Everything published on FreeRepublic, whether public or private, is preserved and is ultimately part of the public record.
Your utterances will be available to your friends, your enemies, your children and their children.
If they know your screen name.
Which is why I will never have a myspace account... ;)
Yes--the wonderful man who introduced me to FR was a target of an attack orchestrated by some lurking DUmmies (I know their names, but don't want their attention). He was on a school board and they tried to destroy him by publishing his posting history on FR with the all too willing help of a local reporter. Politics of personal destruction mean nothing to these people.
I post under my real name to remind myself of that fact. Still, I occasionally have trouble containing myself when I really feel like venting some steam!
There are a few posts I wish I could have back-- mostly imprecations against Islam that do not apply to a few good and decent individual Muslims of my acquaintance-- but by and large, I've said the same things in conversation as I do here. Everyone knows I'm a hard right winger.
-ccm