Opinion category, Page 769
Colin McNickle: Public pension reform bows in Pa.
Pension reform at long last is being phased in for newly hired state workers in Pennsylvania. But it will be decades before those pension plans’ health is restored. And some taxpayers could see their taxes rise before relief comes, according to a review by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy....
Editorial: Cold kids are ‘soft’?
The governor of Kentucky thinks we all need to just toughen up. Well, good news, governor. Everything has a tendency to get harder in the cold. “Come on, now. I mean, there’s no ice going with it, or any snow … I mean, what happened to America,” Gov. Matt Bevin...
Letter to the editor: We need solutions, not blame
The Tribune-Review wasted an editorial with “Whose shutdown is it?” (Jan. 20, TribLIVE). The question is not who is responsible/owns the shutdown. The question should have been, what should be done to get us out of the impasse? Politicians and the media talk about who is to blame, not solutions....
Letter to the editor: Wecht’s JFK myth is ‘nonsense’
Regarding the article “Cyril Wecht shreds ‘nonsense’ JFK single-bullet theory for Fox Chapel Area students” (Jan. 16, TribLIVE): The only nonsense is that the Tribune-Review and the Fox Chapel AP history teacher would give credibility and a platform for conspiracist Wecht to spread his widely debunked myth of multiple shooters...
Letter to the editor: How to end shutdown
If all the people who want to build Trump’s wall were to contribute $50,000 or $100,000 to the GoFundMe account to build the wall, there would be more than enough money to build it. After all, they saved tens of thousands of dollars in taxes from the great tax cut...
Ryan Crocker: The U.S. is surrendering to Taliban
January 2002. I arrive in Kabul, Afghanistan, to reopen the U.S. Embassy. Destruction is everywhere. Kabul airport is closed, its runways cratered and littered with destroyed aircraft. The drive south from the military base at Bagram is through a wasteland. Nothing grows. No structures stand. In the city itself, entire...
S.E. Cupp: What has age of Trump wrought? People like Ocasio-Cortez
In the wake of his unprecedented campaign and unexpected election, the question always was: What would come after Donald Trump? What were the consequences of electing someone who was inexperienced, undeterred by and uninterested in facts and uncannily adept at whipping people into a frenzy by way of mere gesticulations...
Editorial: Pope lowers sex abuse expectations
Pope Francis thinks hopes are too high for a planned February summit on preventing sexual abuse. In a disaster movie, this is the point where the bureaucratic pencil pusher won’t give the hero the support he needs to keep bad from becoming calamitous. It is the mayor not closing the...
Letter to the editor: Will waxes woefully
In his column “Trump is a sad specimen” (Jan. 19, TribLIVE), George Will is a pompous, thesaurus-wielding arse and accomplishes nothing other than a name-calling “piling on” of Trump. It’s as if his “waxing intellectual” language is somehow educating a large politically illiterate electorate of this country. His rantings are...
Letter to the editor: Citizens ‘did build that’
Regarding Thomas C. Spallone’s letter “Cosmic luck” (Jan. 18, TribLIVE): Tom, our good fortune to have been born in America had little to do with random cosmic luck. We should remain extremely grateful that our parents were pro-lifers, which had an awful lot to do with our having been born...
Letter to the editor: Outright xenophobia
Thank you for publishing Paul Gernhardt’s letter “Why build the wall?” (Jan. 22, TribLIVE). My kudos to him for being forthright with his racism. Most proponents of the wall at least try and obscure their xenophobia in order to achieve their political goals. Gernhardt came right out with “The most...
Letter to the editor: Impeach Pelosi
In case you haven’t noticed, the Democratic party, led by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, has become the party of hate. While neither live in a walled mansion, both enjoy tight security provided by doormen, security guards, electronic devices, etc. Yet Pelosi says “walls are immoral.” Apparently, these so-called “leaders”...
Letter to the editor: Peduto making start to address gun violence
In their op-ed “Peduto, council should learn facts on gun violence” (Jan. 19, TribLIVE), Antony Davies and James Harrigan choose to consider the actions of Mayor Bill Peduto and the Pittsburgh City Council in endorsing various restrictions on semi-automatic weapons as “political posturing.” The issue of the right to bear...
Memo to Republicans: ‘Trump first’ is not the same thing as ‘America first’
Congressional Republicans are suffering, as I have noted in the past, from a bad case of Stockholm syndrome. They’ve seen what’s happened to “the formers” who crossed the bully in the White House — e.g., former senator Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and former representative Mark Sanford, R-S.C., — and all they...
Tom Purcell: Tech making ‘car guys’ endangered species
My Uncle Jimmy would’ve hated the late-model SUV I rented for a recent trip to New Jersey. I sure did. You see, this modern SUV boasted “smart” technologies designed to keep me safe and happy. It made me miserable. Every time I switched lanes, the white stripes on the pavement...
Editorial: Is the grass greener where it’s legal?
Could Pennsylvania be the new Colorado? The state has barely gotten its fledgling legalization of medical marijuana out of the nest and there are already moves to hatch recreational use, and some come from the Pittsburgh area. Like alcohol, state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, thinks weed should be legal...
Kevin O’Connor: Anti-energy protesters threat to first responders, taxpayers
First responders work around the clock, keeping our communities safe, every day. They understand and accept the risks involved, as well as the long hours, rigorous physical requirements and constant training. However, many emergency workers are starting to face an unexpected hurdle and a new kind of threat: anti-energy protesters....
Letter to the editor: Where are Toomey & Casey?
The silence from the respective offices of Pennsylvania Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey related to the border wall, the Trump presidency and the myriad other problems facing our nation is deafening. Does anyone know where they stand on these difficult issues? My expectations are that our “leaders” take definitive...
Letter to the editor: Costs of immigration
Fentanyl is a deadly synthetic drug often mixed with other street drugs to make them more potent. It is largely manufactured in China and smuggled across our porous southern border by Central and South American gangs. It kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. Heroin is a highly addictive...
Letter to the editor: Daft on the draft
I am writing to express in the strongest possible terms my disagreement with the conclusions expressed in Donald Boudreaux’s column ”Draft’s end most pro-freedom move of past 50 years” (Jan. 17, TribLIVE). I read it because I couldn’t imagine why the military draft would be a newsworthy topic. It ended...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 28
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 28....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 28.
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 28....
Vince Mercuri: A mission of purpose critical to human journey
Each morning as I pull into the parking garage, I am greeted with a sign proclaiming the mission statement of the city’s parking authority. Over the past 15 years or more, the norm has been that businesses/agencies develop and post a mission statement that clearly defines its values, goals, beliefs...
Michelle Malkin: The Covington Rorschach test
Sometimes, a three-point celebration is just a three-point celebration. Sometimes, a pep rally is just a pep rally. Sometimes, a smile is just a smile. And sometimes, a hat is just a hat. Only among the most deranged partisans could a universal sports ritual, a common high school activity, a...
Now for the real deal — what is a ‘wall’?
Welcome to the eye of the hurricane. For more than a month, the federal government was in partial shutdown while President Trump and congressional leaders were deadlocked over the president’s demands for money to build his long-promised border wall. Neither side would budge and all the wiggle room for negotiation,...
