Opinion category, Page 244
S.E. Cupp: Vivek Ramaswamy won the debate for best in MAGA
Obnoxious. Annoying. Disrespectful. Inexperienced. Conspiratorial. Those are just a few of the adjectives one could use to describe Republican upstart Vivek Ramaswamy at the first GOP debate of the 2024 presidential election. It didn’t take long for the relatively unknown businessman-turned-candidate to make his presence known, earning applause and cheers...
Scott Jennings: Trump won the GOP debate by being a no-show. But who came in second?
It is fair to wonder how the other Republican candidates for president can catch up to Donald Trump. What is their plan to beat someone with a 30-plus point lead in the polls and who’s been using his many arrests the way the Super Mario Brothers use red mushrooms —...
Timothy J. Kunselman: Our society needs competitive balance
Freedom must be championed and defended every day. Otherwise, the quest for power will eventually overwhelm us. Freedom cannot be without limits, or again, the quest for power will intrude and ruin. We have freedom of speech but, one may not yell “fire” in a crowded theater. One may not...
Letter to the editor: The left would have us living in caves
Regarding the letter “Air conditioners cause problems” (Aug. 12, TribLIVE): Something tells me the loony left wouldn’t be happy even if we all went back to living in caves. I can imagine them chiseling their frantic letters now — “We must stop lighting wood fires to cook our food and...
Letter to the editor: A carbon-free future would be very lonely
In the letter “Leaders should take climate action now” (Aug. 8, TribLIVE), the author says leaders should “promote policies that will drive us to a carbon-free future.” Without getting into the whole climate change debate, does the author realize that all lifeforms on earth, plant, animal and human, are carbon-based?...
Lori Falce: Presidential debate or cafeteria food fight?
If you are a politics nerd like me, you probably spent Wednesday night watching the first Republican presidential primary debate of the 2024 election season. For some, this might be comparable to the other periodic ritual trial-by-combat going on right now — NFL preseason football. There definitely are parallels to...
Letter to the editor: Saddened by Trump, MAGA followers
I’m an 85-year-old veteran of the United States of America. It saddens me that a former president of our country has committed what I consider treason, without remorse, and is possibly continuing his criminal behavior. I think Trump is pure evil and is preying on his duped MAGA followers. Generations...
Laurels & lances: School starts and spotted lanternflies
Laurel: To learning lessons. Yes, it’s that time of year again. Buses are rolling. Lunches are being packed. School is opening. Franklin Regional students were back in classrooms Wednesday, with many others close behind. Over the next week, most children will be at desks, logged into computers or sitting on...
Letter to the editor: Oppenheimer, cancer parallels
From the movie “Oppenheimer” and some independent research, I learned that it took three years for the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. This is less time than the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the University of Pittsburgh took for their longterm studies on a group of rare childhood...
Colin McNickle: Next county executive should push benchmarking study
Allegheny County voters will elect a new chief executive in November. Whomever is chosen, researchers at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy say the executive should advocate for benchmarking the county’s performance against those nationwide. “Establishing and maintaining a benchmark peer group of counties should be a priority of the...
Dan DeBone: Westmoreland County manufacturers’ most valuable product — careers
Ask most Westmoreland County residents about the fourth week of May this year, and they’ll tell you it was just like any other. The Pirates hosted the Rangers for a three-game homestand. Students and relatives started to trickle in from out of town for Memorial Day. But it was anything...
Letter to the editor: Irwin has too many car washes
I love a clean car, but to have four washes in a 1- to 2-mile radius on Route 30 in Irwin — is this really necessary? Why can’t someone build a nice restaurant with real home-cooked food, like the Old Village Inn or Teddy’s? We have so many fast-food places....
Letter to the editor: Pa. Treasury’s ‘unclaimed money’ is a farce
The Pennsylvania Treasury makes a big deal about all the money they have that is owed to people. Here’s my experience. You fill out the paperwork, and you hear nothing from them. They acknowledge that they received your claim for your money. Then that’s as far as it goes. No...
Editorial: Fracking study points to health costs
Enthusiastic gas-drilling advocates in the Legislature long have fallen over themselves in their haste to get out of the industry’s way. Their zeal, for most of two decades, included a prohibition on using public money to conduct studies on the industry’s public health impact. Former Gov. Tom Wolf finally commissioned...
Letter to the editor: Why would Shapiro defund Real Alternatives?
Real Alternatives, a regional network of women’s help agencies with 77 centers throughout Pennsylvania, has served in excess of 400,000 women since its establishment in 1996. The regional program is financially supported by the commonwealth, offering women in crisis services such as counseling, testing, educational referrals, clothing, classes and shelter,...
Letter to the editor: Afghanistan accountability
It has been two years since President Biden’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, which I feel was recklessly staged purely for political theater. Biden irresponsibly risked the lives of thousands of American citizens and Afghan allies to complete his retreat by the symbolic date of Sept. 11, 2021. He surrendered Bagram...
Peter Morici: Finding the silver lining in Biden’s trade and industrial policies
President Biden’s industrial and trade policies are terribly controversial. Economists, pundits and the media — on the left and right — complain these will promote inefficiency and won’t address fundamental disadvantages — for example, shortages of engineers and similar workers with advanced training. Allies in Europe criticize that the Buy...
Jonah Goldberg: It’s too late, GOP also-rans. Nothing will stop Trump, except maybe the law.
So, Ron DeSantis gets it after all. “A movement can’t be about the personality of one individual,” DeSantis told the Florida Standard. “If all we are is listless vessels that’s just supposed to follow, you know, whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not...
Dr. Andrew Smolar: Calling out incivility
After this past week, I feel dented. Last Saturday, my wife and I enjoyed dinner at a place in the Philadelphia suburbs. When the check arrived, I realized our waitress had confused our tab with the next table’s. When I walked inside to correct it, I noted there was a...
Letter to the editor: Trump tried to take away our votes
Kudos to the writer of the letter “Republicans, don’t back Trump” (Aug. 14, TribLIVE) for realizing the truth about a habitual liar. You give several really good reasons not to back Trump, but I feel the biggest reason not to support him is the fact that he wanted Vice President...
Letter to the editor: We should all see Trump’s ‘evidence’
After his indictment in Georgia last week, Donald Trump scheduled a news conference for Aug. 20 at which he planned to issue a detailed report providing “irrefutable and overwhelming evidence” that the election there was stolen from him, resulting in his “complete exoneration” (“Trump trashes DA Fani Willis as ‘corrupt,’...
Editorial: WVU walkout has lessons for Pennsylvania colleges, leaders
Pennsylvania colleges, please take note of what happened Monday at West Virginia University. Hundreds of students at West Virginia’s top public school staged a walkout protest of a slate of proposed cuts announced Aug. 11. The problem is a significant budget gap. The university is trying to make up for...
Letter to the editor: Sticking with Trump
I consider the writer of the letter “Republicans, don’t back Trump” (Aug. 14, TribLIVE) a never- Trumper in lockstep with Liz Cheney and old guard Republicans. Let’s examine his three reasons for not supporting Trump. 1. “He failed to take any action during the Jan. 6 mob action to keep the...
Peter Roff: A U.S. agency you’ve never heard of is destroying innovation
Recent and expected Supreme Court rulings regarding the authority of federal regulators have put the regulatory bureaucracy in the spotlight. Too many of them have the power to make or break industries. Some, like the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), are begging to have their wings clipped. Its mission is...
Cal Thomas: Questions I would ask the GOP candidates
Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate in Milwaukee for the Republican candidates for the presidency will be more a Q&A session than a classic debate, but that’s OK. Viewers will have a chance to take the measure of the men — and woman — who wish to become president. Each candidate...
