Opinion category, Page 801
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Free press, elections help debunk ‘official’ lies
In 1950, Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy, was speaking to a Republican Women’s Club in West Virginia when he hit upon a little theatrical device that would make him a national political figure. Waving a piece of paper in the air, McCarthy made a shocking claim about Communists whom he said...
David Argall: Road map to safer schools
Citizens throughout the country watched in horror last year as a gunman claimed the lives of 17 students in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. People were heartbroken to see yet another school shooting taking the lives of the innocent. In the midst of this...
Tara Murtha & Susan Frietsche: Nothing ‘pro-life’ about overturning Roe v. Wade
Next week is the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion. Every year around this time, people who call themselves “pro-life” cite statistics related to the number of abortions in the United States since 1973 while...
Maria Gallagher: So much wrong with abortion ‘right’
We as Americans take our rights very seriously. The right to free speech. The right to freedom of religion. The right to peaceable assembly. But, there is so much wrong with the so-called “right” to an abortion. As we mark the anniversary of the Jan. 22, 1973, U.S. Supreme Court’s...
Colin McNickle: Chaos ahead for Pa. transportation funding?
A nasty storm could be brewing for Pennsylvania’s transportation funding regimen, says the executive director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. And, it’s all been fueled by dubious state legislation that long has milked the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) for millions of dollars to, in contravention of federal law,...
Editorial: Defense makes courtroom work
Everyone deserves a defense. Scratch that. It isn’t that everyone deserves a defense. Let’s face it — if some people did the crimes they were accused of doing, there really is no “deserving” involved. But everyone is entitled to a defense. The American system of jurisprudence is built on a...
Letter to the editor: County Dem leadership
2018 was supposed to be the year of the blue wave, yet here in Westmoreland County, every single Democrat running for state or federal office lost, in most cases by double digits. While we saw Democrats across the country win in historically red districts and states, in our own county,...
Letter to the editor: Sad goodbye to Antonio Brown
An open letter to Antonio Brown: In the 2010 draft I sat and waited for your pick — round 6, pick 195. I exploded with joy! Emailed my husband in Afganistan: Steelers got Antonio Brown! Antonio who? Antonio Brown, the next big thing! Went out and bought myself (still have)...
Letter to the editor: TEACH grants not ‘free money’
To letter-writer Jeanne Snyder (“TEACH grants should be paid back,” Jan. 1, TribLIVE): You state that “Upon graduating, he (your son) found a job and started making payments toward the loans.” Did he also pay back the grants he received? TEACH grants are not free money to teachers. They come...
Walter Williams: Hope for black education
In reference to efforts to teach black children, the president of the St. Petersburg, Fla., chapter of the NAACP, Maria Scruggs, said: “The (school) district has shown they just can’t do it. … Now it’s time for the community to step in.” That’s a recognition that politicians and the education...
John Stossel: Legal weed is no disaster
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana. Supporters of America’s long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. Has it? No. Colorado and Washington offer the longest points of comparison, because weed has been legal in those states now for five years. More people...
Editorial: Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s lies come to light
He lied. Sometimes Cardinal Donald Wuerl concealed the truth of sexual abuses in “secret archives.” Sometimes he didn’t acknowledge. Sometimes he stayed silent. But now we know the former bishop of Pittsburgh didn’t just commit sins of omission. Now we know that he took a commandment and snapped it like...
Letter to the editor: American hypocrisy
Hypocrisy: 7-year-old girl dies in the custody of border patrol, and the left-wing media goes berserk. Had these been American citizens, the father would be arrested for child abuse and possibly murder. Hypocrisy: Journalist is murdered by people in Saudi Arabia because he was a threat or inconvenience to them,...
Letter to the editor: Judges should protect health, environment
The protection of health and the environment that is guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Constitution is being eroded. Every judge in Pennsylvania should live next to an active gas operation with the truck traffic, emissions, leaks, spills, risks to health and environment, and blight on the landscape before attesting to the...
Lori Falce: Where has all the purple gone?
I don’t agree with you. I don’t believe the same things that you believe. I don’t want the same things that you want. I don’t think the same way you think. None of that needs to be the first step in a battle to the death of my will against...
Letter to the editor: Justice for Wuerl?
The pope has accepted Donald Wuerl’s resignation of his bishopric office. That’s an internal action by the Catholic Church. The Pennsylvania attorney general, based on a formal grand jury report, has accused Wuerl of covering up many instances of sexual abuse of minors by priests under his jurisdiction when he...
Letter to the editor: Just the facts, please
There is a difference between news and opinion. CBS, MSNBC, ABC, CNN and Fox should not combine the two. It confuses the masses. People become enthralled with a story and become less focused on the facts, embellishing with speculation and more opinion. I listen to Fox, but I find myself...
Letter to the editor: Price of American honor
What was the life of Jesus worth? Judas got 30 pieces of silver. How did that work out? On Dec. 19, President Donald John Trump announced that ISIS was defeated, and so the U.S. was bugging out of its commitments in Syria. Our allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces, are being...
Laurels & lances: Girl Scouts, girl power and secret votes
Laurel: To the sweetest philanthropy. It’s cookie sale time, and the Girl Scouts are out in earnest, selling those Thin Mints, Trefoils, Do-Si-Dos and more at $5 a box. Funds raised help subsidize camp registration costs, pay for community service projects and troop activities, and assist girls and troops with...
George Will: German opposition party a Rorschach test
BERLIN Armin-Paulus Hampel, a former journalist and commentator who now is a member of the Bundestag, is ebullient, affable, opinionated, voluble and excellent company at lunch. But, because his party is Alternative for Germany, one wonders whether he is representative of it, and whether he is as congenial politically as...
Colin Hanna: Economic growth, new jobs, strengthened pensions
From 2012-17, the private equity industry invested $127 billion in Pennsylvania and employed more than 180,000 workers at private equity-backed companies. Despite the industry’s clear record of driving economic growth and creating jobs while strengthening pensions for public servants across Pennsylvania, it is under attack. Pension fund portfolio managers should...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland commissioners’ ‘accomplishments’
Our unimaginative county commissioners hired a Chicago firm and spent $309,000 on a far-reaching “Reimagining Our Westmoreland” plan which used the wrong assumptions that may cost millions to implement and ignores cost-of-living migration from the northeast. When the commissioners change hands in January 2020, they can boast: • Budget deficits...
Editorial: What is a crisis?
A crisis is a fork in the road. Go one way, things get better. Go another, they get worse. It’s a word that came up repeatedly Tuesday as President Trump gave his first national address on the government shutdown and the situation on the southern border. It is a humanitarian...
Letter to the editor: Mister Rogers deserves better
I was disheartened to find a glowing article on Mister Rogers (“We liked him just the way he was,” Dec. 30) on the front page of the Tribune-Review beside three articles on the child abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. Being such a positive advocate for children, Mister Rogers should...
Letter to the editor: Russian bombers in Caribbean
On Dec. 27, the Drudge Report included the headline “Putin setting up nuke bomber base on Caribbean island.” Where are the mainstream media in regard to this threat? I have not seen anything printed in American newspapers or mentioned on any news shows. I have not heard any congressmen, senators,...
