Badly use of grammar
While apologizing for groping a woman, Al Franken, a cum laude graduate of Harvard, said he "made some women feel badly ... ." This is a great example of a highly educated person bending over backwards in an effort to use correct grammar only to wind up being incorrect.
Ignoring the context and the fact that his apology was somewhat understated, I think that if he wanted to be correct he should have said "feel bad." I know a lot of readers are now thinking to themselves that feel is a verb and should be modified in adverb form. However, feel is not usually used as an action verb. It is one of the sense verbs, among them also being seem, look, smell, sound, and taste. They appear to be action verbs but are used like verbs of being.
Just by way of example, no one would say, "the accident looked badly" or "the spoiled milk smelled badly" or "the scratchy recording sounded badly." If your fingers were numb, you might say "I feel badly" and be correct, although it would be a little awkward.
Incidentally, when President Trump was host of The Apprentice, he corrected Cyndi Lauper for saying "I feel bad." He told her that she meant "I feel badly," but he was also wrong. The correct usage can easily be verified by doing an Internet search for "I feel bad or I feel badly."
GRISHAM PHILLIPS
Benton
We repeat ourselves
President Reagan used to say: "There you go again," so here we go again. Our Republican-dominated Congress is reforming our tax code much like Congress did back in Reagan's day. Those of us who actually remember Reagan know that Reagan was really a wobbly-headed senile old actor who often replied, "Well ... (wobble, wobble) ... er ... uh ..." and sometimes confused reality with movie fiction.
Under Reagan's lack of leadership, congressional spending got so out of control Reagan became the first U.S. president to budget for over a trillion dollars. To make matters worse, Reagan's Republicans reformed the federal tax code to benefit rich folks. The first cuts were made in 1981. The second cuts were in the 1986 Tax Reform Act. These tax laws resulted in the worst single-day stock market crash in history, remembered as "Black Monday." Republicans like to blame Iranian Silkworm missiles, but the Tax Reform Act was passed Oct. 22, 1986, and the crash happened all around the globe only a year later, Oct. 19, 1987.
When the dust settled, Reagan had destroyed the American economy, and his successor, George H.W. Bush, suffered the consequences in defeat at the hands of Bill Clinton, the only president to balance the federal budget four years in a row. Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, cut taxes twice, ending in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.
So here we go again making the same Republican mistakes. We just love to suffer.
GENE MASON
Jacksonville
Should alert the staff
Can someone check the president's phone, please? It seems some crazy person has gotten hold of it and is tweeting the most ridiculous things.
COREY DALE
Rudy
The wider socialism
Bradley Gitz says that socialism means the lure of "free stuff" that is paid for by somebody else. He mentions laws enacted to secure minimum wages, universal health care, and government-run pension plans.
I would remind your readers that other "free stuff" includes national and local security and law enforcement, highways, airports, and other transportation; schools; measures to support science, technology, and the arts. These benefit all of us. Then there is other "free" stuff, like government subsidies to persuade corporations to establish themselves in a city or state; or subsidies to support athletic arenas, paid for by taxes, that only the well-to-do can patronize; tax exemptions that favor business or financial interests. These benefits are not free, either.
I think that this socialism is supported by the myth of free enterprise and the power of market forces. This socialism is not associated with dorm rooms but with board rooms, although the term "bull sessions" might still be applied.
ETHEL C. SIMPSON
Fayetteville
Vileness ushered in
I applaud the recent letter by RL Hutson concerning the hypocrisy of the so-called religious right. I am a Christian, but certainly not a conservative one.
I've just read a book called This Is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey. This work is dystopian in nature and tells the story of an attempt by conservative Christians to basically impose their views on everyone else. More importantly, it describes efforts made by liberals and conservatives to find common ground and live in peace.
Personally I feel that my beliefs are pretty consistent. I oppose the death penalty, but I am also very uncomfortable with abortion. I have no use whatsoever for guns, having no desire to shoot other animals or people. Vegetarianism is always an option for most of us. I never would've envisioned a bizarre world where guns are carried in church and classrooms. I abhor the current anti-intellectualism running rampant in this country. It is almost as if one has to apologize for being intelligent and having attended college.
Unlike Trump, I do read books. My current prayer is to rid this country of the vileness ushered in by this (sort of) elected leader.
CATHERINE LAMB
Little Rock
Not willing to gamble
The way Trump and all his appointed members have so much to do with the Russians, I'd just have to say Trump is playing Russian roulette with the whole world.
Will someone please remove the firing pin?
BOB MASSERY
Little Rock
Editorial on 12/04/2017