Featured Commentary category, Page 134
Jonah Goldberg: Senate GOP’s no-win scenario
In response to news reports Oct. 6 that at least one additional administration whistleblower has come forward to say what he or she knows about President Trump’s Ukrainian schemes, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted, “I’ve seen this movie before — with Brett Kavanaugh. More and more doesn’t mean better...
S.E. Cupp: Trump’s betrayal of Kurds latest indignity for suffering country
Back in 2011, the embers of the Syrian war sparked in the southwestern town of Daraa in a siege by the Assad regime’s Syrian Army that resulted in the deaths of up to 240 civilians, many of them children. Eight years later, you’re forgiven if you’ve forgotten why that war...
Colin Hanna: Private equity is good for Pa.
Recent attacks on private equity funds have unwisely focused on a retirement fund for Pennsylvania’s Public School Employees (PSERS). Those unfounded criticisms intentionally ignore important facts — including how private equity investment consistently delivers the strongest returns for Pennsylvania retirees’ pensions. Apparently, those who disparage PSERS investments place a higher...
Eric Failing: Working to end slavery of human trafficking
The history books tell us that slavery officially ended in the United States on Dec. 6, 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. However, the prevalence of human trafficking cases across the country tells us that slavery lives on. In fact, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security...
James Simpson: Trump’s waffling on immigration could cost him in 2020
President Trump just announced a major immigration reform package that’s certain to disappoint his staunchest supporters. The plan, which was largely designed by the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, would maintain the current, historically high level of legal immigration. That’s a reversal from Trump’s campaign-trail promise to scale back legal migration....
Alan Novak & T.J. Rooney: Pennsylvania’s unaffiliated voters deserve a voice
As the Pennsylvania General Assembly heads back to Harrisburg to take up the commonwealth’s business, a priority for their fall agenda should be passing Senate Bill 300. This proposal would enable Pennsylvania’s unaffiliated voters to have a voice in casting votes in either the Republican or Democrat ballot on primary...
Walter Williams: So many environmental predictions grossly wrong
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has published a new paper, “Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions.” Keep in mind that many of the grossly wrong environmentalist predictions were made by respected scientists and government officials. My question for you is: If you were around at the time, how many...
John Stossel: Domestic & foreign wars
Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is controversial within her party. She says the U.S. should talk to its enemies. She was criticized for meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. But Democrats were supposed to be the anti-war party. “They’re heavily influenced by a foreign policy establishment … whose whole...
Teresa Miller: Trump’s SNAP plan will hurt Pa. families
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, is the most important anti-hunger program in the country. It helps more than 1.8 million of our fellow Pennsylvanians — our friends, neighbors and family members — put food on their tables. Those who rely on SNAP in Pennsylvania...
Dr. David Macpherson: Illness from vaping highly predictable
The explosion of “vaping” myriads of flavors and substances has quickly led to life-threatening disease and death in young people. A brief description of how our body staves off toxins shows why this recent outbreak was predictable. All life forms live in a world of toxins — mostly invisible stuff...
Pat Buchanan: Is China the country of the future?
“Who lost China?” With the fall of the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, the defeat of his armies and the flight to Formosa, that was the question of the hour in 1949. And no one demanded to know more insistently than the anti-Communist Congressman John F. Kennedy: Tragic indeed was...
Carol Ferguson: Parents need to know that vaccines work
Before its eradication in the U.S., polio affected millions. I should know; I am one of them. After founding the Pennsylvania Polio Survivors Network (PPSN), I have been reminded every day of the fear that existed before this terrible virus met its match in Jonas Salk’s famous vaccine. It came...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump’s effort to damage Biden could backfire
Is President Trump going to get Joe Biden elected? Opinions vary widely on how to characterize Trump’s now-infamous conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The president believes it was “perfect” and “beautiful.” In the middle are those who think it was bad and improper or perhaps impeachable but not necessarily...
Cal Thomas: Ukraine, a political rerun
Back when reruns were a staple of summer programming, television networks aired repeats of their programs, giving viewers another opportunity to see what they had already seen. Democratic politicians are now conducting their own version of reruns. The same bunch who brought us the failed Russian “collusion” story, the sliming...
S.E. Cupp: Those gunning for Trump impeachment should know risks
It sure seems like President Trump is in serious trouble. According to the latest CNN poll, nearly half of Americans support impeaching and removing him from office. That’s up from 41% in May. Most notably, and alarmingly for Trump, that shift has come largely from independents and Republicans, for whom...
Bobby Harr: Recreational marijuana in Pa. long overdue
With Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s recent push to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use in Pennsylvania, many state residents have glistened at the news of no longer hiding their weed stash. And as they should. Why on earth has it taken this long? For small-town Pennsylvania...
Colin McNickle: The Rivers Casino at 10
Ten years ago the heavily touted Rivers Casino opened on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. But a decade later, its original revenue projections have yet to materialize — even with expanded gambling — and the value of the jobs it has created remains a question mark, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny...
Cal Thomas: Faith & presidential authority
The debate about political power and authority among those who profess the Christian faith has raged since the first century. In modern America, the debate raged throughout Jimmy Carter’s presidency and more recently through the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The debate now looms large for Donald Trump....
Walter Williams: People really don’t care about you
During my student days at a UCLA economics department faculty/graduate student coffee hour in the 1960s, I was chatting with Professor Armen Alchian, probably the greatest microeconomic theory economist of the 20th century. I was trying to impress Alchian with my knowledge of statistical type I and type II errors....
Donald Boudreaux: James Buchanan, economist for the ages
One hundred years ago this month, James Buchanan was born on a Tennessee farm. No, not the 15th U.S. president. (That James Buchanan was from Pennsylvania.) The James Buchanan to whom I refer won the 1986 Nobel Prize in economics and taught for most of his career in Virginia, most...
Jonah Goldberg: Little doubt he did it, but should Trump be impeached?
Here’s a take no one will like: I’m confident he did it. I’m confident it’s impeachable. I’m just not so sure he should be impeached for it. Let’s start at the top. It’s obvious to me that President Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to launch a probe of former Vice...
Vince Mercuri: Forgiveness frees our souls
Over the years I have collected funeral cards as I grieved the loss of family and friends. In remembrance of them, I’ve noted a positive attribute or characteristic that they had displayed, and I use it as a means of reflection and growth on my personal journey. Three cards with...
Pat Buchanan: Biden impeachment’s first casualty
Even before seeing the transcript of the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Nancy Pelosi threw the door wide open to impeachment by the Democratic House. Though the transcript did not remotely justify the advanced billing of a “quid pro quo,” Pelosi set in motion...
Jonah Goldberg: What do progressives have against vaporous substances?
In the classic 1979 comedy “The Jerk,” Steve Martin plays a very dumb guy who often misses the point. In one scene, while he’s working as a gas station attendant, an assassin tries to kill him with a high-powered rifle. When the bullets start whizzing past his head and popping...
Peter Morici: Britain should bolt & join NAFTA
Divorces are messy — Brexit is no exception. All the squabbling in Parliament denies what most British voters have concluded. The European Union, spread over 28 countries and 24 official languages, may make sense as a free trade area similar to NAFTA but virtually none as a broader economic community...
