Opinion category, Page 429
Letter to the editor: Government broken beyond repair
Our country is almost $30 trillion in debt. We have no provision for a balanced budget in our Constitution, and Congress does nothing. We need term limits for Congress. The IRS is even worse — 14 million people are still waiting for a return for their 2019 taxes. I am one...
Letter to the editor: Socialism in line with Christian faith
Many Christians think socialism is at odds with their faith. But Jesus taught principles very much in line with social thinking. The socialist principle that positively saturates Jesus’ gospel is the fair distribution of wealth, from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. This would have...
Editorial: Insurance payment for tests should have better coordination
In a pandemic, things can move quickly. You can see that in the rapidly rising and cresting waves of numbers as new variants of covid-19 cause an ebb and flow of spread. It was obvious in the relative lightning speed of development of testing for the virus and for vaccines....
Letter to the editor: HR 1 won’t restore election integrity
On Jan. 11, President Biden spoke about House Resolution 1 as a voting rights bill vital for the future of our democracy. Is that true, or is it only vital to avert the red wave coming in 2022? My reading of H.R. 1 is that it would give the federal...
Letter to the editor: Next governor must support education
If you think the Pennsylvania Legislature has an enviable record of support for public education, think again: We rank 45th in state support for our public schools. You might be surprised to know that Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi are among states that provide more support. Moreover, there are significant discrepancies...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Love on the menu at the Square Café
One morning about 10 years ago I stumbled into the Square Cafe just after dawn, and I had a solid breakfast among some familiar faces. I was happy to see my old friend Rick Sebak there. He was filming “Breakfast Special 2” for WQED. Sebak is known for preserving all...
Sounding off: What if Trump had never been born?
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a Christmas movie I enjoy every year. How all our lives are intertwined. This year as I watched, I thought … if only. If Donald Trump had never been born; therefore never president. Let’s say the presidential winner in 2016 was either Hillary Clinton or...
Sen. Gene Yaw: What critics get wrong about energy choice
Last month, seven environmental groups wrote a misguided letter to Philadelphia officials bashing legislation that I sponsored as counterintuitive to the city’s decarbonization goals. In October, six Democrats, including two from the southeast corner of the state, joined all 28 Republicans and our chamber’s lone independent to approve Senate Bill...
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan: The first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo Bay 20 years ago. Will it ever close?
On Jan. 11, 2002, a U.S. military plane landed at our base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the first men deemed “the worst of the worst” by then-Vice President Dick Cheney were brought into the now-infamous detention center. Jumah Al-Dossari, a citizen of both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia whom I...
Colin McNickle: A deeper dive into PIT’s latest passenger numbers
Popular media would have you believe that all is hunky-dory at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). After all, passenger counts generally were up, and PIT’s cargo operations were surging, based on November numbers, the latest available from the federal government. “On the rise,” a newspaper headline veritably shouted the update, missing...
Letter to the editor: Manchin, Cheney should lead third party
After reading Ramesh Ponnaru’s op-ed “Democrats should blame themselves, not Joe Manchin” (Dec. 21, TribLIVE), I definitely feel that we need a third party. At least Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, has enough guts and grit to stand up to the progressives, who I think are really socialists,...
Letter to the editor: Biden forcing independent to switch to Republican
I have always been a political independent. The only time I changed was in 2008 when I petitioned the county to change my registration to Democrat so I could vote against Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Taxsylvania presidential primary. Didn’t help … she won. I contacted them about 10 days...
Editorial: Supreme Court ruling could make hospital, nursing home jobs harder
Hospitals and other medical facilities have been struggling under the weight of competing crises during the coronavirus pandemic. On one hand, there is the need to help the patients. Pennsylvania’s numbers are on an upswing as the state, like the rest of the country, tries to handle the spread of...
Letter to the editor: Senator aligns with wrong side
Pennsylvania state Sen. John Yudichak was a bit disingenuous in his op-ed “America’s energy future depends on Pa.” (Dec. 5, TribLIVE). He states, “During the last decade, natural gas production in Pennsylvania has helped reduce CO2 emissions in the United States by 758 million metric tons — more than any country...
S.E. Cupp: The Bob Saget I remember
The year was 2005, and I was a 20-something living in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. As such, feeling hip and somewhat subversive, my friends and I looked for hip and somewhat subversive things to do. (Key word: somewhat. We all had real jobs.) When we’d heard that...
John Stossel: Parents should care about CRT
Glenn Youngkin recently was elected Virginia’s governor partly because he promised to ban teaching of CRT. CRT stands for critical race theory, which argues that every American institution upholds white supremacy. Before Youngkin’s surprise victory, the media mocked him for complaining about CRT. NBC’s Nicolle Wallace said it isn’t even...
Leonard Pitts Jr: Sidney Poitier — he was the only one we had
These days, we have Denzel Washington. We have Viola Davis, Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx. We have Octavia Spencer, Regina King and Samuel L. Jackson. We have Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Taraji P. Henson, Michael B. Jordan, Mahershala Ali, Tiffany Haddish and Will Smith. We have, in other words, a...
Letter to the editor: Wrong things to do as president
What could I do if I were the commander in chief to decrease the national security of the United States and make it easier for our enemies to attack us and our allies? • Politicize the FBI • Politicize the DOJ • Open the border • Have Border Patrol babysit...
Letter to the editor: Leaders don’t seem to care about taxpayers
I reacted with dismay when I read Sam Demarco’s op-ed “Pittsburgh Public Schools tax increase was not necessary” (Jan. 3, TribLIVE). Why would the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board raise taxes on Pittsburgh taxpayers in order to make up a $5.3 million budget shortfall when the board holds $145 million in...
Lori Falce: Yes, your kid should watch the news at school
Should middle school kids be watching CNN in school? It’s a discussion a board member at Norwin School District wants to consider. CNN 10 isn’t the same round-the-clock programming that runs on your cable stations. It is a 10-minute program offering students bite-sized chunks of stories for kid consumption. Four...
Letter to the editor: Democracy is being threatened
Thomas Wagner writes a curious letter (“Baseless claims.”) I found his syntax rather confusing, but he seems to be complaining that election fraud is not adequately being illuminated in the media. And yet his letter was only two sentences — he had plenty of space to be specific about this...
Gary Franks: Biden’s Jim Crow 2.0 remarks are the worst hyperbole to date
President Biden’s claim that being against the Democrats’ version of voting rights in 2022 is equivalent to being for Jim Crow 2.0 gives hyperbole a bad name. In the 19th century, most southern states had a majority or near-majority Black population because of slavery. To prevent this majority from politically...
Laurels & lances: Christmas, permit and reports
Laurel: To a second chance. Christmas didn’t come just once for Isaiah Olson this year. The Norvelt 6-year-old and his family lost their home on Jan. 5 to a house fire that claimed the life of his great-aunt, Alisa J. Richwine, 62. That’s a lot to disappear in a traumatic...
Letter to the editor: Decade of despair ahead for Steelers
Tim Benz wrote about life after Big Ben (“Appreciating Ben Roethlisberger’s career, and grasping the massive task of replacing him.”) But he and the rest of the local media don’t know the half of it yet. Because now the team faces a unique situation they never have before: They are...
Letter to the editor: Praise for mainstream media coverage of Jan. 6
Regarding the faux outrage and divisive editorial cartoon “Mallard Fillmore” in the Tribune-Review: I would like to comment on the Jan. 3 cartoon decrying the mainstream media’s potential failure to cover violence against law enforcement. I will start by saying I pray for the families and mourn the loss of...
