Opinion category, Page 706
Letter to the editor: Sloan Campus work to impact drivers
Murrysville Council on Aug. 21 voted 5-2 to approve the hauling away of excess and unusable dirt from the Franklin Regional Sloan Campus site (“Murrysville Council approves excavation plan for ‘poor soil’ on Sloan construction site,” Aug. 22, TribLIVE). This vote was in response to the July 29 surprise request...
Letter to the editor: Property tax system must change
The archaic school tax has been used to fund education since the 1830s. My home 0f 39 years cost $40,000, with current Deer Lakes tax at $3,600. I’ve paid for it almost three times over. I’m over 70 with no children and a low to moderate fixed income. My mother,...
Letter to the editor: Benefits of union CBAs
Regarding John Stossel’s column “Recovering from labor” (Sept. 6, TribLIVE): I assume you are an employee unhappily covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). When you are canned because you are old, fat, bald, mouthy or caught smoking legal tobacco cigarettes, you can instantly seek out your union steward and...
Paul Kengor: Why you should care about what’s going on in Hong Kong
What’s happening right now in Hong Kong is potentially very significant, albeit difficult to understand. First, the background: On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverted from British colonial rule to Chinese control. Britain preferred to grant full independence, but the Chinese demanded Hong Kong back. Even then, communist China promised...
Lori Falce: No offense intended
I don’t mean to offend. I try hard not to make people feel like I’m targeting them personally when I write. My goal is to make people think, not wince. I want to plant a seed and water it and see what grows, rather than have people close down and...
Laurels & lances: Counseling, foreclosure and mobility
Laurel: To helping kids cope. There are things that you might expect at a Friday night football game. Zealous fans. Uncomfortable bleachers. Both sides mad at the referees. What you don’t expect is a man being gunned down outside the field. That happened last week at McKee Stadium. Jeannette City...
Letter to the editor: Americans need polypills
To lower costs, low-dose combo pills, or polypills, need to be available and then prescribed (“Cheap combo pill cuts heart, stroke risks, study finds,” Aug. 22, TribLIVE). The five-year study of the combination of four low-dose drugs (two for blood pressure, one for cholesterol and aspirin) that lowered heart issues...
Letter to the editor: Vaccination bill would protect parents’ rights
In response to the op-ed “Vaccination info should be epidemic,” here are some facts proving that my Vaccine Informed Consent Protection Act, House Bill 286, is the best legislative cure for the real health care epidemic plaguing hundreds of Pennsylvania families. Across the commonwealth, medical care is now routinely denied...
George Will: Hong Kong’s summer of heroic dissent
HONG KONG — The masked men who recently tossed firebombs at Jimmy Lai’s home targeted one of this city’s foremost democracy advocates. Lai, a 71-year-old media billionaire, calls this summer’s ongoing protest “a martyrdom movement” and “a last-straw movement.” It has an intensity and dynamic that bewilders the protesters’ opponents...
Jonah Goldberg: Biden’s best bet is front-porch campaign
Here’s an idea: Joe Biden should run a front-porch campaign. Front-porch campaigns were once a common feature of American presidential politics, though the term wasn’t always applied to the practice. The most famous front-porch campaigns were in the 1880s and 1890s, culminating in William McKinley’s successful bid in 1896. While...
Doyle McManus: Trump’s foreign policy has produced a string of failures
WASHINGTON — The strangest thing about President Trump’s aborted plan to fly the Taliban to Camp David wasn’t the terrible symbolism of hosting terrorists three days before the anniversary of 9/11 — although that was bad enough. Even crazier was Trump’s underlying premise: that he could sweet-talk Taliban leaders to...
Editorial: Stop laughing at Antonio Brown
It is time to stop being amused by Antonio Brown. Oh, sure, it was fun for a while. And it kind of felt like Steelers fans had earned the entertainment, the opportunity to kick back and watch the football player make another team befuddled for a change. There were frozen...
Letter to the editor: Bills would harm Pa. economy
Pennsylvania’s historic strengths in energy and manufacturing rely in part on a federal system of laws and regulation that promote innovation and individual energy choices. Too often, policymakers in Washington respond to the debate on energy and sustainability with proposals that either mandate or ban particular energy resources. Several bills...
Letter to the editor: Good men can stop evil
This has always been one of my favorite quotes. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat or American. It just speaks to you: a person with morals and values, common sense and intelligence, and hopefully a person who will not allow evil to triumph. “The only thing necessary...
Letter to the editor: So many have sold their souls
I am a disabled Vietnam veteran. I fought for our country and the right to express my opinions without anyone hating me or calling me names — especially the people who have done nothing to earn the rights and freedoms we all enjoy today. I have sat in church for...
Letter to the editor: The heroes, patriots & saints of Flight 93
On this anniversary of 9/11, Americans will remember the passengers of Flight 93 as heroes and patriots, and so will I. In my mind, there is no doubt they will also be honored as saints. J. Mark Zink Youngwood...
Pat Buchanan: Why is there apprehension about Joe Biden?
Thursday, Sept. 14, looks to be a fateful day in the half-century-long political career of Joe Biden. That night, a three-hour debate will be held, a marathon in politics. Biden will be on stage, taking incoming missiles for 180 minutes from nine rivals, each of whom is hungry for the...
Colin McNickle: An early look at Pa.’s public pension reform
Public employee pension reform now is in full bloom in Pennsylvania. But if the limited data available from the first of two groups is any indication, there hasn’t been any rush by employees — new or old — to embrace defined-contribution plans, suggests an analysis by a researcher at the...
Editorial: On anniversary of 9/11, we must find strength to unite once again
It seemed hard to believe, that day, that it was happening. It seemed hard to believe your eyes, even though you watched the planes hit, the towers fall, the Pentagon burn, the smoke roll off the Pennsylvania field. The nation stared, not the way you might be unable to look...
Letter to the editor: NRA’s terroristic ways
What if we were to expand the definition of terrorist organizations beyond those that practice or promote terrorism to include any organization that works to obstruct all effort to eliminate or lessen that terror? If that were to happen I would nominate the National Rifle Association to be foremost among...
Letter to the editor: Why I’m voting for Trump
I know why I’m voting for Trump in 2020. He is for capitalism and not socialism (which I believe will not help our country, as nothing in life is free and the Democrats have already said it will increase the tax burden on the middle class); he has issued orders...
Letter to the editor: Trump should buy Greenland
President Trump should buy Greenland. He could build his presidential library on a glacier, since he doesn’t believe in global warming (fake news). His library could offer free ice fishing, since it would have no books from his administration to educate. Or he could buy North Korea with his buddy...
Stephen J. Lyons: ‘Who won the week?’ Me, because I stopped watching cable news
I was slogging through my Saturday workout at the gym trying to balance and read a book on the elliptical while ignoring the three muted television sets on the wall. The gym’s owner usually starts the day with Fox News on the right, MSNBC on the left and HGTV in...
Cal Thomas: Generations apart
There are people in every generation who believe the generation following theirs is either going to the dogs or will ruin the country. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll lends credence to that way of thinking, especially where Generation Z/millennials (those born in the mid-1990s to mid-2000s) and Generation...
Tom Purcell: Scholars to hide behind ‘fake names’ on intolerant campuses
When my retired professor friend told me about it, my alarm bells went off. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, three academics founded a cross-disciplinary, peer- reviewed journal to encourage scholars to present contentious arguments. Though anyone should welcome The Journal of Controversial Ideas, here’s what alarms me: It will...
