Opinion category, Page 591
Editorial: As Pittsburgh faces 2021 budget crisis, speak up now
A government budget is not settled quickly. You can see this when Congress wars within its chambers over spending plans that push partisan politics to its limits. You see it in Harrisburg when the governor — not just Gov. Tom Wolf, but years of guys with the top job from...
Walter Williams: Recovering virtues of past can solve today’s problems
In matters of race and other social phenomena, there is a tendency to believe that what is seen today has always been. For Black people, the socioeconomic progress achieved during my lifetime, which started in 1936, exceeded anyone’s wildest dreams. In 1936, most Black people lived in gross material poverty...
John Stossel: China’s dark turn
“I’m more anti-China than you!” That’s a new theme of this election. Joe Biden says, “We will never again be at the mercy of China!” Donald Trump replies, “China would own our country if Joe Biden got elected!” It’s strange to hear competition, because just a few administrations ago, presidents...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump aside, Hispanic vote is not a given for Democrats
As ambivalent as I am about a Donald Trump victory — or, for that matter, a Joe Biden one — there is one scenario I would enjoy: What if Trump was reelected thanks to support from Hispanics? Now, I should say this is only a remote possibility. There’s zero indication...
Letter to the editor: Insurers should help in covid-19 battle
Thank you for highlighting in your business section the billions made by health insurers during the covid-19 shutdown. Insurance profits stand in stark contrast to the financial struggles of doctors. I implore insurers to use their powers to ease administrative burdens on those who provide direct care. Letting medical practices...
Letter to the editor: DISH customer missing Channel 11
I have a warning for anyone thinking of changing from cable to satellite for TV: Think twice about switching to Dish Network. I have Dish and can’t watch WPXI, Channel 11. Dish removed the station from its lineup in August because Dish and Cox Media Group, owner of WPXI, could...
Letter to the editor: Opinions on Democrats’ values
I think letter-writer Diana Steck (“What it means to be a Democrat,” Aug. 30, TribLIVE) needs a reality check. Here are my opinions on her points: 1. Protecting voting rights: Resist legitimizing IDs, support mail-in voting that will lead to voter fraud. 2. Ensuring health, safety and affordable health care:...
Letter to the editor: Joe Biden’s plans on guns and rocks
Police officers have been under assault in Portland, Ore., and other cities, with protesters throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails and more at them. Now Joe Biden wants to regulate possession of assault weapons. Will he be regulating protesters’ rocks and Molotov cocktails? I have my doubts, since he hasn’t even brought...
Timothy L. O’Brien: Of course Trump couldn’t resist Bob Woodward
Maybe it’s all Senator Lindsey Graham’s fault. “It was Lindsey Graham who helped convince Donald Trump to talk to Bob Woodward,” Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson told his TV audience Wednesday night. “Lindsey Graham brokered that meeting. Lindsey Graham even sat in on the first interview between Bob Woodward and...
Lori Falce: The people we were on 9/11
Why aren’t we the people we were 19 years ago? On Sept. 11, 2001, we were broken and bleeding, grieving and groaning in pain. The terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center and shredded the Pentagon and cratered a field in Shanksville stole thousands of lives and left...
Nick Byrd: The moral trade-offs of public health
Global emergencies cause a series of dilemmas. Consider the covid-19 pandemic. First, many lives have already been lost to covid-19, and many more lives will be lost in the near future. Second, we can drastically reduce the death toll by sacrificing other things that we care about. For example, should...
Letter to the editor: We shouldn’t be ‘canceled’ because of our views
Brooke Roney’s letter demanding that Bob Wayman be removed from the Norwin School Board seems to be part of the cancel culture movement (“Shame on Norwin School Board”): I don’t like what you’re saying; therefore you must be removed. As Roney noted, the board has said it has no grounds...
Letter to the editor: Would Biden be able to prevent radical left takeover?
Letter-writer Richard Patton did a good job describing how the large, central portion of the bell curve of politics contains the majority of moderate voters, both Democrats and Republicans (“Not all Democrats are ‘radical left’”). It is the smaller edges of the curve that contain the loudest and most radical...
Letter to the editor: With schools closed, how was tax money used?
We received our school real estate tax statement for 2020-21, which included an increase. As a former teacher and parent of three children who went through the local school system, I contribute to the education of our students, both in the classroom and extracurricular. This is money well spent in...
Letter to the editor: Let coronavirus run its course
Since March, our society has been subjected to forced closures and restrictions on our behavior. We were told that these actions were taken to “flatten the curve,” to slow the spread of the coronavirus so as to prevent a spike in hospitalizations which may have overwhelmed our ability to help...
Letter to the editor: Dr. Scott Atlas was wrong hire as coronavirus adviser
Once again, President Trump is taking advice from an “expert” with no pertinent credentials for help with his covid-19 response. Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist, has no expertise in public health or infectious disease. A senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, he was hired to act as a mouthpiece for...
Letter to the editor: Country can’t survive Kamala Harris
Truth is the reality behind the appearance. Peter Schweizer’s recent book, “Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite,” exposes the dirty secrets of the left. It is eye-opening. Both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have chapters. Biden and Harris share the same socialist ideology, which includes the...
Editorial: Keep United 93 visits reverent
On Sept. 11, 2001, a field near Shanksville became a shrine — both battlefield and resting place for the passengers and crew of United 93, the fourth plane hijacked by terrorists that day. The official memorial didn’t open until the 10th anniversary of the attacks, but that was just ceremony....
Jonah Goldberg: Despite author’s claims, there’s no defense for looting
Vicky Osterweil, the author of “In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action,” is getting her 15 minutes of fame thanks to a segment on NPR in which she said some really mind-bogglingly dumb, indefensibly evil and fascinatingly reactionary things. We’ll come back to her in a moment....
Letter to the editor: Trump’s Latrobe rally was irresponsible, insulting
I’m a college student whose school has fortunately remained open and permitted students to return to campus. We wear masks everywhere: outside, in the classrooms, in the dining hall and even during a short walk to the bathroom. We can’t have visitors in our rooms or study together in groups....
Editorial: Westmoreland County controller serves public by putting audits online
The idea of putting public information in the hands of the public isn’t one of those things that was enshrined from the beginning of the United States — not like freedom of speech or freedom of assembly. The founders knew early on that they wanted people to have the right...
Letter to the editor: Swamp creatures must be ousted
Any country seeking rioters adept at arson, looting and statue demolition should send recruiters to U.S. Democrat-run cities, especially New York City (see street painter and part-time Mayor Bill de Blasio). There has also been rioting in Washington, D.C., home of the proverbial “swamp.” This political and bureaucratic entity is...
Letter to the editor: Let’s fix the health care system we have
Throughout the covid-19 crisis, America’s hospitals have come together with the rest of the health care system — from doctors and nurses to private insurers to government programs like Medicare and Medicaid — to ensure access to affordable care for patients. It has been a trying time, but hospitals nationwide...
Letter to the editor: C’mon, Comcast, give us something for our money
As a Comcast customer, I think I speak for a whole lot of fed-up people when I say, “C’mon, man.” We’ve been cooped up in our houses for a good while now because of this virus, and all we get for our giant cable bill is reruns over and over....
Letter to the editor: We can, should do better than Trump
I was taken back by a comment in Albert Bianchini’s letter “Trump, Biden and China” (Aug. 20, TribLIVE). To suggest that China created and unleashed the coronavirus to unseat President Trump is unbelievable. That thought process sounds crazy to me. If he and others believe that, what other oddball scenarios...
