Featured Commentary category, Page 147
Pat Buchanan: Must West beg world for forgiveness?
As the Democratic Party quarrels over reparations for slavery, a new and related issue has arisen, raised by the president of Mexico. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has written Pope Francis and King Felipe VI to demand their apologies for the Spanish conquest of Mexico that began 500 years ago with...
Nicholas Theis: UPMC workers & the need for a union
Ensuring everyone has access to UPMC’s nonprofit hospitals should be a no-brainer, yet both Pittsburgh City Council and the mayor have failed in recent years to hear their constituents out, or use their powers to protect them. Now, tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians face the prospect of being shut out...
Jennifer Rubin: A little oversight uncovers a lot of lawlessness
With a Democratic House majority in place, we see more clearly than ever how Republican docility enabled President Trump’s lawlessness for the first two years of his presidency. When “normal” congressional behavior appears to check the executive branch — e.g. oversight hearings, subpoenas, use of the bully pulpit — we...
James Downie: Republicans missing health care plan
The Justice Department’s decision Monday that the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional has sparked many questions, such as, “Didn’t Republicans get killed in the midterms on health care?” and “Really? This again?” Combined with a federal judge’s ruling Thursday blocking the Trump administration’s “association health plans,” which the judge...
Colin McNickle: No subsidies for replacement Hill grocery store
There are troubling hints that a replacement grocery store for the heavily subsidized and now-closed Shop ’n Save in Pittsburgh’s Hill District might be in line for more public subsidies. But a new analysis by a scholar at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy reiterates that subsidies for that store...
S.E. Cupp: All presidents (and candidates) deserve Trump-level press scrutiny
In the days since the Mueller report was concluded and found no collusion between President Trump and Russia, the attention has turned to the press and its perceived hyperfocus on the two-year-long investigation. Questions about whether outlets like The New York Times, MSNBC or CNN, where I work, spent too...
Jonah Goldberg: Mueller report in, but collusion story may never end
The story is not over. It may never be over in our lifetimes. But an important chapter has come to an end, and it had a happy ending for the president. Contrary to what we’re already beginning to hear from some quarters of the left, the Mueller probe almost certainly...
Kristen Houser & Kristy Trautmann: It’s ‘he said, she said’ by design
We’ve lost track of the number of times recently that we’ve heard someone end a conversation about sexual harassment or abuse with a shrug and “It’s a he-said-she-said situation.” What they mean, invariably, is there is reason to doubt reports of sexual misconduct or assault if the woman reporting the...
Walter Williams: More university corruption
Last week’s column discussed the highly publicized university corruption scheme wherein wealthy parents bought admission at prestigious universities for their children. That is dishonest and gives an unfair advantage to those young people but won’t destroy the missions of the universities. There is little or no attention given by the...
John Stossel: The socialist fantasy
Venezuela is a disaster. Yet 20 years ago, it was the wealthiest country in Latin America. It still has the world’s biggest oil reserves. It should be a happy and prosperous nation. But then Venezuela went socialist. Democratic socialist to be exact. They voted for it. Hugo Chavez promised the...
Michael Mann & Flora Cardoni: Moving Pa. to clean-energy powerhouse
Global climate change devastation hit hard in 2018. From Hurricanes Florence and Michael decimating the Carolinas and Florida to deadly, unprecedented wildfires in California, those were just three of the 10 costliest climate-driven, extreme weather events of the year that killed thousands of people and caused nearly $85 billion in...
Helaine Olen: Why are we getting so many robocalls?
One morning about three weeks ago, at 5:45 a.m., the robocallers came for me. My cellphone rang. And rang. It hasn’t stopped. The calls claim to come from all over the world. Sometimes they ring once, and stop. Sometimes twice. Rarely more than that. If I answer, I am sometimes...
Alex Vargo: Anti-Semitism in the halls of Congress
Having grown up in a Jewish family in a nook of Pittsburgh with many other families like ours, I am keenly aware of the anti- Semitism that creeps out from the dark corners of our society from time to time. To think it would hit the halls of Congress, though, is...
George T. Conway III: On at least one charge, Trump is clearly guilty
Very little was surprising about the conclusion of the special counsel’s investigation. For one thing, it wasn’t surprising that Robert Mueller’s probe prompted great commotion — a federal investigation involving a sitting president is a momentous event, and concluding it, a historic moment. And most, but not all, of the...
Pat Buchanan: Why Biden may be courting Abrams
Of 895 slots in the freshman class of Stuyvesant High in New York City, seven were offered this year to black students, down from 10 last year and 13 the year before. In the freshman class of 803 at The Bronx High School of Science, 12 students are black, down...
Timothy L. O’Brien: Trump can take a victory lap, but it’s a partial one
President Trump scored a significant political and legal victory on Sunday. Attorney General William Barr, in a brief summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 presidential election, said that Mueller has determined that Trump and his aides didn’t conspire or coordinate with Russia in that country’s efforts...
S.E. Cupp: Dems need Oprah, since nobody in current field can beat Trump
O Oprah, Oprah, wherefore art thou Oprah? The Democrats’ attempt at unseating President Trump is in its nascent stages, but it’s starting to feel a little star-crossed. Despite a crowded sea of hopefuls, no true love match has emerged. If you ask me, that’s because she hasn’t decided to run....
Michelle Malkin: CAIR’s dirty deeds
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is having a banner month. The militant Muslim group never lets a crisis go to waste. That means Americans should beware. When unappeasable CAIR is ascendant, our free speech rights, religious liberty and national security are at risk. Following the horrible massacre at two mosques...
John Lott Jr.: Pa. gun registry waste of money, resources
Pennsylvania Democrats want to register your guns. On March 15, state House Representatives Angel Cruz (D-Philadelphia), Mary Isaacson (D-Philadelphia) and Mary Jo Daley (D-Montgomery) proposed the Firearms Registration Act, from which only antiques and guns owned by law enforcement would be exempt. Gov. Tom Wolf strongly supports the bill. “The...
Lloyd Corder: Where do economists stand on Wolf’s $15 proposal?
Earlier this month, Gov. Tom Wolf championed a list of 38 economists who support his proposal to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $15 an hour — a 107 percent increase. The list’s signers, sourced primarily from a handful of Pennsylvania-based colleges and advocacy organizations, argued that the governor’s proposal would...
G. Terry Madonna & Michael Young: Dick Thornburgh and Three Mile Island
The 40th anniversary of the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear accident has produced an irony no fiction writer, however brazen, could produce: TMI’s owner, Exelon Corp., has announced that it will close the plant in September. And so it appears that the history of the notorious TMI accident — an...
Walter Williams: Charges small part of college corruption
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 50 people involved in cheating and bribery in order to get their children admitted to some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities such as Georgetown, Yale, Stanford, University of Texas, University of Southern California and UCLA. They often paid more than $100,000...
Colin McNickle: Allegheny Co.’s ‘charitable purposes’ review falls short
In 2007, Allegheny County Council passed an ordinance mandating a review every three years of properties claiming exemption from property taxes under the Purely Public Charity Act. But 12 years after the fact, only one review has commenced — in 2013, six years after the fact and still ongoing —...
Paul Kengor: Do you believe in miracles?
Do you believe in miracles? That’s a line made famous, of course, by sportscaster Al Michaels regarding the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. But that’s nothing compared to the miracle I heard about two weeks ago. I was at Eureka College, alma mater of Ronald Reagan, speaking on Reagan, Pope...
Cal Thomas: Trump’s behavior offensive and unnecessary
President Trump made a rare appearance at a church Sunday. It’s a safe bet the sermon was not based on Proverbs 15:1 — “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” If it was, it didn’t appear to have much effect. Before and after church,...
