Author: Cal Thomas

“In your heart you know he’s right,” was Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign slogan in 1964. The critics of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who announced Monday he is running for president, are effectively saying of him: “In your head you know he’s nuts.” Even before his announcement, Cruz was labeled with the typical modifiers the left […]

In 1982, during one of many visits to Israel, I had the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who told me, “Israel needs friends.” He added that in the end, his nation could not trust any nation with its fate and security. The protection of Israel, he said, was ultimately the responsibility of […]

This week is “Sunshine Week,” a nonprofit, nonpartisan national initiative launched by the American Society of News Editors to “promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.” What better time to focus on a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that allows the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to designate companies […]

Turn on the news and you expect to see people of different races and politics denouncing each other. That’s why what happened last week on “The Kelly File,” Megyn Kelly’s Fox News program, was so remarkable. Following the expulsion of Parker Rice and Levi Pettit, two Sigma Alpha Epsilon members at the University of Oklahoma, […]

Hillary Clinton finally met with reporters at the UN Tuesday to explain why she used a personal email account for the vast majority of her communications as secretary of state. The problem for any public figure attempting to testify to their innocence is that one’s believability is directly tied to the public’s perception of one’s […]

I liked the movie “Selma,” though it could have done without the rap song during credits that referenced “hands up, don’t shoot,” a slogan that emerged from the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer whose actions the Justice Department recently determined did not “constitute prosecutable violations” of federal civil rights law. […]

Pop star Taylor Swift has donated $50,000 to the New York City public school system. Swift, who was named the world’s sixth most powerful celebrity by Forbes magazine, has commendably performed numerous acts of charity since moving into her $20 million Tribeca residence last year, including visits with sick children at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. […]

The White House opposes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to Congress, but not because the speech has political implications, coming as it does just two weeks before Israel’s March 17 election. If the administration truly had political concerns it would not have dispatched a team of Obama loyalists to Israel to help defeat Netanyahu. […]

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, is taking some heat — and winning praise in some quarters — for remarks he made at a private dinner last week at which he questioned President Obama’s love for America. Speaking at Manhattan’s upscale “21 Club” at a gathering of economic conservatives hosting potential Republican […]

“…the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” (John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961) It isn’t often that a member of the media reveals the philosophy behind his political ideology, but last week, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo outed himself. In an exchange with […]

President Theodore Roosevelt said, “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.” More than a century later, President Barack Obama speaks loudly (and incessantly) and carries a twig. Like Nero of ancient Rome, Obama fiddles, takes selfies and does Internet interviews while the world burns. Is he trying to distract himself, or us? To use a […]

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s name is not first on most people’s list of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, but maybe we should at least start paying attention to him. If one’s political enemies are any indication of potential strength, Jindal of Louisiana may be a more formidable force than some people realize.\ During […]

There was a time when the 63-year-old National Prayer Breakfast was a rather mundane affair. It rarely made news. Speakers — evangelist Billy Graham spoke at most of the early ones — talked about Jesus and salvation. Presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower, would follow with unremarkable comments mostly ignored or relegated to the religion […]

The network meteorologists barely had time to come up for air while “forecasting” the latest snowstorm non-disaster. Politicians, fearing what might happen to their approval numbers if a blizzard hit, went on TV to announce they were taking proactive measures. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio shut down tunnels, bridges, even the subway to […]

As thousands descended on Washington last week for the annual “March for Life,” the Republican House of Representatives was busy watering down an antiabortion bill that restricted abortions after 20 weeks, except in cases of rape or incest, with exemptions allowed only after a police report had been filed. This after a small group of […]

LONDON — It is an old debating point: Do the times make the man, or does the man make the times? In the case of Winston Churchill, whose death 50 years ago Saturday the British are remembering with more than nostalgia, it is both. The times in Churchill’s case were both World War I, in […]

Here’s a suggestion for Joni Ernst, the new Republican senator from Iowa, who will deliver the GOP response to the State of the Union address Tuesday night. Get a chorus together and open with this old Sammy Cahn-Jule Styne number: “It seems to me I’ve heard that song before; it’s from an old familiar score, […]

Social media is agog over George Clooney’s tribute to his wife, Amal, at last weekend’s Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood. Women, especially, are swooning in their tweets and Facebook postings. Said Clooney, “Listen, it’s humbling to find somebody to love, especially when you’ve been waiting your whole life, especially when your whole life is 53 […]

The late Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times, Paul Conrad, frequently used religious symbols to illustrate his point of view. Conrad drew the ire of some readers whenever he used the Star of David or a cross in his drawings. Letters to the editor denounced him, but to my knowledge no one […]

It is from an Aesop fable we get the phrase, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” The British and American media are carrying salacious stories about Prince Andrew keeping company with registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, now accused of keeping underage girls as “sex slaves” for prominent men. The investigation is ongoing. […]

It is from an Aesop fable we get the phrase, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” The British and American media are carrying salacious stories about Prince Andrew keeping company with registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, now accused of keeping underage girls as “sex slaves” for prominent men. The investigation is ongoing. […]

How precious in the sight of progressives was one of their saints, Mario Cuomo, the three-term governor of New York who died last week at age 82. He was a model of progressivism and a gifted rhetorician. In most media accounts, references were made to two speeches Cuomo delivered in 1984, one at the Democratic […]

The commander of American Special Operations in the Middle East, Major Gen. Michael K. Nagata, is reported to be seeking help in learning why the Islamic State is so dangerous. If he doesn’t know, what does that say about the prospect for victory over these radical terrorists who seek to destroy everyone who disagrees with […]

In the film, “Girl Interrupted,” Winona Ryder plays an 18-year-old who enters a mental institution for what is diagnosed as borderline personality disorder. The year is 1967 and the country is in turmoil over Vietnam and civil rights. While lying on her bed one night and watching TV, she sees a news report about a […]

Suppose what some call the “Christmas story” is true — all of it, from the angels, to the shepherds, to the virgin birth, to God taking on human flesh. By this, I don’t mean to suggest it is true only for those who believe it to be true, but what if it is objectively true, […]

Is it possible to hold two seemingly contradictory thoughts about the president’s decision to partially end the half-century embargo against Cuba? Can one agree with conservative critics, from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), to Rush Limbaugh about how the Castro brothers are, apparently, getting everything they want and how the U.S. gets nothing but promises from […]

I wanted to like the movie because I love the book. Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller, “Unbroken,” is a classic. While I had heard reports that the turning point in the book never made it to film, I attended a pre-release screening with an open mind. Audiences are told “Unbroken” is a “true story.” It is true, […]

The attack on a cafe in Sydney, Australia, by a self-described Islamic cleric with a long police record, left two hostages dead, along with the cleric, one Man Haron Monis. He was an Iranian refugee who enjoyed the hospitality and protection of the Australian government. That incident, which was televised worldwide, was quickly eclipsed by […]

If success at the state level were enough to recommend someone for president of the United States, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana would be among the frontrunners for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. According to the governor’s office, Pence has “signed into law $643 million in annual tax relief: That includes: $313 million for hardworking […]

What good purpose is served by releasing a report on CIA enhanced interrogation techniques while we are still at war with an enemy whose techniques include beheading Americans? Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and her Democratic colleagues say that the CIA lied about their tactics and exceeded their authority while seeking to obtain […]