Free Republic

yours. What especially makes it so maddening is that you can’t escape, you must endure any disruptions to your day. One man took to Reddit’s “Am I the A–Hole?” forum to express his frustrations while flying one day. He wanted to find out if he was wrong for yelling at a mother to control her children. “Am I the A–hole?” is a place where people can write about conflict in their lives. The 39-year-old began the post by revealing that he was on a flight from New York to London. His seat was in front of a woman and her...

We live in brutal times without transitions. Everything must be instant and rushed, leaving no time for reflection. Thus, relationships become mechanical and inhuman. We need time to ponder, even if just for a minute, to get our bearings. This is why we develop small social conventions to aid our judgment and temper the brutality of instant expectations. One example of these reflecting habits consists of greetings. Those small formulas that start conversations or written letters provide us with transitions so we might communicate more civilly and effectively. How we need greetings today, and how society is impoverished without them!...

I am an assertive driver. Not aggressive, because that word is too aggressive. But I am decisive with speed. Still, if I’m attempting to merge and someone lets me in, I will roll down my window and wave to them. If it’s raining, I will just have a wet hand. I pray before meals. Not every meal. But meals with meat. I don’t ride city buses anymore, but when I did, I wouldn’t just give up my seat for women, elderly people and those who appear to have a physical disability, I wouldn’t even sit if the bus was packed...

Paul Guaschino was driving Friday when a fellow motorist spotted an “Impeach Obama” bumper sticker on the 62-year-old Connecticut resident’s vehicle. According to cops, the other driver apparently did not appreciate the bumper sticker and “displayed his dislike by showing his middle finger.”

Why do negative ads work? Some people say the negative ads give them information upon which to base their decision at the voting table (those little four-legged stands we use in Marion County). A study from Stanford University says the information from negative ads generally is not accurate. Perhaps negative ads work in the same way as Big-Time Championship Wrestling (as it was called when I was young; whatever it is called now). No one doubts the efforts of the participants, and the world is made a much simpler place when painted in black-and-white (with slightly better resolution vis-a-vis the...

It's been building.. No one opens doors for anyone any more, thank yous are few and far between. But today.. I am just blown away. I am sitting in my van, enjoying some white castle while reading FR. I hear a loud BANG on the side of my van. Look over and out the passenger window to see a 20 something kid who looks like he is a LONG way away from the beach. We lock eyes. He had banged his door in to the side of my van.. So I wait for him to walk around to the drivers...

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...

The most surprising and disappointing aspect of our politics is how little pushback there has been against the vile, extremist rhetoric that has characterized such a large part of the anti-Obama movement. President Obama's White House has largely ignored those accusing him of "fascism" and "communism," presumably believing that restraint in defense of dignity is no vice. Republican politicians, worried about future primary fights, have been reluctant to pick a fight with a radical right that seems to be the most energized section of their party. Their "moderation" has consisted of a non-benign neglect of the extremists and of accusing...

This past weekend, a small brouhaha erupted over a Halloween display on Capitol Hill. The display, in essence, mocked the death of the Republican Party and the conservative movement... Though distasteful, the display makes a point that has become increasingly common in American political discourse, that the Republican Party and American conservatism are dead... Of course, this is oversimplification and hyperbole. Conservatism is not dead, just civil conservatism. You can still hear some semblance of conservatism in the streets when Tea Partiers march, still see it on the television when you watch Fox News. In ever more hysterical tones, conservatism...

<p>Rudeness has taken center stage of late (old news to anyone who drives in South Florida). Etiquette experts say society has changed, and not for the better.</p> <p>R-E-S-P-E-C-T.</p> <p>Does the rash of high-profile rudeness we've witnessed in the past few days suggest we've forgotten the basic concept?</p>

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...

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio police have opened an internal affairs investigation into the behavior of a veteran officer accused of using a racial slur and beating a lesbian woman who asked him to put out his cigar at a community pool. Tamara Vaughan, 18, said her jaw was pushed in and she still cannot open it far after an attack by Detective Keith Alfaro, 35, who was off-duty. Vaughan was hospitalized. She has bruises on her arm that she says are from Alfaro and estimates he hit her 25 times, including putting his forearm on her throat and choking...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A bus driver struck a passenger about the head with a phone after the rider refused to give up his seat to an elderly woman, police said. The driver, Larry Woods, 44, and the rider, Christian Custis, 22, were arrested and charged with assault and harassment after the incident on the Q43 bus in the Jamaica section of Queens. Woods was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon. The men were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court. According to police, Woods asked Custis to give up his seat when the woman using a cane boarded the...

Kill `em with kindness BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on June 9, 1996.) I got to thinking about courtesy the other day when a woman hit me with her car. I want to stress that this was totally my fault. I was crossing a street in Miami, in a pedestrian crosswalk, and I saw the woman's car approaching, and like a total idiot I assumed she would stop. The reason I assumed this -- you are going to laugh and laugh -- is that there was a stop sign facing her, saying (this is...

WASHINGTON -- Americans' fast-paced, high-tech existence has taken a toll on the civil in society. From road rage in the morning commute to high decibel cell-phone conversations that ruin dinner out, men and women behaving badly has become the hallmark of a hurry-up world. An increasing informality -- flip-flops at the White House, even -- combined with self-absorbed communication gadgets and a demand for instant gratification have strained common courtesies to the breaking point. "All of these things lead to a world with more stress, more chances for people to be rude to each other," said Peter Post, a descendent...

A woman is bumped by a car a week after a fatal shooting. AAA advises not holding a spot by standing in it. Gerry Milot, 70, couldn't find a handicap space at the crowded Wal-Mart on Missouri Avenue in Largo. So his wife, June, 66, staked out a spot, standing in it until he could move their car over. But Henry Gawlik also wanted the coveted space. So he bumped June Milot out of the way with his Cadillac, police said. Gawlik, 81, was arrested on charges of aggravated battery with a vehicle and battery for hitting Gerry Milot after...

No national reaction to nose-blowingNorway's national soccer coach Åge Hareide has no intention of dropping controversial striker John Carew, who is now the focus of an investigation in Turkey, accused of blowing his nose on an opposing player.Carew has admitted to blowing, but not aiming. He has also claimed that photographs of the incident are manipulated, and display an unnatural amount of material being expelled toward an opponent, 19-year-old Turk Aytar Ac.Crew, currently at top Turkish club Besiktas, faces punitive action from the football federation there, where the incident has become a full-blown scandal.For the time being Norwegian football officials...

BREAKING NEWS Woman's £1m for docs By DAVE MASTERS Sun Online A WOMAN who was treated by a rude hospital doctor died - leaving more than £1million to a medical college to help improve students' bedside manners. New Yorker Ruth Hillebrand - who passed away ten years ago - wanted the cash to go to the school in Ohio, in the US.She felt practitioners needed to learn how to deal with patients better after being told she had cancer by her doctor over the phone who then hung up.The donation from her trust - revealed last week - was the biggest in the history...

How, then, did we get to the point where such power is wielded by those who, in the name of freedom, deny us the right to preserve our historic traditions? A foreign friend once asked me what the American Civil Liberties Union stood for. I sarcastically said, “None of the above.” But the more I pondered that response the more I realized how true it is. It is certainly not American because it denies both the worldview that framed America’s founding documents and denies a vast majority of Americans the right to enjoy their festivals the way they always have...

I am appalled. I want you "old-Timers" take a good hard look at how each and every one of you are welcoming the "newbies" to this very Site called FREEREPUBLIC. Isn't the very idea of enlightening the public to the ideas of conservatism of any relevance to you? I witnessed a fellow Freeper downright insult a "newbie" on this board by telling the poster to "take a hike". Is this how you want to represent the Republican/Conservative ideas that we adamantly believe are better for our Nation? Simply stated, it is both offensive and insulting to anyone who may wish...