Publisher’s Note:
Due to the political sensitivity of Letter’s to the Editor regarding Transgendering, Drag and LGBQ (etc.) activities, no identification of the author is required. This is to encourage correspondence and prevent retaliation. Opinions from all sides are encouraged. Of course, “fighting words” and defamatory expressions are always prohibited.
As a famous entertainer used to say, “Wunnerful, Wunnerful! Let’s keep those cards and letters coming folks!” (A free one-year subscription to the Gazette for the first person to identify him.)

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A response to Kelly Scoles’ letter:
To be frank, Kelly, I’m sympathetic to the lyrics of “Rich Men North of Richmond”, but the sound is hard on my old ears.
While there is plenty of room to blame both Democrats and Republicans for our bankruptcy-inviting financial policies, Democrats are the greatest offenders; they are addicted to big government and its habits of profligacy; it’s like “join the Democrats, we give away the most free stuff,” until the “free” stuff runs out.
In the fiscal year 2022, the federal government brought in [taxes] $4.90 trillion but spent $6.27 trillion, with a net budget deficit of $1.38 trillion (the fourth-highest of the 21st Century). In addition, it has run deficits every year since 2001, when it last ran a surplus.

The current US national debt? (as of 9-5-2023) is $32 trillion. In other words, that’s thirty-two thousand billion dollars. I know, that’s headache-producing. That’s $98,000 owed for every person in the US.
Democrats believe Uncle Sam has an infinitely expandable credit card - like Zimbabwe did in 2015. “Equivalent daily inflation rate was: 98%. Time required for prices to double: 24.7 hours.” Cost of loaf of bread, “At one point, a loaf of bread was Z$550,000,000 in the regular market, when bread was even available”. That’s what you call hyperinflation - brace yourself.

Two examples of inflation impress me today, the cost of a cup of coffee, McDonalds medium: in Fillmore: $3.19, more than in Camarillo! (I’m holding the receipt). Next, the affordability for the average person to buy a house. As a young man I could sit at a luncheon counter anywhere and buy a cup of coffee for ten cents and get free refills. I bought my first house in Ventura for $56,000, two-bedroom, single bath, nice backyard, great neighborhood, in the early 1970s. I worked on the Alaska Pipeline at the time. The same house today: $450,000.

Kelly, I too am gravely concerned about the almost apocalyptic financial imbalance in the country today. It seems everything is too big for the average American to handle. BlackRock Investment Mgt. once claimed to control $10 trillion dollars. Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Amazon, Alphabet, and Nvidia all claim to be trillion-dollar companies. Let’s remember that a trillion dollars is 1,000 billion. As Senator Everett Dirksen once said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”. Maybe that’s the question, is it real money? As long as the world continues to believe, it must be. Of course, as soon as people no longer believe, it becomes fictitious, like the Zimbabwe dollar. In a word, I believe most things of “value” today have become “fabulous”, fantastic, which is not a thing at all in reality; not unlike my friend Scrooge McDuck with his three cubic acres of cash and gold coins in his money bins overlooking the city of Duckburg. Money elevates one to the status of Super Mortal. At a whim, like Mr. Zuckerberg, at this level one can donate $400-million to the Democratic Party during an election, a pittance from the money bin. Though not as rich as McDuck, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Ford, Astor, Morgan, et al. sought to be the richest men in the world. None may have been as wolfishly greedy as J. Paul Getty (though he did leave a museum) and Carnegie, many libraries, while helping to organize the industrial revolution. I think accumulations of money like this are problematic for Republics. But all were ambushed by their mortality, and met their God, without benefit of money.

But I digress. I will admit, America is far out of economic balance, and I don’t know what to do about it. How can we ever get back to the ten-cent coffee and $56,000 house?

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Since the Biden family’s domestic and international business dealings are proving to be criminal, Joe’s proposals are meaningless to me. I continue to support Trump, with some trepidation. He is being unconstitutionally attacked by corrupt federal and state agencies, which have been weaponized to destroy the Republican Party. I doubt whether he survives to run for office. This is true political assassination and election interference.
Kelly, you keep bringing up the tragic story of the “surgical sexual reassignment of David Reimer.” (“Reassignment” is an outrageous euphemism here.) I heard today that some 50,000 boys and girls (under age 18) have undergone similar surgery for so-called “gender dysphoria” - all based upon “feelings”. It’s time to hear from those who too late regret that surgery as they grow-up. Liberal leftists, like you, have substituted “feelings” for logic, and live in an unreality which science can never touch. You entirely misinterpret the Church Militant article. Where did I ever mention “sin”? The article is intended to show the horror of Transgenderism, not sympathize with it. I agree with you, “evil comes in many forms” - and “sexual reassignment surgery” is near the top of the list. You claim to “clearly refer to choosing to protect ourselves from unwelcome facts and being willing to make others suffer to avoid our own discomfort.” Kelly, it is not “discomfort” on my part that causes revulsion at the thought of these surgeries. It is the thought that Transgenderism (especially among the young) is an expression of growing Psychopathy, welcomed by pseudo scientists at the highest levels. What you call “facts” I see as delusion. What God has assigned let no man reassign.

As for your request for more “word count” to explain your thoughts more fully, for me, however important, the discussion can become a tedious echo chamber. However, you are entirely welcome to expand your opinions onto the Gazette, online. I’m just tired of the Pride stuff, the ‘LGBTIQA+, Drag Queen extravaganzas, and demonic Transgenderism. I classify this stuff as disordered psychobabble, psychologically injurious to normal people. As for me, it is all anathema to my Judeo-Christian understanding. But I will continue to respond as long as the conversation remains rational - and as long as this crap is tolerated in Fillmore schools.

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I miss opportunities to comment on the crucial Ukrainian War and Russian-Chinese-North Korean and Iranian threats, for which we are not prepared. Maybe next week.