Opinion category, Page 485
John Stossel: Innovation happens when rules are broken
America has so many regulations today that often the only way to do something new, to create something great, to prosper is to ignore rules. Minutes before SpaceX launched a rocket, the government told the company the launch would violate its license. SpaceX launched anyway. CEO Elon Musk says the...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Democracy worth the trouble every time
It was, let us say, an interesting weekend for democracy. Call it a tale of two cities. One is Dallas, where thousands of so-called “conservatives” — the word has less meaning by the day — gathered in support of Donald Trump and his ongoing efforts to delegitimize a free and...
Jonah Goldberg: Republican stance on voting rules doesn’t amount to a war with democracy
What a mess. Democrats (and their allies in the media) have convinced themselves that the Republican Party is at war with democracy. Republicans (and their allies in the media) have convinced themselves that the Democratic Party is at war with democracy. They’re both wrong, although in very different ways. Let’s...
Letter to the editor: Trimming Pittsburgh’s trees
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but moved to another state in 1980 to work as a local government employee in planning and zoning. I’m not an arborist but had to work with them wherever I went. I am surprised that Pittsburgh’s tree code seems to prevent the local...
Letter to the editor: Reason for Route 28 lights
If you frequent the Route 28 Expressway between Exits 15 and 16, you will now have no excuse for failing to turn and cross over Saxonburg Road on the curved bridge. Apparently many of you have been missing this turn and continuing straight into some other time space continuum, so...
Lori Falce: High cost of college is no joke
My sister’s youngest child just graduated from high school, which means come fall, she will have two kids in college at the same time. Teasing her about the campus visits and paperwork and packing and all of the costs was funny. Until I realized my son is 13. That puts...
Letter to the editor: Kamala Harris’ character
Did Lester Holt’s intriguing interview with Vice President Kamala Harris appear to elicit an answer that revealed her irresponsible (or delusional) character? Didn’t she say, more than once, “We’ve been to the border”? And wasn’t Holt’s response, “You haven’t been to the border,” a known fact? She answered again in...
Colin McNickle: Right-to-Work and the post-pandemic jobs recovery
Recently released May 2021 employment data for Greater Pittsburgh show a significant jump from the covid-depressed May 2020 level. But an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy suggests the numbers could have been even better had Pennsylvania been a Right-to-Work (RTW) state. “It is, in large part, a...
Laurels & lances: Scooters, seller, saviors
Laurel: To a new way to move. The City of Pittsburgh is planning to get people up and running with a Move PGH pilot program launching in the Manchester neighborhood. The program will put 100 electric scooters in use to push the city’s efforts for Universal Basic Mobility — a...
Editorial: A compounded error on unemployment payments requires state to come clean
The government is trusted with a lot just because it is the government. It is easy to balance your checkbook and figure out if the bank overcharged you for a fee. It isn’t hard to glance over your receipt from Walmart to make sure that you weren’t charged for two...
Letter to the editor: Where’s reporting on border?
Where is the Tribune-Review’s reporting on our southern border? Thousands of illegals are entering our country because of President Biden’s policies. This is a national security issue with illegals, criminals and drugs flowing across the border. It is so bad in Texas that Gov. Greg Abbott is going to build...
Letter to the editor: Help citizens, not immigrants
The Biden administration is spending billions of our hard-earned money to take care of illegal immigrants, providing health care and subsidized housing and feeding. I welcome legal immigration. A friend of mine, an American citizen who worked hard all his life, recently had a health crisis and is currently in...
Letter to the editor: Renewables vs. fossil fuels
A popular current subject is the dramatically reduced cost of installing renewable energy such as solar and wind. In fact, there are claims that new renewables are less expensive than installing fossil- fueled power stations. However, one big difference exists between the two. The difference is that fossil-fueled stations are “dispatchable.”...
Jonah Goldberg: Anti-vax hysteria is anything but pro-life
On a recent flight from Texas to North Carolina, a woman came so unglued that she tried to open the plane’s door. The flight crew had to bind and gag her with duct tape. This was an extreme example of a disturbing trend in air travel: People are becoming unruly...
Letter to the editor: End daily covid case count
As America and the world strive to have life resume to “normal,” it is long overdue that the covid case numbers be removed from the Tribune-Review and the TribLIVE website. Seeing those numbers are reminiscent of the daily body counts during the Vietnam War — and if you recall, those...
Letter to the editor: Not watching the Olympics
Hey NBC (“Nothing But Commercials”) and United States Olympic Committee: You have a big problem. And the following point isn’t even covid-19 related. You’re paying millions of dollars to broadcast the Olympics from Japan. You would like the American people to watch the events and the commercials that paid you...
Editorial: Giving constables an updated role in local law enforcement
Do you know what a constable is and exactly where the position falls in the tangle of law enforcement and court duties in Pennsylvania? No? You aren’t alone. The position is something of a relic — a leftover from a time before police departments, when sheriffs could be far removed...
Letter to the editor: Americans’ ‘tyranny and oppression’
The July 5 print edition’s front-page centerpiece featured an article with the headline “American resolve.” The subhead referred to the “determination of colonists,” and the article itself quoted the Hanna’s Town Resolves document, which cited the British “system of tyranny and oppression” and declared that all Americans needed to “resist...
Pat Buchanan: Are the good times over for Biden?
Are the Democrats headed for their Little Bighorn, with President Joe Biden as Col. Custer? The wish, you suggest, is father to the thought. Yet, consider. On taking office, Biden held a winning hand. Three vaccines, with excellent efficacy rates, had been created and were being administered at a rate...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Critical race theory and losing the privileges of whiteness
Here you go: I have forgotten more about race than most people have ever known. Apologies if that sounds like braggadocio, but there’s a point that needs making. I’ve spent the better part of 40 years researching and writing about the history and dynamics of race in America — and...
Letter to the editor: RGGI will benefit Pa.
In the past, coal and natural gas helped power Pennsylvania economically, but now they are declining industries. We must look for new energy sources for the 21st century, while helping workers shift from old to new energy industries. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will help us do both. The...
Editorial: Recognize the need for low-income senior housing
The percentage of people over 65 living in poverty is not as high as it used to be. According to the Congressional Research Service, the slice of the senior population living in the lowest income brackets has dropped by two-thirds over the last 50 years. In 2019, it was just...
Letter to the editor: Divided, we are falling
“United we stand, divided we fall.” We’ve all heard this adage at one time or another. It represents so much. The last time our country was united was nearly 20 years ago after 9/11. We came together, we flew our flags and we stood as one. It took two towers...
Letter to the editor: About the federal charges against Robert Morss for Jan. 6
Your article on Robert Morss (“Feds: Glenshaw man charged in Jan. 6 riot had Lego model of Capitol, militia notes,” July 8, TribLIVE) feels like it should have come from CNN, Vox or The Guardian. I’m very surprised to see something like this coming from the Trib. The first sentence...
Mona Charen: What we lost when we won the Cold War
Almost exactly 60 years ago, the newly appointed Chadian ambassador to the United States, Adam Malick Sow, was heading south on Maryland’s Route 40 toward Washington, D.C. He stopped at the Bonnie Brae diner and asked for a menu. The owner, Mrs. Leroy Merritt, sneered, “We don’t serve (expletive) here,”...
