Cal Thomas
Columns by Cal Thomas
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
Fame: Not going to live forever
What is it about celebrity that so fascinates us? And it is celebrity, not fame. As the now defunct New Times magazine editorialized 30 years ago, "There are almost no famous people anymore; only celebrities." Published July 2, 2009
Selective meddling
Help me out here. President Obama immediately "meddles" in the affairs of Honduras, denouncing a military coup, the intent of which is to preserve the country's constitution, but when it comes to Iran's fraudulent election and the violent repression of demonstrators who wanted their votes counted, the president initially vacillates and equivocates. Published July 2, 2009
She cheered me on
I used to enjoy discussing with Mary Lou Forbes the heady days of real journalism when there were more than two newspapers in Washington and people spent time reading them. Published June 29, 2009
Obama’s shifting stance
There was a noticeable change in the climate during President Obama's Tuesday news conference that had nothing to do with the heat and humidity, the excuse given for moving the event indoors from the Rose Garden. Those Chicago boys (and girls) know all about cold winters, but if they think 80 degrees and partly cloudy is hot, wait until August, when the three H's - hot (95 degrees), humid (95 percent) and hazy - take over. Published June 28, 2009
Should we forgive him?
The first thing that should be acknowledged about South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's admission to an extramarital affair is that it could happen to any of us. That is not an excuse (and no, it has not happened to me, or to my wife). Every married person has heard the voice; the one that says you deserve something "better." Published June 26, 2009
THOMAS: Bulldozing American cities
There are perhaps dozens of small towns and failing neighborhoods beginning to resemble ghost towns. We've all seen them if we have gotten off the interstate and driven down state or county roads and once-thriving Main Streets or into blighted neighborhoods. Published June 16, 2009
THOMAS: Obama’s unquestioned authority
A criticism heard during the early years of the George W. Bush administration was that the media were "in the tank" for Mr. Bush, fearing to question his foreign and domestic policies in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. Published June 11, 2009
THOMAS: Reagan unveiled
A statue of Ronald Reagan was unveiled last week in the Capitol Rotunda at a time when many Republicans, and even some conservatives, think Mr. Reagan's ideas are passe. Before moving on, Republicans and those conservatives who don't want to "live in the past" should be asked what better ideas they have to offer. Published June 9, 2009
THOMAS: Downfall of an icon
"See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet. America is asking you to call. Drive your Chevrolet through the U.S.A. America's the greatest land of all." Published June 4, 2009
THOMAS: Innocent or ‘infidel’ abroad?
President Obama faces numerous challenges as he heads to Cairo this week for a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world. Published June 2, 2009
