Opinion category, Page 757
John Stossel: Designer babies — the real X-Men?
Soon, some of you will try to make “better babies.” Already, people pay labs to examine embryos so they can pick ones with DNA they like. Some screen for gender or eye color. Some screen out certain diseases. So far, they’ve been limited to selecting genes that exist in the...
Editorial: EPA, emissions changes have to make sense
Pennsylvania doesn’t have the same earthquake building code requirements as California. The state doesn’t demand you inspect your home for dinosaurs before you sell it. It makes sense that things that aren’t a problem aren’t regulated. Even if there was an earthquake in Central Pennsylvania this week, it’s not the...
Letter to the editor: Logical, truthful sex-ed lesson
With an engineering background, I try to live my life logically and with truth. What follows is the only sex-ed course you need. The purpose of sex is to perpetuate the species. Although there is pleasure as an incentive to procreate, pleasure is not its purpose. It is logical and...
Letter to the editor: Pirates need to spend money to be contenders
With Bob Nutting as owner, Pittsburgh will never have a good baseball team; the Pirates will be average at best. Coming up on July 31, the trade deadline, don’t expect any buying from Nutting, just selling whatever good players we have left. Pittsburgh is still a great sports city, with...
Letter to the editor: Scripture & politics
Letter-writer Dwayne Kiger (“Christian leaders & Trump,” May 26, TribLIVE) is preaching in a closed church. Since Kiger references Scripture, why not then, “let he that is without sin cast the first stone” or “judge not lest thou be judged.” The electorate went to the polls in November 2016 knowing...
Paul Kengor: Recalling Poland’s quest for freedom
The media loves anniversaries. As someone who writes on history, I appreciate that. But it’s funny, and often frustrating, which anniversaries get missed. The world marked important anniversaries over the past week and a half. There was the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, where hundreds if not thousands of Chinese...
Lori Falce: Political cartoons pack visual punch
I’m a big believer in the power of words. I think that words convey things in a way that is truly amazing. They don’t just transmit information, like the 1’s and 0’s of binary code, delivering a copy of this data to that receiver. That would be enough to still...
Laurels & lances: Music, gators, basketball and Kennywood
Laurel: To sweet, sweet music for the community. SummerSounds kicked off its 20th anniversary season on June 7 with a packed St. Clair park for its 7 Bridges — an Eagles tribute band — concert. According to series chairman Gene James, more than 8,000 people filled the Maple Street park...
Letter to the editor: Socialism vs. capitalism
The reasons why socialism is superior to capitalism are obvious: • Because the government’s control of production and wages to eliminate income inequality results in a higher standard of living for everyone. • Because a system where people are rewarded by convincing bureaucrats of their need is better than one...
Letter to the editor: Liberals & abortion
As the one-year anniversary approaches of Ireland overturning its restrictive 1983 ban on abortion with a 66% vote, Catholic Irish women jumped for joy at the right to terminate their unwanted children. The Catholic women of Ireland have spoken, but they know not what they have done. That is what...
Letter to the editor: Keep prison corrections officers safe
Numbers can be made to look any way you want. That’s what the Department of Corrections did recently in testimony before the state House Judiciary Committee. DOC testified to lawmakers that the prison officer-to-inmate ratio is 5-to-1. This simply isn’t true, because it assumes that all officers work every day,...
Jonah Goldberg: The conservative divide
The idea holding together the conservative movement since the 1960s was called “fusionism.” The concept, which always worked better as an organizing principle than a philosophical one, was that freedom and virtue were inextricably linked. Virtue not freely chosen wasn’t virtuous. Or as Frank Meyer, the foremost architect of fusionism,...
George Will: Scarcities are recyclable excuses for expanding government
WASHINGTON Randolph Bourne (1886-1918) said, “War is the health of the state.” James Madison said, “War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement,” and the executive almost is the American state, Congress now being more theatrical than actual. Advocates of an ever-larger state, remembering Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural...
Colin McNickle: The Penn Hills predicament
The Penn Hills School District finds itself in dire financial straits. And it now must execute a state-overseen financial recovery plan. A significant tax increase and layoffs are possible. But had taxpayers been given the direct oversight they deserve, the situation might be different, say two researchers at the Allegheny...
Editorial: DUI task forces done in public interest
About 30 people die in an impaired driving crash every day, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That is one every 48 minutes. It’s a horrifying figure but considerably less grim than 30 years ago when it was one death every 15 minutes. We know that people pay...
Letter to the editor: Trump trumps Obama
I know where to begin, letter-writer Al Duerig, (“Misinformed on Obama vs. Trump,”) on Ron Raymond’s letter (“Obama vs. Trump.”) Raymond’s letter speaks the truth. I support every word he wrote. Raymond compared Presidents Obama and Trump — one was likable, loved by the media, and the other was despised....
Letter to the editor: Addressing Highlands administration issues
The Highlands School District administration continues stonewalling residents with recent comment policy change, and only relented to newspaper inquiries when faced with legal sanctions for violation of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act (“Highlands comment policy causes confusion, raises concerns,” May 23, TribLIVE). Homeowners may exercise civil disobedience by withholding school tax...
Letter to the editor: Our sad but true political comedy
Moe, Larry and Curly (Al Gore, John Kerry and Barack Obama), Hillary Clinton as the femme fatale. What’s next, Shemp (Joe Biden)? It would be a great comedy if it wasn’t true. Howard L. McHenry East Vandergrift...
Jonah Goldberg: Does reality change ideas, or vice versa?
The intellectual right is in the middle of a huge brouhaha, as some prominent right-wing commentators celebrate what they believe is the end of the “conservative consensus” around classical liberalism — free markets, limited government, the sovereignty of the individual and even in some cases free expression. Fox News’ Tucker...
Editorial: The power of zoning and local government
If you want to know why you should vote, think about what you want to see happen next door. Zoning decisions can be hot topics. There is always someone who doesn’t want the new business or activity on the horizon. Landfills. Strip clubs. Methadone clinics. Halfway houses. Prisons. Factories. There...
Letter to the editor: PIAA wrestling changes
I see that the PIAA is going to allow two wrestlers per weight class to weigh in for certain tournaments. Great! Now all they have to do is recind their petition to the National Federation of State High School Associations to reduce from 14 to 12 weight classes (“PIAA approves...
Letter to the editor: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer may be job hunting soon
The Democratic Party still cannot accept the fact that they lost the 2016 election, and they continue to harass and attack President Trump. They had pinned their hopes on the Mueller report exposing “collusion,” but after 2½ years and more than $30 million, they have nothing. They also attack Attorney...
Letter to the editor: Abortion & death penalty
I am concerned that our legislators and most notably our Gov. Tom Wolf have lost sight of the need for proper insight into the sanctity of life. How in God’s name can they say that the death penalty is inhumane but the butchering of the unborn is OK (“Death penalty...
Letter to the editor: More on fairness in taxation
I want to thank James Kvitkovich for his response (“Capitalism & taxes,” May 23, TribLIVE) to my letter on fairness in taxation (“Fairness in taxation,” May 2, TribLIVE). He calculated an average tax payment of $10,299 per taxpayer for 2015, claiming how draconian a capitalistic approach is to taxation, in...
Letter to the editor: Pittsburgh ready for 100% renewable energy
Two years ago, I was standing at the Highland Park Reservoir at a press conference next to Mayor Bill Peduto, City Councilwoman Deb Gross and community leaders announcing that privatization was off the table for our dysfunctional water system. This was big news. Little did I know that just minutes...
