Opinion category, Page 771
Letter to the editor: Investigation agendas
Democratic Congressman Elijah Cumming was gracious enough to warn us that once his House Oversight Committee was seated, there would be many investigations. I couldn’t agree more with the gentleman from Maryland. However, I’m sure my agenda and the agenda of investigators would be quite different. A panel composed of...
Heckuva way to end Black History Month, Pam Northam
More than two weeks after a heinous medical school yearbook photo of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam roiled Richmond, his wife, Pam Northam, shook things up again by reportedly handing cotton to black kids during a tour of the governor’s residence and asking, “Can you imagine being an enslaved person, and...
Donald Boudreaux: An interview with Adam Smith
My first trip to Europe, in 1987, was to visit the Edinburgh grave of the father of economics, Adam Smith. Born in 1723, Smith died in 1790. During his lifetime he was rightly regarded as one of the world’s greatest thinkers. My admiration for Smith stems largely from the wisdom...
Lori Falce: Favorite teachers show more than curriculum
My favorite teacher in elementary school was Mrs. Jones. She was my homeroom teacher, and in a small Catholic school, that meant she was the default for a lot of other classes. In addition to social studies, she handled religion, health and art. But her passion was geography. There was...
Laurels & lances: Cyber school, a hero’s honor and what happens in Vegas
Laurel: To public school districts such as Leechburg, Hempfield, Jeannette, Seneca Valley, Norwin and a growing list of others across the state that are reaching out to families in search of cyberschool options with district-based cyber programs that save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those programs also offer high-achieving...
Letter to the editor: Sunday hunting
I speak for legions of outdoors-loving residents and non-residents alike who welcome Sunday as a day to walk, hike, bird/wildlife watch, mountain bike, etc. without the worry or threat of hunters in the neighborhood (“Sunday hunting clears first hurdle in state Senate,” Feb. 5, TribLIVE). If you watch wildlife, you...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland’s ‘death spiral’
The famous line from “Field of Dreams” is “If you build it, they will come.” At the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce State of the County luncheon Jan. 10, County Commissioner Chuck Anderson said that “our county is in a death spiral” regarding population growth. Have the commissioners done their...
George Will: Broadening rights of national citizenship
WASHINGTON There have been many memorable — and eventually consequential — Supreme Court dissents that affirmed principles that, in time, commanded a court majority. It is, however, rare that a justice’s opinion concurring in a unanimous ruling is more intellectually scintillating and potentially portentous than the ruling itself. This happened...
Douglas Macgregor: Great nations don’t fight endless wars, allow undefended borders
“Great nations don’t fight endless wars,” President Trump said in his State of the Union address. That bold declaration comes as the president seeks to bring to a close nearly two decades of bloody foreign interventions and refocus our military on the much more pressing duty of defending America’s borders....
Editorial: Cohen latest cage match over winners and losers
“He is all about winning.” Michael Cohen made that statement to the House Oversight Committee Wednesday. It was an indictment of the actions of the president. It doesn’t really matter if you believe Cohen or not. It doesn’t matter if you support President Trump or not. Because Cohen’s statement doesn’t...
Letter to the editor: Overpopulation will destroy earth
Regarding Rudolph Puchan’s letter “Democrats & abortion” (Feb. 12, TribLIVE): I agree that abortion is an ugly business and certainly birth control should obviate the need for it, but I would challenge Puchan to show me any world problem that is not attributable to overpopulation, directly or indirectly. Too many...
Letter to the editor: Paper vs. electronic voting
The article “Commission recommends Pennsylvania security measures for elections” (Jan. 29, TribLIVE) references David Hickton’s concern for Pennsylvania voting machines possibly being hacked, although they’ve found no evidence of hacking. Have they even tried to hack into one of the currently used machines? That made me think that I’ve seen...
Philip Bump: McConnell has found the real culprit in North Carolina’s fraud-riddled election: DemocratsVideo
What we know happened in North Carolina last fall isn’t that complicated. The campaign of Mark Harris, the Republican running for Congress in the state’s 9th Congressional District, was aided by a consultant named Leslie McCrae Dowless, despite warnings from Harris’ own son that Dowless’ tactics were questionable. There are...
Pat Buchanan: On to Caracas and Tehran
In the Venezuelan crisis, said President Trump in Florida, “All options are on the table.” And if Venezuela’s generals persist in their refusal to break with Nicolas Maduro, they could “lose everything.” Another example of Yankee bluster and bluff? Or is Trump prepared to use military force to bring down...
Colin McNickle: Latest Pittsburgh jobs report disappoints
Overall job growth continues to be lackluster in Greater Pittsburgh. And in an interesting twist, the sector pacing that meager growth does the least to boost economic growth while the one so regularly touted as its future is showing paltry gains, say scholars at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy....
Editorial: Drug crisis is in your backyard
A reader wasn’t happy with the opinion of two people who deal with Westmoreland County’s drug epidemic every day. Detective Tony Marcocci handles the criminal side of the crisis. Tim Phillips, director of the county’s Drug Overdose Task Force, works with the social and treatment aspect. In a Tribune-Review editorial...
Letter to the editor: Speed cameras & safety
Regarding the article “National Transportation Safety Board releases ‘Most Wanted’ list for reducing traffic deaths” (Feb. 4, TribLIVE): The safety argument for speed cameras has been debunked. Studies have shown speed camera areas having an increase in crashes or the cameras had no effect. In the UK, a substantial increase...
Letter to the editor: Socialism will destroy us
Upon reflecting on the passing of President George Herbert Walker Bush, it occurred to me that those of the World War II generation — “The Greatest Generation” — will soon be gone. This generation helped rescue us from being taken over by a brutal totalitarian regime of the Axis powers...
Tom Purcell: Donations to pay down U.S. debt pointless
With America’s national debt surpassing a frightening $22 trillion, it makes sense that fewer people are volunteering their hard-earned dough to help reduce it. Since 1961, the Bureau of the Public Debt has allowed Americans to “gift” money to the Treasury Department — on the condition that the money be...
Editorial: Robert Kraft charges no reason for celebration
It always comes down to us versus them, and it’s getting exhausting. The New England Patriots are the team that everyone south of Connecticut and west of Vermont loves to hate. Come from another NFL powerhouse location — like, say, Pittsburgh — and the animosity doubles. It’s easy to say...
Letter to the editor: Idiots & imbeciles
On this date in 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt (a Democrat ) signed an immigration act that excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons and insane persons” from being admitted to the United States. The bill was incomplete because there was no provision to exclude these same American-born persons from being politicians or...
Letter to the editor: Commit to 100 percent renewable energy
I want to thank the following Pennsylvania House representatives for co-sponsoring Rep. Chris Rabb’s House Bill 2132, to transition Pennsylvania to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. If passed in the Pennsylvania House and Senate, it will add 380,000 good-paying jobs to Pennsylvania’s existing 60,000 clean-energy jobs, while saving all...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 25
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 25....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 25.
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 25....
Fellow Republicans: Support this gun safety bill
This week, for the first time in more than two decades, the U.S. House of Representatives will hold a vote on major stand-alone gun safety legislation, this time in the form of H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019. As conservatives with a deep respect for the Second...
