Opinion category, Page 760
Leter to the editor: Highmark-UPMC battle
The real problem with the Highmark-UPMC negotations is that each of the insurers own hospitals. They are competitive and want to dominate that field at our expense. Pennsylvania should pass a law stating that companies that want to provide insurance in this state must agree to accept others’ insurance at...
Letter to the editor: Socialism vs. democratic socialism
It is about time that the American people were educated and informed about what true “socialism” is and is not. The fact is that in true socialism, “the means of production” are owned and controlled by all of the people. In other words, in true socialism all of the workplaces...
Letter to the editor: Illegal immigrants & votes
Regarding liberal support of illegal immigration: With their support of the LGBTQ community and abortion on demand, this is where their future voters are coming from. Clem Zahrobsky Delmont...
Letter to the editor: End Sunday hunting ban
Pennsylvania Grange president Wayne Campbell’s op-ed “Keep Sunday hunting ban” (Feb. 23, TribLIVE) is missing existing perspective/data. Yes, hunter numbers will likely decline over time. The Pennsylvania Game Commission agrees culture shifts are significantly to blame. Campbell ignores the fact that hunters cite lack of free time as the overwhelming...
Letter to the editor: Keep up pressure on abusers
Kudos, praises and thanks to Richard Serbin for taking such a bold step to shine additional spotlight on the Catholic Church and its decades of cover-up (“Vatican should chip in for clergy abuse survivors,”). Of course, no need to stop there. Sadly, virtually every other religion, truth be told, will...
Letter to the editor: ‘No wall’ is no deal
Such a deal, as the Jewish sometimes sarcastically say, and such a deal the border deal isn’t that President Trump and those who stand with him don’t like and think a lousy deal. Of course, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with her poisoned apples of impeachment and “no wall” for Trump,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Courts keep Trump in check
Since 1803, February has come and gone with hardly any mention of Marbury v. Madison, which was decided by the Supreme Court 216 years ago. The principle of judicial review was established then, and without that, American history and these last two years would have been very different. The case...
Editorial: Why do civil suits mean cops can’t be charged?
A civil suit is not the same thing as a criminal case, and the two should never be confused or conflated. O.J. Simpson, for example, is not a convicted murderer because, regardless of the decision in a civil case that he was responsible for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole...
Letter to the editor: Cursive & printing
In his column “Time to embrace cursive again” (Feb. 4, TribLIVE), Tom Purcell writes: “Because ink dripped when the quill was lifted from the paper, it made sense to connect letters in words together in one flowing line — and the art of cursive writing began.” No; quill pens were...
Letter to the editor: Mexico paying for wall?
During the presidential campaign we were all assured by Donald Trump that Mexico would fund the wall. So I wrote to Sen. Pat Toomey with this simple question: “What is the audit trail that the public can use to verify that all funding for the new border wall has come...
Letter to the editor: Investigation agendas
Democratic Congressman Elijah Cumming was gracious enough to warn us that once his House Oversight Committee was seated, there would be many investigations. I couldn’t agree more with the gentleman from Maryland. However, I’m sure my agenda and the agenda of investigators would be quite different. A panel composed of...
Heckuva way to end Black History Month, Pam Northam
More than two weeks after a heinous medical school yearbook photo of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam roiled Richmond, his wife, Pam Northam, shook things up again by reportedly handing cotton to black kids during a tour of the governor’s residence and asking, “Can you imagine being an enslaved person, and...
Donald Boudreaux: An interview with Adam Smith
My first trip to Europe, in 1987, was to visit the Edinburgh grave of the father of economics, Adam Smith. Born in 1723, Smith died in 1790. During his lifetime he was rightly regarded as one of the world’s greatest thinkers. My admiration for Smith stems largely from the wisdom...
Lori Falce: Favorite teachers show more than curriculum
My favorite teacher in elementary school was Mrs. Jones. She was my homeroom teacher, and in a small Catholic school, that meant she was the default for a lot of other classes. In addition to social studies, she handled religion, health and art. But her passion was geography. There was...
Laurels & lances: Cyber school, a hero’s honor and what happens in Vegas
Laurel: To public school districts such as Leechburg, Hempfield, Jeannette, Seneca Valley, Norwin and a growing list of others across the state that are reaching out to families in search of cyberschool options with district-based cyber programs that save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those programs also offer high-achieving...
Letter to the editor: Sunday hunting
I speak for legions of outdoors-loving residents and non-residents alike who welcome Sunday as a day to walk, hike, bird/wildlife watch, mountain bike, etc. without the worry or threat of hunters in the neighborhood (“Sunday hunting clears first hurdle in state Senate,” Feb. 5, TribLIVE). If you watch wildlife, you...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland’s ‘death spiral’
The famous line from “Field of Dreams” is “If you build it, they will come.” At the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce State of the County luncheon Jan. 10, County Commissioner Chuck Anderson said that “our county is in a death spiral” regarding population growth. Have the commissioners done their...
George Will: Broadening rights of national citizenship
WASHINGTON There have been many memorable — and eventually consequential — Supreme Court dissents that affirmed principles that, in time, commanded a court majority. It is, however, rare that a justice’s opinion concurring in a unanimous ruling is more intellectually scintillating and potentially portentous than the ruling itself. This happened...
Douglas Macgregor: Great nations don’t fight endless wars, allow undefended borders
“Great nations don’t fight endless wars,” President Trump said in his State of the Union address. That bold declaration comes as the president seeks to bring to a close nearly two decades of bloody foreign interventions and refocus our military on the much more pressing duty of defending America’s borders....
Editorial: Cohen latest cage match over winners and losers
“He is all about winning.” Michael Cohen made that statement to the House Oversight Committee Wednesday. It was an indictment of the actions of the president. It doesn’t really matter if you believe Cohen or not. It doesn’t matter if you support President Trump or not. Because Cohen’s statement doesn’t...
Letter to the editor: Overpopulation will destroy earth
Regarding Rudolph Puchan’s letter “Democrats & abortion” (Feb. 12, TribLIVE): I agree that abortion is an ugly business and certainly birth control should obviate the need for it, but I would challenge Puchan to show me any world problem that is not attributable to overpopulation, directly or indirectly. Too many...
Letter to the editor: Paper vs. electronic voting
The article “Commission recommends Pennsylvania security measures for elections” (Jan. 29, TribLIVE) references David Hickton’s concern for Pennsylvania voting machines possibly being hacked, although they’ve found no evidence of hacking. Have they even tried to hack into one of the currently used machines? That made me think that I’ve seen...
Philip Bump: McConnell has found the real culprit in North Carolina’s fraud-riddled election: DemocratsVideo
What we know happened in North Carolina last fall isn’t that complicated. The campaign of Mark Harris, the Republican running for Congress in the state’s 9th Congressional District, was aided by a consultant named Leslie McCrae Dowless, despite warnings from Harris’ own son that Dowless’ tactics were questionable. There are...
Pat Buchanan: On to Caracas and Tehran
In the Venezuelan crisis, said President Trump in Florida, “All options are on the table.” And if Venezuela’s generals persist in their refusal to break with Nicolas Maduro, they could “lose everything.” Another example of Yankee bluster and bluff? Or is Trump prepared to use military force to bring down...
Colin McNickle: Latest Pittsburgh jobs report disappoints
Overall job growth continues to be lackluster in Greater Pittsburgh. And in an interesting twist, the sector pacing that meager growth does the least to boost economic growth while the one so regularly touted as its future is showing paltry gains, say scholars at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy....
