Free Republic

First, this is NOT an April Fool's joke. I am leaving Free Republic. Over the past two years, civility and thoughtful discourse has vanished from this site, replaced with demands for ideological conformity that are straight out of Stalinist Russia or China's Great Cultural Revolution, and unrelenting uncivility if said conformance is not forthcoming. This trend began with the California recall election, where certain posters were allowed to flame the living beejezus out of those who didn't wholeheartedly support Tom McClintock, or thought that he wasn't running a campaign capable of winning. It extended into the Keyes campaign last year,...

"Frenchie Kerry" (Based on "Spanish Eddie" sung by Laura Branigan) There were chads in the air And ballots everywhere you looked So there wasn't a lot And the votes got you know you took And I remember wonderin' Where you'd been The night Frenchie Kerry cashed it in The night Frenchie Kerry cashed it in They were playin' "Desolation Row" On the radio The night Frenchie Kerry fell from grace There was sadness on Daschle's face On the night that Kerry failed Sanity prevailed It was June or July When the heat from the press beat down It was famine...

ALL HAIL KARL ROVE! Karl Rove is the most supremely gifted conspiracist on the planet today...at least, to hear the nutballs at DU tell it. After all, he was supposedly the mastermind of FontGate, foisting obviously faked memos off onto CBS. Here's a partial list of other Rove spectaculars: This year string of hurricanes in Florida Getting Kerry nominated The Wellstone funeral Wellstone's airplane crash 9/11 Getting Bush elected Inventing New Coke The 1980 "October Surprise" Making Barry Manilow a pop superstar Making the movie "Heaven's Gate" Faking the Apollo 11 moon landing He was the shooter on the grassy...

Police in FloriDUH have announced the arrest of several of Osama bin Laden's associates, including wanted terrorists bin Drinkin, bin Smokin, bin Eatin, and bin Sleepin. Unfrotunately, they are concerned that no one who matches the description of bin Workin, another wanted terrorist, has been found yet. Another associate, bin Waitin, was arrested at a California DMV office. Yet another associate, bin Votin, was picked up in Palm Beach. Still another associate had worked his way into the confidence of O.J. Simpson. bin Golfin was allegedly helping the former football star "find the real killers." Police are still pursuing bin ...

Yes, they're hiding in residential areas now. So, how do we find them? It's simple, really. First off, log onto the Kabul site for Century 21 Real Estate Brokers. Look for houses suddenly going on the market, at discount prices, arranged in a doughnut fashion (i.e., every house around a given house suddenly is up for grabs at a STEAL of a price). That house in the doughnut hole is probably the Taliban hangout. Second, keep an eye peeled for double-parked armored personnel carriers, tanks, Chevy Suburans, and other vehicle types favored by the Taliban. In communities with a homeowners ...

The powerplant Free Enterprise is under attack by cling-on statists... Captain Poohbah turned to his attorney and said, "Looks like we're under attack. Raise defense pleadings, Mr. Shyster." The attorney hammered at his keyboard for a moment, and then turned to Captain Poohbah. "Captain...defense pleadings aren't working! They're firing a seizure injunction!" "What? Can't you override?" "Captain, I do mergers, acquisitions, and contract disputes! I wasn't expecting to take us into criminal court!" In true Star Trek fashion, the powerplant control room shook under the impact of the seizure injunction. People flew out of their chairs, sparks flew from the ...

DEPUTY SECRETARY WOLFOWITZ STATEMENT ON BERETS Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz released the following statement today concerning berets: "The Army Chief of Staff has determined that U.S. troops shall not wear berets made in China or berets made with Chinese content. Therefore, I direct the Army and the Defense Logistics Agency to take appropriate action to recall previously distributed berets and dispose of the stock."

Poohbah's Power and Light was about to be seized by the California Government for "profiteering." Inside the deserted Ahab Powerplant, Poohbah adjusted the last demolition charge on a bank of turbines. Mrs. Poohbah looked perplexed and asked, "Why must you fight with Governor Lowbeam Davis? Why?" Poohbah replied, "He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!" Poohbah then smiles. "Of course, Governor Lowbeam can have this powerplant when he pries it from my cold, dead, fingers." Meanwhile, outside the powerplant, Governor Lowbeam Davis is holding a press conference. "Yes, we are seizing this facility from an irresponsible ...

There was heat in the air, And chads everywhere you looked... There wasn't any light, So the votes that you got, you took... And I remember wondering where you'd been The night Lyin' Al Gore cashed it in. The night...Lyin' Al Gore cashed it in... They were playing "GO DUBYA GO" on the radio... The night...Lyin' Al Gore fell from grace... There was amazement on his face... On the night that Al Gore fell... Sanity prevailed! It was last week or last night When the heat from the judge burned down... It was famine or drought when the Dems ran ...

Friends, FReepers, countrymen (and countrywomen, too). It pains me to discuss this issue. The liberals will stop at nothing to win this election...and they have about as much use for the First Amendment as 100 ninja-suited BATF agents with MP5s have for the Second and Fourth Amendments. In recent days, a number of liberal disruptors have surfaced as "new members." However, they seem to know their way around the forum a little too well; they seem to know which buttons to press to get a rise out of FReepers, they seem to know WHEN to post to ensure that they ...

All, I've survived Y2K, had two minor trouble calls (one was for a zero-impact date display issue, the other was operator error). Yes, I was a polly--but I was working up close and personal, and knew what was going on. One nice thing: my excellent work on Y2K (my SPAWAR client has said very nice things about me to my boss...gee, I hope I get a raise!) has given me a new assignment helping manage legacy messaging systems within the Navy--this is a job I can probably retire on (we expect to keep some of these systems in place through ...

It's amazing how the NWO/CFR/Trilateral Commission/Bild-a-Bergers (with bacon and cheese) managed to cover up the collapse of civilization from the Y2K disaster. I mean, we're all supposed to be in FEMA detention camps, with martial law declared...heck, it was supposed to be as bad as the Black Death according to Dr. "Scary Gary" North! Heck, they even managed to hide all those guys being rounded up in Times Square during the New Year's celebration--while the celebration was being broadcast live! (dang, they're good...) How did they fool us? Did they all stick us in the Matrix or something? (You think ...

This is your basic question. I work at SPAWAR, and some of our systems we manage use GPS as the basis for NTP (Network Time Protocol) calculations. I didn't get paged for any problems relating to EOW. Has anyone heard anything in their area? Hikers getting seriously lost, airplanes losing their way, computer networks crashing due to NTP problems, etc? I haven't heard diddly-squat about EOW rollover. It came, it went, what's up? September 9, 1999 is the next potential problem date. So far, nothing's happened with all these systems that were supposed to implode on various dates (April 9, ...

Just think for a second (but don't strain yourself). How do we know there's a Y2K problem? Because "they" told us. And who are "they?" Why, the people we're shoveling money to. And how do we know if (a) it's getting fixed and (b) anything ever needed fixing in the first place? Because "they" are making flashy PowerPoint presentations to management (commercial and government). BTW: the truth content of the presentation is usually in inverse proportion to the number of flashy bells and whistles in the brief. Now, suppose those "secret" briefings "they" are giving to the pointy-haired types say ...