Opinion category, Page 745
Peter Morici: Building taller cities to cope with climate change
Homo sapiens are unique in our ability to unlock the secrets of nature, build great civilizations and create technological wonders and radically alter the environment — not always for the better. Harnessing fossil fuels accelerated our ascent, but according to scientists, diplomats and the architects of the 2016 Paris agreement,...
Cal Thomas: John Walker Lindh, still a terrorist
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the release of self-admitted “American Taliban” member John Walker Lindh “unexplainable and unconscionable.” Lindh, who was paroled May 23 from a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., served 17 years of a 20-year sentence for illegally aiding Taliban forces. Lindh had joined the terrorist...
Editorial: Trump tariffs are Mexican standoff
A week ago, it was infrastructure versus a trade deal. “Before we get to infrastructure, it is my strong view that Congress should first pass the important and popular (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) trade deal,” President Trump wrote to Democratic leaders ahead of a planned meeting. The USMCA was negotiated between...
Sounding off: Pittsburgh sisters welcome immigrants
Pittsburgh’s templed hills have long provided refuge to persons of diverse heritages and faiths whose virtues tempered our city of steel. The Catholic Sisters Leadership Council of Western Pennsylvania wishes to join Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto in welcoming vulnerable migrants and refugees seeking asylum from violence, injustice and other life-threatening...
Letter to the editor: Risk of not vaccinating
Regarding Susan Gero’s letter “Vaccine curiosity”: Common sense is that you can Google the reasons vaccinated people are at risk and how dangerous this disease is. It’s not big pharma! In 2017 worldwide, 110,000 people died of measles. It is deadly. People with compromised immune systems — people with HIV,...
Letter to the editor: Thankful for support for Cait Tracy’s recovery
On May 5, we were reminded how life can change in an instant when a tragic accident took the life of two young people and critically injured our daughter, Cait Tracy (“Employees of Greensburg’s Rialto restaurant mourned after fatal crash in Hempfield,” May 6, TribLIVE). It was an unimaginable loss...
Letter to the editor: CEO salaries ridiculous
Reading the paper today showed once again the injustice of CEOs’ salaries (“UPMC CEO Jeffrey Romoff made $8.54M in 2018, a 40% jump,” May 17, TribLIVE). With all the problems that cause havoc in our medical system, we need to find solutions. Yet they pay one man almost $9 million...
John Stossel: Today, ‘victims’ use their ‘trauma’ to dictate
“I don’t feel safe,” says a Harvard student in a video. What threatens her? The dean of her Harvard dormitory, law professor Ronald Sullivan, agreed to be part of accused sexual harasser Harvey Weinstein’s legal defense team. Sullivan and his wife were deans of the dormitory for years, but no...
Walter Williams: Slavery is neither strange nor peculiar
The favorite leftist tool for the attack on our nation’s founding is that slavery was sanctioned. They argue that the founders disregarded the promises of our Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are...
Editorial: Graduation ends journey for parents, not schools
That first day of school is hard. We drop the kids off for kindergarten. We dry their tears and push them to go. We hide our tears so they don’t know we’re scared, too. And that’s not the only first day. There’s the first time taking the bus, the first...
Letter to the editor: Abortion holocaust
In the article “Rep. Frankel, Pittsburgh Jewish lawmaker, outraged with pro-life group using Holocaust images” (May 17, TribLIVE), Rep. Dan Frankel said he was “… incredulous that someone would equate the Holocaust and images of murdered, naked bodies in a concentration camp with the issue of women who want to...
Letter to the editor: A lesson in tariffs
Absurditopians and Stupidians obviously wrote Don Boudreaux’s column “What if real wars were fought like trade wars?” My 16, TribLIVE); nothing else explains its lack of economic reality. When a tariff is imposed, it’s not just to collect the tariff; since demand is elastic — that is, in proportion to...
Letter to the editor: We need our Second Amendment rights
While I share Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s outrage at the recent shootings at schools and places of worship (“Bill Peduto, Philly mayor: Why we oppose Pa. Senate gun bill,” May 9, TribLIVE), I cannot support their attempts to circumvent the rights of law-abiding citizens. This...
Daniel W. Drezner: Bye-bye Bolton?
We are far enough into the Trump administration to know how the script usually plays out when a Cabinet officer or high-ranking staffer is on the outs with the president. First, Trump asks everyone within his orbit what he thinks of the imperiled official. Second, reports of Trump’s dissatisfaction hit...
Scott Paul: Toomey out of touch with steel tariff reality
Sen. Pat Toomey is placing economic philosophy above the interests of Pennsylvania’s steelmakers and workers. Toomey is a zealous disciple of free trade, even when our national security may be at stake. It’s time for the senator to change course. There’s a very current example of why he should: The...
Lori Falce: LGBTQ still need allies, support
We went to the grocery store to buy tomatoes and bread, and on the way in, my friend and I would check the community bulletin board in the entry. It would be filled with posters for bingo and ads for babysitting services and used cars. The flyer we tacked up...
Laurels & lances: Flight, fire, art and weather
Laurel: To a high-flying success. The Memorial Day weekend Shop ‘n Save Westmoreland County Airshow drew thousands of visitors to the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. The annual undertaking is a big one for a small staff, assisted by contracted performers, hired hands and hundreds of volunteers. For two...
Letter to the editor: Tom Wolf’s extortion plan for college graduates
Gov. Tom Wolf (to recent college grad): Nice mountain of debt you are drowning in. I tell you what I’m gonna do. I got this little job I want you to do. Do me this little favor and I’ll see to it that you don’t have to pay back the...
Letter to the editor: Why should Trump release his taxes?
With thousands of people illegally crossing our southern border daily to manipulate our asylum laws, and the national debt approaching $22 trillion, President Trump is trying to find solutions to both — he has repeatedly proposed cutting wasteful spending from the budget and controlling the flood of illegals crossing the...
Letter to the editor: Why a Russian band at SummerSounds
Regarding Marion Sedlacko’s letter “SummerSounds doesn’t need Russian band” (May 10, TribLIVE) criticizing the choice of a Chicago cover band from Russia to perform in the 2019 SummerSounds concert series: I have regularly attended SummerSounds since the early 2000s. Gene James and the SummerSounds organization have done an extraordinary, I...
George Will: What could possibly go wrong with Trump’s protectionism?
WASHINGTON The cascading effects of U.S. protectionism on U.S. producers and consumers constitute an ongoing tutorial about what Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “iatrogenic government.” In medicine, an iatrogenic ailment is one inadvertently caused by a physician or medicine. Iatrogenic government — except the damage it currently is doing is not...
Letter to the editor: America’s self-destruction
I must confess that I’m gullible — I refuse to believe truths if I don’t agree with you, but I will soak up lies and deceptions like a sponge if they support my beliefs. I must confess that I’m selfish — although I’m overweight, I don’t want hungry women and...
Editorial: Court confident in UPMC, Shapiro showdown
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht clearly has a lot of confidence in lawyers. When the court issued a split-decision ruling Tuesday regarding Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s attempt to force a resolution to the ticking time bomb that is the end of the UPMC-Highmark agreement, Wecht showed a great deal...
Letter to the editor: Thank Reagan, Bush on Social Security
Regarding Patrick Caffrey’s letter “Ideas on Social Security/Medicare” (May 27, TribLIVE): Great thinking. Don’t forget to thank Reagan and Bush; they made it happen. R. Ebitz Hempfield...
Letter to the editor: Democrats’ behavior disgusting
I hope that the professional, dignified way the Democrats are behaving doesn’t discourage any future candidates. It’s disgusting! Reminds me of the reaction the first time Tiger Woods won the Masters … not racism, but degrading. It’s a circus, and not the fun kind. Hannelore Miller Hempfield...
