Articles

OPINION: Beware political illiteracy

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The extinct political slogan “As Maine goes, so goes the nation,” may be supplanted by what is happening in the United Kingdom. There is a form of functional political illiteracy here that does not bode well for the United States should it follow Britain’s very bad example, particularly on matters involving immigration and health care.

OPINION: European press gushes over Obamas

DUBLIN, Ireland — Observing the start of Lord and Lady Obama’s (aka president and Michelle) grand European tour and the fawning press coverage, one might conclude they were imbued with royal blood.

Opinion: ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’ still has commitment to television quality

Growing up, “Hallmark Hall of Fame” represented the gold standard of what we would call today “family values” television, except that TV then rarely carried anything threatening to those values. Today, Hallmark’s commitment to quality television hasn’t change; it even has its own cable channel, which shows films that affirm the values most of us hold dear.

Opinion: New film about online predators isn’t just drama; it’s about real life

Let us have a “time out” from the wars and upheavals in the Middle East to consider another war taking place in too many of our homes. That would be the war against our children and the one between parent and child.

Opinion: Establishment Republican? Not Norman Braman

Norman Braman is not your typical billionaire car dealer. Nor is he your typical establishment Republican, who too often puts party above principle. Norman Braman is the type of person who strikes fear into the hearts of every professional politician who thinks he can say one thing to get elected and then do the opposite once in office.

Opinion: Japan incident shouldn’t stop nuclear power

In the 1979 movie “The China Syndrome,” reporter Kimberly Wells (played by Jane Fonda) witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant and then uncovers a plot to keep it a secret in order to protect the power company’s billion-dollar investment. The film was a gift to the political left, which at the time opposed the pursuit of nuclear energy to reduce our addiction to foreign oil. In some liberal circles, that opposition remains strong.

Opinion: That’s just what liberals do best

In his State of the Union address, President Obama at times sounded like he was channeling Ronald Reagan: cutting the deficit, hailing private enterprise and individual initiative, talking about the future. But for all his eloquence, the president wrapped his liberal ideology in conservative sheep’s clothing.

Opinion: Anyone ready to lead the next U.S. revolution?

The contrast between what Illinois Democrats did last week and what Republicans have done in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Virginia and New Jerse, could not be clearer.
In Illinois, Democratic legislators and a Democratic governor pushed through a massive 67 percent personal income tax hike (and a 46 percent boost in corporate taxes), claiming an accompanying “cap” would mean no new spending. Sure.

Opinion: Message from November was about ending Obama policies

You don’t have to be a psychic who forecasts future events for supermarket tabloids to accurately predict what awaits the new congressional Republican class of 2011. The writing is already on the computer screens and in the TV teleprompters.

Opinion: After a wrong turn, tough to change course

Which do you think is less expensive, not to mention preferable: a cure for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, or caring for people with these diseases?
Wouldn’t it be better medical and public policy to direct more resources toward finding a cure for diseases that cost a lot to treat than to rely on a government insurance program, such as Obamacare, which seeks mainly to help pay the bills for people after they become ill?

Columns

THOMAS: Truth, Israel and God 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 what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth.”

• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: Romney now has ‘real’ 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.”

• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: Format for debates needs improvement

Dictionary.com defines a “debate” as: “A formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers.”

THOMAS: Romney shows he means business with pick of Ryan

After Paul Ryan’s serious proposal to restructure Medicare — which virtually everyone knows must be reformed — the response from Democrats was an unserious TV ad, which showed a Ryan look-alike pushing an old woman in a wheelchair over a cliff.

• Watch Ryan debate
• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: Eat more chicken

Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy is in hot water with the LGBT community because he committed the cardinal sin in an age of political correctness: Thou must not speak ill of anything gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgenders wish to do.

• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: Evil cannot be explained away as anything but evil

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.”

• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: Solution must be found in the right place, Stossel says

In order to get the correct answer to anything, one must ask the right question. That is what former ABC News and current Fox News TV host John Stossel does on his weekly program. If ever there was “must see-TV,” this is it.

• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: Numbers prove Obama’s stimulus plan is a failure

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.

• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: Vote Walker, stop nonstop spending

If the polls are right, the vote today in Wisconsin on whether to recall Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican state senators could amount to a redial of their original victory.

• Cal Thomas

THOMAS: PBS show is modern version of ‘This is Your Life’

“Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” is another of the Harvard professor’s wonderful television series for PBS. This is “must-see TV” and a more than worthy sequel to three previous projects Gates has hosted about how some of us came to be what and who we are.

• Cal Thomas