Featured Commentary category, Page 144
Pat Buchanan: Are all the world’s problems ours?
In 2003, George W. Bush took us to war to liberate Iraq from the despotism of Saddam Hussein and convert that nation into a beacon of freedom and prosperity in the Middle East. Last Tuesday, Mike Pompeo flew clandestinely into Baghdad and met with the prime minister. The visit was...
Jonah Goldberg: If Democrats want ‘normalcy,’ why are candidates so radical?
In the 1920 presidential election, Warren Harding won in a landslide by promising a “Return to Normalcy.” Today’s Democrats would be wise to make that same pledge for 2020. They probably won’t, however, which is why President Trump might get re-elected. Harding’s concept of normalcy has been ridiculed and reviled...
Hugh Hewitt: Senate has important work to do. Why waste time subpoenaing Donald Trump Jr.?
There are six vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals, with two more vacancies certain to occur and many more likely to happen before January 2021 as older members of the courts eager to be replaced by center-right judges take “senior status.” Each is nearly as important to preserving liberty,...
Cal Thomas: David McCullough remembers the pioneers
In a country preoccupied with presidential candidates preaching extreme liberalism and even unabashed socialism comes America’s greatest living historian, David McCullough, with a new and needed book. It’s called “The Pioneers” and the subtitle is its theme: “The heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal west.” Nowadays,...
Gisele Fetterman: American dream should be for everyone
The American dream is real, and I should know because I’m living it. Unfortunately, for millions of people, that dream has been deferred because of uncertainty surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Our elected officials in Washington must act swiftly to pass House Resolution 6, the Dream...
Bret Grote: The travesty of the Allegheny County Jail
Nelson Mandela said, “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” By every measure, the Allegheny County Jail fails this test. Meant to be...
John Stossel: Independent journalists
“I’m not going to let them bully me out of reporting,” said Tim Pool after recording an antifa protest where angry activists cursed at him. There might have been violence, but antifa’s “de-escalation team” protected him, he says. That surprised me. “Antifa has a de-escalation team?” “They have people who...
Walter Williams: Discrimination & disparities II
Last week’s column discussed Dr. Thomas Sowell’s new book “Discrimination and Disparities,” which is an enlarged and revised edition of an earlier version. In this review, I am going to focus on one of his richest chapters titled “Social Visions and Human Consequences.” Sowell challenges the seemingly invincible fallacy “that...
Bill Peduto, Philly mayor: Why we oppose Pa. Senate gun bill
As mayors of the Commonwealth’s two largest cities, representing more than 1.8 million Pennsylvanians, we unequivocally oppose Senate Bill 531 which is being considered in the Pennsylvania Senate. This bill would pre-empt local jurisdictions from enacting sensible laws to protect their residents from deadly firearms. It gives the gun lobby...
Frank Dermody: Republican ‘dirty dozen’ threaten public safety
Imagine a world where you could commit any crime — even killing another person — but as long as you were the one who called the police and reported yourself, you’d walk away scot-free. That’s the world some corporate special interests are asking extremist Republicans to build for them —...
Pat Buchanan: Let Venezuela decide its own destiny
“Who would be free themselves must strike the blow … “By their right arms the conquest must be wrought.” So wrote Lord Byron of Greece’s war of independence against the Turks, though the famed British poet would ignore his own counsel and die just days after arriving in Greece to...
Carl Hiaasen: Teachers with guns only makes sense to lawmakers who have lost their minds
From the What-Could-Possibly-Go-Wrong? Department: A bill allowing Florida teachers to carry guns in public schools passed the Legislature last week and is expected to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Teachers will soon be able to volunteer as “armed guardians” in their schools after attending firearms training, undergoing a psychiatric...
S.E. Cupp: What Joe Biden can learn from Pete Buttigieg
So far, he’s hitting it out of the park. Less than one week after Joe Biden announced he’s running for president — again — he’s in an enviable spot. He smashed all 2020 subsequent one-day fundraising records, bringing in a whopping $6.3 million on his first day. A new CNN...
Michael R. Strain: Stop poor-mouthing the two-earner family
When it comes to pressures on working parents, it is usually the political left that is loudest in calling for more government intervention to help them. Its focus is on traditional liberal programs like universal child care and mandates for more generous family leave. But some on the political right...
William Behre: Regional public universities open doors to American dream for all students
Last month I found myself in the middle of a social media frenzy. It started when Dr. Phil McGraw gave an interview to People.com regarding the current college admissions scandal. Dr. Phil opined that the accused parents weren’t really shopping for an education, but rather they were looking for status....
G. Terry Madonna & Michael Young: Biden brings liabilities, strengths
Joe Biden’s recent presidential announcement surprised few, but it will surprise more than a few if Biden actually wins the Democratic presidential nomination. At age 76 today, he would be the oldest president ever inaugurated by more than seven years. He also brings several other liabilities not shared with other...
Mitchel Nickols: Schools, workplaces must deal with bullies
As accepting as some people may be today, and childhood activities being just a part of growing up, it’s hard to explain how a fifth-grader goes to school and two days later dies from being beaten by a classmate. That’s what happened in March to South Carolina 10-year-old Raniya Wright,...
John Sparks: Founders’ wisdom on Senate still works today
Periodically, those who do not think the U.S. Constitution is “democratic” enough set out to repudiate that document’s genius. The Electoral College is often the recipient of such attacks. The most recent constitutional provision to be called into question is Article I, section 3: “the Senate of the United State...
John Stossel: Bernie Sanders wrong about the poor
Socialists like Bernie Sanders tell us that “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.” That’s a lie. Yes, rich people got absurdly rich. Last year, says Oxfam, “the wealth of the world’s billionaires increased (by) $2.5 billion a day.” I say, so what? The poor did not get...
Walter Williams: Discrimination & disparities
My longtime friend and colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell has just published a revised and enlarged edition of “Discrimination and Disparities.” It lays waste to myth after myth about the causes of human differences not only in the United States but around the globe. Throughout the book, Sowell shows that socioeconomic...
Donald Boudreaux: The power of economics
Economics grabbed me from the moment I first encountered it as a freshman at Nicholls State University. I remain in awe of economics’ power to explain features of reality that are otherwise inexplicable. Why, for example, did we Americans in the 1970s waste so many hours waiting in long lines...
Buzz Aldrin: It’s time to focus on the great migration of humankind to Mars
Last month, Vice President Mike Pence announced that we are headed back to the moon. I am with him, in spirit and aspiration. Having been there, I can say it is high time we returned. When Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and I went to the moon 50 years ago this...
Kristen Laney O’Toole: My MS worsened while waiting for MRI authorization
I was living a healthy, active life as a communications consultant in Pittsburgh. That changed suddenly and dramatically in 2014 when I began experiencing back pain. As the pain intensified, I realized that something was seriously wrong. My doctor wanted to do an MRI to officially diagnose what he suspected...
Pat Buchanan: A nation at war with itself
President Trump has decided to cease cooperating with what he sees, not incorrectly, as a Beltway conspiracy that is out to destroy him. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump said last week. “These aren’t, like, impartial people. The Democrats are out to win in 2020.” Thus the Treasury Department just...
Colin McNickle: Hurdles for Pittsburgh property tax relief
Pittsburgh would be given the exclusive and explicit authority to enact a property tax relief program for longtime owner-occupants whose property values have risen because of gentrification under a bill pending in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. But should the measure be approved, myriad implementation questions, left to the city, remain...
