You give me far too much credit, where absolutely NONE at all is due. Over the past 2 & 1/2 decade, twenty-one different people have tried to teach me how to copy/cut/paste and I can NOT do it; I have a mental block. The ONLY time I did it, was because I had a step by step of notes written down on a sheet and I lost that paper.
I am an accomplished person, excel at doing quite a number of different things, but I'm worse than hopeless when it come to this.
For example, if you move your mouse to put the pointer on the link, and hold down the right mouse button on the link, a menu will pop up, and you can then select the copy link option. Then go back to the FreeRepublic posting you’ve already got started and paste it, using the same right-click method. :^)
OTOH, if it’s not a clickable link, you just highlight it with a left mouse button — hold it down and highlight the link text — then right click past as described before. :^) I have confidence in you.