Insults and pejoratives are not informed and fact-based opinion; they are insults and pejoratives. Therefore, I was surprised to see such a letter published in New Times (“God bless us and protect us and protect us from Democrats,” April 26).

Perhaps the following fact-based opinion will be instructive and informative to Mr. Ruhge. House Republicans voted April 18 to cut $33 billion from the SNAP program that aids 46 million and provides school lunches for 280,000 children per year. This cut will provide money for tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. This institutionalizes poverty, ignorance, and poor health in a population that will be a burden on society for years to come.

That is not dumb. It is cold, calculating, partisan, and an abomination to any fact-based thinking citizen. Perhaps a reminder to Mr. Ruhge is in order. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not only based on deceptions and outright lies by the previous administration, but are a source of anger and alienation in the Muslim world and a motivation for terror attacks and guerrilla warfare by the fundamentalist fringe.

Gather facts, then form opinions.

-- J. Gary Wilber - Morro Bay

-- J. Gary Wilber - Morro Bay