It's not jerkish behavior to tell a lazy newbie to use the search feature or to read the stickys. I read the beginner forum regularly, and sometimes there will be two or three different threads on the exact same basic question all on the first page! It clutters up the forum and actually makes finding information harder. Case in point: there is a thread there now asking what the best trainer is. That thread comes up at least once a week, so much so that there is a sticky at the top of the page to list appropriate starter planes. Answering that question or any other FAQ item yet again is like giving a bum money for panhandling on the side of the road. All you do is encourage more of the same behavior, and you actually impede the newbie from learning how to research things himself.
I do anything I can to help new guys, but the best way to help them is to teach them how to mine the forum for the immense wealth of information that is here. If they still have questions after that, then by all means they should post.