Free Republic

There's something very healthy about this annual ritual of setting goals for the new year. Because without goals, we just don't achieve our objectives. If we don't know where we're going, how can we expect to get there? I've set some personal goals for 2005. Some of them may seem beyond my ability. Some of them may seem too big even for a mass movement to accomplish in the next year or two. Some of them may seem like I'm biting off more than I can chew. I would agree. They are. But, again, without setting goals and objectives, we...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.): "Diet. Exercise. Results for New York. I'm Chuck Schumer and I approve this New Year's resolution." Yankees owner George Steinbrenner: "To make our Yankee fans happy by getting back to the World Series and winning the championship." Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.): "I resolve to help Pale Male and Lola - and all their red-tailed hawk friends - relocate their nest to 1211 Sixth Avenue, New York Post headquarters."

So here they are: The Reasons for Children of the 80s to Feel Old ______________________________________________________ *While reading reviews about the "Live Aid" DVD on Amazon, I read a comment from a teenager that wrote that it's an ideal gift for his/her parents. And knowing that Live Aid was from 1985. *Because when I mentioned Hall & Oates to my cousin who is 20 he had NO clue as to who I was talking about. Becauase Bon Jovi, who just came out with "Runnaway" like YESTERDAY -- right? (not) is now over 20 yrs old and considered "Classic." Because "Do They...

This is sort of a quiet time of year for most people. Most news organizations do that tired old “that was the year that was” review, telling you all the stuff that you went through in the previous twelve months, as if your attention spans had been MTV’d down to around the goldfish level. You’re still sorting through all the wrapping paper you used at Christmas, hoping that your local Earth Liberation Front cell doesn’t get back at you for your blatant destruction of the forests by burning your house down. You’re still recovering from having relatives come and visit...

Bullets Come Down: Help Stop Celebratory Gunfire this New Years Action AlertBrady Campaign to Prevent Gun ViolenceUnited with the Million Mom March1225 Eye Street, NWWashington, DC 20005www.bradycampaign.orgBrady/MMM is joining with America's police departments to urge Americans not to engage in what police call "celebratory gunfire" -- the indiscriminate firing of weapons into the air. On New Years Eve, scores of people will place others at risk of injury or death because of celebratory gunfire. When a bullet is fired into the air, the bullet has to come down somewhere. This holiday season, help spread the word about the dangers...

Jeremie Lee Abel lay dying on a couch New Year's Day while his underage friends partied all around him. Abel, 18, of Fairmont, sustained a severe head injury during a brawl early that morning when a conflict got out of control. Unconcious and bleeding from having his head slammed on the kitchen floor, his friends placed him on a couch to recover. They continued drinking. He never woke up. They didn't tell anyone because they were all underage drinkers. And when they did talk to officials, they lied about Abel and their involvement. Fairmont police said Tuesday they are starting...

by J.M. Kalil and Dave Berns Las Vegas Gaming Wire LAS VEGAS -- Armed helicopters will patrol the restricted airspace over the Strip on New Year's Eve to protect Las Vegas from a potential terrorist attack, authorities said Tuesday. The military gunships will be equipped with weaponry that can "dismantle or disrupt any kind of ground attack" involving tankers, trucks or other vehicles, Sheriff Bill Young said. Also, unarmed Blackhawk helicopters supplied by the Homeland Security Department will rove overhead to intercept any rogue aircraft that violate the federal flight restriction by traveling near the Strip, where an estimated 300,000...

Safe for Another Holiday Season By: Andy Obermann With all the chatter in recent days, one would have thought for sure that a new terror attack was inevitable. You couldn't watch more than five minutes of cable without some reference to an impending American catastrophe. Weeks of coverage and hype by pundits amounted to nothing more than a handful of flight cancellations, however. Now the liberals at the New York Times and leaders, both foreign and domestic, are calling this too great of an inconvenience for our safety. In a Jan. 3 piece, the Times criticized President Bush and Secretary...

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...

Thu Jan 1,11:52 AM ET Two US soldiers dance during a New Year's eve party at their base in former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit north of Baghdad(AFP/Jewel Samad)

A man who trumpeted the arrival of 2003 by firing a gun into the air outside the home where he was under house arrest was sentenced to almost five years in federal prison Wednesday. Luis Otero received his sentence as Philadelphia police and prosecutors rolled out an annual effort to halt a dangerous New Year's Eve tradition: celebratory gunfire. ``It's a huge problem,'' said Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Stollsteimer. At a news conference Tuesday, authorities were joined by a 16-year-old boy whose brain was damaged by a stray bullet that hit him on New Year's Eve 1998. Otero was...

Happy New Year's Eve to all at Free Republic!!! Make your predictions for 2004. Good Luck!!!

<p>DELAND — Local law enforcement authorities have notified the Department of Homeland Security that a state-owned dump truck has been stolen.</p> <p>The report was made to the federal agency because of the heightened threat level, Lt. Richard Gaylord, a spokesman for the DeLand Police Department, said Wednesday.</p>

Seize the good stuff. A couple of months ago, a friend bought me a bottle of pink champagne to celebrate a job I'd landed and we talked about popping it open on the spot. But we'd gotten together for an early pizza dinner on a school night and it would have wrecked us for the rest of the evening and how could we manage laundry, bills, and loose ends — all the things we'd squeeze in later after the kids were in bed. Now my friend is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and we can't share the wine. No alcohol...

Prissy Socialist gimps destroy manly British culture. LONDON saw in the New Year without official fanfare - and under the shadow of terrorist threats. While revellers across the world celebrated with spectacular firework displays and street parties, Trafalgar Square was closed. The pedestrian area, where 60,000 revellers normally gather, was sealed off for construction work and police warned partygoers to keep away from the city centre. Leading Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes said the capital was shamed by the lack of official celebrations. Bob Bone, who is organising today's big parade in London, called New Year's Eve a "laughing stock"......

Question What does "Auld Lang Syne" mean? I always hear people singing it on New Year's Eve, but no one seems to know what it means! Answer "Auld Lang Syne" is an extremely old Scottish song that was first written down in the 1700s. Robert Burns is the person whose transcription got the most attention, so the song is associated with him. The translation of the words "auld lang syne" is Scottish for "times gone by." So (incorporating a couple of other translations) when we sing this song, we are saying, "We'll drink a cup of kindness yet for times...

So everybody can start the song. But what the all the words? Is there a second/third verse? Is it as slow and methodical (boring ?) as the first?

Mayor Traian Basescu says he wants to show his support for the girl's gesture of having the courage to do what they want with their lives.He told the Libertatea newspaper 'I will give the three gymnasts the key to the city of Bucharest after January 1, as soon as they will be able to come and take it.'The world must understand their fomer porfessional activity and gesture they recently did are two different things. Now they are allowed to do whatever they wish with their lives.'The former gymnasts were criticised after they posed naked for a Japanese magazine and filmed...

The 5 illegal aliens wanted for questioning by the FBI's counterterrorist squad may be connected to a forgery ring, officials said yesterday.The FBI still has no information that the men were connected to a terrorist activity, the officials emphasized.The FBI wants to question the men-believed to be Pakistani-in its probe of a group that makes false documents and passports.

Hey, Can someone post all the New Year Prediction threads from last year. I think I have some bragging rights to claim.