Featured Commentary category, Page 150
Helaine Olen: Why are we getting so many robocalls?
One morning about three weeks ago, at 5:45 a.m., the robocallers came for me. My cellphone rang. And rang. It hasn’t stopped. The calls claim to come from all over the world. Sometimes they ring once, and stop. Sometimes twice. Rarely more than that. If I answer, I am sometimes...
Alex Vargo: Anti-Semitism in the halls of Congress
Having grown up in a Jewish family in a nook of Pittsburgh with many other families like ours, I am keenly aware of the anti- Semitism that creeps out from the dark corners of our society from time to time. To think it would hit the halls of Congress, though, is...
George T. Conway III: On at least one charge, Trump is clearly guilty
Very little was surprising about the conclusion of the special counsel’s investigation. For one thing, it wasn’t surprising that Robert Mueller’s probe prompted great commotion — a federal investigation involving a sitting president is a momentous event, and concluding it, a historic moment. And most, but not all, of the...
Pat Buchanan: Why Biden may be courting Abrams
Of 895 slots in the freshman class of Stuyvesant High in New York City, seven were offered this year to black students, down from 10 last year and 13 the year before. In the freshman class of 803 at The Bronx High School of Science, 12 students are black, down...
Timothy L. O’Brien: Trump can take a victory lap, but it’s a partial one
President Trump scored a significant political and legal victory on Sunday. Attorney General William Barr, in a brief summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 presidential election, said that Mueller has determined that Trump and his aides didn’t conspire or coordinate with Russia in that country’s efforts...
S.E. Cupp: Dems need Oprah, since nobody in current field can beat Trump
O Oprah, Oprah, wherefore art thou Oprah? The Democrats’ attempt at unseating President Trump is in its nascent stages, but it’s starting to feel a little star-crossed. Despite a crowded sea of hopefuls, no true love match has emerged. If you ask me, that’s because she hasn’t decided to run....
Michelle Malkin: CAIR’s dirty deeds
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is having a banner month. The militant Muslim group never lets a crisis go to waste. That means Americans should beware. When unappeasable CAIR is ascendant, our free speech rights, religious liberty and national security are at risk. Following the horrible massacre at two mosques...
John Lott Jr.: Pa. gun registry waste of money, resources
Pennsylvania Democrats want to register your guns. On March 15, state House Representatives Angel Cruz (D-Philadelphia), Mary Isaacson (D-Philadelphia) and Mary Jo Daley (D-Montgomery) proposed the Firearms Registration Act, from which only antiques and guns owned by law enforcement would be exempt. Gov. Tom Wolf strongly supports the bill. “The...
Lloyd Corder: Where do economists stand on Wolf’s $15 proposal?
Earlier this month, Gov. Tom Wolf championed a list of 38 economists who support his proposal to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $15 an hour — a 107 percent increase. The list’s signers, sourced primarily from a handful of Pennsylvania-based colleges and advocacy organizations, argued that the governor’s proposal would...
G. Terry Madonna & Michael Young: Dick Thornburgh and Three Mile Island
The 40th anniversary of the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear accident has produced an irony no fiction writer, however brazen, could produce: TMI’s owner, Exelon Corp., has announced that it will close the plant in September. And so it appears that the history of the notorious TMI accident — an...
Walter Williams: Charges small part of college corruption
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 50 people involved in cheating and bribery in order to get their children admitted to some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities such as Georgetown, Yale, Stanford, University of Texas, University of Southern California and UCLA. They often paid more than $100,000...
Colin McNickle: Allegheny Co.’s ‘charitable purposes’ review falls short
In 2007, Allegheny County Council passed an ordinance mandating a review every three years of properties claiming exemption from property taxes under the Purely Public Charity Act. But 12 years after the fact, only one review has commenced — in 2013, six years after the fact and still ongoing —...
Paul Kengor: Do you believe in miracles?
Do you believe in miracles? That’s a line made famous, of course, by sportscaster Al Michaels regarding the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. But that’s nothing compared to the miracle I heard about two weeks ago. I was at Eureka College, alma mater of Ronald Reagan, speaking on Reagan, Pope...
Cal Thomas: Trump’s behavior offensive and unnecessary
President Trump made a rare appearance at a church Sunday. It’s a safe bet the sermon was not based on Proverbs 15:1 — “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” If it was, it didn’t appear to have much effect. Before and after church,...
Jonah Goldberg: Beto-mania a prime example of cult-of-personality politics
Robert “Beto” O’Rourke’s biggest fans and supporters insist he is a forward-thinking, future-oriented visionary, but no contender for the Democratic nomination feels more familiar than the former three-term congressman from El Paso. That’s because he has the highest combined score in both deja vu and nostalgia, which are two different...
Pat Buchanan: Is diversity a root cause of dual loyalty?
We can’t be divided by race, religion, by tribe. We’re defined by those enduring principles in the Constitution, even though we don’t necessarily all know them.” So Joe Biden told the firefighters union last week. But does Joe really believe that? Or does that not sound more like a plea,...
Charles Mitchell: For union members, knowledge is power
Francisco Molina knows what it takes to overcome adversity. Raised by a single mother from just 3 years old, Molina endured severe abuse. He wore long-sleeved shirts to school to cover the scars from his mother’s beatings. Such experiences can make or break a person. Molina did not break. Instead,...
Michelle Malkin: Protect kids from Google predators
The father of the World Wide Web is right: It’s time to take back “complete control of your data.” Tim Berners-Lee, who conceived the first internet browser 30 years ago, warned of its increasing threats to “privacy, security and fundamental rights.” To mark the anniversary, he argued that demanding transparency...
David Urban: Trump’s Pa. popularity no accident
There’s a reason why President Trump is becoming more popular in important Midwestern battleground states like Pennsylvania: Voters don’t want to lose the ongoing economic renaissance that is transforming their lives. According to a recent opinion survey from The Wall Street Journal, the president “cumulatively leads a generic Democratic opponent,...
Antony Davies & James Harrigan: Good policy, not posturing, can help poor
Politicians spend a lot of time talking about helping the poor. But the politicians who truly care about the poor are more concerned with policy outcomes than posturing for the cameras. Posturing might gain votes, but it often ends up doing more harm than good. It was thus a pleasant...
Walter Williams: Is income inequality fair?
Some Americans have much higher income and wealth than others. Former President Obama explained, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” An adviser to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez who has a Twitter account called “Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure” tweeted, “My goal for this...
John Stossel: How much is enough taxes?
Do you pay enough taxes? What is enough? When asked on “60 Minutes,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., didn’t seem to have a specific tax rate in mind, but then she said, “back in the ’60s … you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.” Suddenly, 70 percent...
John Baer: Time for another run at helping Pa. child sex abuse survivors
It was last October when the state legislature, specifically the state Senate, turned its back on victims of child sex abuse. Their own constituents. This despite the fact just two months earlier Pennsylvania became the epicenter of outrage over such abuse with the release by Attorney General Josh Shapiro of...
Cal Thomas: The Democrats’ Jewish problem
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comment that the influence of the Israeli lobby in Washington pushes lawmakers to take a pledge of “allegiance to a foreign country” was bad enough. A watered-down House resolution condemning, not Omar, but “all hatred” was as tepid as denouncing drunken driving. After heated debate...
Colin McNickle: Wolf’s teacher pay raise plan dubious
A proposal in Gov. Tom Wolf’s fiscal 2020 budget to raise the minimum wage for Pennsylvania’s public school teachers and support staff by a whopping 140 percent would have expansive and expensive consequences for taxpayers, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. It was in the 1980s...
