A Few Of FR's Finest....Every Day....1-31,2-01-04... Week in Review

Mama_Bear

[Mama_Bear]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997. Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Mama_Bear, dansangel, dutchess, Aquamarine ~

To Our FReeper FRiends: We hope you've been having as much fun as we have with our essays and/or spotlight on various FReepers. We thought we'd kick back on the weekends and simply review the features of the week. If you missed seeing them and want to say hello there now, feel free to click on the link to that particular thread. If you'd like to drop in and out of this thread today and tomorrow, please feel free to do that also. One of us will always be around to see the welcome mat is still out, and maybe even put fresh flowers on the table. ~ Billie

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"Getting to Know You"

THIS WEEK'S THREADS

01-26-04...................................... Military Monday
By BILLIE and THE MAYOR

01-27-04............................. Political Pictionary, III
By BILLIE

01-28-04..................................... Sunken Treasure
By DANSANGEL

01-29-04.......................... John's Two Cents Essay
"Is the Democrat '04 race over already?"
By JOHNHUANG2; DUTCHESS and BILLIE

01-30-04....................... Superbowl Football Party
By FREETHEHOSTAGES

Have a wonderful weekend!

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me a FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

Click on the photo to view the album. To
submit your photo, please contact dansangel
or .45Man at
danbh59@yahoo.com
and include
Freeper Photo Album
in subject line.

[Mama_Bear]

[Mama_Bear]

Let's continue Freezie's Superbowl Party through the weekend!
WooHoo!!! Pass the Fritos!



If you would like to be added to or removed from the Finest ping list, freepmail me.

[Mama_Bear]

Good night to the night owls lurking around. Have a great weekend.

[JustAmy]

Good Morning, Mama_Bear

May the best team win, but ....... I'm betting on the Carolina Panthers. Fresno's own, Ricky Manning, is on the first string for the defense. I don't know what he plays .... tackle or lineman. Someone else can tell you his position but he had a couple of interceptions in the last game.

Have a great weekend.

[Mama_Bear]

Ricky Manning? The name doesn't ring a bell. I usually follow the FSU players that go on to the pro teams. Somehow I missed him. Probably because it is the Quarterbacks that get all the glory. They are more easily remembered.

I was born in Massachusetts, but my favorite niece lives in Charlotte.......so I don't know who I want to win. I think it is probably un-American, but .......I really don't care all that much, LOL

[Mama_Bear]

Meant to ping you to post #5, favorite niece. :-)

HUGS!

[Mama_Bear]

Lord Jesus, Savior of the World and King of Peace, watch over our sons and daughters in the service of their country. Keep them close to You and give them courage to serve their country with honor and dignity. Be with them when they are in danger; strengthen them when they face hardships. Above all Lord, grant that when their service is finished they may return to us, sound in mind, body and soul. And Lord, for those who give the ultimate sacrifice with their lives for serving our country, please touch and minister grace and healing to their families. Amen

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Below are names of some of our FReepers' loved ones who are serving our country. If you have someone you would like to add, please address a post to Billie, Mama_Bear, Dansangel, Dutchess, or Aquamarine, and we will add them to this list. As we pray for them, we pray also for all our nation’s leaders, and military personnel, and their families and friends. May God hold them close to His heart.

[JustAmy]

Ricky Manning didn't go to Fresno State. I think he went to (boo)USC(boo) but he went to high school in Fresno, I think Edison High. I wouldn't know this but heard Mr. JA and JA jr were talking about him last weekend.

I need a reason to follow the game so this year it is Ricky Manning. LOL

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Mama.

[SC DOC]

[LadyX]

Good Morning, All !!!

Have been scouting the practice fields this week,
and found these two dudes going through the paces:

Of course, all football players are animals - - -

[FreeTheHostages]

What a nice military post.

[FreeTheHostages]

"all football players are animals" well, they ARE men, after all

[FreeTheHostages]

Look! It's Calpernia with her kids!!



Good morning, JulieRNR21! Still love your crowd pic from yesterday.

[Calpernia]

You got that in My Comments just as I was shutting down!

Bump and Good Morning!

Sorry I have not be in Chat as much. No one here is forgotton! I get overwhelmed time wise monitoring the dod.mil threads. I post the Pro News with Ragtime Cowgirl. So with a ping list over 200 freepers my "My Comments" view is normally buried.

Hugs to all, off to take my daughter to cheerleading.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

388th Fighter Wing honors F-16 on its 25th anniversary

By Dawn House
The Salt Lake Tribune

HILL AIR FORCE BASE -- The 388th Fighter Wing on Friday celebrated the 25th anniversary of the F-16 -- although only the plane's chassis remains the same since the first model became operational a quarter century ago.

Parked in Hangar 37 for the ceremony was an original F-16 A, towed in from the base's Aerospace Museum.

"We were careful," said Master Sgt. Michael Dean Barr. "This one's an artifact."

The 388th was the first fighter wing to fly the F-16 operationally, beginning on Jan. 16, 1979. The base's 419th Fighter Wing later became the nation's first reserve component to fly what officially is called the Fighting Falcon.

Originally designed as a lightweight fighter for clear daytime weather, the F-16 has been upgraded through the years to operate in adverse weather, day or night, with the capability to handle 100 different weapon systems. It specializes in air-to-ground and air-to-air combat missions.

Its cost is $14.6 million.

"When you're talking F-16s, Hill is the place you'll want to be," said retired Maj. Gen. Lee Downer, the first F-16 fighter squadron commander at Hill. "You're No. 1."

Downer paid tribute to the early pilots who died while testing the limits of the fighters, as well as the maintenance crews and engineers who solved design deficiencies.

"F-16s have become the safest single-engine warplane ever fielded by any country in the world," said Downer, who ended his military career as director of operations for Air Combat Command in 1997. "It began here."

The prime contractor is Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., of Fort Worth, Texas, originally General Dynamics.

Brig. Gen. William Lake represented Lockheed Martin during Friday's ceremonies. He retired from the Air Force in 2000 and joined the defense firm that same year.

Col. Charlie Lyon, 388th wing commander, told an audience of nearly 500 people that Hill "celebrates those who flew the F-16, those who fixed it and those who have supported it."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers said in a letter to the northern Utah base that the F-16 is "the core fighter of the U.S. Air Force Armed Forces and the backbone of many of the world's best air forces."

During the invasion of Iraq, F-16s flew about 4,000 sorties and played a major role in destroying enemy air defenses and providing close air support to coalition ground forces.

In 1999, F-16s from seven NATO countries provided the backbone of Operation Allied Force in the former Yugoslavia, flying about 7,500 combat sorties around the clock.

The fighters also flew sorties in Afghanistan and constituted the bulk of the fighters in providing homeland air defense missions throughout the United States in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Military officials said F-16s will remain the backbone of the U.S. Air Force beyond 2015 and are expected to remain in service around the world well beyond 2030.

[The Mayor]

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. —Psalm 90:12

Don't just count your days, make your days count.

[The Mayor]

January 31, 2004

Time Flies

Read: Psalm 90:10-17

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. —Psalm 90:12

Bible In One Year: Exodus 25-26; Matthew 20:17-34

---

Many metaphors are used in literature to describe life's brevity. It is a dream, a swift runner, a mist, a puff of smoke, a shadow, a gesture in the air, a sentence written in the sand, a bird flying in one window of a house and out another. Another symbolic description was suggested by a friend of mine who said that the short dash between the dates of birth and death on tombstones represents the brief span of one's life.

When we were children, time loitered. But as we get closer to the end of our lives, time moves with increasing swiftness, like water swirling down a drain. In childhood we measured our age in small increments. "I'm 6 1/2," we would say, for it seemed to take so long to get older. Now we have no time for such childishness. Who claims to be 60 1/2?

It's good to ponder the brevity of life now and then. Life is too short to treat it carelessly. In Psalm 90, after describing the shortness of life, Moses prayed, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (v.12).

To make the most of our earthly existence, we must lose ourselves in the will of God

(1 Peter 4:2). This we can do even when time is running out. It's never too late to give ourselves totally to God. —David Roper

Lord, help us to redeem the time
You give us every day—
To take each opportunity
To follow and obey. —Sper

Don't just count your days, make your days count.

[FreeTheHostages]

[dixie sass]

Morning Lori, I've got to go back and read the post from yesterday.

GO CAROLINA!!!

GO PANTHERS!!!!

GO CAROLINA!!!!

Okay, just expended all my energy. Gonna take a short nap.