Free Republic

Its back.

In Internet Forums and Social Dynamics: Part I: Everybody is someone else’s weirdo, I dealt with the issue of self-selection on internet discussion groups, using Free Republic as an example. I explained that people who share values tend to evaluate newcomers to see if they are truly “members” of the group or not, by analogy to well-known statistical methods, before deciding whether to accept them or not. In Internet Forums and Social Dynamics: Part II: Snapbacks, I discussed the often humorous process by which people sound one another out, and the fireworks which oftentimes result when a person is suddenly...

In part I of this series, Internet Forums and Social Dynamics: Part I: Everybody is someone elseÂ’s weirdo, I observed that like-minded people cluster into groups on the internet. Using Free Republic as an example (as it is the only site I feel I have any right to talk about), I showed how peopleÂ’s reactions to other posters are based on observation of the other posterÂ’s opinion, and that the process used to evaluate other posters bears an analogy to statistical techniques used in industry. In this part, I consider some of the social tensions which occur during conversations /...

One of the things that is fun about forums such as Free Republic is the sheer volume and scale of topics discussed. Everything from discussions of GOP primary races (come BACK, Sarah!) to speculations on the Middle East, from Kim Jong-un to fitness resolutions for the New Year, from Naughty Teacher threads to black helicopter speculations. If the Internet is a microcosm of the real world, then Free Republic is a microcosm of the internet. And all helpfully sorted by keyword, date, and author in order to make drinking from the fire hose easier. But of course, not is all...

FRiends, another new year is about to dawn. As 2011 fades into the sunset, I celebrate the completion of one more year on FreeRepublic. Thirteen years have gone by since I signed up. I had been lurking here since the summer of 1998, and answered the call to attend the March for Justice on October 30, 1998 in Washington, DC. I came there on my own all the way from NJ, not knowing how many people might be there, and not really caring if I was the only one who showed up. What mattered was that a President was breaking...

THE COMING WAVE (An Interview With Mother Abigail) I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form. "Come in," she said, "I'll give you—shelter From the storm” -Bob Dylan-

"And all you Free Republic, American Renaissance, gun-loving, war-mongering, trolls.... bring it!! Obama!!! 2012!!!" H/t to Newsbusters and Freeper opentalk, screengrab by NewsbustersNote by Kristinn: Baldwin falsely lumps Free Republic in with the racist American Renaissance group. But that's what liberals do these days, cry racism when they're losing the political debate.

Happy Thankssgiving to the entire Frerepublic Community. I for one, am thankful for such a great group of people with similiar interests, and a forum to voice our opinions and discuss topics.

Happy Thankssgiving to the entore Frerepublic Community. I for one, am thankful for such a great group of people with similiar interests, and a forum to voice our opinions and discuss topics.

China operates the world’s most elaborate and opaque system of Internet censorship. But Congress, under pressure to take action against the theft of intellectual property, is considering misguided legislation that would strengthen China’s Great Firewall and even bring major features of it to America. The legislation — the Protect IP Act, which has been introduced in the Senate, and a House version known as the Stop Online Piracy Act — have an impressive array of well-financed backers, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Federation of Musicians, the Directors Guild of America,...

Brad Feld tweeted this web site, and Fred Wilson blogged about it. After viewing this video, I support it. PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo. Here is a link to the website if you would like to support American Censorship Day too. I appreciate the sentiment of Hollywood and the music industry. People download stuff off of the internet without paying for it. Artists should get paid for things they produce-but the two bills pending before both houses of Congress are the wrong way to go about it. I don’t know the right...

Wonky word of the week: “Obamacare” The Supreme Court this week agreed to hear three cases challenging “Obamacare,” the generally pejorative nickname for the Affordable Care Act—health care reform that Obama signed into law in March 2010. The Atlantic argues that a lobbyist should get credit for coining the phrase in a trade journal circa March 2007, though the word appears in Free Republic posts the month before. In any case, the term was widely used before the bill itself even existed. And it’s really not coinage worth fighting over: whoever invented it displayed roughly the same ingenuity as the...

freerepublic.com is worth $170,360,980. This makes freerepublic.com the 3rd most valuable site on Stimator.com. freerepublic.com scored 210 for Page Rank, 50 for Backlinks, and 1,245 for Traffic Volume. Also, freerepublic.com scored 1,156,000 for Social Bookmarking, 230,660 for Directory Inclusion, and 25,075 for Domain Value. Overall, freerepublic.com has performed Excellent on our site valuation analysis.

At the 4:10 mark of the linked video above, Hannity asks Gloria All-RED why she didn't represent Juanita Broderick and Kathleen Willey when "Doug From Upland and FreeRepublic asked you to?"

October 28, 2011 1:00 P.M. Cain Goes Big His top advisers plot a path to the nomination. Mark Block and Linda Hansen, Herman Cain’s senior advisers, tell National Review Online that Cain will soon hold a series of “major town-hall meetings” in early primary states.

TWO QUESTIONS FOR FR's REPORTERS & POSTERS Should Bloggers & web News sites Covering OWS Be taking names ? Should stories in "statist" media be reported in FR as another "services in kind campaign contribution "? While some "correspondents" covering the protestors and participants of the OWS, (occupation of Wall Street) ,the so called anti-capitalistism protest, are checking backgrounds of the participants where and when possible. It might be eye opening if those OWS participants were also asked what is their educational background including; their college,major and professor by those reporting news sites and bloggers.. There are several kinds of...

What do we think of this? I'm not talking about any bannings and whether they were justified or not. What I mean is, showing FR in a negative light like this. It doesn't show us as open minded and most people equate banning to censorship. And well, that doesn't exactly jive with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights we hold so dear. Jim can do what he wants. He owns the site. I moderate a website that my friend owns and it's the same tact we take with trolls and spammers. But we never ban people for simply taking...

Free Republic founder Jim Robinson has a message for supporters of Mitt Romney: go away. In an email to POLITICO this afternoon, Robinson admitted that the site routinely blocks Romney supporters from posting -- and offered no apologies for the practice: Free Republic is a pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-small government, pro-constitution, pro-liberty site. Governor Romney is none of the above. His record is that of an abortionist, gay rights pushing, gun grabbing, global warming advocating, big government, mandate loving, constitution trampling, flip-flopping liberal progressive with no core values. That and the fact that he is the chief architect and advocate...

In an email to POLITICO this afternoon, Robinson admitted that the site routinely blocks Romney supporters from posting -- and offered no apologies for the practice: Free Republic is a pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-small government, pro-constitution, pro-liberty site. Governor Romney is none of the above. His record is that of an abortionist, gay rights pushing, gun grabbing, global warming advocating, big government, mandate loving, constitution trampling, flip-flopping liberal progressive with no core values. That and the fact that he is the chief architect and advocate for ObamaCare disqualifies him for any consideration whatsoever on Free Republic as a potential nominee...

2011 Q4 Freepathon halfway to $88,000 goal:  please help to keep America's premier online  political forum -The Free Republic- up and running Haven't been over there in a while?   Have a look, man... and please do hit  the tip-jar on the way out  -here- TIA, FReeper patriots~

Keith Olbermann is not in the witness protection program, but he might as well be. His show on Al Gore’s Current TV (America’s least watched network) has lost nearly a third of its viewers in four months. Pretty impressive result for $10 million a year. That’s just his salary. Countdown with Keith Olbermann was a major draw when it was on MSNBC. On January 21, the network took a big hit when Olbermann announced on air that that would be his last show for them. Then in June, Current launched Olbermann and Countdown. It was no surprise that Olbermann drew...

<p>Our purpose and goal on FR is to restore, defend, preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity!!</p> <p>The goal of the domestic enemy (the left), i.e., the statist liberals, Marxists and progressives is just the opposite.</p>

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whois freerepublic.com - Domain Name: FREEREPUBLIC.COM Created on..............: 23-SEP-1996 FreeRepublic.com founder Jim RobinsonAKA Jim ThompsonJim Robinson leads Free Republic's Clinton impeachment rally called the March for Justice, Washington, D.C., October 31, 1998 As featured in the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up and SingFree Republic was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party

I'm having trouble finding any FR posting guidelines showing which sites may be excerpted, which are link-only and so on. I would have thought adding a link to that information on the page that appears when you hit "Post" would be a no-brainer, but I sure don't see anything like that. I've seen people referencing such guidelines quite a bit, but I've never found 'em.

The Denver Post is reporting that MediaNews Group, its parent company along with the Salt Lake Tribune, will not be renewing their contract with the controversial drive-by litigation group Righthaven. According to the report MediaNews Group stopped working with them “some time ago”. John Paton, who was appointed as MediaNews chief executive Wednesday, sent a message on Twitter later in the day that MediaNews had terminated its relationship with Righthaven “some time ago.” MediaNews Group’s relationship with Righthaven dealt almost exclusively with one image that of the TSA agent performing a patdown that became a symbol of the “Don’t touch...

Opponents of Las Vegas copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC appealed again Tuesday to a Colorado judge to decisively end Righthaven’s lawsuits over Denver Post material. Righthaven since March 2010 has filed 275 lawsuits alleging online infringement of Las Vegas Review-Journal and Post content. The no-warning litigation campaign, unprecedented for the newspaper industry, hit a brick wall this summer when four Nevada judges ruled Righthaven lacked standing to sue over R-J material in seven cases. Righthaven -- which has also been hit with three fair use defeats -- last filed a lawsuit on July 13. These rulings against Righthaven's standing to...

I spend a good deal of time on the FreeRepublic website, America’s premier gathering place for conservative activists. A healthy cross-section of America’s modern day “Minutemen” bivouac here regularly to share and discuss the daily news items which most greatly affect our constitutional Republic. We were just discussing Sarah Palin’s newest Facebook message regarding Jimmy Hoffa’s disgusting profanity yesterday where he addressed union members with this distinctly un-American reference to The TEA Party: “Let’s take these sons of bitches out!” It wasn’t that long ago that Democrats including president Obama were calling for a more civil form of discourse throughout...

September 2, 2011 There's a lot of good sense behind closing two famous and nearby military hospitals and merging them into the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. But just looking at the name reveals both what's good about this merger and what makes it so tricky. Walter Reed was a famous Army doctor, and for more than a century his name was on the Army's iconic hospital in Washington, D.C. Now that hospital is shutting its doors, and Reed's name will go onto the new hospital built on the Navy's flagship medical campus in Bethesda, Md., 6 miles...

Photo by U.S. Army WASHINGTON (Army News Service, August 29, 2011) -- The last patient left Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday following 17 other wounded warriors who traveled by ambulance to the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. "It has been five years of preparation, but for me it's only been three," said Col. Norvell V. Coots, Walter Reed Healthcare System commander. This was his third year in command of the hospital, the last two of which he and his staff finalized all the plans for the move to the hospitals at Fort Belvoir, Va., and the medical center...

The Peacemakers Institute Author: Rev. Cary K. Gordon A sermon on the spiritual and legal ramifications of “Nature and Nature’s God�, and its direct correlation with what Americanism truly is, outlining what must be done if America is to be saved from its current trend toward ruin. Select here:The Doctrine of Natural Law to watch Rev. Gordon’s opening message for Cornerstone’s “Homecoming 2011″ Convention, preached on August 7th, 2011!

Why do so few people bother to cleanly post a story anymore here on Free Republic? Not to pick on anyone in particular but I see this type of posting all the time and it drives me crazy. Here are but a couple of examples: "Gerald Celente Disses Roubini After Moving 100% Into Gold Gus Lubin Aug. 30, 2011, 6:21 AM Image: KWN Notorious trend forecaster Gerald Celente has been fairly accurate of late, predicting a double dip and revolutions around the world." In reading the summary why must the reader be tormented by the extraneous, unnecessary and worthless text:...

Halleleujah! Free Republic is back!! Whenever I'm unable to get online at Free Republic, I get worried, concerned that the forces of evil, malevolence have managed to somehow force Free Republic offline. By ordinary standards, my inability to link to FR was longer than usual. Hope everything is under control. I just want to say, Glad you're back!!! Long live Free Republic!! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

What can we do to help Jim Robinson keep freerepublic robust and online? Freerepublic is important to me and I am willing to pay to keep it up and robust. I believe that many other freepers believe this as well. I do not overstate things when I say that the health of freerepublic is essential to the health of the nation and the restoration of the Constitution. Would it be worthwhile to create a backup fund for freerepublic to buy more equipment/bandwidth/alternate mirror sites? This is Jim's site, and I will certainly defer to his wishes, but if we can...

Anyone get a visit from DHS?

Free Republic is funded solely by donations from readers. Way to go FREEPERS! 100 percent. You did it!

O.K. I admit it. I'm a big fan of Sarah, especially after her appearance on Hannity last night. So when I'm away from the computer for awhile and want to see if there are new threads about her, I have always clicked "Keyword: Palin" in the "Popular Keywords" sidebar block.Well, I have decided to configure my sidebar to display the ten most recent threads about her. It took a bit of head scratching about how to do it, so when I figured it out, I decided to share the really easy but somewhat obscure (for a dunce like me) procedure....

PROPOSAL: FREEREPUBLIC Prayer Meeting this Friday night to Saturday Night(1700 Friday until 1700 Saturday).

One of the first, and one of the most disgusting events that occured after the January shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was that many in the press and the internet blamed Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for the shooting. Not even 24 hours has passed since the tragic events in Norway, and people on the net are already pushing the link between suspect Anders Breivik and Sarah Palin. We look at FireDogLake, which after quoting a paragraph from conspiracy site WhatReallyHappened, has this little nugget for us:At Democratic Underground, we have the full force of blaming the Tea Party...

Yes, another day and another judicial smackdown for Righthaven. In the case before Judge Roger Hunt, where he dismissed Righthaven for its sham copyright assignment claims and threatened sanctions against the company, it appears that Judge Hunt was not convinced by Righthaven's grovelling, that it was all the fault of former in-house attorneys, who failed to disclose that Stephens Media had a 50% stake in the outcome of any of these lawsuits. Hunt has gone forward with the sanctions, telling Righthaven to pay $5,000 for misleading the court. It seems that defendants in the 200+ other lawsuits now have reasons...

This morning, I was clicking around on this site to see if I could find anything to help a poster who was having trouble with his display. I was looking for the "Preferences" page which is accessed from the "Account" page. And, at the very top of the "Account" page is this recap of my own account. You've posted a total of 842 threads and 40,007 replies. Now, I have been a member here for a while, but any way you slice it, that is a LOT of use. I'll simply suggest that anyone who reads this, please check your...

I got this e-mail for where I work regarding Blocking of Freerepublic: From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 8:14 AM To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Subject: Freerepublic.com XX. XXXXXXX: As per our telephone conversation, I cannot provide access to Freerepublic.com. One of analysis tools we utilize to perform checks of sites indicated FR had been or is currently hosting malicious software or serving as an intermediary to domains hosting malicious software. As I stated on the telephone, this does not mean the site is currently hosting anything malicious or serving as an intermediary for malicious sites; rather, it has done so in...

I just noticed the facebook-Like icon on the new article posts - or am I seeing things?

How about a post from FR on what the h**l is going on. Page loads are erratic and more often than not fail. How long until we can expect resumption of normal service? What gives. (I've seen several comments to posts also complaining about problems. I'm not having problems with any other sites, just Free Republic.)

"...We Mitt fans encourage you to check out this web page ----http ://www.freerepublic.com/ -unmarkedpackage / ------ that has been put together to inform others about Gov Romney's record (which has been unfairly distorted ). He governed extremely conservatively for a true blue place like Massachusetts . if he can do those things there , I think it bodes well for what he can accomplish in Washington. Please consider endorsing Mitt Romney and joining his campaign of excellence, optimism and progress for the future . It would be the best thing that ever happened to our country in a long time...

NOTICE: FR DOES NOT AND WILL NOT SUPPORT ABORTIONIST, GAY RIGHTS PUSHING BIG GOVERNMENT STATISTS FOR PRESIDENT!! This message is intended for those posters on FR who seem to have missed my prior statements in this regard and insist on advocating for these bastards. I'd rather shut the place down than be involved in any effort to install abortionist/gay rights pushing RINOS like Romney or Giuliani into the White House!! Do NOT push this crap on FR. Take your business elsewhere!! And I don't care how long you've been here!!

I always SEARCH before I post. I search BOTH TITLES if there are two. There are numerous times that a search does not show an article has posted in a thread and it has. Just a FYI for all ya'll mods out there in moderator land that get snarky. MOVING ON and TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT Where's Obama? Golfing?

In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty.. oh wait, that’s not how this goes. Let’s try again. Imagine for a moment an old farm on the edge of the interstate. This farm has been a part of the community for years. All of the farmer’s friends love to come to the farmer’s house for meals and conversation. Sometimes, the farmer’s friends like to put up a sign on the land, right along the interstate,...

I love Mom, apple pie and America! I'm pro-God, pro-Life, pro-Family, pro-Liberty and pro-America! I'm bitterly clinging to my God and my guns! I'm fighting for a return to constitutionally limited government! I detest what the Marxists are doing to my country and I want the America we all know and love back! Free Republic is my home on the Internet! I'm a tea party patriot and I'm ready to ruuuumble! I get all my news and conservative commentary from FR! I post on FR all day, I'd hate to see it go away! ♫ I love FR. ♫...