A hate-filled column

Paul Krugman’s July 1 column was typically bitterly hate-filled and, in my view, lacking common sense. Talking about health insurance he says: “… the evils of the GOP plan are the flip side of the virtues of Obamacare. … GOP basically consists of career apparatchiks who live in an intellectual bubble, and those Reagan-era stereotypes still dominate their picture of struggling Americans. … Republicans start from a sort of baseline of cruelty toward the less fortunate.”

Contrast Krugman’s diatribe to Peggy Noonan’s column that day in the Wall Street Journal. Suggesting a bipartisan effort on health care, she writes: “Is it fair that both parties must fix a problem created by one party? No, but it would be wise and would work. … Show some class, help the country. When it’s over, use whatever words you want: ‘We forced Democrats to admit the bill [Obamacare] was flawed and dying.’ ‘We forced Republicans to back down.’ America won’t mind the propaganda, they’re used to it. Just make a bad thing better.”

If you choose to discontinue Krugman’s column, I would be pleased. GEORGE MOBBS

Little Rock in the short time we have been here. I consider addressing any woman in that manner to be quite disrespectful.”

The waitress seemed neither stunned nor offended but said, “You know, they did a survey on that and found out that quite a few people feel as you do about that.” Of course, I couldn’t help but wonder, if she knew that, why in the world would she continue to use that term.

I am not singling Cracker Barrel out as a special offender in this matter, nor that particular waitress. The practice is so widespread that seldom are a mixed couple addressed any other way. To complicate matters, this particular waitress was addressing a 78-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman. If nothing else, our ages demand a little more respect than that.

Having said all of that, I have a question to ask. Why is it that I have never heard a mixed couple addressed as “you gals.” I wonder why that is. Is there any difference in calling a mixed couple “you gals” as opposed to “you guys?” While the offended woman quietly accepts the offensive name, if a man was referred to as a “gal,” I suspect he would probably explode. I know I would. Think about it!

BILL DAVIS

Rogers