Opinion category, Page 796
Ryan Crocker: The U.S. is surrendering to Taliban
January 2002. I arrive in Kabul, Afghanistan, to reopen the U.S. Embassy. Destruction is everywhere. Kabul airport is closed, its runways cratered and littered with destroyed aircraft. The drive south from the military base at Bagram is through a wasteland. Nothing grows. No structures stand. In the city itself, entire...
S.E. Cupp: What has age of Trump wrought? People like Ocasio-Cortez
In the wake of his unprecedented campaign and unexpected election, the question always was: What would come after Donald Trump? What were the consequences of electing someone who was inexperienced, undeterred by and uninterested in facts and uncannily adept at whipping people into a frenzy by way of mere gesticulations...
Editorial: Pope lowers sex abuse expectations
Pope Francis thinks hopes are too high for a planned February summit on preventing sexual abuse. In a disaster movie, this is the point where the bureaucratic pencil pusher won’t give the hero the support he needs to keep bad from becoming calamitous. It is the mayor not closing the...
Letter to the editor: Will waxes woefully
In his column “Trump is a sad specimen” (Jan. 19, TribLIVE), George Will is a pompous, thesaurus-wielding arse and accomplishes nothing other than a name-calling “piling on” of Trump. It’s as if his “waxing intellectual” language is somehow educating a large politically illiterate electorate of this country. His rantings are...
Letter to the editor: Citizens ‘did build that’
Regarding Thomas C. Spallone’s letter “Cosmic luck” (Jan. 18, TribLIVE): Tom, our good fortune to have been born in America had little to do with random cosmic luck. We should remain extremely grateful that our parents were pro-lifers, which had an awful lot to do with our having been born...
Letter to the editor: Outright xenophobia
Thank you for publishing Paul Gernhardt’s letter “Why build the wall?” (Jan. 22, TribLIVE). My kudos to him for being forthright with his racism. Most proponents of the wall at least try and obscure their xenophobia in order to achieve their political goals. Gernhardt came right out with “The most...
Letter to the editor: Impeach Pelosi
In case you haven’t noticed, the Democratic party, led by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, has become the party of hate. While neither live in a walled mansion, both enjoy tight security provided by doormen, security guards, electronic devices, etc. Yet Pelosi says “walls are immoral.” Apparently, these so-called “leaders”...
Letter to the editor: Peduto making start to address gun violence
In their op-ed “Peduto, council should learn facts on gun violence” (Jan. 19, TribLIVE), Antony Davies and James Harrigan choose to consider the actions of Mayor Bill Peduto and the Pittsburgh City Council in endorsing various restrictions on semi-automatic weapons as “political posturing.” The issue of the right to bear...
Memo to Republicans: ‘Trump first’ is not the same thing as ‘America first’
Congressional Republicans are suffering, as I have noted in the past, from a bad case of Stockholm syndrome. They’ve seen what’s happened to “the formers” who crossed the bully in the White House — e.g., former senator Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and former representative Mark Sanford, R-S.C., — and all they...
Tom Purcell: Tech making ‘car guys’ endangered species
My Uncle Jimmy would’ve hated the late-model SUV I rented for a recent trip to New Jersey. I sure did. You see, this modern SUV boasted “smart” technologies designed to keep me safe and happy. It made me miserable. Every time I switched lanes, the white stripes on the pavement...
Editorial: Is the grass greener where it’s legal?
Could Pennsylvania be the new Colorado? The state has barely gotten its fledgling legalization of medical marijuana out of the nest and there are already moves to hatch recreational use, and some come from the Pittsburgh area. Like alcohol, state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, thinks weed should be legal...
Kevin O’Connor: Anti-energy protesters threat to first responders, taxpayers
First responders work around the clock, keeping our communities safe, every day. They understand and accept the risks involved, as well as the long hours, rigorous physical requirements and constant training. However, many emergency workers are starting to face an unexpected hurdle and a new kind of threat: anti-energy protesters....
Letter to the editor: Where are Toomey & Casey?
The silence from the respective offices of Pennsylvania Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey related to the border wall, the Trump presidency and the myriad other problems facing our nation is deafening. Does anyone know where they stand on these difficult issues? My expectations are that our “leaders” take definitive...
Letter to the editor: Costs of immigration
Fentanyl is a deadly synthetic drug often mixed with other street drugs to make them more potent. It is largely manufactured in China and smuggled across our porous southern border by Central and South American gangs. It kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. Heroin is a highly addictive...
Letter to the editor: Daft on the draft
I am writing to express in the strongest possible terms my disagreement with the conclusions expressed in Donald Boudreaux’s column ”Draft’s end most pro-freedom move of past 50 years” (Jan. 17, TribLIVE). I read it because I couldn’t imagine why the military draft would be a newsworthy topic. It ended...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 28
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 28....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 28.
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 28....
Vince Mercuri: A mission of purpose critical to human journey
Each morning as I pull into the parking garage, I am greeted with a sign proclaiming the mission statement of the city’s parking authority. Over the past 15 years or more, the norm has been that businesses/agencies develop and post a mission statement that clearly defines its values, goals, beliefs...
Michelle Malkin: The Covington Rorschach test
Sometimes, a three-point celebration is just a three-point celebration. Sometimes, a pep rally is just a pep rally. Sometimes, a smile is just a smile. And sometimes, a hat is just a hat. Only among the most deranged partisans could a universal sports ritual, a common high school activity, a...
Now for the real deal — what is a ‘wall’?
Welcome to the eye of the hurricane. For more than a month, the federal government was in partial shutdown while President Trump and congressional leaders were deadlocked over the president’s demands for money to build his long-promised border wall. Neither side would budge and all the wiggle room for negotiation,...
Editorial: Shut down shutdowns
The longest government shutdown may have done the impossible. It got some Republicans and Democrats to agree on the need for some kind of wall. Unfortunately for President Trump, what they want to wall off is the option to shut down the federal government. Legislators from both parties have openly...
Letter to the editor: Preventing pregnancy can stop abortions
I read the op-ed by Tara Murtha and Susan Frietsche (“Nothing ‘pro-life’ about overturning Roe v. Wade,” Jan. 12, TribLIVE) that advocated keeping abortion legal. I also read the op-ed by Maria Gallagher (“So much wrong with abortion ‘right’,” Jan. 12, TribLIVE), who wrote about how abortion kills a defenseless...
Letter to the editor: Where is my Democratic Party?
Whatever happened to the Democratic Party I registered with 60 years ago? What I see today in no way resembles the party I knew. I cannot remember a time when so much raw, ugly hatred was displayed by our politicians. It is hard to watch. What is really hard to...
Letter to the editor: Wall will work
Our government partially shut down because the Democrats refuse to compromise with President Trump. He wants to build a wall to slow down the flood of illegal immigrants entering our country. They don’t want to lose potential voters. Trump’s plan for a wall has been tried before, and it worked....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Potential 2020 Democrat nominees look like America
Too many political journalists and talking heads compare presidential primary elections to horse races. Predictably, they are now using the old racing expression “And they’re off!” to describe the upcoming campaign season. The truth is that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, while wide open now, begins with a...
