Opinion category, Page 603
John Stossel: The world needs more juice
Was the power on in your house this morning? If so, thank fossil fuels! A few parts of America do get energy from other sources. Washington state has fast-flowing rivers that allow Washingtonians to get most of their electricity from hydroelectric power. Iowa now gets about 40% of its electricity...
Editorial: Sit-down could serve Wolf solutions for restaurants
Gov. Tom Wolf needs to make a reservation for dinner. He needs to sit down at a nice big table and have a conversation with the people who own and run and work in Pennsylvania restaurants. Earlier in the week, members of the newly created Southwestern Pennsylvania Restaurant and Tavern...
Jamie Wiggan: Could we unarm our police?
Video of a Minnesota police officer casually squeezing the life out of a compliant Black suspect jolted the world into renewed appreciation of systemic racism’s wicked clutches. For me — white, male, born in Britain — it prompted the memory of my first police encounter. I’d been driving in America...
S.E. Cupp: My vote for Biden hinges on his veep pick
The job of the vice president hasn’t gotten much respect over the years. Benjamin Franklin is rumored to have suggested that the title be renamed “His Superfluous Excellency.” Vice President John Nance Garner — aka, “who?” — said the role “is not worth a bucket of warm spit!” Even “Hamilton,”...
Steve Westly: Will Trump still have to reveal his taxes?
Every American president since Jimmy Carter has revealed their tax records. In fact, President Trump personally promised to make his taxes public, tweeting in May 2016: “I told AP that my taxes are under routine audit, and I would release my tax returns when the audit is complete, not after...
Letter to the editor: Parents should give up rights if they won’t take responsibility
Regarding the article “Details from Oakmont girl’s death resemble physical, psychological torture” (June 25, TribLIVE): Children are not asked to be born into this world, and if you are a parent, be the right kind of parent or give up your rights if you don’t want to take the responsibility....
Letter to the editor: Trump’s attacks on voting rights
This week marked the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, landmark legislation that helped to expand civil rights and combat systemic racism at the ballot box. As President Lyndon B. Johnson and activists affirmed, voting access is a central pillar of our democracy. Unfortunately, the VRA was needed because...
Hussein Ibish: Hezbollah will not escape blame for Beirut
As if the Lebanese haven’t suffered enough. For months, they have been caught between an economic meltdown, crumbling public services and a surging pandemic. Now they must count the dead and survey the extensive damage to their capital after two giant explosions on Tuesday. The blasts, especially the second, were...
Paul Kengor: Cancel the cancel-culture bullies
“What cancel culture is about is not criticism,” former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss told HBO’s Bill Maher. “It is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job.” Quoting The Atlantic’s Jonathan Rauch, Weiss called it “social murder.” If you haven’t heard of “cancel culture,”...
Lori Falce: The math of school safety and coronavirus
A year ago, I was writing a column about school safety. I had just attended orientation for my son, learning the ropes and checking out the rooms at the middle school he was excited to start. The safety issues were guns and active shooter situations, with a side note of...
Kevin Mitchell: A compromise covid-19 restaurant and bar policy
Gov. Tom Wolf’s most recent and well-intentioned approach to covid-19 mitigations in the operations of restaurants and bars addresses an important health safety concern but unnecessarily creates other problems. Like other governors, his goal is to halt the increase in spread of covid-19, which has been heading in the wrong...
Thomas Melcher and Jeff Nobers: Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would hurt Pa.
Gov. Tom Wolf is unlawfully scheming to circumvent the Pennsylvania General Assembly and, by his own estimates, impose a $2.36 billion tax on fossil fuel-fired electric generation plants in Pennsylvania over the next 10 years. Wolf’s goal is for Pennsylvania to join the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) —...
Letter to the editor: Veterans should count
I agree with letter-writer Robert Ebitz (“Veterans should always count,” July 20, TribLIVE). I know there are many who want to be true veterans, but veterans are only those of us who served. I proudly served in the 9th Infantry Division, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam in 1966-67. Thank...
Letter to the editor: Where is the outrage on other killings?
When Blacks kill Blacks in Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit, don’t they matter? Where are the marches, the daylong memorials? When a white cop is killed by a Black man, when a young girl is raped and killed by an illegal, where is the wall-to-wall TV outrage, day after day after...
Letter to the editor: Mail-in voting is an insult to our heroes’ sacrifices
Valley Forge, Fort McHenry, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, Belleau Wood, Normandy/Iwo Jima, Pusan, Khe Sanh, Baghdad, Gamsir. It is safe to say the nation’s youth that found themselves in those places would have preferred to have been somewhere else that was safe or “in the rear with the gear.” Yet...
Letter to the editor: Trump unfit to be president
To further give credence to William Hite’s letter “Books about Trump are must-reads” (July 25, TribLIVE), why is it that the more President Trump spews lies, the more his supporters approve of his behavior, which I find boorish and disgusting? Plain and simple, this man has proved time and again...
Letter to the editor: Denouncing the Democratic Party
You’ve got to be kidding! I will never vote for Sen. Pat Toomey again. Where is his loyalty? Where is his determination to denounce the whole Democratic Party for the last several years — Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, et al.? I believe they are all thieves, liars and heathens;...
Letter to the editor: We need cheap, rapid, over-the-counter covid-19 test
As a Pittsburgh infectious disease physician, I applaud Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina’s covid-19 surveillance approach, which he outlined in a July 3 New York Times opinion piece and at microbe.tv/#640. He endorses a cheap, rapid, over-the-counter covid-19 test. While it will miss some infections, it will be fewer than...
Editorial: Words matter with covid-19 message
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. It’s a good rule of thumb for everyone, but it’s especially important for elected officials. Politicians get — and keep — their jobs by what they say. Their words shape laws and policies. They send us to war and broker peace. In...
Donna Park: 75 years after Hiroshima, we can end the threat of nuclear war
In early August 1945, the U.S. government dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki. Regardless of where you stand on this decision, hopefully we can all agree that in the future, no innocent civilians — especially children — deserve to suffer and die the...
Letter to the editor: Plan for safe return to schools
After reading an article about schools resuming in-person classes, I came up with a plan to ensure that students can safely return. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, half of the students and half of the teachers would be in school, and the other half would be in school Thursdays, Fridays...
Letter to the editor: Tax breaks for frackers unacceptable
The fracking and petrochemical industries have been profiting off of making people sick for years, and this is not an outdated trend. In October 2019, it was widely reported that ExxonMobil is scouting to build another cracker plant in Beaver County. Actions like this are unacceptable. The General Assembly just...
Letter to the editor: New St. Vincent archabbot a great choice
It is obvious to me that letter-writer Tom Kerek knows nothing about Archabbot Martin de Porres Bartel (“Numbers guys making the decisions,” Aug. 3, TribLIVE). He is an excellent choice to be archabbot of St. Vincent Archabbey. I think having an MBA and a juris doctor might be a good...
Letter to the editor: Peace, respect, work ethic are key
No matter what color the person or uniform, we all matter. It seems the news media does not agree. The death of an innocent person is always a tragedy. If a Black criminal dies by the hand of a white policeman, it is often on the news for months and...
Letter to the editor: Communist threat to America
The United States of America was formed by its Declaration of Independence from tyrannical England. The people wanted to be free to worship God and to live free from dictates of those who ruled. It took a very bloody war of unprecedented sacrifice to accomplish. The greatest document in the...
