Featured Commentary category, Page 130
Jonah Goldberg: Age of impeachment & death of shame
As the impeachment trial fizzled out, I’m left wondering if the GOP has lost its mind, because the only other choice is that I have. I’m not referring to the Republican senators’ collective decision not to remove the president from office. I’ve always argued that this was a question reasonable...
Lou Weiss: Put me in, Queen, I’m ready to play
Dear Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, My mother has long threatened to disinherit me if I continue to vote Republican. You also have recent experience with noncompliant family members. I think that for a lad in my difficult circumstances, I see a way to satisfy both my mother and you. Now...
Walter Williams: Myths, lies & tricks of economics
I have been teaching economics since 1967. During that interval, economic reality has not changed. Just as Galileo’s law about the independent influence of gravity on falling objects has not changed, neither have the fundamental principles of economics. Economics is fun and simple. It’s made complicated by some economics professors...
John Stossel: Crazy ‘laws’ should be outlawed
A law in South Carolina bans playing pinball if you’re younger than 18. That’s just one of America’s many ridiculous laws restricting freedom. “There is a role for the government in keeping people safe from actual criminals, people who commit murder, robbery,” says Rafael Mangual, a “tough-on-crime” guy at the...
Kathryn Spitz Cohan: With Oscars so male, the Academy needs to be more intentional
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is once again recognizing merit in filmmaking — and once again there are no women among the nominees for best director. In fact, only five women have ever been nominated for best director in the 92-year history of the Oscars and only...
Gary Smith: The faith of Troy Polamalu
Troy Polamalu, who played safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2003 to 2014, has been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He will enter the hall with Bill Cowher, who coached the team for his first four seasons, and defensive back Donnie...
Pat Buchanan: Impeachment the left’s ultimate weapon
In 1868, President Andrew Johnson was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act that had been enacted by Congress over his veto in 1867. Defying the law, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, without getting Senate approval, as the act required him to do. In his 1956 Pulitzer...
Colin McNickle: The state of Pa.’s business climate
Pennsylvania businesses remained bullish in late 2019, according to the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research. But a generally healthy state business climate comes with a host of other challenges mirrored in national findings, says a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Thirty-eight percent of respondents to the...
Jonah Goldberg: Dershowitz’s central argument for Trump must be rejected
Dear Republican senators, I will not try to convince you how to vote in the impeachment trial of President Trump. I won’t even lecture you about the need for witnesses, in part because by the time you see this it will probably be too late. My request is far more...
Walter Block: Critiquing Yang’s universal basic income
Andrew Yang is a viable candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. He is not a member of the first grouping (Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigeig) but if they falter, Yang might well be in the running for the top spot on this ticket. His signature policy is universal basic income....
S.E. Cupp: Politics & culture need to break free of resentment
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of feeling sickened. Our nasty politics of revenge, our unabating obsession with hating the other side, our too-quick-to-cancel culture and our fetishization of extreme purity is not only exhausting but it’s making us sick. It’s in President Trump’s puerile tweets and anger-drenched...
Jessica Myrick: Trump’s love of fast food may be bad for public health
“You are what you eat,” the old adage goes. But are you also what you watch? In a media-saturated world, it is worth considering the degree to which our exposure to media about food choices can — either directly or in more subtle ways — shape our own food beliefs...
Isaac Brown: Curbing emissions benefits all Pennsylvanians
Pennsylvanians realize that natural gas plays a significant role in the state’s economy. However, the state’s energy resources should be developed responsibly by minimizing natural gas waste and air pollution from new and existing oil and gas infrastructure. To that end, we applaud the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf as...
Kevin Walters: Pros & cons of civilian review boards
Last month’s reintroduction of a proposed ordinance by the Allegheny County Council to create a civilian police review panel is sharply dividing the community between those who believe it necessary to prevent or detect misconduct on the part of county law enforcement officers and those who believe such a civilian...
Walter Williams: Founders viewed democracy as tyranny
During President Trump’s impeachment trial, we’ll hear a lot of talk about our rules for governing. One frequent claim is that our nation is a democracy. If we’ve become a democracy, it would represent a deep betrayal of our founders, who saw democracy as another form of tyranny. In fact,...
John Stossel: Freebies for everyone
The Iowa Caucus, the real start of the 2020 presidential primaries, is next week. Who’s favored to win? Sadly, the smart money says it’s the candidate who’s promised Americans the most “free” stuff. Six months ago, my staff and I tallied the candidates’ promises. All wanted to give away trillions...
Colin McNickle: Allegheny County’s real economic performance
Elected and appointed government officials have a troubling habit of engaging in what we’ll call “sound bite promotion.” They go on a radio or television program making wondrous claims of economic progress yet offer only vague support of those claims and seldom are challenged by their interviewers. Thus, for the...
Jonah Goldberg: Discrediting Bolton won’t be easy for Team Trump
“I’m with the Bush-Cheney team, and I’m here to stop the count.” Those words were bellowed by John Bolton in a Tallahassee library in December 2000, when he was part of a team of Republican lawyers trying to stop the Florida recount of votes cast in the presidential race between...
Pat Buchanan: Hillary puts Bernie in her basket of deplorables
“Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician.” So says Hillary Clinton of her former Senate colleague and 2016 rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders. Her assessment of Sanders’ populist-socialist agenda? “It’s all just baloney and I feel so...
Dr. Lawrence John: On mental health, physicians should lead by example
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf launched a campaign earlier this month aimed at expanding access to mental health services for all Pennsylvanians. As president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, I applaud Wolf’s commitment to combating this growing issue. While strengthening insurance parity and network adequacy serve as essential solutions, an equally...
Jonah Goldberg: Our nation is paying for Trump’s refusal to be presidential
I’ve long argued that Donald Trump’s presidency will end poorly because he’s a person of bad character. I still think that’s true, though I very much doubt the impeachment trial now underway will result in his removal. Regardless of its outcome, his impeachment illustrates the damage bad character can do...
S.E. Cupp: On Hunter Biden, Democrats must tread carefully
When Republicans threatened to call Hunter Biden, the embattled son of former Vice President Joe Biden and walking political cautionary tale, as a witness for the impeachment trial of President Trump, at least some Democrats seemed open to the idea. So long as it meant Democrats got to hear from...
Peter Morici: Michael Bloomberg’s wrong answer to inequality
Inequality and economic growth have been central themes in national elections since John Kennedy’s campaign. The Clintons, Barack Obama and the latest crop headed by Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg want to give us freer access to health care, higher education (and debt forgiveness), child care...
Colleen Hroncich: First Amendment on docket at Supreme Court
Single mother Kendra Espinoza never dreamed that sending her daughters to a Christian school in Kalispell, Mont., would lead her to the national stage. But last week, her lawsuit, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, and its far-reaching implications could impact Pennsylvanians’ education...
Jonah Goldberg: Democratic battle reminiscent of 2004 Kerry-Dean race
As of this writing, the Democratic presidential contest looks very fluid, with four candidates bunched up in Iowa and New Hampshire. But the sudden relevance of foreign policy, thanks to the confrontation with Iran, has made it look more and more like a two-person race between former Vice President Joe...
