Free Republic

Most of us feel we make it through each day as upstanding citizens. Picking up our trash, holding the door, and saying “hello” on the street are markers of a polite person. However, a playback reel could reveal something surprising and, to some, horrifying: We’re all rude! That’s right — we can be impolite sometimes, even when trying our best not to be. Whether due to excitement, distraction, or frustration, sometimes our best efforts slip and give way to less-than-impressive behavior. Do your good manners go out the window in these daily situations? Etiquette plays a significant role in building...

Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General William Barr had plenty of popcorn moments, but one exchange the witness had with Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) deserves an honorable mention. As Dean, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, was questioning the attorney general, she seemed to completely forget her point. And Barr instantly called her bluff. Dean began her interrogation with a timeline of events on the day President Trump walked from the White House to St. John's Episcopal Church, which had been lit on fire the night before during George Floyd-related riots in the city. About 15 minutes before he...

Reporters are supposed to hunt for facts, to search for the truth, and their best tool is a good question. Knowing a good question and knowing how and when to ask it are skills prized by the wisest members of society from Talmudic times in Judea to the philosophers of ancient Greece and China. As Hillel the Elder, the philosopher Socrates, and many other wise thinkers knew, great truths reveal themselves to those who ask good questions. Making a bold statement or throwing an insult or a challenge will get you an opportunity for a photo -- a “photo-op,” but...

The Prince of Wales, Prince William, and the younger royals all deliberately snubbed President Donald J. Trump on his visit to the UK, the Sunday Times reports. I blame the Meghan effect. Of course we can’t hold the arrival into the Royal household of a pretty actress who used to be in Suits wholly responsible for this outbreak of crass, thick, petulant behaviour: as we know, the Prince of Wales is more than capable of that without much prompting; and in Will’s case, the acorn doesn’t look as if it has fallen too far from the tree. Still, I’m blaming...

Britain’s 90-year-old monarch has made a rare foray into political affairs, being caught on film characterizing Chinese officials as “very rude” in their dealings with British counterparts during a state visit last year. Queen Elizabeth II made the unguarded comments Tuesday while talking to a senior police officer at a rain-soaked garden party on the grounds of Buckingham Palace. With uncharacteristic bluntness — rarely if ever heard in public — the queen said the Chinese had not dealt properly with Barbara Woodward, the British envoy to China. “They were very rude to the ambassador,” Elizabeth said. …

<p>When the rhetoric of a major party's leading presidential candidate falls to this level, we should be scornful.</p> <p>So, how is it OK when it isn't just a presidential candidate but a president who does it?</p> <p>Demeaning and snarking his political opponents has been a favorite habit of President Obama for the last eight years. Obama is perhaps the first president who believes that leading the country and playing to the beliefs of the extremists in his own party amount to the same thing,.</p>

Those like the unfortunate Bobby Jindal, who imagine that they hurt Donald Trump's standing among voters by criticizing his rudeness, don't get it. They don't understand the feelings of real voters – those who don't live on the coasts or profit from government policies. Those who say both parties are the same need to look at how now Republican voters are turning against their own do-nothing party leaders. Democrat voters are not turning against Hillary or Biden for doing nothing. Republican voters have standards; they, unlike liberal voters, actually expect their elected officials to get something done for the nation...

After eight largely Chappelle-free years, you’d think comedy fans would be eager to hear what the guy had to say in his new standup routine. By EW’s own account, spectators in Austin certainly were: When Dave Chappelle first took the stage at Funny or Die’s Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival, those present gave the comic a standing ovation before he even began his set. Alas, that was Texas —and this is Connecticut. Last night in Hartford, a noisy, unruly crowd prompted Chappelle to pause his set, ultimately walking off stage to a chorus of boos.

An Idaho man accused of uttering a racial slur and slapping a crying 19-month-old boy on a Delta Air Lines flight is now out of a job. Joe Rickey Hundley of Hayden, Idaho, was charged with assaulting a minor in the February 8 incident. His company, which initially suspended him, said Sunday that Hundley no longer has his job. "Reports of the recent behavior of one of our business unit executives while on personal travel are offensive and disturbing," said a statement from AGC Aerospace & Defense. "We have taken this matter very seriously and worked diligently to examine it...

The software company definitely seemed interested in hiring Tom Fleming. It set up breakfast and lunch meetings, then flew the Concord salesman to its headquarters in Virginia for interviews with a half-dozen executives, including the founder and chief executive. But after promising to get back to him in a week, the company never contacted him again.

Could Andrea Mitchell possibly be more snide and condescending toward Sarah Palin? On her MSNBC show today, here's how Mitchell introduced her interview with Jeanne Cummings of Politico concerning Sarah Palin's current trip to India and Israel: "Well. Heh-heh. Where do you start?" Dismissive as was the language, only the video does justice to the derision in Mitchell's tone. View clip here.

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 got to thinking about the insidious nature of television commercials, and started a quick compilation of “little things” which, taken singly seem innocent enough, but which, when bombarded throughout the 24-hour cycle, are little short of damning in their flaunting of flat-out rudeness and out-and-out celebration of bad behavior…

HENRY COUNTY, GA -- Out of jail and doing community service, Clifford "T.I." Harris made a trip to Woodland Middle School in Henry County on March 5, an unwanted surprise for one family. Tom Myers was surprised when his daughter came home and told him that T.I. had been the speaker at the assembly on anti bullying. Myers told 11Alive News that had he known T.I. was speaking, he would not have allowed his daughter to attend. So he wrote an e-mail to Woodland's principal, Dr. Terry Oatts. "The first e-mail I sent to him was to ask that from...

In a recent puff piece, The New York Times reports that our President is tired. This is not the first such report. Back in May, when he treated England’s Gordon Brown so shabbily, the excuse given — according to The Daily Telegraph – was that wrestling with the economic crisis had left Barack Obama too exhausted to be able to focus on foreign affairs. We should perhaps discount what was said in May. For, as I have attempted to document in detail here, here, here, here, here, and here, President Obama is a gentleman, and, as such, he is never...

PASSENGERS who have poor personal hygiene or kick seats have been voted the most disliked flyers in a new survey. A wide variety of annoying travel behaviour was detailed in US travel company Travelocity’s 2009 Rudeness Poll, which surveyed 1600 passengers on their pet peeves.The annoyances varied between the time of boarding the plane, during the flight and when departing. When boarding those surveyed were most annoyed by passengers who wrested with larger than allowed carry-on luggage. This was followed by people who crowded the boarding line, blocked the isle, stored their luggage carelessly or used overhead bins for small...

Finntann wrote in his blog about the decline of 'Civil-ization' in this country. While the polite still outnumber the rude, the ranks of the latter are growing. Closely related to the rude are those who think the rules don't apply to them, or who have become successful but are resentful of having had to work so hard for it. Just look at the financial mess we are in: The rules didn't apply to the politicians and their crony capitalist friends. Next we have anger and resentment from those who have overcome poverty and racism to get where they are today....

This is definitely a vanity post. My first, but it has been bothering me for several days and I have toget it off my chest. It does have serious social implications, however, and I hope not uninteresting to Freepers. Last Saturday night, my brother (46) and I (43) decided to go to a movie, King Fu Panda. Being an animated feature, we were wary of screaming kids so we specifically chose a showtime after 10PM. Four guys came in at the last minute and sat four seats away, with empty seats between us. Five minutes into the movie, the guy...

Three Removed From Senate During Hindu Prayer By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer July 12, 2007 Washington (CNSNews.com) -- Three Christian protestors were removed from the U.S. Senate chamber's observation gallery Thursday when they disrupted the morning prayer -- being delivered for the first time in history by a Hindu chaplain. The three unidentified protestors began praying loudly when Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain from Nevada, started praying. The demonstrators prayed for forgiveness from Jesus Christ for "betraying" the Christian tradition. Senate security officers quickly removed the demonstrators, and Zed continued with his prayer for peace. "May our study be...

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