Featured Commentary category, Page 136
Doyle McManus: Trump’s foreign policy has produced a string of failures
WASHINGTON — The strangest thing about President Trump’s aborted plan to fly the Taliban to Camp David wasn’t the terrible symbolism of hosting terrorists three days before the anniversary of 9/11 — although that was bad enough. Even crazier was Trump’s underlying premise: that he could sweet-talk Taliban leaders to...
Pat Buchanan: Why is there apprehension about Joe Biden?
Thursday, Sept. 14, looks to be a fateful day in the half-century-long political career of Joe Biden. That night, a three-hour debate will be held, a marathon in politics. Biden will be on stage, taking incoming missiles for 180 minutes from nine rivals, each of whom is hungry for the...
Colin McNickle: An early look at Pa.’s public pension reform
Public employee pension reform now is in full bloom in Pennsylvania. But if the limited data available from the first of two groups is any indication, there hasn’t been any rush by employees — new or old — to embrace defined-contribution plans, suggests an analysis by a researcher at the...
Stephen J. Lyons: ‘Who won the week?’ Me, because I stopped watching cable news
I was slogging through my Saturday workout at the gym trying to balance and read a book on the elliptical while ignoring the three muted television sets on the wall. The gym’s owner usually starts the day with Fox News on the right, MSNBC on the left and HGTV in...
S.E. Cupp: Trump wants to look tough on mass shootings, while doing little
In the span of just over a month, four mass shootings — in Gilroy, Calif.; Dayton, Ohio; and El Paso, and Odessa, Texas — have provoked varying words of comfort, condemnation and promised action from President Trump. After the Gilroy shooting, he offered, “While families were spending time together at...
Michelle Malkin: Stop mental health data mining of our kids
No, no, no. Hell, no! That’s my response to the latest trial balloon floated by the White House to join with Silicon Valley on a creepy program monitoring Americans’ “neurobehavioral signs” to (purportedly) prevent gun violence. President Trump’s old friend, former NBC head Bob Wright, has been pushing an Orwellian...
Dani Ritchie: Raise the Wage Act will hurt tipped workers
I’m worried that some Pennsylvania representatives want to reduce my ability to earn a living. When House Democrats voted in July to pass House Resolution 582, the Raise the Wage Act — a bill that would not only raise the federal minimum wage to $15 but would also eliminate the...
Bill Godsey: From Pennsylvania to Texas, energy fuels economic growth
President Trump’s visit last month to an ethane cracker plant in Western Pennsylvania underscored a key fact that both political parties should be able to agree on: America’s remarkable shale renaissance is securing our country’s energy independence and bolstering industries throughout the economy. It’s hard to argue that Royal Dutch...
Bob Cranmer: For Catholics’ sake, Vatican must institute serious reforms
Although I was raised in the Catholic Church, for the majority of my adult life I was a conservative evangelical Christian. In 2005, after a 25-year absence, I returned to the Catholic Church during a time of crisis. I came to better understand and appreciate the historic position of the...
Sister Sharon Costello: On immigrants, hateful rhetoric must stop
Inside a converted former nightclub steps away from the bus station in the border town of McAllen, Texas, Sister Janice Vanderneck touches the scarred, small hand of a 6-year-old Guatemalan boy who explains he was with his father that frightening day when someone burned down the family’s store. She listens...
Walter Williams: Biased liberal criminologists mislead us
John Paul Wright, professor at University of Cincinnati, and Matthew DeLisi professor at Iowa State University, penned a powerful article titled “What Criminologists Don’t Say, and Why,” in the summer 2017 edition of City Journal. There is significant bias among criminologists. The reason for that bias is that political leanings...
John Stossel: Recovering from labor
On Labor Day, did you celebrate workers? More likely, you made it a day of rest. Fine. It’s good to have a choice. I didn’t have a choice about joining a union when I was hired by CBS and then ABC. They told me that if I wanted to work,...
Donald Boudreaux: Three critical economic realities
Although research on its frontiers is often expressed in dense mathematics and murky jargon, economics’ core is quite straightforward. And it’s as important as ever for public policy. Here are three keys for doing practical economics well. First: recognize that many economic “problems” or “failures” are not real; they are...
Jennifer Elliott: Pennsylvania school screenings missing vital asthma test
With students back in class, schools across the state are providing annual vision and hearing screenings to help ensure student well-being. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania does not mandate a screening for the most common chronic childhood disease: asthma. Such screenings should be required in Pennsylvania, which has the second highest percentage of...
Timothy L. O’Brien: Mike Pence’s Doonbeg visit proves he’s a giver
Go ahead and forgive yourself if you find some details of Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Ireland confusing. Although Pence has official meetings in Dublin (on Ireland’s east coast) he and his federal entourage have found lodging in Doonbeg (on Ireland’s west coast). Why Doonbeg? Well, Pence has ancestral...
Keith Williams: How 3 workers fought union coercion — and won
It’s not every day that ordinary Pennsylvanians willingly disrupt their lives to stand up for their constitutional rights. Even rarer is achieving an impact that affects thousands of people in just a few short months. But that’s exactly what three Greensburg state employees accomplished this year. Megan James, William Lester...
Pat Buchanan: Will Bibi’s war become America’s war?
President Trump, who canceled a missile strike on Iran after the shoot-down of a U.S. Predator drone, to avoid killing Iranians, may not want a U.S. war with Iran. But the same cannot be said of Bibi Netanyahu. On Aug. 21, Israel launched a night attack on a village south...
Jeff Piccola: Governor’s charter school ‘reforms’ unnecessary
Gov. Tom Wolf recently proposed a series of so-called reforms to Pennsylvania’s Charter School Law. He asserts that it is one of the worst in the nation. If you look at the law from the perspective of high cost and failing school districts, he may be right. Charter schools, which...
Bob Bozzuto: A Labor Day to celebrate
During our busy lives, there are few chances to step back and take in the big picture of the momentum built by America’s workforce. On this 125th Labor Day, we can point out historic achievements and positive impacts that continue across the labor market. The Department of Labor’s Bureau of...
William Isler, Audrey Russo & Jake Witherell: Gap in nontraditional child care undermines economic growth
Kids love playing musical chairs. Around they go, and when the music stops, someone has a seat, and someone is standing. But Pennsylvania parents and employers are playing a real-life game of musical chairs, with devastating consequences. Nearly half of Pennsylvania families work in fields demanding evening, night-time and weekend...
James Disantis: No ‘fix’ for delusional killers
I have worked as a licensed clinical social worker in the health/mental health field in a variety of settings for 40 years. Hopefully, with age has come some wisdom I would like to share. The “dirty little secret” no one will talk about is this: There is no successful mental...
Colin McNickle: Keeping an eye on police regionalization
Cheswick Borough and Springdale Township have joined forces to form Allegheny County’s second regional police force. And if the conclusions of a state study that led to the creation of the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department come to fruition, it could be an operational and financial win-win for local taxpayers,...
Deena Flinchum: USMCA good deal for union workers
When members of Congress return from their August recess, they’ll face one of the most important decisions of their political careers — whether to ratify President Trump’s new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) isn’t perfect, but it’s far better than NAFTA, the pact which...
Walter Williams: Slavery & our ‘democracy’
The New York Times has begun a major initiative, the “1619 Project,” to observe the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe American history so that slavery and the contributions of black Americans explain who we are as a nation. Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer for...
John Stossel: In Africa, bad law keeps people poor
Why does most of Africa stay poor while other parts of the world prosper? People blame things like climate, the history of colonialism, racism, etc. But I say Senegalese businesswoman Magatte Wade gives the right explanation: too many rules. “Once you hire someone, good luck getting rid of them for...
