Opinion category, Page 791
Letter to the editor: We need responsible voters
In her plea for automatic voter registration, state Rep. Sara Innamorato makes the common (common to Democrats, at least) mistake of conflating the principles of economics with those of government (“It’s time for automatic voter registration in Pa.,” Feb. 9, TribLIVE). In commerce, input from everyone gives the market information...
Walter Williams: Marijuana, mental illness & violence
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Twenty-two other states, along with U.S. territories Puerto Rico and Guam, allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Let’s examine some hidden issues about marijuana use. Before we start, permit me to state my values about medical...
Editorial: Trump’s emergency highlights battle lines
On Friday, President Trump declared a national emergency to go about spending $8 billion on barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border. This brings to an end the stare-down between the White House and Congress over budgeting. It likely begins a new battle over who has the power to do what. The...
Noah Feldman: Democrats’ compromise strengthens case for Trump’s wall ‘emergency’
In retrospect, it seems obvious that President Donald Trump would want to have his cake and eat it, too. That’s essentially what he’s doing by both signing a government funding bill that provides $1.375 billion for a barrier with Mexico and also declaring a national emergency to allocate other federal...
Letter to the editor: Border disdain
Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and their minions are showing disdain for our national security and the Border Patrol. The RINOs are just as disrespectful to our front-line Border Patrol agents, who are in harm’s way day and night. We have caravan after caravan approaching our border from...
Letter to the editor: No comparison with the Berlin Wall
The letter “Reagan, Trump — one great, one a disgrace” (Jan. 31, TribLIVE) requires a response. To compare the Berlin Wall to the proposed “Trump Wall” is absolutely ludicrous. The Berlin Wall was a political division of a sovereign country. The only comparison would be a wall extending from Canada...
Letter to the editor: Global lukewarming
The late Charles Krauthammer’s book “The Point of It All” includes an article titled “Apocalypse With and Without God.” He cites major apocalyptic writings which have authoritatively and “scientifically” predicted the demise of civilization. He includes Paul Ehrlich’s best-seller “The Population Bomb,” an astonishingly wrongheaded prediction of the end brought...
Letter to the editor: Howard Schultz looking for big money
The only reason Howard Schultz announced that he’d run as an independent is he is looking for a big-money bribe from the Democrats to not run. Regis Kruth Shaler...
John Stossel: Unique school allows struggling students to flourish
There must be a better way to keep kids interested in school than drugging them. Today, one in five school-age boys is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Many are given drugs that are supposed to help them pay attention. “I was the rowdy kid, the bad kid,” says Cade...
Analysis: Why Pennsylvania needs to ditch fracking and get a Green New Deal of its own
If a foreign adversary announced to the world that it had a new arsenal of destructive nuclear weapons and threatened the imminent doom of the United States, what would we do? Push for a peace deal that would limit and hopefully end the atomic threat? Invest heavily in missile defense?...
Donald Boudreaux: Income inequality often a result of choice
Today’s obsession with income inequality is an obsession with just one of the countless dimensions along which we human beings differ from each other. Many of these differences reflect individual choices. I spend six hours weekly (and weakly) lifting weights at the gym. The modesty of my effort combines with...
Lori Falce: Do you face white discrimination?
I am white. I’m not just a little white. I’m a lot of white. According to my AncestryDNA results, if there’s a way for a human being to be white, it’s part of the unique cocktail that is me. I am mostly English, a quarter German, a fifth Scotch-Irish, seasoned...
Laurels & lances: Perfection, Parkway, Pittsburgh Dad and payment
Laurel: To Olivia Grace Fertig for keeping it real. The Highlands High School senior has a following of thousands on her social media accounts, but unlike many “influencers” and celebrities who keep their fans with a Photoshop view of a life with perfect skin and perfect hair and perfectly fake...
Nia Arrington: Young people advocate for safe, supportive schools
On Feb. 14, 2018, 17 people tragically lost their lives in a brutal massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. I was in school when it happened and saw tweets from students in the school. It was terrifying. In the days following, I was inspired by the...
Letter to the editor: Consumers want clarity on hospital costs
I read the article “Hospital price lists go public online” (Jan. 2, TribLIVE) on new hospital price transparency requirements with great interest. As a board member of Consumers for Quality Care (CQC), a coalition dedicated to patients and their right to affordable, high-quality health care, I champion any efforts to...
Letter to the editor: McConnell’s hatred, Trump’s promises
In reply to letter-writer Bob Jacobs (“Impeach Pelosi,” Jan. 29, TribLIVE): Buckle up, Buttercup: No matter how much you whine, stamp your feet or cry to the heavens, Nancy Pelosi will still be speaker of the house. Funny how you mention her hatred of Trump but so easily forget Mitch...
Letter to the editor: Mueller’s targets
I have a silly question to ask, and I’m not aware that a single member of the media has asked it: If Robert Mueller’s team is truly “investigating” Russian collusion, and is as fair and impartial as promoted, why is it only looking at one candidate and not both? Thomas...
Letter to the editor: Those who legalize abortion are evil
After reading about the abortion law in New York and the comments by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, it has become clear that the television media are more concerned about a picture of Northam wearing blackface than they are about the OK to abort babies. Any elected official who writes, votes...
Eric Zorn: A call for supermarkets to stop selling National Enquirer
It’s immoral for stores to sell the National Enquirer. This has been true since long before the Florida-based supermarket tabloid began churning out poisonously and deliberately false propaganda during the 2016 presidential campaign season — “Hillary (Clinton): 6 months to live!”; “Bill (Clinton) caught in teen sex ring!”; “Hillary hitman...
George Will: Reality continues to leak from American life
WASHINGTON In 1994, the Clinton administration decreed a bright shining future for education. Its Goals 2000 legislation proclaimed that by that year America’s high school graduation rate would be 90 percent and American students would lead the world in math and science achievements. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., was unimpressed:...
Vince Mercuri: Care for physical, emotional heart
I recall sitting in a health/science class in the early ’70s where the subject was caring for the heart. Topics included the typical instructions about height and weight , exercise, diet, heart-rate monitoring, blood pressure ranges, and overall health and wellness do’s and don’ts. The homework assignments involved tracking daily...
Editorial: Pittsburgh, Parkland linked by tragedy
Load. Pull back. Take aim. On Valentine’s Day, that scenario should be about Cupid loosing arrows, inspiring love and leading to bouquets of roses and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. It should not be about high school kids lying dead in pools of their own blood in hallways where minutes before...
Letter to the editor: Trump a doer, not a talker
I see Sen. Pat Toomey wants to take away the president’s authority on tariffs (“Toomey bill would strip Trump of tariff authority,” Feb. 6, TribLIVE). For years we watched Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton cry that “the Chinese are manipulating their currency and stealing our technology,” yet none of them...
Letter to the editor: Happy National Donor Day
The Health Resources and Services Administration (www.HRSA.gov) is the primary federal agency responsible for oversight of the organ and blood stem cell transplant systems in the U.S. and for initiatives to increase organ donor registration and donation in this country. And while we all know February 14 as Valentine’s Day,...
Letter to the editor: Liberals, taxes & illegals
A simple question that liberals cannot answer without dragging in the president, who has nothing to do with it: What incentive does anyone have to get up every morning, work hard and try to achieve when you want to tax them over 70 percent of their income (federal, state, county,...
