Featured Commentary category, Page 129
Jonah Goldberg: If this has been super-decade, why are we still so angry?
There is a strong case to be made that things are getting better. In 2010, Matt Ridley made the case in “The Rational Optimist” that things were better than they appeared. Writing in The Spectator, on the cusp of 2020, Ridley offers an update: We’re finishing the best decade in...
Elizabeth Holtzman: Senate trial must produce more evidence to determine Trump’s guilt
House and Senate Republicans are vociferously denouncing Sen. Chuck Schumer’s sensible request that four likely eyewitnesses to President Trump’s Ukraine actions testify in the Senate impeachment trial. They say the request for witnesses shows the House did not do a thorough job in its impeachment inquiry. It should have obtained...
Peter Morici: How tribalism corrupts our democracy
My grandfather, a buttonhole maker, believed his first responsibility was to be a provider. His union supported that role and the Democratic Party was the workingman’s champion. Some New Deal policies benefited him, but with a grade-school education, I doubt he ever gave great thought to how fair trade laws...
James Thrasher: Division I athletics all about the money
During an episode of Lebron James’ online show “The Shop,” California Gov. Gavin Newsome signed into law a bill allowing California student athletes to sign endorsements while in college. The NCAA Board of Governors, having studied this issue for years, responded by announcing that college athletes can “benefit from the...
Lawrence McCullough: Educational theater boosts STEM with STEAM
The first email I opened this morning notified me I’d just put a little more STEAM into the world. An ecology play I’d written some years back had been licensed by a science teacher at Our Lady Help of Christians School in Victoria, Australia. Using class students as performers, “Home...
Colin McNickle: Beef up ‘Local Share’ gambling dollars reporting
“Pursue your happiness,” read the “Welcome to Pennsylvania” interstate border signs. But “Pursue some transparency” would be a better slogan considering the commonwealth’s spotty record of holding accountable how some recipients of gambling taxes spend that money, finds an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Keystone State gambling...
John Stossel: Big hearts better than big government
This week, children may have learned about that greedy man, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge is selfish until ghosts scare him into thinking about others’ well-being, not just his own. Good for the ghosts. But the way Scrooge addresses others’ needs matters. Today’s advocates of equality, compassion, increased spending on education, health...
Walter Williams: Virginia gun owners in a Second Amendment battle
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam apologized for his medical school blackface stunt, but he will have much more to apologize for if he signs into law a bill that attacks Virginia citizens’ Second Amendment rights. The measure is Senate Bill 16, which would ban “assault” firearms and certain firearm magazines. Since...
Jonah Goldberg: We have 2 moon parties, no sun party
Here’s a theory for why our politics are so confusing these days: Neither party wants to be a majority party. From an ideological perspective, majority parties are, by nature, weird. For instance, the long-dominant FDR coalition included a strange mix of blacks and segregationists, corrupt city machines and the reformers...
Pat Buchanan: Is impeachment backfiring on Democrats?
“We’re gonna impeach the (expletive deleted).” Thus did the member from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, declare last January to be the goal of the 2019 House Democratic Caucus. Last Wednesday night, Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the goods. The House impeached President Trump on a straight party-line vote. Not one Republican signed...
S.E. Cupp: Roger Ailes, #MeToo & the cost of coming forward
Last Monday night, I went to a special screening of the new film “Bombshell,” which tells the true story of the downfall of late Fox News honcho — and verifiable sleaze ball — Roger Ailes. Having worked inside the corridors of Fox myself years ago, Jay Roach’s stylized, nuanced and...
Peter Morici: Giving the Fed better tools to manage financial crisis
Three times since August, the Federal Reserve has cut the federal funds rate — the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans and that strongly influences the short-term rates they charge businesses. However, Chairman Jerome Powell has made clear the Fed won’t lower rates further as long as the...
Baruch Stein: A world without American aid to Israel
Several Democratic presidential contenders have discussed cutting aid to Israel if their demands are not met. The latest confrontation in Gaza provides an opportunity to understand what that means. Approximately 450 rockets were fired at Israel between Nov. 12 and 14. More than half landed in open areas between towns....
Steve Bloom: Protect taxpayers to fix ‘brain drain’
It’s a lovely family reunion. Dad and Mom — now Grandpa and Grandma — sit facing their kids, and their kids’ kids, reminiscing about old times and laughing about the trials of parenting. Then, in mid-sentence, Grandpa stutters and freezes — his face replaced by an hourglass on a black...
Keith Williams: Contracts show fight for teachers’ rights isn’t over
Would you sign a contract you know is unconstitutional? How about one that violates teachers’ rights of free speech and free association? My guess is you wouldn’t. And that you’d be outraged if someone did. Well, that someone is in your backyard. More than 20 Pennsylvania school districts — including...
John Stossel: The case against socialism
Sen. Rand Paul just wrote a book, “The Case Against Socialism.” I thought that case was already decided, since socialist countries failed so spectacularly. But the idea hasn’t died, especially amongst the young. “Hitler’s socialism, Stalin’s socialism, Mao’s socialism. You would think people would have recognized it by now,” Paul...
Walter Williams: Gender battles corrupting our social norms
Here are several questions for biologists and medical professionals: If a person is found to have XY chromosomes (heterogametic sex), does a designation as female on his birth certificate, driver’s license or Social Security card override the chromosomal evidence? Similarly, if a person is found to have XX chromosomes (homogametic)...
Jonah Goldberg: Diversity panic hits Democratic field
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. An Asian guy, two black guys, three white women (one of whom spent much of her life claiming to be Native American), a Pacific Islander woman, a gay guy, a Hispanic guy, two elderly Caucasian Jews (one a billionaire, the other a...
Pat Buchanan: Is it jaw-jaw or war with Iran?
“Jaw-jaw is better than war-war,” is attributed, wrongly, say some historians, to Winston Churchill. Still, the words lately came to mind. While the first week in December ended with a hopeful U.S.-Iranian prisoner exchange that was hailed by President Trump — “Thank you to Iran for a very fair negotiation....
Colin McNickle: Negative job growth dogs Greater Pittsburgh
There has been lots of happy talk about Greater Pittsburgh’s supposed economic “resilience,” if not an outright “renaissance.” But the latest jobs report belies that notion and yet again exposes the many elephants in the room that continue to retard growth, concludes an analysis by scholars at the Allegheny Institute...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump defenders continue to push Ukraine conspiracy theories
Contrary to heated rhetoric from Democrats, most Republicans understand that Russia was responsible for the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s server in 2016 and other efforts to sow mischief in the electoral process. They’ll even admit it when pressed. The problem is they want everyone to believe that Ukraine...
Garret Mathews: Newspapers haven for people with Asperger’s
What’s the fallout from the radical downturn in the influence of newspapers? To be sure, a less informed populace. More stories generated from press releases. Fewer in-depth articles. Less enterprise coverage of local and regional news. I think there’s something else. Nothing ground-shaking. Nothing insidious. Just sad. In 2016, I...
S.E. Cupp: Is impeachment over, or is it just beginning?
As Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Trump this past Tuesday, — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — I heard the country breathe an audible sigh of relief. Our long, national nightmare is finally over. Anxieties over would-they or wouldn’t-they, the constant public opinion polling updates,...
Nancy Koester: The currency of Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman has yet to appear on the $20 bill or any federal note. But the hero of the Underground Railroad has newly minted cultural currency of her own. The star of the biopic “Harriet,” Cynthia Erivo, was just nominated for a Golden Globe. And there’s a new biography: “She...
Walter Williams: Morality of free markets
Richard Ebeling, professor of economics at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and my longtime friend and colleague, has written an important article, “Business Ethics and Morality of the Marketplace,” appearing in the American Institute for Economic Research. Its importance and timeliness is enhanced by so many of...
