Opinion category, Page 717
George Will: For the Democrats, it’s winnowing time
Winnow: verb. To expose (grain or other substances) to the wind or to a current of air so that the lighter particles (as chaff or other refuse matter) are separated or blown away. — Oxford English Dictionary WASHINGTON It is time to dust off this marvelously appropriate verb for its...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Democrats need real scrapper to take on Trump
Paddy Ryan, an Irish-American boxer and one-time Pittsburgher, was featured on a 1920s poster put out by his Bronx-based promoters in hopes of attracting opponents. Ryan, a former amateur world champion who had become a prizefighter, is posed in the classic boxer’s profile — chin down, gloveless hands extended, feet...
Chris Rosselot: Getting North Side redevelopment right
Bob Bauder’s article “Strip District development will push into the North Side, officials say” (July 5, TribLIVE) brings attention to redevelopment opportunities on the North Side, specifically along the banks of the Allegheny River and the area surrounding the old Heinz plant. The article serves as a reminder that North...
L.E. McCullough: Making a nation where no one is a stranger
No matter what happens in the headlines or the halls of Congress, the first steps in resolving America’s burning social questions have historically occurred after years of debate and disputation in our houses of worship. The last 200 years have seen landmark deliberations ensue on slavery, temperance, evolution, LGBTQ inclusion,...
Editorial: No such thing as a free lunch with SNAP
Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. There are plenty of old sayings that urge us not to do something on principle that makes sense but has an obvious fly in the ointment....
Sounding off: American dream needs borders
There’s no American dream without a border. It marks the beginning of differences between what’s inside the boundary and what’s outside. Some of those differences are opportunities, some are the laws designed to protect the people within. Without laws, a person’s assets might easily be exploited or stolen by others....
Letter to the editor: Irony of blacks’ mistrust of police
In watching the honoring of Pittsburgh Police Officer Calvin Hall, I was struck by the irony of it all. Here was a policeman, an African-American, so very well respected by his colleagues both black and white and his superiors. Earlier on there were words of respect from Lt. Gov. John...
Letter to the editor: It’s getting harder to determine truth, reality
A wise man once said, “Our problems are many, while our solutions are few.” I think a wise man said it? Or did I just make that up? Truthfully, I’m not sure. I’ve read and viewed so much on TV, social media, newspapers, books and magazines, etc., over the past...
Letter to the editor: Politicians should work for a living
I’m so tired of them. You know the ones, living off of our hard-earned money while we do actual work day in and day out. They get to ride around in big new cars with smartphones and unlimited data plans while we drive to work in thousand-dollar cars just waiting...
Walter Williams: Being a racist is easy today
Years ago, it was hard to be a racist. You had to be fitted for and spend money on a white gown and don a pointy hat. You celebrated racism by getting some burlap, wrapping it around a cross, setting it ablaze and dancing around it carrying torches. Sometimes, as...
John Stossel: Calculating costs of Dems’ free stuff
Never before have presidential candidates offered voters so much “free” stuff. Kamala Harris wants you to “collect up to $500 a month.” No one has tracked the cost of all of the promises. So my video team did! Who will spend the most? Here are the new spending proposals from...
Editorial: HQ2 bids gave Amazon lots of options
The Amazon announcement Tuesday of a new nonsortable fulfillment center near Pittsburgh International Airport was well- received. It was like Allegheny County got an unexpected rose from a TV “Bachelor.” It’s a $30 million investment. It means 800 full- time jobs will be created with $15 per hour paychecks. It...
Letter to the editor: Petroleum industry greed
I firmly believe that the government has to step in and take some kind of control over the petroleum industry, because the price of fuel is out of control. Oh yes, many years ago I pumped fuel when it was 25.9 cents a gallon, but at that price I cleaned...
Letter to the editor: We’ll never see gambling, carbon tax proceeds
The risibility of reality distortion was on display in the July 24 edition of the Trib. At the top of the Opinion page was a cartoon depicting how the promised revenues from gambling were to be returned to citizens in the form of property tax relief — but weren’t. Below...
Letter to the editor: Degradation of Schenley Park
Schenley Park is a gift to our area from another age. The recent collapse of part of Serpentine Drive under the weight of a 36-ton tri-axle paving truck points up the neglect of our heritage. Hiking trails from Bartlett Street playground to the silt-choked lake under Panther Hollow Bridge are...
Donald Boudreaux: In 2020, let’s vote for the adult
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., won applause during Tuesday’s presidential debate with this proclamation: “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” Were I on that stage, here’s...
Lori Falce: The dangers of sautéing garlic
“We are safe and sound.” A friend posted the alert to Facebook late Sunday. She wanted to let us know that she was not one of those killed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. She wanted to let us know that her family wasn’t being treated for bullet wounds....
Laurels & lances: Funds, fire and field
Laurel: To working hard to make beautiful music. Some people start saving early for Christmas but the Hempfield Area High School marching band is more focused on stockpiling money for New Year’s Day. The Spartans will ring in 2020 five hours earlier than the rest of Westmoreland County because they...
Letter to the editor: Democratic-dominated Pittsburgh is doing fine
As a lifelong Republican, I look with dismay and a great deal of disgust at many of our largest cities — Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco, to name a few — all dominated by a single party, the Democratic Party, for years, some for decades. They all...
Letter to the editor: Workplace bullying deserves more attention
I hope your readers will take an interest in a social problem that does not receive enough attention: workplace bullying. Workplace bullying is repeated mistreatment of one or more workers (the targets and victims) by one or more perpetrators. It is abusive conduct that is threatening, humiliating and intimidating and...
Letter to the editor: Disagreeing with Trump supporters
Inept is my new favorite word. I admit I had to look it up in the dictionary after the UK ambassador said President Trump was “inept.” I can understand why Trump would be upset with that comment. That is Trump in a nutshell. But there is still room in that...
George Will: Are the Democrats trying to lose?
WASHINGTON Watching Democratic presidential aspirants is like watching, a century ago, the 1919 World Series, when discerning spectators thought: Some of the White Sox are trying to lose. Michael Boskin, chairman of President George H.W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers and currently at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, pays the Democrats the...
Peter Morici: Here’s why the Fed is no longer relevant
As the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, it risks falling victim to its own dominance. For too long, the Fed has been a monastery where 2% inflation, 2% trend growth and the primacy of conventional banking are accepted without sound foundation. The Fed targets 2% inflation as a compromise between...
Editorial: Disgusting videos show pervasive disrespect
Have people always been this disgusting? In our cameras-everywhere internet age, we seem to be assailed with a lot of things no one wants to know. Not just the “how-is-the-sausage-made” kind of thing. No, this isn’t about incidental disgust — the unpleasantness that happens and we turn away because, hey,...
Brother Norman Hipps: CRNAs deserve official designation in Pa.
Pennsylvania is home to hundreds of student nurse anesthetists, yet Pennsylvania is one of just two states that fail to officially recognize CRNAs in some form. Because there is no “certified registered nurse anesthetist” title under the state’s Professional Nursing Law, CRNAs are recognized only as registered nurses, not as...
