Paul Kengor Columns category, Page 4

My father-in-law (his name is Al) recently handed me something he came across in a box of old stuff. It was a receipt from Wilson’s Pleasant Valley Station, in McMurray dated June 13, 1958. The receipt was signed by Al, a hustling teenage boy working at the gas station. What...

I remember a column years ago by a writer arguing that your vote doesn’t count. A curmudgeon who enjoyed tweaking readers, he took on the sacred civics aphorism: “Your vote counts.” He insisted that, in fact, your single vote really doesn’t count, except for the rarest occasions where a one-vote...

A strange confluence of my two recent Trib articles inspires a novel follow up. I first wrote on goats versus GOATs — i.e., athletes known for choking (i.e., goats) vs. athletes hailed by the weird acronym GOAT, meaning Greatest Of All Time. Next I wrote on Orrin Hatch, the longest...

Orrin Hatch died last week at age 88. In the political world, Hatch was a big deal. He became the longest-serving Republican senator ever, representing Utah from 1977 until 2019. Hatch was a prominent longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In sensational hearings for Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork,...

One of the weirdest things to hit the sports and pop-culture lexicon is this strange acronym GOAT. It’s a real headscratcher. Frankly, it’s dumb, and it needs to go away. You probably know what I’m talking about, given the sad saturation of social media. This GOAT thing stands for Greatest...

Rebekah Koffler, a Russian-born U.S. intelligence expert who worked for the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” speaks of an episode in the life of Vladimir Putin growing up in the 1960s in a communal apartment in Leningrad. “To get to his apartment on the fifth...

Trump supporters are pounding their chests over what they believe is a rhetorical question: Why didn’t Vladimir Putin do what he’s doing in Ukraine when Donald Trump was president? It’s a fair question that fair-minded liberals ought to ask. In fact, one of them, Bill Maher, raised it: “If Putin...

“The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” So declared Russian President Vladimir Putin in April 2005 in his annual state of the nation address to the Russian parliament, broadcast live on Russian television. That bombshell was dropped without any elaboration. “Putin deplores collapse...

It sure looks like Hillary Clinton is running for president again. Clinton is expected to speak at the New York State Democratic Party Convention in Times Square later this month, prompting further speculation that she’s running. Indicators continue to mount. It also sure looks like Donald Trump is running again....

The NCAA is finally on the ball. Its Covid-19 Medical Advisory Group has adjusted its definition of “fully vaccinated” to account not only for vaccination but other immunity factors, such as natural immunity — i.e., real immunity. Individual athletes with documented covid-19 infection within 90 days now carry the equivalent...

As Steelers fans size up the end of the Ben Roethlisberger era, I suggest not words but an image. The image sticking with me came at the end of “Monday Night Football’s” extended coverage of Ben’s final home game in Pittsburgh Jan. 3. This may sound sentimental, but I think...

Covid vax mandates continue to head to the Supreme Court. Currently, the court is reviewing the Biden OSHA mandate seeking to forcibly vaccinate Americans who work for organizations with more than 100 employees. Recently, the court declined to stop a state vax mandate for health care workers invoking religious objections....

Post-Christmas depression is a real thing. For many, it hits on Dec. 26. In fact, sadly, for much of our culture, Christmas is over on that day. The ending can feel painfully abrupt. After weeks and months of buildup, starting around Thanksgiving, or even right after Halloween in our stores,...

Roe v. Wade is facing unprecedented challenges, as seen during Supreme Court oral arguments last week in Dobbs v. Jackson. The chances of abortion being sent back to the states are higher than ever. As that prospect looms, pro-choice politicians are stepping forward to protect legal abortion in their states....

“Oh my gosh, Daddy, they’re killing each other!” So said my son John in a plea of desperation. He was referring not to his siblings, mercifully, but to our turkeys. I was at the office when John telephoned. His voice was so loud that the student in my office could...

“I’m caught in an insane asylum, everybody’s gone crazy, I will work for half.” So said a desperate professor to Peter Boghossian, who this week announced the creation of a new college, the University of Austin, committed to “freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience and civil discourse.” The announcement was...

Sitting in the lobby of a Washington hotel having drinks with friends, I glanced at the television and was pulled in by images of October baseball — the playoff season. It was the San Francisco Giants vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers. Classic. “It’s hard not to watch this,” I said...

“We need fathers,” said President Obama on Father’s Day 2008. “We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to...

I watched last Friday to see how Rep. Conor Lamb would vote on a bill that the bishops of his church called “the most radical abortion bill of all time.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bishop described the Women’s Health Protection Act as “nothing short of child sacrifice.” But given how...

On Sept. 8, 2021, Grove City College President Paul McNulty spoke in downtown Pittsburgh regarding his uniquely fascinating yet somber 9/11 experiences. He played an intimate role in the prosecution of the hijackers and their associates as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and deputy attorney general in...

“I wouldn’t have withdrawn,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I would have kept the counterterrorism forces on the ground … working with indigenous forces. That’s the best insurance policy against another 9/11.” Says Graham: “The chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof.” It has...

Gov. George Earle. Have you heard of him? Born in Devon, Pa., Earle was governor of Pennsylvania from 1935 to 1939, one of only two Democrats to be elected to that spot between the Civil War and World War II, and a respected and popular politician, featured on the cover...

In response to my last column on Major League Baseball’s silence in the face of repression in Cuba, I got an email from a Trib reader with an altogether different angle. He was less outraged by MLB’s silence than BLM’s “vocal support” of the Cuban regime. His point is more...

“MLB remained absent-mindedly and cowardly mute on the Cuban people’s freedom struggles, despite the game’s close ties with Cuban players.” So writes David, a Pittsburgh native and reader of my columns. David continues: “The league has no excuse now for dodging the political issues of the day as they arise....

In a column around this time last year, I wrote about the toll that covid was taking on tollbooth workers on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I had been prompted by an eerie ride to Latrobe from my home in Grove City. Like many Pennsylvanians under lockdown, I hadn’t been on a...