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The freezing conditions that have blasted Britain are being blamed on a series of weather patterns that are bringing Arctic temperatures to much of western Europe, California and even Australia. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1340436/Why-cold-warm-Greenland-Diverted-jet-stream-letting-icy-blast-Arctic.html#ixzz18ziHRJ26

The care packages for soldiers based near Kandahar will be mailed by the end of next week in order to reach them by 9/11. It would be nice to put thank you notes and letters to our soldiers from as many people as possible in the boxes. Our efforts to let our soldiers know that they are still deeply appreciated could really help their morale right now. I have about 50 sheets of paper with American flag background that I can print letters or notes on. You can either post your note on this thread or FReepmail your letter to...

Welcome to the first Groundhog Day of a total of 1462 more to go before we can wake up to a new day. Yes, for the next 1462 days when we wake up, Obama will still be President-elect or President. We have slipped into a time loop alternate universe and probably the best way of coping is to use this time wisely. Over the next four years, you can 1. make significant progress in mastering a subject or an art or a skill or a trade or do two or several. 2. get your body in much better shape so...

Okay, McCain is history. No surprise here. We are now all in the resistance in an Obamanation. We know too well the Marxist wellsprings from which this phenomenon was drawn, and only an idealist fool would consider giving him months of unquestioning support. We must start now and do some things regularly. Record what Obama has said, how he has changed what he says, and what he does. Keep tabs on what Pelosi and the Senate are doing. Disseminate the information on what is really happening, getting the truth to our cohorts and to the American public. The media will...

Welcome to the 2008 thread of the Merry Band of Patriots! Our grassroots group of troop supporters started in the summer of 2001 by sending VHS movies and Snickers candy bars to the 101st Airborne and later the 10th Mountain at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. We are not an organized charity as no one of us has the time or energy to do all that paperwork, and any contributions made are not tax deductible. Our specialty in the past has been movies, books, snacks, personal care items, holiday decorations and some appliances like DVD players, microwaves, and Playstations; and we...

A local newspaper is reporting that "South Valley Peace Center" in Visalia is having a "Rolling Vigil for Peace", starting at 1pm in Visalia at Akers Road and Hwy 198, moving to Mooney Blvd and Caldwell Ave at 2 pm then going to Tulare (Prosperity Street and Hillman Ave) at 3 pm and ending up in Porterville at 4:30 pm (Henderson Ave and Prospect Street), to commemorate the death of the 4000th soldier in Iraq. I am informed today by the Porterville Police Department that this "organization" with the spokesperson of Maurice Ecung has not put in a request for...

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen: Thank you for the opportunity to address the General Assembly of the United Nations. Sixty years ago, representatives from 16 nations gathered to begin deliberations on a new international bill of rights. The document they produced is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- and it stands as a landmark achievement in the history of human liberty. It opens by recognizing "the inherent dignity" and the "equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" as "the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the...

Map BAQUBAH, IRAQ — Troops in armored vehicles swept through this city north of Baghdad on Tuesday as the U.S. military launched a major offensive as part of a significant shift of focus from inside the capital to surrounding areas. American commanders say the offensive, which involves about 10,000 U.S. troops in Baqubah and other parts of Diyala province, is designed to stop the flow of bombs into Baghdad.

<p>Kattracks has asked me to begin a prayer thread for her, the hardest thing I have ever been asked to do.</p> <p>She has had a very frightening finding on a medical exam that is not confirmed and may be a false alarm, but which requires all of us to uplift her to Almighty God asking for His mercy to spare her life or to give her and us the strength and faith to walk the path He has chosen for her.</p>

The following are the U.S. military personnel who have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom since January 1, 2006. All dates reflect when the incidents occurred local time. Link

Welcome to the 2006 thread of the Merry Band of Patriots! Our grassroots, volunteer group of troop supporters has been sending care packages to servicemen and women in war zones since the summer of 2001 when we began by sending VHS movies and Snickers candy bars to the 101st Airborne and then later the 10th Mountain at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. This last year we sent a couple hundred care packages to troops at Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul and Tal Afar in Iraq, at Bagram in Afghanistan, at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and to our wounded at Landstuhl Regional Hospital in...

I'm buying some Playstation 2 games for the troops in Iraq. I know nothing about which ones are good. Anyone who has played these games, please give advice on what to avoid and what to get. ************** Posting list of some that are currently available on a auction website, but please also advise if most recommended not on the list. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Playstation 2 Game PS2 $6.99 MLB SlugFest: Loaded Playstation 2 Game PS2 $16.99 True Crime: Streets of LA Playstation 2 Game PS2 $5.99 Cabela's Big Game Hunter Playstation 2 Game PS2 $12.99 SSX Tricky Playstation 2...

From Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner "So, how did Roe v. Wade trigger, a generation later, the greatest crime drop in recorded history? "As far as crime is concerned, it turns out that not all children are born equal. Not even close. "Decades of study have show that a child born into an adverse family environment is far more likely than other children to become a criminal. And the millions of women likely to have an abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade--poor, unmarried and teenage mothers for whom illegal abortions had been too expensive...

The film depiction of Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11/01 is being shown on the Discovery Channel at 9 pm Eastern time. That is in less than one hour for people in all time zones that are on satellite feed. A FReeper lost his Dad on this flight and wants everyone to watch. He says it has some (but not all) of the real communications from the plane.

(excerpts)Aspiring legislator, pilot and self-confessed Al-Qaeda operative Mohammed Afroze was on Friday found guilty of conspiring to ‘‘commit terrorist acts on territories of nations at peace with India’’ and forgery. … Afroze’s conviction is probably the first such of an operative from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda in India, and came after investigators searched for evidence in at least three countries. … The police charged that between 1997 and 2001, the three accused had entered into a criminal conspiracy to hijack passenger planes and crash them into the House of Commons in London, the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in...

Anyone willing write a thank you note or buy a card (up to 6 per person) to send to any or all of the 6 units of troops in Mosul, Kirkuk, and Baghdad in Iraq and in Bagram, Afghanistan, that we have adopted, please contact me for information. We are in process of buying and sending movies commemorating 9/11 to send with the letters, notes and cards. Please snail mail your notes and cards to me no later than August 2 or FReepmail me your note, which I’ll print out and put in the boxes. Please put your town and...

Time for a new thread! Our Merry Band of Patriots has seen a psy-ops unit at Bagram, Afghanistan, help educate voters in Afghanistan and come home successfully, while we supported them and special forces in the field by sending over 100 movies and many packages of snacks and toiletries and Hallowe'en candy. A Christmas tree and decorations (Daybreakcoming) and stockings (Ican'tbelieveit) and cards and over 400 candy canes were sent for their follow-on unit, and a box with movies and magazines and misc is just beginning to fill for their next care package. The movies and books we sent previously...

I've got a bunch of Christmas cards ("proudly MADE in the U.S.A.") that will be going with the last Christmas care packages for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with candy canes and other goodies, and I need some fun jokes to go in them! Please both post your joke here and then send a copy to me by FReepmail with your first name, town and State at the bottom. I'll print them up and tuck them in the last 4 or 5 dozen cards going out tomorrow and Tuesday.

We have APO's for five units in Iraq and two units in Afghanistan, which means several thousand soldiers to whom we would like to send Christmas cards and letters and Hannukah cards and any other kind of holiday card you think a soldier there would like. Our troop supporters and patriots ping lists number about 200 FReepers, so we are asking all who can to respond with one or more card or letter and also to ask your friends and neighbors and other FReepers to send a card or letter. I have around 200 sheets of holiday paper decorated variously...

Getting a working majority of 60 in the Senate: 55 Senate (assuming gains in FL, LA, GA, SC, SD, NC minus IL, CO) These Senators may work with us. Baucus (D-MT) Nelson (D-NE) Lincoln (D-AR) Pryor (D-AR) Liberman (D-CT) Lambreau (D-LA) These Senator are old, in ill health, and may be retired by God Inoye (D-HI) with Republican Governor Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) with Republican governor Byrd (D-WV) Latenberg (D-NJ)