Free Republic

[snip] "This nation has to be governed by someone's values, so let's have Christian values guide" us, Perry said quietly. This was Rick Perry standing tall and proud -- proud to be an American, proud to be a Christian, proud to stand for "a life of consequence" and "faith." And when he advised the students that each, individually, was "a spiritual being meant to live in relationship with God and one another," Philip Rucker of the Washington Post rolled his eyes so hard that he spent the rest of the convocation looking like a character out of the Little Orphan...

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (CBS Tampa) – Definitely not lovin’ it. A man accused of disgusting McDonald’s patrons by popping his pimples was under arrest after customer complaints led to a brief chase by officers. It started Monday when customers of the McDonald’s located at 2404 Santa Barbara Blvd. alerted authorities to a man standing outside the restaurant for about 10 minutes squeezing away at the acne on his back. Events that followed with police ended in a brief chase and the arrest of the man, who allegedly gave a false name when confronted about the

COURTLAND—A Southampton Middle School student was suspended Thursday for opening an exterior door for a visitor. “Students are not allowed to open the doors, and if anyone does, they will be suspended,” said Dr. Wayne K. Smith, executive director of administration and personnel. A districtwide policy prohibiting students and staff from opening doors to the outside was recently adopted after a $10,800 security system was installed at the middle school, Southampton High School, Southampton Technical Career Center and Nottoway, Meherrin and Capron elementary schools. Riverdale Elementary had a similar system installed when it was built three years ago. All of...

Helping your child master these simple rules of etiquette will get him noticed -- for all the right reasons. By David Lowry, Ph.D. Your child's rude 'tude isn't always intentional. Sometimes kids just don't realize it's impolite to interrupt, pick their nose, or loudly observe that the lady walking in front of them has a large behind. And in the hustle and bustle of daily life, busy moms and dads don't always have the time to focus on etiquette. But if you reinforce these 25 must-do manners, you'll raise a polite, kind, well-liked child.-

About a week ago, I had another lesson in liberal civility. I was pulling into the parking lot of a burger-joint when an agitated young man drove up next to me. He rolled down his window, as I did. I thought I might have cut him off in traffic and prepared to apologize. The first words out of his mouth were: “Are you a retard?” This is known as a rhetorical question. I was tempted to answer, “No, but I am still beating my wife.” The graduate of The Charlie Sheen School of Refinement was incensed by one of my...

Breaking wind is set to be made a crime in an African country. The government of Malawi plan to punish persistent offenders 'who foul the air' in a bid to 'mould responsible and disciplined citizens.' But locals fear that pinning responsibility on the crime will be difficult - and may lead to miscarriages of justice as 'criminals' attempt to blame others for their offence. One Malawian told the website Africanews.com: 'My goodness. What happens in a public place where a group is gathered. Do they lock up half a minibus? 'And how about at meetings where it is difficult to...

We have coffee, rain, traffic, and apparently some of the rudest people in America. According to survey in Travel and Leisure Magazine, Seattle is ranked number 16 in a list of the country's 20 rudest cities. The magazine recommends striking up a conversation at Pike Place Market, which is actually Washington state's number one tourist destination meaning you'll probably be talking with an outsider. Cities ruder than Seattle included Chicago, Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Miami. Los Angeles beat out Boston and New York for the top spot. People in Seattle are nicer than those in Anchorage, Houston, and...

I'd like to hear from any Freepers down in Dixie on a societal question. I'd like to know if the old southern virtues survive, or if mass-media culture has erased or eroded them. I'm talking about the basic manners, and in particular, the relationship of young people to adults. Allow me a moment to explain. I was born and raised in New Jersey. I was in many respects NOT raised right. EXCEPT, I was fortunate enough to spend extended periods down in Alabama with my grandmother. I attended public school for a short time in Alabama as well. This was...

George W. Bush has come out of his self-imposed media blackout to promote his new book, Decision Points, which goes into full release on November 9th. Oprah Winfrey will air a pretaped interview with the former President on that day, but has a preview of the appearance out already, via The Right Scoop. In this clip, Bush tells Winfrey that he refrains from opining on Barack Obama’s performance because he wants to treat the current President the way he wished other former Presidents had treated him. Also, he elects to stay out of the “swamp” of punditry when Winfrey asks...

One of the more satisfying conclusions I've reached as a participant in American life for nearly six decades is that we've grown into being a fairly kind, forgiving, and empathetic citizenry. Everywhere I travel, I find people striving to be helpful. I see complete strangers acknowledge each other walking down the street or standing in an elevator. Eating dinner out alone, as I often do when I travel, seems to bring about magically ephemeral friendships purchased with the currency of nothing more than the exchange of a first name. It's been a long time -- years, really -- since I've...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday for being rude to Sen. Mitch McConnell as the Senate's top Republican was winding up a solemn debate on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Franken, a liberal Democrat from Minnesota, was presiding over the Senate as McConnell explained his opposition to President Barack Obama's high-court nominee. A Senate GOP aide said Franken made theatrical gestures and whispered under his breath as the Kentucky senator spoke. It was distracting enough that McConnell went up to the former comedian afterward and said, "This isn't 'Saturday Night Live,' Al."

...These are all things we’ve been experiencing in large and small ways for some time now. For every item in the list above, I’m sure you can call to mind several recent occurrences that you’ve read or heard about in the news. Good grief, if our current economy and the ridiculous legislative attempts to spend ourselves out of debt isn’t a poster-child for doom, I don’t know what is...

Economics Of Being Nice By Bill Bonner 03/25/10 Paris, France – Dear readers get a break today. We’re on our way back to the USA. No time to check the markets… Here’s something for the “miscellaneous” file, something we found in the paper this morning: A team of Canadian researchers wanted to know if people who bought “green” products were nicer than other people. They did a study of it and came to the conclusion, as reported in The Financial Times, that “those who bought supposedly ethical products were more likely to lie, cheat and steal and less likely...

Can something as simple as good manners help to stem the coarsening of our culture? Yes! Cord Ivanyi, a Latin teacher at a Phoenix high school, was tired seeing the boys in his class subject the girls to vulgar words and behavior. The behavior was disrespectful, and disrupting to his classes. So Ivanyi decided to give the boys an example in chivalry. When a girl got up to go to the restroom, Ivanyi stood as a sign of respect. When she came back to class, Ivanyi held the door for her. [...] Christians need to resist the slide into vulgarity...

LANCASTER-- A man was stabbed in the neck with a meat thermometer after asking a woman to silence her cell phone in a movie theater, a sheriff's department official said. The stabbing occurred last Saturday at the Cinemark 22 theater at 2600 West Avenue I in Lancaster, according to Detective Richard Cartmill of the Lancaster sheriff's station. Deputies say that while the movie was playing, a woman was talking on her phone and the victim asked her to turn it off. The victim was attacked by the woman's boyfriend and another man. Deputies say he was stabbed in the neck...

A series of conversations between Dr Thielicke and American Christians...

renaissance n. A rebirth or revival It’s amazing what goes on in the middle of the night when most of us are sound asleep. After a unfortunate encounter with a Brown Recluse Spider crawling over my bed, and my misguided attempts to kill it with a slipper and then chemicals, I had to abandon my bedroom. So I turned on the radio, unable to get but 3 stations, 2 of them in Spanish, and Coast to Coast Am. I ordinarily don’t listen to conspiracy theories and worries of boogymen I can do nothing about, because as our patriot friend, Terry...

The command from his father was gruff, but not unduly so: "Stand up. Put your hand over your heart." Quickly, the boy, I'd say about 7 or so, jumped up from the curb and did just that as several men, all no doubt older than his grandpa, marched by. One played the bagpipes. Another carried the American flag, slowly fluttering in the midday mountain air. All was quiet, save for the bagpipes, as the men strode by. Yet another Fourth of July parade in small-town America. Every year, we go to Show Low for a few days on either end...

Much to my disconcertment, last night (Wednesday night), a local dowager had complained about my "bad manners" of reading while dining with nine other people; not to me--she had complained to friends of mine. I was reading the Encyclopedia Americana, specifically the entries about the silkworm industry in France during the 1840s, while everybody else was yik-yakking away. Of course, there's a practical matter here; too many people, too much light and movement, too much color, which to me is "noise," and so I can't keep track of what's being said, or what I think's being said. What is one...

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) took offense when Brigadier General Michael Walsh used the phrase “yes, ma’am” in response to one of her questions during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, calling it a “typical demonstration of the military’s inherent disrespect for women.” “They want us to accept it as a term of respect,” Boxer said. “Bit it’s a code word for what they’re really thinking—‘broad,’ ‘bitch,’ or something even more derogatory. After all, ‘ma’am’ is a contraction for ‘madam’—a term used to describe the head prostitute in a whorehouse.” Boxer said that “the proper way for a so-called officer and...