Opinion category, Page 164
Lori Falce: Is it fair to critique a nepo baby?
Talent is not necessarily hereditary. It’s also not something you can buy. Nothing proves that more than the tale of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s daughter North West and her major theatrical debut. Over the weekend, the 30th anniversary of Disney’s “The Lion King” was celebrated with a star-studded event...
Laurels & lances: Rebuilding and reversal
Laurel: To rebuilding. Rick and Beth Napoleon lost their home with the August 2023 explosion in Plum’s Rustic Ridge neighborhood. The blaze consumed three houses across the street from the Napoleons, but they were not the only ones with damage. Many houses required extensive repair. The Napoleon home was beyond...
Letter to the editor: Mental health awareness
As May winds down, so does Mental Health Awareness Month. We should maintain our awareness every month. Sooner or later, mental health issues impact us all. Approximately 25% of U.S. adults experience mental illness in any given year. That does not account for children or all of the lives impacted...
Reps. Dan Frankel and Tarik Khan: The Jewish-Muslim connection
For decades, Jewish and Muslim Pennsylvanians have inched closer to one another. With each interfaith marriage officiated and each community event stage shared, connections between these two great faiths have multiplied and strengthened. Then came Oct. 7. Since that terrible day and the many terrible days after, our commonwealth’s Jews...
Rep. Mandy Steele: Working to plug more dangerous orphan wells
In 1859, the first oil well was drilled in Titusville. That action by Edwin Drake sparked what has become the modern global petroleum industry. Since then, oil and gas wells have proliferated throughout Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, so too has the number of abandoned and orphaned wells. The Department of Environmental Protection...
Letter to the editor: Finding middle ground on abortion
Donald Trump is being criticized by the left and right regarding abortion. He doesn’t want to lose his voters and is not trying to find some middle ground to keep the nation from falling apart. No one has tried to find that middle ground. Those who wanted to keep Roe...
Letter to the editor: We need energy diversity
In her letter “Driving energy leadership” (May 24, TribLive), Stephanie Catarino Wissman of the American Petroleum Institute says, “When it comes to energy leadership, let’s keep America in the driver’s seat.” Unfortunately, the policies she advocates do exactly the opposite. Unsurprisingly, Wissman’s prescription is for more oil and gas. That...
Editorial: Pittsburgh City Council games system with quorums and briefings
It is common for people to try to avoid the law by identifying its outlines and walking right up to that border. It happens in banking, where people will try to avoid the scrutiny that comes with criminal activities by staying under the $10,000 reporting threshold. People will try to...
Letter to the editor: Biden should honor workers’ choices on unions
Recently, White House Senior Adviser Thomas Perez highlighted $17 billion in federal funding for numerous infrastructure projects in Pennsylvania. What he did not highlight is that these projects come with an unnecessarily steep price due to President Joe Biden’s union-exclusive policies, which inflate construction costs for taxpayers and exclude nearly...
Jonah Goldberg: What’s convincing voters that the economy is worse than it ever was?
One of the worst things about democracy is the way we talk about it. For instance, politicians love to talk about unity, but our constitutional system was set up to keep unity at bay, preferring a more adversarial approach, pitting faction against faction. Checks and balances, separation of powers and...
Cal Thomas: What the ‘New Nixon’ could teach Donald Trump
Fifty-six years ago in August 1968, Richard Nixon achieved what The New York Times called “the greatest reversal of fortune in American political history.” Times columnist James Reston went further, calling it “the greatest comeback since Lazarus.” This from a newspaper, along with The Washington Post, that hated Nixon, as...
Bill Miller: Federal response to illegal gambling needed
In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), paving the way for legal sports betting across the country. Six years later, 38 states and Washington, D.C., now have legal wagering markets, working together with legal gaming operators,...
Letter to the editor: Those who served made it OK to enjoy Memorial Day
I suggest the writer of the letter “Remember the real reason for Memorial Day” (May 26, TribLive) do some learning about Memorial Day before scolding the public on this federal holiday. Be careful when ranting from atop your soapbox, it may be badly built. First, Memorial Day was originally to...
Letter to the editor: Supreme Court’s election meddling
Once again, the Supreme Court is meddling in our elections. Not too long ago a Republican court ordered the state of Florida to stop counting the people’s votes for president while their Republican candidate happened to be in the lead. Even though recounts are a very common occurrence. They included...
Editorial: Should Pennsylvania lawmakers vote remotely?
The pandemic changed the way many people worked. Specifically, it changed where they could do that work. There was a reason. If people were working from home, they weren’t spreading the virus. Working from home became popular. It was cheaper to work without the commute. It was affordable to make...
Letter to the editor: Politicians must stop overspending
In my opinion, President Biden caused this inflation, timed the $6 trillion in stimulus money with the presidential election year to prop up the economy, and now wants to be the hero by lowering interest rates, but can’t until spending ends. The RINOs went along with the overspending because they...
Sheldon H. Jacobson and Dr. Janet A. Jokela: What should we fear with AI in medicine?
Will the threats associated with artificial intelligence be as bad as some fear? Or will AI be relatively benign? Could the answer be somewhere in between? Perspectives on AI abound. Whether it be in medicine, security or education, new applications in search of an AI advantage continue to grow. This...
Dale R. Giovengo: Why Trump needs Haley as VP
We know the history of President Abraham Lincoln choosing political rivals to serve in critical positions in his Cabinet and administration. He chose William H. Seward as secretary of state, Salmon P. Chase as secretary of the treasury and Edward Bates as attorney general, all politicians who opposed him to...
Letter to the editor: Post-covid revitalization
Residential and commercial real estate developers across the country are working to revitalize cities following the covid-19 pandemic. Pittsburgh is no exception, where buildings in the city’s urban center are being modified to attract businesses and promote growth. However, a recent Federal Reserve proposal to reduce the cap on debit...
Editorial: Israeli and Palestinian leaders once shared a peace prize. Now they may share war crimes charges
It is somehow fitting that the International Criminal Court prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants against leaders of both Hamas and Israel in connection with mass slaughters carried out since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s response. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar,...
Letter to the editor: Vaccines and masks saved lives
The writer of the letter “What would Reagan think?” (May 20, TribLive) asks, “Did the government help anyone by mandating multiple injections of an experimental drug … and requiring masks?” The intelligent answer is an emphatic “yes.” Regrettably many American lives were lost because these requirements didn’t come soon enough....
Editorial cartoons for the week of May 27
Editorial cartoons for the week of May 27....
Elizabeth Veronica Weaver: Biological reasons for gender dysphoria
With all the misinformation spread about “trans” people and about “only two sexes,” the scientific evidence for individuals born with both male and female characteristics has not been part of the national conversation. These individuals, currently referred to as “intersex,” are those who, due to genetic variations, have both male...
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of May 27
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of May 27....
Peter Jensen: Why the Alito flag flap matters — even if he blames his wife
When I entered the world of professional journalism more than four decades ago, I quickly discovered that certain colleagues felt so strongly about the mere appearance of political bias that they abstained from voting. This is not true of most reporters, but you can still find some who choose not...
