Opinion category, Page 681
John Stossel: The forgotten federal debt
Congress and the media obsess endlessly over whether President Trump should be impeached. Both ignore $23 trillion of bigger problems. That’s how deep in debt the federal government is now, and because they keep spending much more than they could ever hope to collect in taxes, that number will only...
Editorial: Human trafficking is cheap crime
What is the cost of human trafficking? In terms of dollars, it’s huge. Advocacy group Human Rights First puts the profits at about $150 billion a year, and that year was 2014. Five years later, it could well be larger. While only 19% of trafficking victims are sex workers, $99...
Letter to the editor: Trump empowering Russia
Dec. 7, 1941, was a day of infamy when over 2,000 American servicemen were killed at Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, America experienced another day of infamy on Nov. 8, 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president. Vladimir Putin was celebrating. From his inauguration on, Trump has enhanced Russia’s military power in...
Letter to the editor: We need action on climate
Walter Williams’ op-ed “On climate, are scientists dishonest or afraid?” (Nov. 22, TribLIVE) begins with the sentence, “The absolute worst case of professional incompetence and dishonesty is in the area of climate science.” It doesn’t take but a few minutes to find that both he and Tony Heller, whom he...
Laurels & lances: Honored, poured and gifted
Laurel: To good lessons taught by a good teacher. Joseph Welch is the 2020 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. He teaches American history at North Hills Middle School, and it’s not the first time he has been singled out for his extraordinary work making history more than a dusty subject...
Paul Kengor: Bad things happen in Cleveland
“I’m telling you!” yelled Myron Cope in the voice of, well, only Myron Cope. “Something bad always happens in Cleveland!” I was sitting in my car in Shadyside, waiting to pick up my wife from her aerobics class, listening to the legendary Myron on WTAE-AM. The subject was the Steelers...
Lori Falce: Term limits are half the story
Joe Biden might be thinking about the presidency as a one-term option. Or not. Politico’s reporting on the issue has since been denied by Biden, who is running for commander in-chief for the third time. But it’s an interesting question, not just for the 77-year-old former vice president and longtime...
Letter to the editor: We need nurse practitioners
I’ve been the patient of a talented and caring nurse practitioner for 30 years. I am writing to respond to the recent back and forth between nurse practitioners and doctors regarding full practice authority for nurse practitioners. I trust my nurse practitioner, Cathy Grant. She’s the best health care person...
Letter to the editor: Real ID a money-making scam
Well, folks, I just returned from trying to participate in another government scam, Real ID. After waiting in line for almost two hours, I finally get up to the desk and guess what? They would not accept my original birth certificate because it is not state-issued. They gave me a...
Letter to the editor: Atheists, creation & freedom
Letter-writer Courtney Hodge (“Atheism & politics,” Nov. 16, TribLIVE), a self-described atheist, wrote that “We live in the information age, and the more you know, the less religious you become.” Well, at long last I’ve found the one person who is so intelligent that she can answer a question that...
Peter Morici: U.K. elections could be beginning of end for EU
In Thursday’s elections, Boris Johnson has a decent shot at winning a workable majority in Parliament to pull the U.K. out of the European Union. This could be a turning point for Europe — rather than enabling consolidation of the continental bloc, Brexit will provide the contrast that blows it...
Editorial: It’s flu season. Did you get your shot?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s color-coded map indicates how much influenza has been detected by the end of November, a month that is normally outside of serious concerns about the disease. Pennsylvania is purple — the darkest shade for the highest threat. Influenza here is widespread — just...
Letter to the editor: Pa. Legislature should be cut down
Pa. Legislature should be cut down The Dec. 2 editorial cartoon in which the public serves the lawmakers could not be truer. In 2018 we were to vote for a constitutional amendment to cut the state House from 203 to 151 members, which would save millions, but it was voted...
Letter to the editor: Religious beliefs & adoption
I am deeply troubled by Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services, which refuses to grant a religious exemption to Catholic adoption agencies who place children with a family of a man and a woman (“Catholics halt adoption, foster care programs in Greensburg, Pittsburgh over state rule.”) According to a 2016 American...
Letter to the editor: Hateful professors convict Trump
Guilty as charged. President Trump stands convicted. The jury has spoken. Who is the jury? Three pompous, arrogant members of academia, full of hate, have given their verdict. Their courtroom was the first House Judiciary Committee hearing on impeachment. Sadly, they cannot hide their loathing of the president behind a...
Pat Buchanan: Democrats’ diversity — only in the back of the bus
The “Our diversity is our strength!” Party is starting to look rather monochromatic in its upper echelons these days. The four leading candidates for its presidential nomination — Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg — are all white. The six candidates who have qualified for the Dec....
Colin McNickle: Port Authority’s (still) costly bus service
The latest available cost numbers are in for the Port Authority of Allegheny County’s bus service. They remain wholly unflattering. And that should raise new concerns as the mass-transit agency embarks on its highly touted Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, concludes a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public...
Editorial: Answers on fire suspensions hazy
There is nothing more confusing than a lack of answers. Except, perhaps, answers that point in all different directions. Latrobe has opted for a grab bag filled with no information and contradictory finger-pointing in the case of one fire company. Seven firefighters have been suspended by the city. They say...
Letter to the editor: Harpies of the apostasy
The biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are pestilence, war, famine and death. There is a version in Congress that I term the Four Harpies of the Apostasy: Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar. A harpy is a covetous, grasping person; apostasy is the desertion of one’s...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s interference with Navy is dangerous
As a former Navy enlisted and officer, I am highly concerned with the commander-in-charge-of-White-House-chaos’ interference in Navy matters. The commander-in-charge-of-White-House-chaos overruled the Navy’s decision to demote Chief Petty Officer and Navy Seal Edward Gallagher. Gallagher was convicted of posing with a dead detainee. President Trump’s rationale was that he was...
Letter to the editor: Look beyond division at U.S. economy
American history has had several momentous conflicts that divided its people. The American Revolution divided Tory against Patriot ideals. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” swayed many to advocate for independence. The Civil War divided Union against Confederate ideals. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” swayed many to choose Union ideals. The...
Jonah Goldberg: Nostalgia is the ace up Biden’s sleeve
I like the word malarkey, consarn it. It’s the bee’s knees. Sure, the youngsters might say, “OK, Boomer” on hearing Joe Biden utter the word, but if you think he’s all wet for using it, you can take your phonus bolonus and tell it to Sweeney. Biden has never really...
Tom Purcell: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
We could use a good snowstorm right about now. I love a good dusting of snow. I love how it disrupts our routines and throws everything out of whack. I lived in Washington, D.C., for nearly eight years. It delighted me how that city went into a panic every time...
Editorial: Traffic fine alternatives a good idea
In Pennsylvania, a driver’s license is often a lifeline. The state Legislature’s Center for Rural Pennsylvania puts the number of residents who live in rural areas at 27%. That’s definitely not the majority. But those 3.5 million or so people are scattered over the largest part of the state. Not...
Letter to the editor: Charter school misinformation
In the article “Freeport’s cyber charter school is helping district save money, officials say,” Freeport Area School District Superintendent Ian Magness said, “In an outside cyber charter setting, there is very little accountability, and that is common knowledge across the commonwealth.” This is a common misconception, but it’s not true....
