Cal Thomas
Columns by Cal Thomas
No peace, no prize
Like the Pulitzer Prize for journalism and the Oscar and Emmy for film and television, the Nobel Peace Prize is an inside job in which liberal, wishful-thinking humanists give awards to one another. Published October 13, 2009
Wherefore art thou a debtor?
Why won't we listen to what used to be called sage advice before the Internet made too many of us think we are reinventing the world and nothing we think or try has ever been thought or tried before? Published October 8, 2009
Creepy behaviors
In olden days, when "a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking," a morals clause was written into an actor's film contract. The purpose was to restrain an actor from engaging in public behavior that might offend the audience and harm ticket sales. Published October 6, 2009
The story behind a story
What we are led to believe by an often lazy and Obama-supporting big media, enabled by a deliberately ignorant public that lacks, rather than longs, for the truth, is not as it first seems. Take just one example. Published October 1, 2009
A conflict of deception
If you were an enemy of America seeking its destruction, you would add to your pursuit of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons the undermining of this nation from within. You would do this largely through deception, putting on a peaceful face while subtly plotting ways to bring America down. Published September 29, 2009
Glenn Beck explained
Radio and TV commentator Glenn Beck was mentioned three times in separate opinion columns on the same day and in an article the next day in the New York Times, possibly a record for someone who does not hold elective office. Published September 24, 2009
Weakness as a shortcut to war
When I was a kid, there was a bully in our neighborhood. He never picked on kids his own size and certainly not on anyone larger. Rather, he punched, pushed and kicked kids smaller and weaker than himself, especially those who refused to respond to his threats. Stirred by his adversaries' impotent responses, the bully felt free to slug anyone he fancied. Published September 22, 2009
Playing the racism card
When Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, some suggested that race played a factor in his success. People "wanted" to elect a black man president because of our history of slavery and the denial of civil rights for so many years to blacks. It is never "racism" to vote for someone because he is black. It is only racism to oppose the policies of a black Democrat. Published September 17, 2009
Liar, Liar
Wouldn't it be nice, as the Beach Boys sang in another context, if there was such a thing as a liar meter? It would detect when a politician wasn't telling the truth and alert the public. In the absence of such an invention, we are left to challenge our political leadership based on an objective look at the facts. Published September 16, 2009
The reason for our discontent
Who wrote the following: "We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about 'unthinkable things' because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless." Published September 10, 2009
No real quid pro quo
HBO showed the film "Schindler's List" last week. The 1993 Steven Spielberg movie never ceases to arouse my deepest emotions. The perennial question put forth in the film remains: How could people wantonly kill so many others as a matter of state policy? Published September 9, 2009
Languishing in liberal land
Despite their control of all three branches of government, this has not been a good summer for liberal Democrats. Their health care "reform" bill, which has yet to be fully written, much less fully funded, has been exposed at town-hall meetings as a power grab over life and death with the strong possibility that "do no harm" will be replaced by a utilitarian approach to treatment. Published September 3, 2009
Judgment vs. judgmentalism
Opinion columnists, like the rest of humanity, walk a fine line between judgment (holding people accountable to a standard we did not create) and judgmentalism (thinking ourselves morally superior because we haven't committed the acts of others). Published September 1, 2009
Opposing suicide ‘justice’
After pledging during last year's presidential campaign, and as recently as the spring, not to revisit the past, the Obama administration, in the person of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., has named a special prosecutor to go after CIA interrogators who pried information from terrorist suspects, preventing more deadly assaults on the country. Published August 30, 2009
A surprising friendship
Most of my adult life has been intertwined with the Kennedy family. As a freshman at American University in 1960, I stayed up late watching the election returns, as John F. Kennedy barely eked out a victory over Richard Nixon. Published August 27, 2009
National suicide by overspending
Remember when the deficit was so bad that Democrats said we (or, more accurately, the Republicans) were placing a terrible burden on our grandchildren? Published August 25, 2009
Catch a falling star
Seven months after taking office amid a religious-like faith that he was the one (or even The One) we had been waiting for, President Obama is beginning to resemble a shooting star. Published August 20, 2009
National Health vs. USA
For the past month, I have watched British media report and comment on the American health care uproar. American cable networks also are available here. The back-and-forth reporting and commentary resemble a replay of the War of 1812, this time with verbal salvos. Published August 18, 2009
Invasion by immigration
The Daily Telegraph's headline is meant to shock, or at least get the attention of Europeans apathetic about the threat they face: "A Fifth of European Union Will Be Muslim by 2050." Published August 13, 2009
Getting rid of granny
The debate -- OK, the shouting match -- we are having over "health care reform" is about many things, including cost, who gets help and who does not and who, or what, gets to make that determination. Published August 11, 2009
