen name “holdonnow”), and Sean Hannity were at least lurking, if not posting, on the board. As was Rush Limbaugh’s Bo Snerdly.

As the site grew with unfettered commentary (as Jim originally preferred it), posters could say anything about anyone and ruffled both Hannity’s and Rush’s feathers at some point. Eventually, Rush was attracted back; Hannity, not. At one time, Peggy Noonan, Matt Drudge, and Ann Coulter were all too happy to appear in public with Freepers at events. The Weekly Standard, in a spoof job application to be on Special Counsel Kenneth Starr’s staff in which one of the questions for an applicant was “What is your Freeper handle?”

Without knowing it, Jim Robinson had trained a new generation of internet activists in the person of Andrew Breitbart. Under the screen name “Andrew”—and no one knew who he was at the time—Breitbart lurked and posted on FR. But most important of all, he soaked up the structure and promise of internet-based activism.

The site was completely free-wheeling and on the honor system. As Jim noted, anyone could post under any name, and people frequently posting as “Jim Robinson” were entirely frauds. Anyone could pretend to be anyone. It wasn’t until 1998 that John wrote new software that clamped down on the fraud. Long-time Freeper Kristinn Taylor, who came to FR in 1998, recalled it was “like being home among friends. Conservatives at that time were isolated.”

From 1996 to 1998, the site not only gained posters but fostered activism as Freepers began to make personal connections. This led to perhaps the first real wave of conservative activism since the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) in the early 1960s. Prior to this, conservatives were polite, nice, non-confrontational. Much of this approach stemmed from Ronald Reagan’s good-natured style of using humor to overcome and deflect liberal critics. But the fact was that the vast majority of people lacked Reagan’s genius and simply ceding ground to liberals only made them more bold. Jim Robinson understood that.

Freeper activism had a stellar early moment in 1998 on Halloween, which was the eve of the House’s Clinton impeachment vote. It went four hours covered by the media, and long-time California, then Washington-based Freeper Kristinn Taylor (“Kristinn”) recalled that it was a key moment in the new conservative activism. “FR did live threads,” Taylor noted, “in innovating and using the internet for activism. “Probably the most active chapter was the California group” that included Connie Hair (now chief of staff to Louis Gohmert) and “Navy Vet” (Roger Hunter).

Indeed, the Clinton administration began to monitor FR threads, as later would the Bush White House and even the United States Supreme Court. Certainly liberal trolls frequented the site. In the early years, when Jim was not around to moderate, liberals would spam the site. When Jim, who has lost both legs and suffers from muscular dystrophy (“I type with one finger,” he joked), left California for the 1998 Halloween rally in D.C., the site was spammed by liberals with pictures of Fox journalist’s Brit Hime’s son, Alexander “Sandy” Hume, who died in February 1998. Jim appointed a number of moderators to share the load and to cover when he was gone.

Among the most notable examples of FR’s success and activism, after 9/11, Kristinn noted that FreeRepublic.com organized a massive campaign of supporting morale of the troops, especially combating the hateful efforts of the anti-war group Code Pink that was assailing wounded veterans at Walter Reed. Freepers made regular appearances at Walter Reed to support the wounded vets. “We were told by both the vets and their families,” Taylor noted, “how much our support helped them.” One notoriouis Freeper, “Doctor Raoul” (Raoul Deming, now deceased) would put on a devil costume and appear at Hillary Clinton booksignings. Soon, other Freepers copied him, all donning devil suits. Clinton found herself harassed and unnerved at every event.

Taylor and Robinson both pointed out that Freepers played a key role in the Clinton impeachment, constantly sending materials to the conservative House members and working closely with the House Impeachment managers. One of the key House Managers, Congressman Bob Barr, said impeachment couldn’t have happened without Free Republic. On the day of the House impeachment vote, Free Republic took out a full page ad in the Washington Times. It was a picture of George Washington with a tear trickling down his face and the question, “How Would He Vote?” At the bottom, the ad thanked all of the 13 House Impeachment Managers by name.

But probably the best-known incident in Freeperdom was the 2004 “Bush National Guard” letter expose known as “Rathergate.” On September 8, 2004, at the height of President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign, Dan Rather had gone on national television with allegations that Bush had ignored direct orders from a superior, had been gronded from flying due to “failure to perform” up to standards, and that his superior had been pressured to give Bush higher marks.

Free Republic was holding a live thread on the broadcast when a Georgia lawyer whose handle was “Buckhead” noticed that the font on the documents was wrong, and instantly knew the typewriter and typography did not exist at the time. The papers Rather touted were forgeries. Soon the “mainstream” media picked up the Buckhead/Freeper allegations and the documents were debunked. Rather looked like a political operative or a fool—and later sued CBS/Viacom for making him a “scapegoat,” but it was clear to Americans—thanks to Free Republic—that Rather had lied.

Not long after Rathergate, though, FreeRepublic began to diminish as a force. This was to be expected. Copycats appeared everywhere and siphoned off Freepers who had their own ambitions or who had an axe to grind with Robinson. There were regular purges at FR, as well. As Kristinn noted, Jim never took advertising, and thus the site was limited to what could be raised by regular “Freepathons.” Also, he said, “Every primary was a bloodbath,” with different groups claiming ideological purity.

Robinson always came around, despite his own preferences, to support the GOP nominee—even Mitt Romney in 2012, who was far from Jim’s preferred candidate. “I never set out to purge anyone,” Robinson said. “I always said if you want to do a different site, be my guest.” The Romney people left, “or maybe I helped them out [the door},” he joked. “Why do I want people to come in [to FreeRepublic] and bash people?” he asked.

Free Republic is still around, and Freepers are as cantankerous as ever. If it doesn’t have the same political presence it had 15 years ago, it’s warrants every modern conservative’s appreciation. Without FR, it’s doubtful that the modern conservative movement would be nearly what it has become.

Larry Schweikart is the co-author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, A Patriot’s History of the United States and the author of Reagan: The American President. He is also the founder of the Wild World of History website that features a full US and World History curriculum complete with student guides, teacher guides, tests, and video lectures.

This was not meant to be a comprehensive history. Kristinn is working on that, although he lost TONS of his archival stuff.

I, on the other hand, have the TRUE comprehensive history of Free Republic.

I remember the Good Old Days of Free Republic. It was the 1970's. You should have been on Free Republic back in the 1970's. It was all different back then. "Clinton's a liar" was named "Kennedy's a perv". Michael Rivero was posting a series debunking the moon landing hoax, and showing how Apollo 13 was likely crippled by a Soviet missile, not some 'center fuel tank' explosion. Fred25 and _Jim were urging the intiation of a brand-new great idea, the War on Drugs. "Senator Pardek" was only "Senator Pardeks Assistant". Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a Navy Seal, writer33 was busy satirizing Watergate, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages.

People were criticizing President Jack ("Billy Blythe") Kennedy for shagging interns on the Presidential Seal and lying about it to his wife.

The new party called the Libertarians had been formed. The Libertarian Party 'brigadiers' were popping up all over the forum, and they were convinced their spoiler candidates would someday rule. Of course, they were wrong.

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of Muslims, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on an airplane by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

Jim Robinson had just put together the first conservative Mainframe computer. People would log in and post messages with punch cards and paper tape. For a while people were talking about whether a Fidel Castro should be removed from Cuba to be reunited with his father. Many people were lining up on either side of the issue. The big controversy on FR back then was whether marijuana should be outlawed. If pot was outlawed, by golly, only outlaws would have reefer!

I was around in 1946, and Free Republic was much better then. Jim Robinson had just purchased his shortwave radio he called "Free Republic ".

At that time, we were all debating the Berlin Airdrop and the Marshall Plan. Everybody was upset about the recently deceased Franklin (Billy Blythe) Roosevelt, and thought the Marshall Plan was 'just another welfare handout to those useless furriners'. There was a third party, the Alf Landon Sunflower Chain Club party, or "Brigadiers" as we liked to call them, that mocked the mainstream candidates.

A+Bert, who at the time was only B-Bert, was very upset about the founding of Israel, and called anyone who supported it an Israeli Scum, son of a dog. At the time, we were helping out a nice young fellow named Fidel Castro get reunited with his father in Cuba. The newspapers made quite a fuss over it. We all grew bored.

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of Nazis, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on a lighter-than-air balloon by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

The year before, a U.S. Army bomber B-25 crashed into Empire State Building. 13 died. Michael Rivero never bought the conclusion that the reason the aircraft crashed into the building was that the center fuel tank was empty. We all laughed at him and called him a conspiracy kook. But he was hot on the tail of another conspiracy; he said it was the Japanese that bombed Pearl Harbor! The Federal government was telling us at the time that Pearl Harbor's center fuel tank had spontaneously exploded. Meanwhile, Fred25 was advocating that we turn our mighty war machine from fighting Nazism to fighting marijuana smokers. Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a Army Ranger, writer33 was busy satirizing the Russian Occupation of Berlin, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages..

I remember Free Republic back in the late 1930's. It was much better then. Jim Robinson had just purchased his radio, and we would all key messages to one another in morse code. At that time, we were all debating the Second World War: Was it necessary to enter the war? Was Hitler a friend of Jews or not? Could we count on our friends, the Japanese, to help us?

Michael Rivero was asserting that the Hindenburg was brought down by terrorists, not by some 'center fuel tank' explosion. We all laughed and called him a conspiracy kook. Fred25 was arguing that we should go back to Prohibition, because we were right on the verge of winning. Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a member of the new elite Paratroopers, writer33 was busy satirizing the Great Depression, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages.

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of the Spanish, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on a biplane by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

At that time, we were all debating whether or not we should send a young man named Batista back to Cuba. People were lining up on both sides of the argument.

I tell ya, you should have been on Free Republic back in 1918. It was different back then. Sinkspur was only "Sink," not having yet earned his spurs. Michael Rivero was concerned mainly about the hypothetical explosion of the Titanic's center fuel tank, which was what sent it to the bottom, not some dang friggin' "ice-berg." Ancient_Geezer was simply Geezer. People were criticizing President Woodrow "Billy Blythe" Wilson, and hoping like hell that he didn't run for a third term (no 22nd Amendment yet). The "Bull Moose" Party 'brigadiers' occasionally surfaced, and dished out, well, a lot of Bull. For a while people were talking about whether a youngster with the last name of "Castro" ought to be returned to Cuba - people were lining up on both sides of the issue. And some were hoping that Prescott "P-Scott" Bush would run for President.

Jim Robinson had just invented the Free Republic system, which was a telephone switching system where people could call one another and chat about news of the day. The big controversy on FR back then, I tell ya, was whether booze should be outlawed. If booze was outlawed, by golly, only outlaws would have booze! And FR back then had a lot of these danged 'pro-prohibitionists' infiltrating.

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of Huns, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on an ocean-going vessel by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

We were all debating this new passing fad called Communism, which Russia had recently tried. We knew it would never last even 2 years. The Great War had ended, and we all knew that this war would make all future warfare obsolete. Michael Rivero told us that this would not be happening, and war would be in our future. We all laughed and called him a conspiracy kook. Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a Machine Gunner, writer33 was busy satirizing the Spanish Flu, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages.

See, people think Free Republic is cool now, but it was REALLY neat in the late 1700's! Free Republic was much better then, I thought. Jim Robinson had just purchased his moveable-type printing press, and we would all stand around awaiting our turn to print our message out. Then we would physically walk it over to a big bulletin board and pin in up. In order to keep track of which message went to which response, a piece of thread was used. That is how the term THREAD was born. Once in a while someone would get so mad at a persons message, they would set it afire. That is how the term FLAME was born. People who did not want to post messages would lurk in the shadows of the room, hoping to remain unnoticed. That is how the term LURKER was born.

At that time, we were all debating the first continental congress and whether we should be a Monarchy or a Republic. The Second Amendment was a very hotly debated topic. We wanted future generations to know we were protecting the right of INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS to keep and bear the arms of their choosing, so in order that there be no confusion as to our intention, we appended the phrase "A well-regulated militia being necessary to a free society,". We believed this phrase would completely strip any ambiguity out of the Second Amendment once and for all.

George "Dubya" Washington was destined to be our first president, but we were still all very upset about King (Billy Blythe) George III. It appears he was embroiled deep in corruption and sexual deviancy.

At the time, we were sending the very first Cuban citizen back to Cuba and the newspapers made quite a fuss over it. We all grew bored.

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of British Redcoats, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on a three-mast Ship of the Line by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

When the New Amsterdam armory had the explosive accident, lots of conspiracy theories were were circulated. The most reasonable explanation was that the Center Gunpowder Keg simply spontaneously exploded. Although there were 180+ witnesses that saw a flaming arrow arc into the barrel, authorities quickly discounted this improbable theory. Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a Grenadier, writer33 was busy satirizing the British Monarchy, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages.

Free Republic WAS good in the 1700's, but I feel it really hit it's stride in the late 1400's. There was eager anticipation of the printing press in the early 1400's and great joy when Jim Robinson invented it, as that substantially increased the "baud" rate, known back then as the "bod" rate, which was the rate at which the FR monks could scribe FR messages. Jim set up his Free Republic printing room: When people would come over to the printing press room, they would need to toss a log into the fire to contribute to keeping the printing room warm. When someone did that, they were given a name and a password. Then someone would shout "Log In!". This is where the term LOGIN came from.

Many FReepers back then were greaty upset with the rule of King Richard "Billy Blythe" the Third, and were hoping that Henry "Dubya" Tudor would become King.

There was a lot of discussion about sending this guy named "Columbus" over to Cuba, but not many people knew where Cuba was back then anyway. I guess the education system had dumbed everybody down.

There were, of course, the ever-present debates over the old Magna Carta. Libral trash would occasionally get a monk to scribe some drivel about the Magna Carta being a "living document." The dispute over creation versus evolution was kind of boring, since there weren't any evolutionists. And there were debates about the damn War of the Roses, also known as the War Between Lancaster and York. Or the War of Lancaster Aggression. Yep, them was the days....

Of course, we sure had our share of disruptors! Only a few tens of years later, in the 1500's this dude with the screen name of Martin Luther was banned from FR after posting up to 95 "Theses" on the site all at once. JimRob pulled his posting privileges. But, he damn near crashed the system permanently. It got so bad that finally a couple of centuries later a FReeper named Swift had to invent the word "yahoo" so that eventually FR would have a backup site!

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of French, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on an horse by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a Kings Pikesman, writer33 was busy satirizing the War of the Roses, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages. Oh, don't forget the origin of the term 'flame.' Wasn't that from the Aztec period when after an excruciating and melodramatic opus, the hearts of captured enemies would be cut from thier chests with obsidian knives and tossed into a brazier of coals? It would flame up instantly -- hence the term get FLAMED) There would be two Guild Freeperiestesses at the top of the pyramid charged with the task. One of them would end up wearing the hide of the sacrificial victim with the severed hands dangling at the wrists. That was Howlinacaotl, I think. Which freeper would get to toss the corpse down the steps? I can't recall! Was it Cheneychicoatli? It was rumored that some famous skulls from these rites were stored beneath the temple at Alamogirlcutchlican.

Whatever happened to freeper Quetzalcoatl, anyway? The one who gave the mother of all opi and claimed he would return?

Ah yes. The good old days of Free Republicus in the year 0. Jimus Robinsonus had just developed this new thing called Pappyrus. He said with it, we could have a great time discussing the issues of the day. Those who Carved Stone Tablets sued him, if I am not mistaken. They sued him because of copying errors when he copied the issues onto the paper. They wanted him to copy the issues right, and they thought it was a violation that he made mistakes. That is where the term COPYRIGHT VIOLATION came into being.

Of course, there was a big problem with the Y-Zero-K problem. Jethrus_Tullus was the first to warn us of this problem. The Roman Numeral System was not Y-Zero-K compliant! All the Numerology experts were called out to come up with solutions to this problem. Nobody even knew why it was the year 0, but everyone panicked, stored up food and lamp oil, and the Roman Army was mobilized -- just in case.

I remember the time with great nostalgia. We were trying to overthrow Marcus (Billy Blythe) Antony because he was caught fooling around with that portly pepperpot Cleopatra. While the vote made it all the way to the Senate, the fellow Orinus Hatchus said that if he got his Republicus friends to vote for throwing peaches at him (IMPEACHMENT), his butcher would not give him his weekly free capon. He would be out a chicken. That is where the term CHICKEN OUT came from.

Remember Alburtus Gorus? Remember his stone carving, Earth Balanced on Atlases Shoulders? Remember how he said in this carving, that the biggest threat to mankind was the Chariot? What an idiotus maximus. A+Bert, who at that time, was F-Bert, heard that Moses was leading Jews in the desert, and since they were close to what would become Israel, he became very agitated, yelling "No Jews in Israel!". Also, Senator Pardek was first a Senator in this time, at the Roman Senate.

I also remember how Janetus Renus surrounded that Library Compound at Alexandria, where all those dangerous books were stored. I think she ended up burning 83+ people to death inside, just to get some tax money owed on the books. She was drunk most of the time and fell into the aquaduct tank. That is where the term TANKED came from. I guess they invented a weapon, later, with a similar name. Michaelus Riverus was the first to warn us all that it was not the central oil tank that exploded spontaneously, but that Renus might be culpable.

Then there was the big debate we had about Sword Control. Lots of left-wingers felt that only the Roman Army should have swords; we felt differently. The leftys were always complaining about Saturdus Nightus Speciali easily-concealable daggers, and also were all upset about the long-length Assault Swords, highpower weapins accurate to at least 4 feet!

Finally, the BIG DEBATE OF THE DAY! The conspiracy that killed Jesus! Janutus Renus worked closely with Pontius Pilate to sentence Jesus to death, and STILL no one called for anyone to throw peaches at her! Michael Rivero pursued this conspiracy doggedly, claiming the whole thing was really due to an explosion in a center fuel tank. It was a sad time, but one of great rejoicing among Christians every Easter.

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of Egyptians, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on a chariot by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a Roman Centurian, writer33 was busy satirizing the Roman occupation of Judea, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages.

The very first FReepers were the people who posted their "messages" as cave drawings. And, the big debate back then WAS creation versus evolution. The Cro-Magnons said that they were the ones who were created to be mankind. The Neanderthals disputed that, and said, "are we not men?" The debate raged on FR for thousands of years, mainly with links to old FR threads in long-abandoned caves. Incredibly, back then the system had NO TEXT, only graphics! From time to time that necessitated finding a new "hard wall" in another cave to store the messages for the discussion to proceed.

*sigh* And I remember it so well, like it was yesterday. THOSE were the good old days. The graphics were spectacular. I remember how we tried to overthrow Og (Billy Blythe) Rugtuk, when we found he had sex with a woman who wore a dress. No one really understood what a dress was, so we hurled rotten peaches at him. That is how the term IMPEACH came about. We hoped that the fellow named Ug (Dubya) Bugluh would take over in our tribe.

Remember the big debate we had about fire? Remember the big vote we had? If you wanted fire banned -- except in the hands of the government -- you would throw the left-side wing of a chicken into the pot. If you wanted fire to be available to the rest of us, you would throw the right-side wing of a chicken into that pot. That is were the terms RIGHT-WING and LEFT-WING came into being.

I remember the big conspiracy theories that would develop about the extinction of the dinosaur. Michael Rivero insisted it was a plot by people who were sick of repairing buildings destroyed by these dinosaurs. He called them Masons, and spoke endlessly of the Masonic Conspiracy. Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, Travis McGee was becoming a Club Wielding Neanderthal, writer33 was busy satirizing the discovery of the wheel, and Quix was posting enigmatic and mysterious messages.

We were all amazed that anyone would worry about the politically correct sensibilities of Neanderthals, when one of them had just blown his crotch up on a rock by lighting it on fire in an attempted act of terrorism.

Also, lots of kooks were talking about Global Cooling all the time. They said we should really start burning more wood to release more carbon into the air. What nuts. Dane and robertpaulsen were still banned, and writer33 was busy satirizing the possible demise of the Wooly Mammoth.

Jim Robinson had just invented this new thing called Paint. He said, with it, we could write messages on these walls and have a great time debating matters of the day. 50,000 years later, I guess I agree!

An example of the first Free Republic messages.

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