Free Republic

Ron Prosor, Israel's UN ambassador, on Monday sharply criticized Arab states for their failure to support the Palestinian Authority. Prosor said that the only foreign countries – other than Israel – that supported the PA financially were the U.S., France, and Britain, despite their dealing with their own financial problems. Meanwhile, he said, “Arab countries, awash in money and oil, are responsible for only 20% of international aid to the PA. This is an absurd situation. The total amount of donations by the Arab world to the PA was about half of what the Saudi prince spent on a private...

Before the economy imploded, cheapskates were considered a pitiful bunch -- frumpy coupon moms racing across town to save 19 cents on baby wipes, joyless penny-pinchers subsisting on ramen noodles. Meanwhile, the cool kids were starting wine collections and equipping their homes with plasma TVs and stainless-steel kitchen appliances. Then, in the drop of a Dow Jones average, frugality suddenly became fashionable, and all those still-unpaid-for off-road vehicles and granite countertops became symbols of foolishness and excess, rather than success. Lifestyle sections brimmed with redemptive stories of former mortgage brokers/derivatives traders/entertainment publicists who had suddenly discovered the humble joys of...

Every Tuesday I go to Murphy's Taproom in Manchester to hang out with a bunch of liberty-oriented people. This is a famous event among Free-staters. About 40-60 people gather weekly for about 4 hours and eat and drink and are merry. I'm no longer allowed to go there, because I don't tip. I've written some of my thoughts about tipping in the past, and have since fleshed out my position in my mind, so I won't focus here on the reasons to tip or not to tip. Here, I want to merely explain what happened tonight. About 6 weeks ago,...

Chicago has yet to recoup the $1.74 million cost of President Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park -- despite a burgeoning $50.5 million budget shortfall that threatens more layoffs and union concessions. "The Democratic National Committee has not yet paid us,'' Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city's Office of Budget and Management, said Thursday after questions from the Chicago Sun-Times. "We're reaching out to them this week." The Democratic National Committee has not paid Chicago for the cost of Barack Obama's election night rally in Grant Park. Stacie Paxton, a spokeswoman for the Obama-controlled DNC, explained the reimbursement delay...

WASHINGTON - Calling Joe Biden the cheap veep would be charitable. Biden, Barack Obama's vice presidential pick, relased 10 years of tax returns Friday in hopes of forcing GOP rival Sarah Palin to do the same. But the filings reveal the Delaware Democrat doesn't dig very deep into his wallet for charities. Biden reported a total income of $2.2 million over the last 10 years, but donated a scant $3,690 in money and gifts. His philanthropy hit a peak last year - while he was running for President - when he earned $320,000. He gave $995 to charity - and...

“Family, I feel an obligation to honesty and truth to share with you some facts. My Father and Mother instilled in me the values and morals of treating people fairly and always being honest. If you purchase something, you pay for it. If you borrow something, you give it back. I have been “stiffed” three times in my 30 year professional career by someone who I rendered services to, gave a finished product to, but who refused to pay for those services even though they acknowledged the services and products were correct, were what they asked for, and were never...

He fibbed his way onto the Jerry Springer Show, just to wangle a free trip to Chicago for spring break. And right there on stage, in front of millions of TV viewers, his long dreadlocks flapping wildly like dirty-blond ropes, he got into the obligatory fight with three of his best friends from the University of Georgia. Fists flew. Blows landed. Chairs were slung before the bouncers grabbed the flailing foursome. Alan Corey and his friends — all warily in on the charade — were gleeful. Sure, they'd made "total fools" out of themselves on national TV, but they'd finagled...

This is my first Vanity. And I apologise.Anyway... I was watching Castro's latest video tape, and noticed Greenspan's book. On the upper right hand corner of the book cover, there was a 30% discount from Barnes & Noble.Cheapstake.....

Wireless Freeloader Charged Because He Never Bought Coffee By Gregg Keizer TechWeb.com Thu Jun 22, 6:32 PM ET A Vancouver, Wash. coffee shop tired of seeing a 20-year-old man mooch off their free wireless Internet access called the police, who charged him with "theft of services." Brewed Awakenings employees dialed 911 after Alexander Eric Smith of Battle Ground, Wash. piggybacked off the shop's wireless Internet service for more than three months. "He doesn't buy anything," Emily Pranger, the shop's manager, told KATU, a Portland, Ore. television station. "It's not right for him to come and use it." Smith allegedly parked...

John Kerry may be a serial cheapskate. During the early 1990s, with no apparent presidential aspirations, Kerry contributed the following amounts: $0 in 1991; ... $820, 1992; ... $175, 1993; ... $2,039, 1994;... $0, 1995. Kerry and his wife have a combined net worth between $664 million and $760 million... The question Kerry still needs to answer, however, is why he isn't as generous with his own vast personal wealth as he is with tax money forcibly extracted from everyone else.

The food, makeup, underwear is at "Everyday low prices" but a Wal-Mart "date" could be for free. Wal-Mart's taking on the role of retail matchmaker to some of its customers. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Just when you thought you'd heard it all from the king of discount shopping, Wal-Mart is now pitching itself as the new dating hot spot -- with everyday low prices to boot.

Prime Minister Paul Martin said Tuesday he does not believe the U.S. ballistic missile shield will succeed in shooting down incoming rockets, as he threw up new roadblocks to counter President George W. Bush's strong appeal for Canada to join his continental defence plan. Canada will not put any money into building the missile shield and it will not allow Washington to station rockets on Canadian soil as the price of participation in the multibillion-dollar program, Martin told Global National in a year-end interview. In another issue that could cause friction with Bush, Martin said Canada was prepared to accept...

On Oct. 1, Michigan launched a new crackdown on "deadbeats"— noncustodial parents who are behind on paying child support. The overwhelmingly majority of "deadbeats" are dads. Custodial parents cheered; father’s rights groups objected. Children were caught in between. But Attorney General Mike Cox doesn’t seem concerned about keeping children as non-combatants in the war between their parents. In conjunction with the website PayKids, a site Cox established to track down deadbeats, Cox announced a contest in which children are to draw pictures "that clearly convey the message of encouraging the payment of child support." The contest’s prize: "The first 250...

Sunday, April 25, 2004 11:39 p.m. EDT Kerry a Cheapskate, Senate Waiter Says When it comes to his Senate dining room tipping habits, you'd hardly know Sen. John Kerry married his way into a half-billion-dollar fortune. Independent researcher Tom Kuiper called our attention last week to a passage from Ron Kessler's 1997 best seller, "Inside Congress: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill." Kessler's account includes a few choice quotes from one of the Senate dining room waiters, who used to regularly serve the Senate's wealthiest member. Kerry is "real cheap," the waiter...

<p>Like Al Gore, who donated a miserly $353 to charity as vice president in 1997, John Kerry may be a serial cheapskate.</p> <p>During the early 1990s, with no apparent presidential aspirations, Kerry contributed the following amounts: $0 in 1991; $820, 1992; $175, 1993; $2,039, 1994; and $0, 1995. Last year, however, after media attention, he gave $43,735.</p>

German insurance companies have been accused of withholding millions of pounds in "administration costs" from a £64 million compensation fund for the relatives of Holocaust victims.Appalling. My grandfather said that we needed to go to war with Germany every 40 years or so to remind them who is in charge. This sort of thing only heightens the impression - Ivan Survivors of the Nazi genocide, many of them living in Britain, believe that the companies have deducted more than £15 million for researching claims from the heirs of those who died in the concentration camps. They believed that the firms...

And the winner is . . . really cheapLooking for tips on frugality, a columnist finds connoisseurs of conservation, experts on economy, sultans of scrimping. By Jeff BrownInquirer Columnist There is the granny who has her chauffeur circle the block to find a meter with time left on it . . . The man who goes to Phillies games free by rushing over during rain delays . . . The woman who gets mulch and clothes by gathering discarded scarecrows after Halloween . . . Then there were the many, many contestants who carefully dry their paper towels for reuse,...