Free Republic

New York is number one again, but this time it’s for being the rudest and most arrogant state in the country. A new survey from Business Insider asked 1,600 Americans to answer questions about states they don’t live in, like which were the drunkest, the smartest or had the silliest accents. “The results were hilarious, informative and tell you everything you need to know about the dynamic between the states,” Business Insider said on its website. It found that 39 percent of those polled felt New York was the most arrogant state and 44 percent felt it was the rudest....

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/beyond_the_echo_chamber/ Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 12:55 pm Advice from "beyond the echo chamber" We just learned the economy lost another 600,000 jobs last month. It's a staggering number, and it underscores just how deep this crisis is – and, as the President pointed out this morning, it’s accelerating. That's why he created the Economic Recovery Advisory Board -- to solicit ideas from "beyond the echo chamber of Washington, DC." "I’m not interested in groupthink, which is why the Board reflects a broad cross-section of experience, expertise, and ideology," he said. "We’ve recruited...

WHEN Tim Zagat dines out in New York, many of the restaurants he goes to know that he prefers his soup served in a cup and enjoys iced tea with cranberry juice in a large glass over lots of ice. Jay-Z’s fondness for white Burgundy is also no secret among the city’s headwaiters. But what is perhaps more surprising is that when Arnie Tannen, a health care consultant in Brooklyn, sits down for his regular Friday-night dinner at Gramercy Tavern, his server always knows that he prefers a black napkin (less lint) and wants only the ends of a loaf...

When the Lords South Beach Hotel opened last month in Miami, its brightly hued decor, trio of plunge pools and Absolut Vodka–partnered bar looked much like any other higher-end Miami resort. But the 53-room Art Deco confection, which is located a block from South Beach's main gay beach, is billing itself as the country's first large-scale, design-driven gay hotel. Not just gay-friendly, but gay through and through. The hotel worked with Out magazine to develop a Concierge App listing top local LGBT hot spots, asked Levi's to custom-design its gray and white jean uniforms, and is preparing to launch its...

I would readily forgo the White House Manischewitz in exchange for an end to the bitter herbs he is dishing out to Israel. This Monday, President Barack Obama hosted his second White House Seder. As a Jewish American I am grateful to the president for highlighting the festival of Jewish emancipation, but given a choice, I would readily forgo the White House Manischewitz in exchange for an end to the bitter herbs the president is serving Israel. Publicly shunning Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and privately berating him is not going to be forgiven because of gefilte fish and matza balls....

Looks like some resorts have found a way to survive in a down hospitality market. Southwest Travel Notes - casting aside the paperworkSpa Resort with more...and nothing at all Clothing optional has become a marketing trend in upscale resorts popping up across America . For a growing number of resort goers, the option of checking their clothes at the door has become an attractive way to relax and retreat. Nestled in the hills of a California desert community and overlooking the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs is Living Waters Spa that has served the clothing optional market for over six...

A suicide attack on Peshawar's Pearl Continental, popular among foreigners, killed at least five people and wounded 70.A suicide bombing Tuesday at Peshawar's only five-star hotel is the latest of several recent attacks in this northwestern Pakistani city. It comes after the Taliban threatened to launch periodic attacks in retaliation for an ongoing Army offensive against militants in the Swat Valley. As the town closest to the battle zone and to Pakistan's tribal areas, a militant stronghold, Peshawar makes for a prime target. Although the Taliban are unlikely to take over the city, say analysts, the attacks have stirred up...

A black waiter says bosses at a midtown Italian eatery brushed him off when he complained that co-workers chanted racial epithets at him in Spanish. Marcus Simmons is expected to sue Simply Pasta for racial discrimination Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court. Simmons, 28, of Brooklyn, says the chants occurred in April 2007 when he tried to intervene in a confrontation between Hispanic workers and the Theater District restaurant's only other black employee. "Mayate, mayate," the Hispanic workers chanted, according to the lawsuit filed by lawyer James Vagnini. The slang term roughly translates as insect and is used derogatorily to refer...

The manager of one of the city's most luxurious hotels was given the boot after ordering a Catholic employee to clean up his forehead on Ash Wednesday. "Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face," managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told a bell captain at the New York Palace Hotel on Feb. 25, sources said. The unholy ultimatum ended up costing Leuenberger his job at the Palace, a swanky 55-story tower on Madison Ave. across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral. "As of Monday, March 23, Leuenberger is no longer employed by the New York Palace," hotel spokeswoman Teresa Delaney told the...

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:9-13 Hospitality is not something that many in the West are proficient at. Sure, there's the occasional holiday meal with family and friends, and family is welcome upon invitation but by and large, we don't practice it. It's not that...

Atlantis Hotel Plans $20 Million Launch Amid Global CrisisAmid world-wide economic upheaval, South African casino mogul Solomon Kerzner is throwing this Mideast boomtown's most lavish party to date, marking the grand opening of a $1.5 billion hotel on Dubai's man-made, palm-shaped island. Rooms at the Atlantis range from $800 to $25,000 a night. Developer Solomon Kerzner is looking beyond the economic slump: 'You don't develop this on the basis of how we're going to do in the first two to three years.' The Thursday-night bash at the salmon-colored Atlantis -- modeled after Mr. Kerzner's Atlantis resort in the Bahamas --...

It was Adolph Hitler who first coined the phrase the “Big Lie” in his infamous book “Mein Kampf”. For those unfamiliar with the phrase, it refers to a propaganda technique that involves telling a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". The oft-cited “Big Lie” theory appears to have been the Nazi dictator’s explanation for how people came to believe that Germany lost World War 1 in the field -- a "big lie" that Hitler attributed to Jewish influence on the press. And it was Joseph Gobbles,...

A clash of faiths in the U.S. Senate last week led to the collapse of the country's first major immigration reform bill in two decades. On one side were the pragmatists, backed by the Bush administration, who say the country needs to accept that its estimated 12 million illegal residents are likely here to stay, and it should offer them a path to citizenship. On the other side were the idealists, who say lawbreakers shouldn't be rewarded, and that doing so would only encourage more illegal immigration. Although Democratic majority leader Harry Reid withdrew the bill, he left open the...

The horrible death of James Kim in the Oregon wilderness reminds us of the potential danger in taking a wrong turn. A number of scary movies, such as 2003's Wrong Turn, remind us that uncivilized territory inhabited by barbarians can also be lethal to the unwary who don't stick to the established routes. Our troops and contractors in Iraq have had to avoid wrong turns, and too many of them have died or been injured by making a mistake in navigating hostile territory. News comes from India of an unfortunate soul who made a wrong turn, and ended up on...

Month of corporate hospitality kills Chinese official Jonathan Watts in Beijing Tuesday October 24, 2006 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Even by the standards of a country obsessed by banquets and plagued by corruption, the corporate hospitality that killed Zhang Hongtao was on the excessive side. After a month-long wining-and-dining marathon - interrupted by massages, card games, sightseeing and the occasional morning of work - the county auditor from Yanshan in northern Hebei province succumbed to alcohol poisoning, according to local media reports. The story might have died with him in April were it not for subsequent revelations that the fatally lavish...

SANTA BARBARA (NNS) -- More than 3,000 Sailors from USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) received a warm welcome Aug. 19 from the residents of Santa Barbara as they experienced all the food, shopping and hospitality the city has to offer. “Everyone I have run into has been very generous and inviting,” said Lt.j.g. Taiwan Holmes, Reagan’s repairable asset management branch officer. “It is amazing to see people go out of their way to thank you for the job you are doing," Holmes added. "It is very encouraging.” Sailors took tours of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the Reagan Ranch,...

NEW DELHI: Visiting Pakistanis, fed for long on fables, rumours and stories about India, are making the most of the chance to confirm all they ever heard. Ranan Ghulam Qoadir, an agriculturist from Lahore here to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match on Sunday, had heard that Muslims simply "disappear" in India. But after clocking 24 hours in Delhi, he could not stop singing praises of India and Indians. "There is so much of a difference between what I had heard and what I saw. I have been treated like a VVIP here. The moment my Pakistani identity was revealed, their...

When I was an intern learning my chops at Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2000, I had already been greatly disillusioned by the complications that simply opening my mouth created. I had come, young and determined, to Franklin College in Indiana two years before from a tiny southern town at the bottom of the Bluegrass State. When I arrived in Indiana, I found the so-called Hoosier Hospitality severely lacking, and traveling to the nation's capital had afforded me no relief. There, as in Indiana, my culture was the source of cruel jokes, unfair assumptions...

A Palestinian whose violin performance at a West Bank checkpoint embarrassed the military, angered Palestinians and upset some Israelis said Tuesday that he has found goodwill at an Israeli kibbutz which invited him to take some lessons there. Wissem Tayem, 29, was speaking in an interview with The Associated Press after spending three days as the guest of Israelis at a music workshop on a kibbutz communal farm in the hills of the Galilee. "They gave me a wonderful, warm reception," Tayem said of his kibbutz hosts. "Everyone was lovely, in this kibbutz they treat people with respect no matter...

Three Sentenced for Golf With Prostitutes Friday November 5, 2004 5:16 PM NORCO, Calif. (AP) - Two golf course managers and a tournament organizer were sentenced to house arrest for hosting two competitions featuring prostitutes and strippers stationed along the putting greens. [snip] About 160 golfers paid $200 apiece to play, though some showed up without their clubs, officials said. Sheriff's deputies wearing camouflage raided the second tournament, detaining 90 golfers and 17 strippers and alleged prostitutes, along with golf course workers.