My first bitch concerns an article from "Taking Pills" on May 24, 2017 where a person dies from Lime Disease. Where does Ron obtain his information on the cost of "doxycycline" that is between $2,500 and $3,500 hundred dollars? The Veterans Administration charged me $8.00 dollars for two of them.  According to Scott at Lenox Pharmacy a month's supply is $50.00 dollars. (I called Lenox Pharmacy twice to verify from another person the cost.)

I thank all of my Hartford Fire department colleagues sitting with me at a table during the "First Sunday" of a month breakfast for demanding I go to the VA when I mentioned a circle around a tick bite. God bless my nurse Betty at the Binghamton VA clinic. I was in at 1:00 PM and out at 1:10 PM. I did not contract the Lime disease.

My Second bitch concerns the County Transcript. Why were there so many "Letters to the Editor" from Van Eck? What ever happened to Bob Scroggins? I see he has returned. Welcome back Bob even though your rebuttals to my writings were harsh at times. You helped make me become a better person and hopefully a better writer. As I see Van Eck's name at the bottom of a letter to the editor, I immediately by-pass his trash." (I will not be seeing his rebuttal to me, ha, ha, ha!)

My third bitch concerns articles from Kerrie Wilder concerning "Smart Meters" in her articles from "Wake Up America." She accuses me of being complacent for allowing my electric company to install one. My background in electronics is 25 years.  Radio Corporation of America (RCA) sent up a rocket to orbit a satellite starting the beginning of voice (cell phones), television, radio and data. I also worked at Earth Stations sending microwaves up to the satellites.

My electric company, Claverack, upon my request sent me approximately 20 pages of information on "Smart Meters." I agree from my experience and Claverack's literature that the smart meters are safe. My fear is having your cell phones too close to your ears; my fear is having your children being too close to a television set; my fear is having anyone being too close to your microwave oven when it is on. My worst fear is the blowing up of our nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania by terrorist. Now, that fall out of radiation is worth worrying about.

My electric bill over a period of 16 years has not gone over $100 dollars per month unless I am using my power equipment; table saw, router when I am working on a project. (I compare my usage in kilo-watts, let's say 640 kilo-watts from 16 years ago to present 640 kilo-watts to obtain my results.) We are being bombarded by Radio Waves, Television Waves and Sun rays every day. Most of us men live to be around 75 years and women around 80. I am approaching the average limit life span of a man, and I do not glow in the dark from working all these years in electronics.

My last bitch? I will make it brief, "Replace and Repeal" the inept Republican party and for that matter the Democrats, too.

Sincerely,

Larry Gary Guarnotta

Gibson PA

Do you have the right to associate with whomever you choose? Yes, but don't take that too seriously; it's a make-believe right.

Freedom of association, though not explicitly mentioned in the First Amendment to the Constitution, is implicitly implied:

“Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”

The freedom “to assemble” was understood in the same broad terms as the other freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. That changed in the '60s when that sanctimonious generation decided to right the wrongs in society going back to when the nation was founded 230 years ago.

Some minorities were oppressed and discriminated against, said the do-righters. Bugles blaring, the social meddlers and their coworkers in the courts would fix these injustices.

Their fixes were based on three spindly pillars: victimization, zero-sum gain, and arbitrariness. We'll explain each.

Victimization. A new vocabulary was invented to categorize presumed prejudices: racist, sexist, sex, age, homophobia, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and queer. Selected minorities were recognized as victims of these biases and society was the victimizer.

The “disadvantaged” were victimized by an oppressive society and were granted compensatory privileges by the government.

A short list of these bestowed “rights” included a leg-up for jobs, housing, government contracts, set asides, college admission, and financial subsidies for food, living expenses, and education. Victim hood pays well.

The second pillar of civil rights: zero-sum gain.

The only way government can confer unearned advantages is to take them from one group and give them to another; it is borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

Affirmative action for one group (usually the least productive) is negative action against another group (usually the most productive). One group gains to the extent that another group loses, a zero-sum gain.

All civil rights grants are zero-sum gains. There are always winners and losers, chosen not by chance or diligence, but by the whim of the government.

The third pillar of civil rights: arbitrariness.

For example, all-boys' schools are discriminatory, but all-girls' schools are champions of diversity (a favored word). All-white clubs are evil, but all-black clubs are permissible. All-male clubs are illegal, but all-female clubs are signs of social progress.

Worst of all are the all-Christian schools, bastions of religious bigotry. By law, they must cease their discriminatory admission policy. However, a business owner may exclude patrons because of unsuitable dress or demeanor.

And let us not forget that signature civil rights victory that gave homosexual men the right to become Boy Scout leaders. Hmm. What about a 75-year-old lesbian as a Scoutmaster, make that Scoutmistress? So much more inclusive (another favored word) don't you think?

By extension, property owners are now partners with the government's war against discrimination. If one owns a house or business, the government now has a say in whom you may rent or sell your house to or to whom you may hire or fire in your business. Be careful here. A misstep will have the ACLU after you like a hound chasing a rabbit with a pricey discrimination suit.

It's hard to imagine how the government's war for social justice could be made more socially disruptive, but it found a way: multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism can be defined as the presence of several distinct cultures within a society. What the loss of freedom of association and property rights is on a local scale, multiculturalism is as destructive on a national scale.

Here racism takes the guise of Euro-centrism, the idea that Western culture is superior to all others. Rather than argue the point, ask yourself, Where else---in Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, South America, or Africa---could one live as freely and enjoy such a cornucopia of abundance?

Moreover, it is a misconception to think that the balkanization of a nation leads to harmony. It creates the opposite. Opposing political factions jockeying for control and government favor fosters social dis-ease, not tranquility. In this sense, dis-ease can be looked upon as an actual social disease, a condition detrimental to the health and well-being of a nation.

What, then, of the future, will the people rise up and stick down all the social engineering civil rights laws? I think not. Too many have grown up under the present system. To restore the moth-eaten remnants of lost freedoms to constitutional purity would be unnerving. Like a caged animal, our cage has become our home.

But one prediction can be made with absolute certainty. When in a not too distant time the future arrives, it will come as an unexpected seismic shock. It always does.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA