November 23, 2011
Cal Thomas
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THOMAS: Obama inspires in Morehouse address
President Obama gave two commencement addresses in one to graduates of Morehouse College in Atlanta last weekend. It would be easy for this conservative to critique the political and social elements of his speech. Instead, I choose to focus on the inspirational part.
THOMAS: Gosnell's 'clinic of horrors'
It was the pictures and riveting testimony that convinced a Philadelphia jury that abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was guilty of murdering three infants born alive following botched late-term abortions and also guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Karnamaya Mongar, who overdosed on Demerol during an abortion at Gosnell's clinic.
THOMAS: Benghazi, IRS: Son of Watergate?
Journalists should do their jobs on Benghazi and IRS issues.
THOMAS: Taxing Internet sales just a new burden on businesses, bureaucracy
The debate over taxing Internet sales isn't about "fairness," as the cleverly worded title of the bill suggests, it is, or ought to be, about spending, which is where the real problem lies.
THOMAS: Would things go better with Koch?
"Mainstream media" are alarmed by reports that billionaires Charles and David Koch are considering the purchase of Tribune Company's eight daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times.
THOMAS: Back to the '50s
Addressing a meeting of Planned Parenthood on Friday, President Barack Obama accused pro-lifers of wanting to "turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century."
THOMAS: No boundaries, big problem
One of the consequences of abandoning a standard by which right and wrong can be judged is our increasing inability to mete out punishment that fits the crime. In fact, too often we weigh extenuating circumstances rather than guilty actions.. In the case of the Boston bombers, observers search for
THOMAS: Bombed and blamed in Boston
President Obama rightly asked us not to "jump to conclusions" about motives or responsibility for the two bombs that exploded Monday at the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 170. That request was pre-emptively ignored.
THOMAS: Thatcher reviled for attempts to strengthen the individual
The death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has prompted reactions from Britain's far left that takes bad taste to new extremes.
THOMAS: The lady was a champ
The lady Thatcher was a champ. MANCHESTER, England -- There is a story about Margaret Thatcher, which is probably apocryphal, but speaks volumes about the strength of Britain's first female prime minister, who died Monday at age 87.. Following her election in 1979, the story goes that Thatcher took her
THOMAS: Gun laws and human nature
Gun laws and human nature. In 1983, when President Reagan ordered the deployment of missiles in Europe as part of his "peace through strength" strategy to counter the Soviet Union, the very liberal town of Takoma Park, Md., declared itself a "nuclear free zone."
THOMAS: School for scandal
My first question after reading about seven teachers in an Atlanta public school accused of altering standardized test scores to make it appear students performed better than they actually did was: How could they!?. The seven were nicknamed "the chosen" and, according to Georgia state investigator Richard Hyde, the less
THOMAS: Why do liberals fear success?
There are many successful liberals, so why do so many of them wish to subsidize failure for the poor, instead of showing them how to succeed? Take Dr. Ben Carson, as one example.
THOMAS: Beware public opinion
"If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it." -- Abraham Lincoln. History is full of warnings about what happens when people follow public opinion instead of standing by their principles. In its
THOMAS: Unhappy anniversary, Obamacare
Last week, politicians who helped craft the Affordable Care Act celebrated in self-congratulatory style the third anniversary of that monstrosity which will soon extinguish health care as we've known it.
THOMAS: Time to face the reality of Islamist philosophy
Too many people shy away from confronting the truth of radical Islam because they fear being attacked.
THOMAS: Death and life in Maryland
I have often proposed a deal for my liberal friends who are anti-death penalty but pro-choice: I will surrender my position in favor of the death penalty, if pro-choicers support laws that protect the unborn. But so far I've gotten no takers.
THOMAS: Detroit's decline
Since the Motown sound went silent -- except on oldies stations -- and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents.
THOMAS: The sound of inevitability
All of the arguments for and against same-sex marriage have been heard and will be heard again on March 26 and 27 when lawyers on both sides of the issue argue two key cases regarding same-sex marriages before the Supreme Court.
THOMAS: Life in Sequesterville
The Broadway musical "Annie" is enjoying another revival on Broadway. The show opened during the Carter administration when America was in need of some optimism. "The sun'll come out tomorrow," sang Annie, and with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, for a while, it did. Now we're back in "Hooverville."
THOMAS: Ryan's hope
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is looking beyond Friday and the beginning of the sequestration.
THOMAS: Gov. Scott to voters: Never mind
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., was one of those tea party stars whom voters believed had the courage of his convictions when he promised, as recently as last summer, to block the Affordable Care Act in his state.
THOMAS: Extortionist in chief
At the end of 1995 and stretching into January 1996, the federal government "shut down" because of an impasse between President Bill Clinton and House Republicans led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The issue was increased taxes vs. less spending. Sound familiar?
THOMAS: The double threats to Democrats
Double threats to the cult of big government. Just as Lenin's body remains on public display in Russia, because one never knows when he might be useful to rally the masses, so, too, does the ghost (but thankfully not the body) of the late Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., remain a useful symbol for Democrats in Washington.
THOMAS: Obama recycling old and failed ideas
President Barack Obama's approach to so-called "climate change" appears to include recycling old ideas.
THOMAS: Let us pray, not prey
Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies.
THOMAS: Where is the outrage over white paper?
An unsigned and undated Justice Department white paper, obtained by NBC News, reports The New York Times, "... is the most detailed analysis yet to come into public view regarding the Obama legal team's views about the lawfulness of killing, without a trial
THOMAS: Government shouldn't define 'church'
Under pressure from religious and conservative groups, the Obama administration has offered another compromise on the issue of birth control coverage within the Affordable Care Act.
THOMAS: '60 Minutes'' missed opportunity
In the days of the late Mike Wallace, "60 Minutes" was known for hard-hitting, aggressive journalism that asked the questions viewers wanted answered and held the powerful accountable. Not so much these days.
THOMAS: GOP: R.I.P.? Not on state level
Some political commentators are dancing on what they believe to be the grave of the Republican Party.
THOMAS: Roe v. Wade at 40
At last week's signing of "executive actions" designed to combat gun violence in America, President Obama, flanked by schoolchildren, said, "...when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among us, we must act now.". There's no doubt that children, especially schoolchildren, are vulnerable to all kinds of threats
THOMAS: An imperial president
One definition of "imperial" on dictionary.com is, "of the nature or rank of an emperor or supreme ruler.". At his news conference Monday, a petulant, threatening and confrontational President Barack Obama spoke like an emperor or supreme ruler. All that was missing was a scepter, a crown and a
THOMAS: Control politicians, not guns
If laws were enough to deter criminal behavior prisons would be empty. The latest effort to "control" guns in America is as likely to deter someone intent on breaking the law as outlawing lust would affect one's libido.
THOMAS: Hagel's record on defense, Israel troubling
Hagel's tone on defense, Israel both troubling. Biography isn't policy. President Obama's choice for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, former Nebraska Republican senator, has a resume most politicians can envy: a clean senatorial record, no ethical lapses and two purple hearts from a war many opposed and many more tried
THOMAS: Female vs. male senators
As the son of a woman, the husband of a woman and the father of daughters and granddaughters, I celebrate the record number of females who are now United States senators.
THOMAS: When citizenship grows too taxing
I had read about financially motivated expatriates but never knew one who had taken the ultimate step until I visited with my longtime friend “Sam.”
THOMAS: Vietnam 50 years later
It has been 50 years since President John F. Kennedy ordered U.S. “advisers” to South Vietnam to help battle the communist North and 37 years since the end of that divisive war and the country’s unification under Communism.
THOMAS: One night in Bangkok
BANGKOK -- Most of us can read about sex trafficking with a sense of detachment. It is only when we see its results up close that we are forced to confront the full extent of its horror.. Nana Plaza is one of several "red light" districts in Bangkok. It is
THOMAS: Explaining evil
As much as humans have tried for millennia to prevent evil acts, we have not succeeded.
THOMAS: No entitlements equals vibrant Singapore
SINGAPORE -- While the U.S. unemployment rate "dropped" to 7.7 percent last month -- a figure even The Washington Post acknowledged was due "...in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000..." -- here in this modern and prosperous city-state of slightly more than 5 million
THOMAS: You gotta have hope
"You gotta have hope; mustn't sit around and mope." -- "Damn Yankees". Sitting in the room at the Jack Kemp Leadership Award dinner last week, listening to Senator Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, and Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and of late the GOP vice presidential candidate, I sensed more
THOMAS: No skin in the game
An Internet search is inconclusive as to where the phrase "no skin in the game" originated. Some ascribe it to the late columnist William Safire; others to investor Warren Buffett. Politicians often use the phrase to justify policies to their liking. It can also be applied to the latest in
THOMAS: Dark shadows of Islamist Egypt
The opening scene-setter for the 1996 film "Independence Day" might serve as a metaphor for what Egyptians could face if a draft constitution written by a panel dominated by Islamists and based on Sharia law wins approval in a referendum: "A loud rumble is heard. Suddenly, we are covered
THOMAS: 'Pharaoh' Morsi
The diplomatic hosannas for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi following his brokering of the recent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel were still being heard even as the former head of the Muslim Brotherhood started behaving like a pharaoh.
THOMAS: Sex and the city (of Washington)
The resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus over an extramarital affair has raised and will continue to raise a number of questions.
THOMAS: Changing America
"The color of the world is changing day by day." -- "Les Miserables," the musical. A look at the electoral map indicates the Republican Party won in square miles. Unfortunately for them, electoral votes, not landmass, won President Obama a second term. Analysis from the Center for Responsive
THOMAS: Four more years of the US's decline
Great nations and proud empires have always collapsed from within before they were conquered from without.. President Obama's re-election mirrors the self-indulgent, greedy and envious nation we are rapidly becoming.. Pollsters Michael Barone and Dick Morris got it horribly wrong. Both predicted a 300 electoral-vote win for
THOMAS: The 2012 choice
This election will tell us what kind of America we believe in. Is it the one our Founders bequeathed to their posterity of limited government, or is it the one re-made in the image of liberal paternalistic government? The choice, as President Obama has said, could not be clearer.
THOMAS: Who's really the racist?
When the race card is played this close to the election, I suspect the pro-Obama forces are sensing trouble.
THOMAS: What is our foreign policy?
After watching the third presidential debate, are you clear on America's foreign policy? I thought not. That's because there appears to be no singular foreign policy, but rather a series of foreign policies which must be tailored to fit each nation.
THOMAS: A conservative's appreciation for a liberal icon, George McGovern
Former South Dakota Democratic Senator George McGovern, who died Sunday, had all manner of evil said about him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was called unpatriotic, disloyal, an appeaser and an enabler of communism. Those were the printable slanders.
THOMAS: The second debate
In form, President Obama came back strongly in Tuesday's debate with Mitt Romney, but substantively he continues to lag behind the Republican candidate. That's because the president has a record to defend and it isn't a good one.
THOMAS: Biden vs. Ryan = Old vs. New
In his debate with Paul Ryan, the vice president was merely a jerk.
THOMAS: Needed: A new foreign policy
America's role in the world must be redefined and explained to its citizens. The presidential candidates should be asked about it.
THOMAS: 'Drop' in the jobless rate reads like Ayn Rand fiction
To the millions of Americans unable to find work, to college graduates who can't get a job and are living with their parents, to the underemployed who are working at jobs far below their skill set and experience, and to those who have given up looking for work altogether, a 7.8 percent unemployment rate is meaningless.
THOMAS: 'Total reprobate'
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on a media tour promoting his book, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story." It certainly is.
THOMAS: The main event
Mitt Romney's main advantage in his first debate with President Obama tonight may be that the president will be speaking without a teleprompter. His second advantage is the president's record and how he has failed to fulfill many of his promises.
THOMAS: Who needs reform most: Egypt or US?
It isn't the policies and attitude of the United States toward the Arab world that need changing. It's the attitude and policies of the Arab world that need to change.
THOMAS: Evidence of Obama's failings all out in the open
President's failures out in the open. There's another video, this one of Mitt Romney speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Boca Raton.
THOMAS: War through weakness
"How could this happen?" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked in response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others. What doesn't Secretary Clinton get? The actions and statements of Islamic extremists have been visible for some time.
THOMAS: Time for school choice in Chicago
"There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." -- Calvin Coolidge, responding to the 1919 Boston police strike. This oft-quoted line from the then-governor of Massachusetts might be updated to include "the public interest," as well as public safety
THOMAS: Truth, God and Jerusalem at the DNC
In a speech resembling a TV re-run (the liberal website The Daily Beast called it "dull"), President Obama accepted his party's nomination for a second term. In doing so, he made the most ludicrous claim of this campaign, indeed, of his presidency: "You didn't elect me to tell you
THOMAS: Dealers in hope
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If the Democrats and Republicans aren't talking about the greater goal of helping the poor become un-poor (rather than just sending them a check to sustain them in their poverty), is anyone doing something to help them? At least one person is — and within sight of the Democratic National Convention.
THOMAS: Privileges and responsibilities
My first political convention was in 1964 when Democrats convened in Atlantic City to nominate Lyndon Johnson for a full term as president. I was a young copyboy at the NBC News network bureau in Washington. We arrived from Washington aboard a chartered DC-3 plane that also carried the
CAL THOMAS: Romney's opportunity
TAMPA, Fla. -- This week when Mitt Romney strides to center stage to deliver his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he might draw inspiration from an unlikely source: the song "I Am What I Am" from the musical "La Cage Aux Folles."
THOMAS: Trapping season for Republicans
It's trapping season. The targets are Republicans, whom the Democratic-friendly media (the trappers) hunt in order to smear -- especially the Romney-Ryan ticket -- forcing them off message.
THOMAS: A debate about debates
Dictionary.com defines a "debate" as: "A formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers.". That is not what will take place during three exchanges between President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, or the one vice-presidential exchange between
THOMAS: The legacy of Helen Gurley Brown
When women complain about men who can't commit, they can thank -- or blame -- two people: Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner and the former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown, who died this week at age 90.
THOMAS: Romney-Ryan: Real change
Is America ready for a serious discussion of issues, rather than the superficial approach that has defined so much of modern politics? We're about to find out.
THOMAS: Tax, charity talk beside real issue of fed spending
To call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a "mad dog," as Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank did, is an affront to the canine community and those suffering from legitimate mental illness.
THOMAS: Presidential campaign needs a dose of the past
Some of Calvin Coolidge's contemporaries may have found his reserved New England manner boring, but some moderns are starting to reconsider the economic rules and political standards by which he lived.
THOMAS: Dark night
By now the script should be familiar. A bombing or a mass shooting occurs and the media immediately look for a simple cause. Invariably, they turn to talk radio or some other conservative pit of "intolerance."
THOMAS: 7 habits of highly ineffective government
Stephen Covey, the management guru who died this week, would have had a hard time selling his books in Benjamin Franklin's America, or Abe Lincoln's. His best seller "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" would have been considered a self-evident truth.
THOMAS: Mitt Romney and the NAACP
Mitt Romney's speech to the NAACP convention in Houston was -- according to one's political perspective -- a "calculated move on his part to get booed..." to help his white base (Rep. Nancy Pelosi), or a presentation to "independent thinking adult citizens" whom he treated as equals (Rush Limbaugh
THOMAS: Obama's numbers don't add up
President's spin on jobless doesn't add up. President Obama's attempt to spin the latest discouraging unemployment numbers as "a step in the right direction" is like telling passengers aboard the Titanic to ignore the sinking vessel and listen to the live music.. A Wall Street Journal analysis of the June
THOMAS: The 'Oprahfication' of America
When asked at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 what the Founders had wrought, Benjamin Franklin famously said, "A Republic, if you can keep it." But the "Oprahfication" of America, in which feelings trump truth and personal experience and class guilt rule instead of the Constitution, threatens it.
THOMAS: Should the West believe Egypt's new president?
Throughout America's history, there have been people who denied threats from our enemies.
Cal Thomas: The NHS: A guide for Americans under Obamacare
The U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) is the best guidebook for Americans concerned where a nationalized health system might take us.
THOMAS: Searching for the perfect candidate
Now it’s Newt’s turn. Having risen to the top in some opinion polls, the former speaker of the House is taking heat for large consulting fees paid to him by the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac for wisdom a New York Times editorial said was so simplistic it might have come from a fortune cookie.
THOMAS: Puerto Rico's two-year revival from $3.3B debt
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Since the congressional super committee appears unable, or unwilling, to take a lesson from Indiana or Virginia -- where Republican governors have made spending cuts and delivered budget surpluses without damaging the social safety net -- members might wish to consider Puerto Rico and what its governor, Luis Fortuno, is doing.Fortuno is Puerto Rico's first Republican governor in 42 years. In 2009 when he took office, the U.S. territory had a $3.3 billion budget deficit. Three years earlier, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the commonwealth's bond rating to junk status while in deep recession.
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