Opinion category, Page 783
Walter Williams: History of Dems’ immigration flipping
Here are a couple of easy immigration questions — answerable with a simple “yes” or “no” — we might ask any American of any political stripe: Does everyone in the world have a right to live in the United States? Do the American people have a right, through their elected...
Editorial: Is record casino revenue enough?
What is $3.2 billion? It’s $10 for every human being in the United States. It’s enough to bridge most of the gap between Congress and President Trump on the border wall. In short, it’s a lot of money. And it’s how much money was made at Pennsylvania casinos in 2018....
Letter to the editor: Hempfield needs police
Another year has passed, and Hempfield Township continues to mooch off Pennsylvania taxpayers to pay for its police services. Added revenue from the new mall casino could allow Hempfield to fund its own department or “kick in” to support the Pennsylvania State Police. Is it fair that Pennsylvania’s largest township,...
Letter to the editor: Government waste is immoral
Our president is asking Congress for less than 1 percent of the federal budget to ensure security on our southern border. However, the Democrats have decided to hold federal workers hostage during the negotiations to deny the president his sworn duty to protect this nation. In an October 2009 article,...
Letter to the editor: No surveillance on Hillary
The last few days I have suspected that I was under surveillance, most likely by the FBI. So I put a “Hillary for President” sign in my front yard. Wow … the surveillance is now gone. And, I didn’t have to pay anything for the sign; I found it in...
Letter to the editor: Cosmic luck
If you were born in America, you didn’t earn your citizenship. Your good fortune originates from random cosmic luck. In fact, your chances of hitting the “billion dollar lottery” are better than the odds that placed your life in this nation at this moment in time. You could have been...
Donald Boudreaux: Draft’s end most pro-freedom move of past 50 years
From the late 1970s through the mid 1980s the United States government somewhat loosened its grip on the American people. This liberalization — mainly meant to spur economic growth — included the deregulation of transportation and financial markets, as well as significant tax reform. Most students of these reforms conclude,...
Falce: Be a good man
I want my son to be a good man. It’s not just that I want him to learn to be a hard worker. I do want that. And I want him to be someone who stands up for himself. I want him to be somebody who protects and provides for...
Laurels & lances: Mobility, community and an Amber Alert
Laurel: To the Joy Riders. The community biking program wants to bring together cyclists like the Mighty Tri Girls and Total Chaos — two Pittsburgh-area groups whose members train for triathlons — with individuals who have limited mobility. The result would be almost symbiotic. Using tandem bikes that have integrated...
Letter to the editor: Shutdown will reveal truths
There are two things this government shutdown will reveal. One is how not well-off things are for the average American, and that a large percentage of people live paycheck to paycheck, with a thin line between comfort and poverty. Less than 50 percent of Americans have more than $1,000 in...
Letter to the editor: TEACH bait & switch
Letter-writer Jeanne Snyder (“TEACH grants should be paid back,” Jan. 1, TribLIVE) should be proud of her son’s accomplishment of graduating from Penn State using grants, scholarships and loans. He found a job and started making payments toward the loans. Snyder states that education majors should pay for their education...
Letter to the editor: Peduto’s plans won’t make us safer
Regarding Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and his efforts to confront the gun problem(s) as he perceives them (“What’s next for Pittsburgh’s controversial gun-regulation proposals,” Jan. 8, TribLIVE), I think his heart is in the right place. Unfortunately, his brain seems unable to find that place. Additional legislation in cities throughout...
George Will: Britain, into chaos leaping?
LONDON — The poet Rupert Brooke voiced the exhilaration of those Britons who welcomed the war in 1914 as a chance to escape monotonous normality, “as swimmers into cleanness leaping.” They got four years mired in Flanders’ mud. In a 2016 referendum, Britons voted, 52 percent to 48 percent, for...
Cal Thomas: Cough up, America
When you receive your paycheck and look at the withholding for federal, state and sometimes city taxes, along with Social Security and Medicare, you probably don’t think you’re underpaying governments and want them to take more. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio believes that if you have played by...
S.E. Cupp: Democrats getting down in the dirt with Trump
On the first day of the new year, Nancy Pelosi made a number of promises to the nation as she once again assumed the gavel of Speaker of the House. “We believe that we will not become them,” the Democrat from California said in a phone interview, referring to Republicans....
Editorial: Shooting joke wasn’t funny
“My client didn’t make an actual credible threat.” Defense attorney David Shrager made that statement in court Wednesday, dismissing the actions of Jason Bowen, 18, of Middlesex as an inappropriate joke. Inappropriate? Yes. Joke? Not funny. The “joke” was a Snapchat video showing Bowen shooting a semiautomatic rifle with the...
Letter to the editor: Fairness & civility in local politics
When retired executive John Ventre announced his decision to run for Westmoreland County Commissioner on Jan. 11, he was stunned to see that his extensive resume of work and board and charitable service, and his creative plan to help the county, was reduced to negativism regarding his former hobby and...
Letter to the editor: Protect our country
The Democrats had a gun control mantra: “If only one life is saved, it’s worth it.” I think this mantra is more applicable to building the border wall. We have already had illegals kill police and cause traffic fatalities. Democrats and RINOs have to get off their high horses and...
Letter to the editor: Immigrants, disease & our charity
Everyone talks about drugs and criminals illegally entering through Mexico, but I wonder about the disease coming in with these invaders. They probably have not been inoculated for many common diseases, and could be carrying other diseases common to their countries. Also, after their trek to an unwelcoming country, they...
Peter Morici: Swing voters want solutions, not socialist revolution
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez notwithstanding, the big winners in the midterms were moderate Democrats. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders carefully salted swing districts with young candidates who appealed to minorities, college-educated women and suburbanites who want solutions to problems in their daily lives, not a socialist revolution. The moderate Democrats...
Editorial: Everyone counts in census
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, 17 other attorneys general, six mayors including Pittsburgh’s Bill Peduto and the U.S. Conference of Mayors have won a federal court battle. They argued against a Trump administration directive to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. The decision? The census means counting everybody,...
Problems with Pittsburgh’s proposed gun control ordinance
Pennsylvania’s 1.3 million concealed handgun permit holders may soon be considered criminals while visiting Pittsburgh. The proposed gun control ordinance bans everything from so-called assault weapons to starter pistols for track meets. The ordinance prohibits citizens from carrying guns except on their property or in their homes or “fixed place...
Letter to the editor: Government battleground
I recently read and reread a letter to the editor about our government. Then I thought about all the drama in our government. How can a government that has always stood for fairness and understanding become a battleground? Politicians have failed to agree on anything — because a certain person...
Letter to the editor: Gun issue distractions
I have one question for letter-writer Michael Rock (“‘Assault’ wrong term for rifles,” Dec. 27, TribLIVE), who quibbles about specifics of terminology and never mentions the terrible consequences of these weapons of mass destruction or any constructive solution: Was the Tree of Life synagogue massacre an assault? So often I...
Letter to the editor: Beware foreign drug makers
This morning’s news announced a 26-year-old had lost his life because he no longer had health coverage under his parents’ plan and he couldn’t afford a $1,300-per-month insulin drug on his own. This is truly a tragedy. However, most people with hospitalization drug coverage are unaware that this country gets...
