Author: Cal Thomas

Everyone knows the meaning of the word “hypocrite” and no one can claim absolute constancy when it comes to living a life consistent with one’s stated values. But in this election year, hypocrisy is on full display. It is now being practiced with neither shame nor irony by leading Democrats, who once forcefully argued positions […]

Since religious language has again infected this unpredictable and turbulent political season, here is a verse that could describe the followers of Donald Trump. It is found in Paul’s second letter to his protege Timothy (or as Trump might call it, Two Timothy): “For the time will come when people will not put up with […]

Few people in modern history have fulfilled their oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” more than the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia was so well respected that the Senate voted 98-0 in 1986 to confirm him. These days it would be difficult to get a unanimous vote in support of Mother’s Day. It […]

Envy is defined by Dictionary.com as “a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another’s advantages, success, possessions, etc.” That perfectly characterizes the entire political philosophy of the Democratic progressive left. Listening to presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, I often hear the principles I grew up with and practiced being disregarded, even […]

In a day when the most innocuous thing can quickly become political, a Doritos Super Bowl commercial has upset some people who want abortion to be an unrestricted right. For those taking a bathroom break or watching “Downton Abbey” instead of the football game, here’s the scenario. A pregnant woman is receiving a sonogram in […]

Watching last Thursday’s debate between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders one might have thought a Republican had been in the White House for nearly eight years. Hearing their complaints about the economy (bad), discrimination (rampant), health care (too many without it), unemployment (too many not working, or working at low-paying jobs), […]

Just as radar warns of approaching storms, so does the flood of migrants entering Europe warn us of a deluge yet to come, not only for Europeans, if they continue to allow unrestricted immigration, but for the United States. Reports that women in Cologne, Germany, have been groped and robbed by men described by authorities […]

“You wonder how these things begin.” — (The Fantasticks) In the beginning there was a combative media. Dating back to Colonial America, as Eric Burns has chronicled in his book, “Infamous Scribblers,” politicians and journalists have mostly had a love (for Democrats)-hate (for Republicans) relationship. It is television and the advent of the celebrity culture […]

For anyone whose knowledge of history extends beyond the current season of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” or the latest instant replay of an NFL game, the four days of meetings involving Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani, European leaders and businesses should remind people we have seen this show before. Rouhani’s state visit, the first by […]

When the publisher of National Review Magazine, Jack Fowler, called and asked me to write 300 words on why I oppose Donald Trump for president of the United States, my first thought was about the derision that was sure to come from Trump supporters. I was not disappointed, or rather I am disappointed that no […]

Every American should be glad that American hostages have been freed by the tyrannical Iranian regime and are being reunited with family, friends and co-workers. Less satisfying is the return of Iran’s $400 million trust fund, used to buy military equipment, which was frozen in 1979, along with its diplomatic relations with the U.S. (plus […]

Movie sequels are rarely as good as the original films on which they’re based. The same dictum, it appears, holds for finance. The 2008 housing market collapse was bad enough, but it appears now that we’re on the verge of experiencing it all again. And the financial sequel, working from a similar script as its […]

“Slip slidin’ away Slip slidin’ away You know the nearer your destination The more you’re slip slidin’ away.” — Paul Simon It’s happening again. The “inevitability” of Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy may not be so inevitable after all. Unlike eight years ago when Barack Obama beat her for the Democratic nomination and ultimately won the […]

In sports, if a game plan is not working, the coach changes it. In medicine, if a course of treatment does not cure a disease, doctors try a different approach. In government, failure means nothing. Government keeps cash flowing with little regard for results. In government, failure endures. In an attempt to change our approach […]

I’m still waiting; waiting for someone to show me how laws stop a person intent on breaking them. Daily on the roads I see people breaking speed limits despite the possibility that cameras will catch them and send a ticket in the mail. In one of his last gasp efforts to “fundamentally change” America, President […]

Ever since the miniseries “Roots” was shown on ABC in 1977, Americans have demonstrated a keen interest in finding out more about where they came from and the names and circumstances of their ancestors. Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. is fulfilling that longing in the latest installment of the PBS series “Finding Your […]

Taking stock is a tradition observed by Jews at Yom Kippur and others who examine their lives at the end of a year and vow to improve in the new year. One group needs to take stock perhaps more than any other: the mainstream media. They continue to lose readers and viewers, but close their […]

President Obama and members of his administration assure us we have nothing to fear when it comes to terrorism. Whether you accept this, or not — and opinion polls show a majority do not — there is another fear that in large part is behind the phenomenon known as Donald Trump. It is the fear […]

Not for a long time has the world seemed so removed from the angelic proclamation of 2,000 years ago: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). Millions have died in countless wars over the last 100 years. People continue to die today as the result of […]

Since nearly everyone else seems to be employing “Star Wars” metaphors these days, permit me to use some of my own. To conservatives, the Republican congressional majority was supposed to be the good side of “The Force,” as opposed to what they regard as the Democratic “dark side.” And yet, unlike the film, “dark side” […]

Each of the Republican presidential candidates brings something good to the race for the GOP nomination and some things not so good. In the fifth and final GOP debate of the year, the candidates on the main stage, and even a few on the “undercard,” presented ideas and positions that many Republican voters would consider […]

If representatives of the nearly 200 nations gathered in Paris for the UN Conference on Climate Change had instead formed a coalition to fight a real threat — Islamic terrorism — they might have accomplished something useful. Instead, what they came up with is a document that even Secretary of State John Kerry, in a […]

LONDON — Set aside for a moment the violent incidents associated with people claiming to act under the authority of their Islamic faith and consider instead what passes for normalcy. Some in Britain would like to elevate to the level of wide-scale acceptance Sharia law, an Islamic legal system predicated on the religious tenets of […]

LONDON — Wisdom can often be found in unexpected places. During debate in the House of Commons on whether Britain should join the U.S. and Russia in bombing ISIS targets in Syria, Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary of the liberal Labour Party, delivered a speech that approached Winston Churchill in its vision: “And we […]

JERUSALEM — More than a decade after my 19th trip to Israel and the Middle East, this 20th visit shows how some things have changed, but the important ones remain the same. What one notices first is the large amount of new construction, which suggests a certain Israeli permanency against religious opposition, hatred and threats […]

In an ironic twist, Germany, which in the last century twice invaded other countries, contributing to two world wars, is now being invaded by hordes of Muslims. According to Pew Research Center, there are 4,760,000 Muslims in Germany, about 5.8 percent of its population, and that number is steadily growing. The Wall Street Journal writes, […]

College campuses are again in turmoil. According to The New York Times, “Racist, sexist and anti-Semitic incidents on and near college campuses from Dartmouth to Wisconsin to Stanford this fall have provoked worries by education and civil rights leaders that such acts are on the increase.” That wasn’t a story in yesterday’s newspaper. That was […]

Just hours before the terrorist attacks in Paris last week, for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, “Good Morning America” broadcast an interview with President Obama. In it, the president told host George Stephanopoulos, “I don’t think they’re gaining strength. What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain and […]

Unlike last month’s contentious GOP debate on CNBC, the event staged by Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal was thankfully less about the moderators and more about the candidates. It was about content, not about which moderator could ask the best “gotcha” question. We are moving beyond the “who won” stage in these […]

President Obama’s unilateral rejection of the proposed KeystoneXL oil pipeline that would have brought petroleum and jobs to the U.S. is another in a long list of issues dominated by politics rather than common sense, economics and science. After seven years of dithering on Keystone, the president said he was following the recommendation of Secretary […]