Featured Commentary category, Page 137
Carol Ferguson: Parents need to know that vaccines work
Before its eradication in the U.S., polio affected millions. I should know; I am one of them. After founding the Pennsylvania Polio Survivors Network (PPSN), I have been reminded every day of the fear that existed before this terrible virus met its match in Jonas Salk’s famous vaccine. It came...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump’s effort to damage Biden could backfire
Is President Trump going to get Joe Biden elected? Opinions vary widely on how to characterize Trump’s now-infamous conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The president believes it was “perfect” and “beautiful.” In the middle are those who think it was bad and improper or perhaps impeachable but not necessarily...
Cal Thomas: Ukraine, a political rerun
Back when reruns were a staple of summer programming, television networks aired repeats of their programs, giving viewers another opportunity to see what they had already seen. Democratic politicians are now conducting their own version of reruns. The same bunch who brought us the failed Russian “collusion” story, the sliming...
S.E. Cupp: Those gunning for Trump impeachment should know risks
It sure seems like President Trump is in serious trouble. According to the latest CNN poll, nearly half of Americans support impeaching and removing him from office. That’s up from 41% in May. Most notably, and alarmingly for Trump, that shift has come largely from independents and Republicans, for whom...
Bobby Harr: Recreational marijuana in Pa. long overdue
With Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s recent push to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use in Pennsylvania, many state residents have glistened at the news of no longer hiding their weed stash. And as they should. Why on earth has it taken this long? For small-town Pennsylvania...
Colin McNickle: The Rivers Casino at 10
Ten years ago the heavily touted Rivers Casino opened on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. But a decade later, its original revenue projections have yet to materialize — even with expanded gambling — and the value of the jobs it has created remains a question mark, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny...
Cal Thomas: Faith & presidential authority
The debate about political power and authority among those who profess the Christian faith has raged since the first century. In modern America, the debate raged throughout Jimmy Carter’s presidency and more recently through the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The debate now looms large for Donald Trump....
Walter Williams: People really don’t care about you
During my student days at a UCLA economics department faculty/graduate student coffee hour in the 1960s, I was chatting with Professor Armen Alchian, probably the greatest microeconomic theory economist of the 20th century. I was trying to impress Alchian with my knowledge of statistical type I and type II errors....
Donald Boudreaux: James Buchanan, economist for the ages
One hundred years ago this month, James Buchanan was born on a Tennessee farm. No, not the 15th U.S. president. (That James Buchanan was from Pennsylvania.) The James Buchanan to whom I refer won the 1986 Nobel Prize in economics and taught for most of his career in Virginia, most...
Jonah Goldberg: Little doubt he did it, but should Trump be impeached?
Here’s a take no one will like: I’m confident he did it. I’m confident it’s impeachable. I’m just not so sure he should be impeached for it. Let’s start at the top. It’s obvious to me that President Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to launch a probe of former Vice...
Vince Mercuri: Forgiveness frees our souls
Over the years I have collected funeral cards as I grieved the loss of family and friends. In remembrance of them, I’ve noted a positive attribute or characteristic that they had displayed, and I use it as a means of reflection and growth on my personal journey. Three cards with...
Pat Buchanan: Biden impeachment’s first casualty
Even before seeing the transcript of the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Nancy Pelosi threw the door wide open to impeachment by the Democratic House. Though the transcript did not remotely justify the advanced billing of a “quid pro quo,” Pelosi set in motion...
Jonah Goldberg: What do progressives have against vaporous substances?
In the classic 1979 comedy “The Jerk,” Steve Martin plays a very dumb guy who often misses the point. In one scene, while he’s working as a gas station attendant, an assassin tries to kill him with a high-powered rifle. When the bullets start whizzing past his head and popping...
Peter Morici: Britain should bolt & join NAFTA
Divorces are messy — Brexit is no exception. All the squabbling in Parliament denies what most British voters have concluded. The European Union, spread over 28 countries and 24 official languages, may make sense as a free trade area similar to NAFTA but virtually none as a broader economic community...
Mark Kudlawiec, Daniel Webb, John Zesiger & Arnold Nadonley: Level playing field for public, charter schools
As school superintendents with decades of experience as educators, we continue to look forward to the start of school each and every fall. While our enthusiasm has not waned, some things have changed. One is the intensifying struggle each year to finalize a budget that can deliver what our students...
Wayne Jones: Entrepreneurial education essential for Pittsburgh youth
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s Gender Equity Commission recently presented findings on the city’s inequity across gender and race. Those findings revealed that although Pittsburgh’s white residents are on par with white residents in other cities, the same does not apply to black residents. Black people living in Pittsburgh face higher...
Jonah Goldberg: Does Team Trump think we’re idiots?
What offends me most about the whistleblower-Ukraine-Biden story isn’t the obvious corruption of it all. It’s the way members of Team Trump assume we’re all idiots who won’t notice they’ve abruptly shifted their narrative. At first, it seemed like a familiar scenario of allegations met with denials. The Washington Post...
Walter Williams: Camille Paglia, intelligent radical feminist
Camille Paglia is a professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she has been a faculty member since 1984. Paglia describes herself as transgender, but unlike so many other transgender people, she is pro-capitalism and hostile to those who’d restrict free speech....
John Stossel: Oceans new frontier for seasteaders
When political arguments aren’t getting you anywhere, what can you do? Start your own country! Unfortunately, most of the world’s land is controlled by rapacious governments unwilling to let others experiment. But fortunately, that still leaves oceans. If people move 12 miles offshore (or 24 miles in the case of...
Tom Richard & Justin Schwartz: Universities must lead on climate solutions
Headlines from around the world increasingly reinforce a sobering point: Climate change is the defining crisis of our time. A new poll shows the number of Americans who see climate change as a crisis is growing — just after the strongest hurricane on record. For the sake of the planet...
Pat Buchanan: Can Trump still avoid war with Iran?
President Trump does not want war with Iran. America does not want war with Iran. Even the Senate Republicans are advising against military action in response to that attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. If neither America nor Iran wants war, what has brought us to the brink? Answer: The...
G. Terry Madonna & Michael Young: Election reform standoff
Lawmaking has often been compared to sausage making. One may relish eating it but not want to know how it is produced. Never has this been truer than watching the Pennsylvania General Assembly tackle modern election reform. The Legislature has a precious few weeks left in 2019 to decide a...
Jonah Goldberg: Candidates & constitutional boundaries
It’s exhausting being both a conservative and a critic of President Trump. When I aim my pen at the White House, many of my comrades on the right go nuts. And readers who love it when I go after Trump turn into a cage full of poo- flinging monkeys when I...
S.E. Cupp: Andrew Yang isn’t angry, & that’s great
Two upstarts in the 2020 presidential election — Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson — are both polling well below the front of the pack. The three front-runners — Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — currently enjoy a full 60% of Democratic support nationwide. But despite their lack of...
Robert Daley: Sam Davis’ death shows reform needed in long-term care
Steelers Nation has been rattled by the death of Sam Davis, a former offensive lineman for the team and four-time Super Bowl champion. After a 13-season career in the National Football League, Davis, who had been suffering from dementia and was legally blind, was recently in the care of a...
