Featured Commentary category, Page 148
Jonah Goldberg: Beto-mania a prime example of cult-of-personality politics
Robert “Beto” O’Rourke’s biggest fans and supporters insist he is a forward-thinking, future-oriented visionary, but no contender for the Democratic nomination feels more familiar than the former three-term congressman from El Paso. That’s because he has the highest combined score in both deja vu and nostalgia, which are two different...
Pat Buchanan: Is diversity a root cause of dual loyalty?
We can’t be divided by race, religion, by tribe. We’re defined by those enduring principles in the Constitution, even though we don’t necessarily all know them.” So Joe Biden told the firefighters union last week. But does Joe really believe that? Or does that not sound more like a plea,...
Charles Mitchell: For union members, knowledge is power
Francisco Molina knows what it takes to overcome adversity. Raised by a single mother from just 3 years old, Molina endured severe abuse. He wore long-sleeved shirts to school to cover the scars from his mother’s beatings. Such experiences can make or break a person. Molina did not break. Instead,...
Michelle Malkin: Protect kids from Google predators
The father of the World Wide Web is right: It’s time to take back “complete control of your data.” Tim Berners-Lee, who conceived the first internet browser 30 years ago, warned of its increasing threats to “privacy, security and fundamental rights.” To mark the anniversary, he argued that demanding transparency...
David Urban: Trump’s Pa. popularity no accident
There’s a reason why President Trump is becoming more popular in important Midwestern battleground states like Pennsylvania: Voters don’t want to lose the ongoing economic renaissance that is transforming their lives. According to a recent opinion survey from The Wall Street Journal, the president “cumulatively leads a generic Democratic opponent,...
Antony Davies & James Harrigan: Good policy, not posturing, can help poor
Politicians spend a lot of time talking about helping the poor. But the politicians who truly care about the poor are more concerned with policy outcomes than posturing for the cameras. Posturing might gain votes, but it often ends up doing more harm than good. It was thus a pleasant...
Walter Williams: Is income inequality fair?
Some Americans have much higher income and wealth than others. Former President Obama explained, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” An adviser to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez who has a Twitter account called “Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure” tweeted, “My goal for this...
John Stossel: How much is enough taxes?
Do you pay enough taxes? What is enough? When asked on “60 Minutes,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., didn’t seem to have a specific tax rate in mind, but then she said, “back in the ’60s … you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.” Suddenly, 70 percent...
John Baer: Time for another run at helping Pa. child sex abuse survivors
It was last October when the state legislature, specifically the state Senate, turned its back on victims of child sex abuse. Their own constituents. This despite the fact just two months earlier Pennsylvania became the epicenter of outrage over such abuse with the release by Attorney General Josh Shapiro of...
Cal Thomas: The Democrats’ Jewish problem
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comment that the influence of the Israeli lobby in Washington pushes lawmakers to take a pledge of “allegiance to a foreign country” was bad enough. A watered-down House resolution condemning, not Omar, but “all hatred” was as tepid as denouncing drunken driving. After heated debate...
Colin McNickle: Wolf’s teacher pay raise plan dubious
A proposal in Gov. Tom Wolf’s fiscal 2020 budget to raise the minimum wage for Pennsylvania’s public school teachers and support staff by a whopping 140 percent would have expansive and expensive consequences for taxpayers, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. It was in the 1980s...
New Trump budget is a horror show for Dems and Paul Ryan’s dream come true
You may remember that when he ran for president in 2016, Donald Trump said lots of unusual things, among which were regular pledges that unlike his Republican primary opponents and others in his party, he’d protect the safety net. In the speech announcing his candidacy, he said, “Save Medicare, Medicaid...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump human pseudo-event at CPAC
Two years ago, at the dawn of the Trump administration, Kellyanne Conway predicted that 2017’s CPAC would really be TPAC, or “Trump Pac.” What was premature spin then is conventional wisdom now. The Conservative Political Action Conference has always been what the great historian Daniel Boorstin called a “pseudo-event.” It...
Bonnie Kristian: America’s costly and futile war
“America would be more secure and stronger economically if we recognized that we have largely achieved our objectives in Afghanistan and moved aggressively to bring our troops and tax dollars home,” Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) write in an op-ed article. “Today, despite vast investment in training...
Michelle Malkin: Vaccine skeptics under siege
Watch out. Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley have locked their sights on the next targets of a frightening free speech-squelching purge: independent citizens who dare to raise questions online about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. I’m vaccinated. My children are up to date. There’s no dispute that vaccines have...
Joyce Terhaar: Communities lose when newspapers die or slide into decline
It is a story of corruption that will stay secret, politicians who will need fewer votes to win, even dangerous communicable diseases that will spread faster as our best scientists struggle to fight them. The story is the slow and painful demise of local newspapers, a story whose ending is...
Rob Shearer: How government can help Pennsylvania prosper
As Pennsylvania employers and business owners, we regularly think long term. Whether expanding our companies, hiring new workers, planning capital investments or responding to economic downturns, we base decisions not simply on immediate benefits or drawbacks but on long-term results. This isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary. After all, others’...
Walter Williams: Our planet is not fragile
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., claims that “the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” The people at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree, saying that to avoid some of the most devastating impacts of climate change, the world must slash carbon emissions...
John Stossel: Higher-ed hoaxers
If you are an American college professor, the way you get a raise or tenure is by getting papers published in “academic journals.” The stupidity of these journals says a lot about what’s taught at colleges today. Recently, three people sent in intentionally ridiculous “research” to prominent journals of women...
Russ Diamond: Pa. should lead the charge on banning daylight saving time
This weekend, we again will be forced to comply with an archaic tradition, one that offers no benefits. In fact, “springing forward and falling back” comes with many consequences at significant cost. If that’s not enough to make you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, remember that...
Rick Ebert: Clean water, clear rules for farmers
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have proposed a new plan to clarify what bodies of water and areas around waterways should be regulated by the federal government in conjunction with the Clean Water Act. The new proposal has been drafted to replace a flawed rule...
Pat Buchanan: Is the American Century over for good?
“Politics stops at the water’s edge” was a tradition that, not so long ago, was observed by both parties, particularly when a president was abroad, speaking for the nation. The tradition was enunciated by Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan in 1947, as many of the Republicans in the 80th Congress...
Helaine Olen: Alabama tornadoes another opportunity for Trump to reward supporters and punish opponents
It’s good when a majority of voters in your state back Donald Trump. Just ask the residents of Alabama, who discovered Monday morning that the president of the United States is going to make sure they receive VIP treatment following the devastating tornadoes that swept across a rural part of...
Thomas Botzman: Simplifying student loans
The Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965 was part of the Great Society campaign of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Part of its noble goal was to create opportunities for students who dreamed of earning college degrees and advancing their careers by providing financial aid to students in need. By...
Michelle Malkin: I’ve been Silicon Valley sharia’d
Last month, the little birdies in Twitter’s legal department notified me that one of my tweets from 2015 is “in violation of Pakistan law.” It seems like ancient history, but Islamic supremacists never forget — or forgive. My innocuous tweet featured a compilation image of the 12 Muhammad cartoons published...
