Opinion category, Page 799
Letter to the editor: Progressive coup
It’s a shame that the letter-writers fraught with anxiety and seething rage concerning President Trump are wasting so much energy and happiness when most of their stated reasons are, I believe, without basis in truth and fact. It’s also a shame that so many intelligent, reasonable people have been convinced...
Letter to the editor: Preventing gerrymandering
With news of the Supreme Court open to hearing gerrymandering cases from North Carolina and Maryland, it’s time to fan the inferno about Pennsylvania’s own redistricting reform. For a long time, I believed that promoting an independent, nonpartisan citizens’ commission on redistricting that is proposed by Fair Districts PA was...
George Will: Trump is a sad specimen
WASHINGTON Half or a quarter of the way through this interesting experiment with an incessantly splenetic presidency, much of the nation has become accustomed to daily mortifications. Or has lost its capacity for embarrassment, which is even worse. If the country’s condition is calibrated simply by economic data — if,...
Antony Davies & James Harrigan: Peduto, council should learn facts on gun violence
There are few forces as pernicious as politicians who feel the need to “do something,” but that’s what we have in Pittsburgh in the wake of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. Predictably, Pittsburgh’s mayor and city council have endorsed various restrictions on semi-automatic weapons. This is nothing but political...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Political fear cuts both ways
When newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he was not downplaying the economic crisis that Americans faced. It was 1933, the lowest point in the Great Depression, and he was warning his fellow Americans that “unreasoning, unjustified” fear was...
Editorial: STEM doesn’t have to mean college
A good job. A good paycheck. A balance between work and home. These are the things most of us want, and the things most of us want for our kids. They aren’t things that have to come with a college degree. Maybe your child really wants to go to college....
Harold Johnson: Corruption in the Catholic Church
My Catholicism, my faith, states that the Catholic Church consists of the people, and the head of the Church is Jesus Christ. Not the pope, the cardinals, the bishops and archbishops, or the priests and deacons. They are administrators of the Catholic organization, and, yes, they are members of the...
Letter to the editor: Medicare for all? It’s not free
Certain politicians have been proposing the idea of Medicare for all. Sounds great, right? What they are not telling the public is that Medicare is not free. Consider Original Medicare 2019 : Part A: Premiums: Less than 30 quarters working (Medicare taxes paid), $437 per month; 30-39 quarters working, $240...
Letter to the editor: Divisive politics dangerous
As a decades-long independent, I find the behavior of the Republican and Democratic Party leadership in Washington disgraceful, embarrassing, unpatriotic and dangerous. They, along with their respective cronies in the media, have successfully divided the country into opposing factions who disregard the Constitution, precedent and common sense, whenever convenient. Extremists...
Letter to the editor: What if Native Americans built walls?
Although I recognize the need for border controls, I wonder how many of us would be here if the Native Americans had constructed walls around our country … . Jim Blahovec Penn Township, Westmoreland County...
John Stossel: Shutdown not a ‘crisis’
This government shutdown is now longer than any in history. The media keep using the word “crisis.” “Shutdown sows chaos, confusion and anxiety!” says The Washington Post. “Pain spreads widely.” The New York Times headlined, it’s all “just too much!” But wait. Looking around America, I see people going about...
Walter Williams: History of Dems’ immigration flipping
Here are a couple of easy immigration questions — answerable with a simple “yes” or “no” — we might ask any American of any political stripe: Does everyone in the world have a right to live in the United States? Do the American people have a right, through their elected...
Editorial: Is record casino revenue enough?
What is $3.2 billion? It’s $10 for every human being in the United States. It’s enough to bridge most of the gap between Congress and President Trump on the border wall. In short, it’s a lot of money. And it’s how much money was made at Pennsylvania casinos in 2018....
Letter to the editor: Hempfield needs police
Another year has passed, and Hempfield Township continues to mooch off Pennsylvania taxpayers to pay for its police services. Added revenue from the new mall casino could allow Hempfield to fund its own department or “kick in” to support the Pennsylvania State Police. Is it fair that Pennsylvania’s largest township,...
Letter to the editor: Government waste is immoral
Our president is asking Congress for less than 1 percent of the federal budget to ensure security on our southern border. However, the Democrats have decided to hold federal workers hostage during the negotiations to deny the president his sworn duty to protect this nation. In an October 2009 article,...
Letter to the editor: No surveillance on Hillary
The last few days I have suspected that I was under surveillance, most likely by the FBI. So I put a “Hillary for President” sign in my front yard. Wow … the surveillance is now gone. And, I didn’t have to pay anything for the sign; I found it in...
Letter to the editor: Cosmic luck
If you were born in America, you didn’t earn your citizenship. Your good fortune originates from random cosmic luck. In fact, your chances of hitting the “billion dollar lottery” are better than the odds that placed your life in this nation at this moment in time. You could have been...
Donald Boudreaux: Draft’s end most pro-freedom move of past 50 years
From the late 1970s through the mid 1980s the United States government somewhat loosened its grip on the American people. This liberalization — mainly meant to spur economic growth — included the deregulation of transportation and financial markets, as well as significant tax reform. Most students of these reforms conclude,...
Falce: Be a good man
I want my son to be a good man. It’s not just that I want him to learn to be a hard worker. I do want that. And I want him to be someone who stands up for himself. I want him to be somebody who protects and provides for...
Laurels & lances: Mobility, community and an Amber Alert
Laurel: To the Joy Riders. The community biking program wants to bring together cyclists like the Mighty Tri Girls and Total Chaos — two Pittsburgh-area groups whose members train for triathlons — with individuals who have limited mobility. The result would be almost symbiotic. Using tandem bikes that have integrated...
Letter to the editor: Shutdown will reveal truths
There are two things this government shutdown will reveal. One is how not well-off things are for the average American, and that a large percentage of people live paycheck to paycheck, with a thin line between comfort and poverty. Less than 50 percent of Americans have more than $1,000 in...
Letter to the editor: TEACH bait & switch
Letter-writer Jeanne Snyder (“TEACH grants should be paid back,” Jan. 1, TribLIVE) should be proud of her son’s accomplishment of graduating from Penn State using grants, scholarships and loans. He found a job and started making payments toward the loans. Snyder states that education majors should pay for their education...
Letter to the editor: Peduto’s plans won’t make us safer
Regarding Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and his efforts to confront the gun problem(s) as he perceives them (“What’s next for Pittsburgh’s controversial gun-regulation proposals,” Jan. 8, TribLIVE), I think his heart is in the right place. Unfortunately, his brain seems unable to find that place. Additional legislation in cities throughout...
George Will: Britain, into chaos leaping?
LONDON — The poet Rupert Brooke voiced the exhilaration of those Britons who welcomed the war in 1914 as a chance to escape monotonous normality, “as swimmers into cleanness leaping.” They got four years mired in Flanders’ mud. In a 2016 referendum, Britons voted, 52 percent to 48 percent, for...
Cal Thomas: Cough up, America
When you receive your paycheck and look at the withholding for federal, state and sometimes city taxes, along with Social Security and Medicare, you probably don’t think you’re underpaying governments and want them to take more. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio believes that if you have played by...
