Free Republic

CHAPTER XVI — CONCERNING LIBERALITY AND MEANNESS Commencing then with the first of the above-named characteristics, I say that it would be well to be reputed liberal. Nevertheless, liberality exercised in a way that does not bring you the reputation for it, injures you; for if one exercises it honestly and as it should be exercised, it may not become known, and you will not avoid the reproach of its opposite. Therefore, any one wishing to maintain among men the name of liberal is obliged to avoid no attribute of magnificence; so that a Trump thus inclined will consume...

The scene was tense Wednesday, 3 March, when Mason Jammer, a student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, Michigan held his kindergarten class hostage by fashioning his finger into the shape of a gun. Ionia is far distant suburb east of the thriving metropolis of Grand Rapids. During the siege, panicked teachers gathered outside the classroom expressed concerns that the finger might go off. “This just wasn’t funny,” said the Jefferson principal. “[This] made other students uncomfortable.” Jammer strutted around the room with his right forefinger held straight out. His right thumb was held erect, though it occasionally sagged when Jammer’s...