American id

After satisfying myself that Sen. Cotton really did say what he said about miscreants rotting in A.) hell, or B). Guantanamo Prison (in other words, that you guys weren’t just making this stuff up), I have to say that a part of me agrees 100 percent with him.That part is called the id. It’s the part of us that demands immediate gratification, the only part of our consciousness present at birth, probably located in our brain stem.

I tried to look up its exact location, but “location of Idaho” was as close as I could get. Close enough. Freud described the id as a riderless horse, which is apropos for our purposes here. Not for nothing do we have the word idiot. The Native Americans are supposed to have believed that the camera steals the soul.

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Maybe “reveals” is a better word. Indulging in this kind of kill-’em-all rhetoric feels good, but in order to defeat ISIS we’re going to have to re-evaluate some of our own stuff in order to avoid playing into its hands, and bilge like Cotton’s is as good a place as any to start.

Mark Whitman Johnson

Little Rock

From the web in response to Michael Roberts’ Eat Arkansas blog post, “We can do better, Little Rock,” bemoaning Chick-fil-A ranking as 2014’s highest grossing restaurant in Little Rock and encouraging readers to eat at local restaurants instead.

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I think we have some excellent local restaurants and I frequent them but Chick-fil-A is delicious for fast food. Most people either don’t care about their politics or they agree with them but apparently many people think the chicken is a superior product. Good luck, but I don’t think you will be diminishing their sales with your rhetoric.

Andrew Branch

I avoided Chick-fil-A for nearly four years due to politics, and I regret it. Since my rediscovery of the amazing Chick-fil-A sandwich a few months ago, I eat there at least twice per week. Perhaps instead of crying about how much money Chick-fil-A makes, you should encourage local restaurants to aspire to the clear success of Chick-fil-A. The market has spoken, and Chick-fil-A rules. I do go out of my way to eat local and support local restaurants/farms. If a local restaurant had anything comparable to the deliciousness, speed, polite service and quality of a Chick-fil-A sandwich, I would eat there. But they don’t.

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infidel

Y’all need to stop eating factory-farmed chicken, which is all fast food. Follow one of the trucks transporting chickens to the slaughterhouse to see what winds up on your plate. The chickens are filthy dirty and some of them are obviously sick and injured.

theoutlier

I’m shocked at the Chick-fil-A defense. Really. However, as much as I try to support local businesses over chains, all this clamoring for delicious fried chicken makes me hopeful that somewhere a Bojangles exec is reading these comments and is planning to open a Famous Chicken and Biscuits restaurant here in Little Rock!

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The Rank Stranger

Clearly many people on this thread know better than the common unsophisticated consumer how best to spend their hard-earned food dollars. I wonder how many of the kitchen staff at South on Main or one of the other local restaurants are able to afford to feed their family of four if they must pay $9 per chicken sandwich. Be upset all you want, but in a state with a rather low average income, places like Chick-fil-A thrive because they offer a great product at a reasonable price working people can afford. Sure it isn’t locally grown hormone- free chickens that were read poetry every night before bed, but who can afford that shit on a regular basis when they support a family on $20K per year.

DrewJD

From the web, in response to Leslie Peacock’s cover story, “Little Rock’s flyover status grows, thanks to changes in the airline business”: Even though the airport is losing money if federal subsidies are not counted, the Airport Commission made up of successful businessmen and one woman fail to run the operation as they run their businesses. Declining passengers, loss of flights, increasing expenses and salaries while revenue declines seem to offer obvious solutions. Yet they seem hell-bent on giving the airport director a larger salary and a whopping bonus. What is wrong with this stinking picture? A wholesale change in leadership seems to be the answer.

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downtowner

XNA has lost flights, too. Flights to Miami, Salt Lake City, Raleigh, Memphis, D.C. and Los Angeles have been dropped or reduced. Directs to Minneapolis will continue due to the significant overlap in business between accounts dealing with both Walmart and Target keeping the planes filled.

FSMXNA

I have to fly for business. Tomorrow I catch a 9:45 flight, go to Dallas Love THEN go to New Orleans. I will not get in until 2 p.m. I have had to drive to Memphis several times to get cheaper direct flights that make the company happy but are a pain for me. Drive to Memphis, fly to destination … work several days … fly back to Memphis then drive back to Little Rock. Even flights out of Memphis are harder to work with. If not an international airport the regional airports are going to continue going down in the number of flights. Flying out of Little Rock is easy, few lines, quick security and relaxed, BUT if I cannot get the flights I need it is not going to matter.

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Miss Ellie

From the web in response to Max Brantley’s column “Little Rock’s time” (Feb. 19):

To be tolerant yourself, would you not have to be tolerant of those whom you regard as intolerant? Although eliminating by law and, more importantly, by action, discrimination because of race, ethnicity, religion, and other such characteristics (please see above, regarding political points of view) is good for business, is not the better reason that practicing nondiscrimination is the right thing to do?

deadseasquirrel

From the web in response to the dining review, “Samantha’s taps into new Main vibe” (Feb. 19):

The waffle. OH MY the waffle. Unlike any other waffle I’ve ever eaten. Likely quite dangerous that Samantha’s is only a two minute walk from our front door. Love this place! They had me at PURSE HOOKS.

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AshAhrens

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