Opinion category, Page 410
Letter to the editor: Good time to get back to work
The unemployment rate is low and wages are rising, but so are inflation, interest rates and energy prices. History has taught us that when things get bad enough, we end up in a recession and real estate prices and the stock market drop. My advice to people sitting on the...
Letter to the editor: The person, not the product, is the problem
Families and survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting recently settled their lawsuit with Remington Arms. They said the company should never have sold such a dangerous weapon to the public. Doesn’t this open up a can of worms for other companies? What about cars that end up killing people? What...
Editorial: Taxing students, patients instead of nonprofits is ludicrous
Pittsburgh might have been built by the big-profit industries of steel and coal and glass, but today its economy is driven by high-dollar nonprofits. There are the institutions of higher learning. The University of Pittsburgh is one of the largest in a state full of post-secondary schools. Carnegie Mellon University...
Letter to the editor: A chronicle of Biden’s failures
President Biden’s disasters are accumulating at an alarming pace. The Biden team has bungled the covid response with financial waste, crushing mandates and misinformation. Biden assured Americans that inflation is only temporary, but it’s now approaching 8%, the highest in 40 years, and shows no sign of abating. The next...
S.E. Cupp: In Ukraine and around the world, cause to worry about what lies ahead for women
As heartbreaking and unimaginable images, videos and reports flood out of war-torn Ukraine, comparisons to World War II Europe are impossible to avoid. Thousands of families sleeping underground in subway stations, cramming onto outbound trains, air-raid sirens the new normal, beautiful buildings that once lit up a cosmopolitan city now...
Gary Franks: Peace can be found in Ukraine
At one time, the U.S. and NATO countries all seemed to believe that sanctions would work to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were mistaken. Now they believe sanctions will stop Russian President Vladimir Putin. The record shows the more sanctions the West imposes, the faster and harsher Putin...
Sheldon Jacobson: March Madness and advanced analytics
March Madness begins March 15. Blue-blood programs like Villanova, Duke and Kansas are locks to make the tournament. Mid-majors like Loyola-Chicago and Murray State hope to pull upsets and advance to the second weekend. Virginia Commonwealth and BYU are just hoping for a spot in the Big Dance. College basketball...
Dr. Andrew Smolar: An ode to friendship
When the virus struck, we were terrified. We saw people dying alone on television. Confused about how the virus spread, we washed groceries and hands repeatedly, changed our clothes and immediately modified our work. For me, that meant seeing my patients online. This felt heretical, because I’ve always sat with...
Stephanie Sowl: 3 things that influence college graduates from rural areas to return to their communities
When high-achieving students from rural areas go off to college and graduate, they often choose to live in suburban or urban areas instead rural communities like the ones where they grew up, decades of research have shown. Often they are following the advice of adults — or just deciding on...
Letter to the editor: Past time for a carbon price
The need to put a price on carbon is the main theme of Matthew Brown’s Feb. 23 Associated Press article “As climate change costs mount, Biden seeks to price damages.” Citizens’ Climate Lobby has been pushing for a carbon price for over 10 years. The legislation we like, the Energy...
Letter to the editor: Klein should be reinstated to Jail Oversight Board
The apparent decision to not reinstate Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board member Terri Klein should be reconsidered (“Fitzgerald seeks to appoint former warden to Allegheny County Jail board,” March 4, TribLIVE). It feels like Klein not being reinstated is an act of retaliation for recent votes where she sensibly represented...
Lori Falce: Banning books cages potential
The most miraculous invention in the history of the world is not something with a plug or gas tank. It is not a medicine or surgical technique. It doesn’t fly you to the moon or explore the inner workings of the Earth. But without it, none of that would have...
Letter to the editor: War on fossil fuels
Unimpaired strategic energy planning would have allowed our fossil-fuel independence to continue unabated until clean energy products became nationally available and affordable. But clean energy ideologues convinced President Biden to declare war on fossil fuels. Americans are now living under the impact of that decision. Prices for everything are significantly...
Letter to the editor: Business tax reductions do not create jobs
A common false narrative, pushed by Republican politicians, is that reducing an employer’s income tax will lead to job creation. Not true. The theory is that employers, upon learning that their tax liabilities are being reduced, will be so overjoyed that they will rush right out and hire a bunch...
Laurels & lances: Shooting, sentencing and structure
Laurel: To surviving. Oakmont is not the kind of place where a mid-afternoon shooting is commonplace. It was certainly not what Greg Scampone was expecting at the Fox’s Pizza Den he owns on Allegheny River Boulevard. But it’s what happened when the shop was robbed Sunday. A man walked in,...
Douglas Hannah: How a nondescript box has been saving lives during the pandemic — and revealing the power of grassroots innovation
One afternoon, a dozen Arizona State University students gathered to spend the morning cutting cardboard, taping fans and assembling filters in an effort to build 125 portable air purifiers for local schools. That same morning, staff members at a homeless shelter in Los Angeles were setting up 20 homemade purifiers...
Letter to the editor: Why voting is a political issue
Regarding the letter “Biden, Casey, protect our borders first” (Feb. 13, TribLIVE): When I applied for my mail-in ballot, I was required to send a copy of my driver’s license and sign. They compare my signature and license number on file with PennDOT. I renew my mail-in voting privileges every...
Letter to the editor: Non-intervention may be best for peace
Mysticism is poorly understood. Properly engaged, it’s like an old television variety show, not unlike “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” or “The Carol Burnett Show.” Naturally, this requires an explanation. I was gazing into my crystal ball this morning and, as usual, faces of world leaders appeared between scenes of global...
Editorial: Infrastructure priorities demand plan for success
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Sometimes bumper-sticker-type advice survives for a reason — because it’s true. The saying often ascribed apocryphally to Benjamin Franklin cautions us to know what we are doing before we plunge in headfirst. More than that, it smacks us on the back of the...
Letter to the editor: Longing for safety of Trump
The world was a safer place when Donald Trump was president. During Trump’s term in office, a Middle East treaty was signed, creating trade between Israel and United Arab Emirates. After Trump met with Kim Jong Un, missiles were no longer launched from North Korea. The people of Afghanistan could...
John Stossel: Cowards and leaders
Russia’s invasion revealed big differences in how politicians deal with threats. The president of Ukraine, when offered evacuation, said, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” He’s a leader. By contrast, in Canada a few weeks before, when truckers staged a protest against covid-19 rules, the cowardly Prime Minister Justin Trudeau...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump’s power worship of Putin is repugnant — and predictable
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trump explained on a radio show the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked...
John Metzler: Russia suffers stunning political setback on Ukraine
Russia has suffered a stunning political setback from the United Nations as Vladimir Putin pursues his ruthless attack against Ukraine. The diplomatic rebuff came amid Moscow’s widening military aggression on Ukraine which has created widespread civilian casualties and triggered a tragic refugee exodus from the East European country. In a...
Patrick Cicero and Bill Johnston-Walsh: Best defense against home heating bills is a good offense
With rising oil and gas prices, inflation woes and the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, these winter months are proving difficult for many Pennsylvania families, especially the 50-plus community. That’s why AARP Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate recently teamed up for a telephone town hall to answer Pennsylvanians’ questions...
Letter to the editor: Invasion of U.S. vs. invasion of Ukraine
Why are liberals OK with the U.S. being illegally invaded by millions from other countries through our southern border, but not OK with Russia invading other countries thousands of miles from the U.S.? The results will be the same: The countries will be changed forever. One will just take longer...
