Opinion category, Page 318
Letter to the editor: Christmas wish list
A Christmas wish list: 1. Tribune Review — continued success and viability, where our opinions matter. 2. Republicans — a backbone. You have more fight against each other than the opposition. 3. Democrats — a brain. Enough said . 4. D.C. political leaders — they should burn in effigy from...
Letter to the editor: Scrooge-like ghosts ought to visit Musk
Elon Musk is crying out for an intervention. Do ghosts in the Twitter machine exist who can perform Scrooge-style visitations on the misbegotten magnate and help him reclaim his wayward soul? It’s hard to picture such a natural born, amoral, noxious blowhard awakening as a reborn and glorious Christmas butterfly,...
Laurels & lances: Naughty & nice
Laurel: To a worthy legacy. When Lower Burrell’s Brian Shaw, a New Kensington police officer, was killed in the line of duty in 2017, it didn’t bring an end to his service to the community. Five years later, a scholarship in Shaw’s name is making a difference in the lives...
Letter to the editor: Thanks to police for help resolving NJ nightmare
My most sincere thank-you to Officer Zakary Fedunok of the West Deer Township Police Department for resolving a four-month nightmare of mine. In August, I was billed for running a toll gate on the New Jersey Turnpike, on which I had never traveled. After numerous efforts to prove my innocence,...
Carl Kurlander: Franco Harris, a true hero
There already was going to be much written about Franco Harris, the legendary Pittsburgh Steeler who 50 years ago caught a deflected pass off his teammate at the last minute of a game against the Oakland Raiders in a play that would be known forever as the “Immaculate Reception.” Now,...
Lori Falce: The beautiful perfection of an imperfect Christmas
I don’t love Christmas the way I did when I was kid. As a child, everything about the season was a holly, jolly marathon of music and lights. It stretched out for weeks and weeks in a candy-striped scavenger hunt of glee. It started the Saturday after Thanksgiving when we...
Sheldon Jacobson: Tech meltdown will help the economy — eventually
Technology companies are shedding jobs at disturbing rates. Those with experience in computing are being laid off, sometimes with little warning. Freshly minted computer science graduates are facing employment headwinds not seen for well over a decade. Is this the next dot-com bubble burst, which could send the economy spiraling...
Letter to the editor: Brittney Griner’s release will aid Democrats
Brittney Griner is a very lucky person. Other Russian prisoners are not so lucky. President Biden has messed up this country. He and the Democrats need an edge in future elections. Bringing Griner home may do that. In return, we gave them a notorious illegal arms dealer. How many thousands...
Letter to the editor: Trump trading cards? Again, you can’t make this stuff up.
Many of us who were familiar with Donald Trump and his lifelong pattern of taking advantage of others and acting outrageously were confident that he would not grow into the presidency and that he would consistently embarrass us. We did not know exactly what he would do to bring himself...
Editorial: Franco Harris and how to play the game
Sports heroes don’t have much say in where they end up playing. It comes down to things like what team is highest in the draft and what positions that coach has to fill. By the same token, the cities that play host to those teams don’t have a say in...
Letter to the editor: Our teachers are worth more
I discovered a long time ago that teachers don’t choose their profession for the monetary rewards. They start with grand ambition and much hope to shape our youth to their fullest potential and prepare them for the demands of a productive life in a modern world. They deserve our admiration...
Paul Muschick: Drug addicts, drivers will benefit from new Pennsylvania laws
The Christmas season is a time to be cheery and celebrate the good things in life. So I will take a break from my running criticism of our overpaid state legislators to note some of the positive work they’ve done recently that should make Pennsylvania a safer place to live....
Letter to the editor: Richard Simmons star of mall memory
After reading the article “Malls’ best days may be long gone, but memories remain strong, particularly at Christmastime” (Dec. 11, TribLIVE), I am reminded of a visit that my husband and I made to Century III in October 1994. We did indeed meet Richard Simmons when he invited us up...
Letter to the editor: Doom and gloom
The good of the world may be balanced out with bad. Wouldn’t it be funny if all the religions of the world had the same God? TV preachers and politicians prey on the weak for donations. Some TV preachers have a net worth of over $7 million. Talk about profiting...
Editorial: Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew’s unforced error
In 2019, when running for office, Doug Chew made a loud and proud campaign promise. Send him to the courthouse as a Westmoreland County commissioner, and he would take 60% of his paycheck and donate it to the drug court. The people listened. They gave him the job. Like other...
Letter to the editor: Energy independence and border security
From her point No. 1, it’s apparent that letter-writer Mary Beth Walling (“So what are Republicans’ plans to help?” Dec. 14, TribLIVE) has been reading and watching her news on the mainstream media (except for FOX), or she would understand that under President Trump, we had already achieved energy independence. In...
David Lenga: As a Holocaust survivor, the most important thing I can do is share my story
From Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., antisemitism is once again on the rise, being echoed by celebrities with wide audiences such as Kanye West and Kyrie Irving. To Jewish people who remember the Holocaust — or those, like myself, who survived it — this shameless bigotry is nothing new. Although...
Jonah Goldberg: It was a bad year for authoritarianism
As 2022 draws to a close, it’s worth celebrating that this hasn’t been a good year for authoritarianism. This might seem Pollyannish. After all, just last month, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance issued a report concluding that democracy is in decline while authoritarianism is deepening. Freedom House...
Letter to the editor: Kudos to football players, announcers
I watched the football championship games on PCN. The field was in perfect shape (beautiful venue). The broadcasters were very professional and well informed, and did a great job to make each game exciting and interesting. They were as good, if not better, than their big network counterparts. Hats off...
Letter to the editor: Justice for insurrectionists
I have been listening to the podcast “Ultra” by Rachel Maddow. It is frightening and at the same time reassuring. Reassuring in that our current political situation is not unique; we have been there before. And frightening in that our democracy can be so fragile. “Ultra” takes us back to...
Editorial: Automatic pay raises are unfair to taxpayers
There’s nothing like starting the new year with a hefty pay hike. Sadly, that’s not something most Pennsylvanians will get to experience. It is, however, a benefit of being an elected official. Much of the attention in recent weeks has been centered on state officials — namely the legislators who...
Letter to the editor: Immigration partnership could work
I have a lot of ideas. Sometimes I’m the master of the obvious, and others have thought and written about the same thing. Sometimes, I come up with a good one. I think the following represents a good one. I raise ideas with our legislators, and I receive responses, probably...
Tom Purcell: Hope is all we have
I’m filled with a renewed sense of hope all of the sudden. Truthfully, I don’t know why I feel such hopefulness. Last Friday I went to the hospital to have a hernia surgically repaired. They stuffed a hose down my mouth and pumped me with air, then sliced and sewed...
Aubrey Kirchhoff: What we should and should not do about kids and social media
Chances are if you’ve read the news in the past year you’ve seen a headline like these: It’s time to go nuclear. Mark Zuckerberg is choosing profit over children. We need to ban kids from social media … . And who could disagree with them? After all, you must be...
Theodore J. Kury: What social media regulation could look like — think of pipelines, not utilities
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, and his controversial statements and decisions as its owner, have fueled a new wave of calls for regulating social media companies. Elected officials and policy scholars have argued for years that companies like Twitter and Facebook — now Meta — have immense power over public...
