Opinion category, Page 316
Neil Hare: Winning GOP strategy in 2024 – back to business with immigration reform
The recent GOP attacks on the business community, including its leading advocacy group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, arguably contributed to a poor showing in the 2022 midterms and is not the answer for success in the presidential and congressional elections in 2024. The main policy targets for these attacks...
Alexis Karteron: Tyre Nichols’ death prompts calls for federal legislation to promote police reform — but Congress can’t do much about fixing local police
The severe beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, by five Memphis police officers — leading to his death three days later — has sparked renewed calls for federal measures to combat police violence and racism. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a package of reform initiatives aimed...
Letter to the editor: Republicans holding abuse victims hostage
There seems to be no depth that Republicans in Harrisburg will not sink to in order to get their way. An amendment to the state Constitution would have opened a new time window for reporting sexual abuse of minors. No one in their right mind could openly oppose it. The...
Sounding off: ‘Equity,’ documents, ‘wokies,’ taxes and roadside trash among week’s topics
WCCC’s ‘equity’ isn’t ‘equality’ Isn’t this special. Westmoreland County Community College has created a “Center for Equity, Inclusion and Belonging,” according to a glowing newspaper report (“Westmoreland County Community College opens Center for Equity, Inclusion, Belonging,” Jan. 27, TribLIVE). Lots to unpack here, but let’s pick one nit. Equity. “Equity”...
Letter to the editor: Biden should close borders
Hey, President Biden, when are you going to get your priorities straight? You and you alone are destroying America by not closing our borders. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is a joke, and, so far, so are you. The amount of drugs, criminals, “gotaways” and probably terrorists coming over our...
Editorial: Is Pennsylvania using anxiety as a gateway to marijuana?
Feeling anxious? You aren’t alone. The National Institute of Mental Health puts the number of people diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder at about 6.8 million adults. That’s more than 3% of the population. It doesn’t necessarily include those suffering from social anxiety disorder, panic attacks or phobias that also could...
Letter to the editor: Comparing Trump, Biden administrations
Both politically conservative and politically left-wing letter writers call each other names and traffic in disinformation. And, since the biased mainstream media is full of omissions and lies, how can we voters determine the real facts? Perhaps comparing presidential job achievements the past six years might make the picture clearer....
Gary Franks: Our 21st-century Klansmen no longer have sheets and hoods
Maybe I have been too exposed to the Ku Klux Klan and their sympathizers over the years — whether they were dressed in white robes or now wearing Brooks Brothers suits. I have had classic KKK experiences. As a youngster I was a victim of the KKK when they burned...
S.E. Cupp: Moving on from Trump and his voters
“Press them hard enough, and most Republican officials … will privately admit that Donald Trump has become a problem,” writes McKay Coppins in a new Atlantic piece. “Aside from his most blinkered loyalists, virtually everyone in the party agrees: It’s time to move on from Trump.” I don’t doubt that’s...
Letter to the editor: Why doesn’t PennDOT keep roads clean?
Which PennDOT division is responsible for keeping our highways free of litter, trash and animal carcasses? Whoever they are, they’ve either retired, been fired, quit, moved or died. Route 28 north of Pittsburgh looks like a dump, both north and southbound lanes. It’s embarrassing! I guess all of the PennDOT...
Letter to the editor: WCCC’s ‘equity’ isn’t ‘equality’
Isn’t this special. Westmoreland County Community College has created a “Center for Equity, Inclusion and Belonging,” according to a glowing newspaper report (“Westmoreland County Community College opens Center for Equity, Inclusion, Belonging,” Jan. 27, TribLIVE). Lots to unpack here, but let’s pick one nit: equity. “Equity” is not “equality.” Equality...
Lori Falce: Bad actions hurt good police and all communities
Tyre Nichols was 29 years old the day he was stopped by police officers in Memphis. Body cam videos released by the police department showed an agonizingly long process that led to his death. He was dragged from his vehicle. He was beaten and Tased and pepper-sprayed. He broke free...
Laurels & lances: Vaping, heating and smiling
Laurel: To adding new tools. As the song says, “Everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in school.” That historically has been about cigarettes but has branched out to the modern version — vaping. It is illegal to sell any tobacco products, including vaping products, to those under 21 in Pennsylvania....
Letter to the editor: Voting encouraged in Feb. 7 special election
If there is one thing we know at AARP, it’s that Pennsylvanians 50-plus vote. That’s why we want to ensure that people age 50-plus and their families know about the quick-approaching elections in Allegheny County. Although the first opportunity to vote in the 2023 election cycle was anticipated to be...
Paul Kengor: The sad, slow death of cinema
“Watching cinema inexorably die … brings me little pleasure,” writes cultural observer and film critic Lou Aguilar. “I dedicated most of my life to the art, first as an admirer then a critic.” Aguilar is a colleague of mine at The American Spectator. What inspired his lament, a piece that...
Maggie Rose Macar: George Santos is a bad role model for the LGBTQ+ community
The 118th Congress, who have finally been sworn in after a nightmarish House speaker election, is composed of more LGBTQ+ lawmakers than at any time in history — 13 — including two senators and 11 representatives. Unfortunately, in the midst of what is set to be a record-breaking and glass-ceiling-shattering...
Peter Morici: WTO no longer serves U.S. foreign-policy interests
The World Trade Organization no longer serves U.S. foreign policy interests. The U.S. and its allies established the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to limit tariffs and quantitative restrictions and to promote trade in goods. Rechristened the WTO in 1995, agreements were added to cover trade in services and...
Letter to the editor: Should we believe Clinton, Bush on documents?
According to news reports, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush say they have no classified documents. Really? Does anyone believe them, given their history of veracity? I.e., Monica Lewinsky and Iraq WMDs. Gerald Schiller Penn Hills...
Letter to the editor: Republicans not nihilists
Columnist Joseph Sabino Mistick claimed there are now nihilists in the House Republican Party (“Kevin McCarthy and the GOP nihilists” Jan. 14, TribLIVE). He was referring to the 20 House members who “wrecked McCarthy’s plans to smoothly assume” speaker of the House. Nihilists, as most know, are people with no...
Editorial: Does Pennsylvania have a real-life ‘Groundhog Day’ problem?
In “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 Bill Murray movie, the holiday centered around a prognosticating Punxsutawney Phil is not the point. They are just the kick-off for the story about a weatherman trapped in the same 24 hours with the same events happening over and over again. There was never an...
Letter to the editor: Hoping The River stays in New Kensington
On the corner of Freeport Road and Elizabeth Street in New Kensington stands an architectural beauty, commonly known as the Old Nurse’s Residence. Circa 1923 red bricks are punctuated by a row of stately arches I’ve admired since I was a kid. For years, the vacant property was maintained, never...
Jonah Goldberg: Ukraine’s fight benefits U.S. national security. House GOP is on wrong side
We are entering the 12th month of a “special military operation” that was supposed to be over in well under 12 days. The Kremlin even told Russian officers to pack dress uniforms and medals for the intended military parades in Kyiv a few days after the shooting started. Things turned...
Colin McNickle: The real & sobering story at PIT
The Allegheny County Airport Authority continues to paint a rosy picture of rebounding passenger traffic at Pittsburgh International Airport. “PIT travel roars back,” part of a headline blared recently on the authority’s website. But an analysis of the latest publicly available numbers — for November 2022 — shows the Findlay...
Guy Ciarrocchi: Pa. Republicans must solve the suburban puzzle
Political pundits rate Pennsylvania among the swing states. Reviewing the Keystone map, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are overwhelmingly Democratic strongholds. Rural Pennsylvania — what political pundits call the “T” — has always been Republican and now has gone super-red. So, the critical battle concerns Philadelphia’s suburbs, with about 22% of the...
Letter to the editor: Battle of the wokies
The new Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission’s guidelines that have resulted in the cancellation of reenacted battles at Bushy Run Battlefield is a classic example of unelected “woke” appointees mandating their insecurities upon us without any public input (“Bushy Run Battlefield reenactment canceled amid new state guidelines,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE)....
