The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Wayne Stayskal (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

You know Cal Thomas as a popular newspaper columnist and an influential Christian journalist. His sharp-witted writings are a clarion call to all who cherish traditional ideals and values. His tough analysis of current events encourages the lost American art of critical thinking, yet his tender-heartedness toward the disadvantaged will motivate readers to change their worlds for the good of their fellow man.

This collection of wit and wisdom from Cal Thomas is culled from years of his columns, broadcasts, and speeches. A wide variety of topics are covered from drugs, education, freedom, history, and marriage, to religion, the presidency, foreign affairs, Hollywood, and the media. Cal's direct, to-the-point message targets readers everywhere, challenging them to consider the world today in the shining light of truth, and make an impact on the world around them.

About the Author

Cal Thomas is the co-author of Blinded by Might. His L.A. Times column appears in more than 450 newspapers and has the second highest circulation of any political column now published in America. His daily commentary is heard at 8:20AM on WOCA NewsTalk 1370. Cal and his wife live in Alexandria, Virginia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: Promise Press; First Edition edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586602993
• ISBN-13: 978-1586602994
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #824,862 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One liners and simpleton statements to live by, May 27, 2003

By A Customer

Several years ago there was a not so popular TV program called J.J.Starbuck. This eccentric Texas millionaire used many short stories and one-liners that speak to the soul of folks and a nation that often left folks with a befuddled look but at the same time the hearer would contemplate the thought over what was said. The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas is such a similar presentation. Each one of the stements that I read in the book just adds to my list of those that I like to reflect on and share with others. A much needed and pleasent way to retort others with something catchy and lasting and really nonthreating. Great work Cal!

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars WE DISAGREE THAT YOUR "MORAL" STANDARDS ARE OBJECTIVE, December 31, 2005

By	Peter Payne - See all my reviews

I first read one of Cal Thomas's articles when a fellow worker passed out Xeroxed copies of "We Have Lost an Objective Standard of Values, Morals" several years ago. Since then, I have read his articles as they appear in the paper. From reading the review of his book, Blinded by Might, I see that he has finally come to realize that politics corrupts religion rather than religion uplifting politics; this makes me respect him far more than I ever expected to. "We have politicized the gospel with our agendas," he --the coauthor, Ed Dobson -- writes. "To be part of the Christian right is to be part of the Republican party. For some, this means to be a real Christian, you must be a Republican. That is heresy and is only a short distance from the extremism of my Irish counterparts." Yes, Cal, you do have a nose on your face.

Frankly, America has become a rather uglier place than it was thirty years ago, a condition for which the religious right is largely responsible. Thomas disdains socialized medicine (claiming, absolutely incorrectly, that the U. S. has the best health care in the world), environmentalists, people who are upset by the fact that the U. S. is guilty of torturing prisoners of war, and (apparently) the head start program. The list is long. Thomas supports tax cuts for the rich, while 25% of Americans live in poverty because they work for billion-dollar corporations that refuse to pay a living wage. Thomas quotes lines from the Koran that support murder and war in the name of religion with such self-righteous relish that one would suppose that one could not find similar justifications of evil in the Bible. He writes that America has made many Moslem nations wealthy by buying their oil, and it is not our fault if the leaders are greedy and permit their people to live in poverty. Surely, it is not entirely our fault, but the Christian right scorns the notion that an insistence on human rights should be a part of the American political and economic agenda. America has a history of allying itself with human monsters, of sucking the wealth from undeveloped countries so that their people are essentially forcibly driven to extremism. "Expediency - at any price to maintain personal peace and affluence is the accepted procedure," Thomas says, as though it were those of us who despise the "Moral" Majority who were guilty of this. This is the expediency of Corporate Capitalism, with which the Christian right has formed a perverted, grotesque union that is surely antithetical to any sane understanding of Christ's teaching.

If Cal Thomas expects to be taken seriously as an intellectual by people who have not bought into his dogma, he needs to be more careful that what he writes is coherent and factual. He complains that America has abandoned "an objective standard and the process by which it might be discovered," but then he whines "the Left has universal standards based on `politically correct' absolute standards." So clearly the Left does have "objective" values, just ones that he does not like. "Few are formally exposed to philosophy anymore," he writes (incorrectly implying that Americans used to be exposed to philosophy) "much less epistemology, the study of the origin of knowledge." Actually, epistemology is the study of the validity of knowledge claims. If you want to effectively chastise other people for their ignorance, please, at least, get the definition right. "In physics, we know nature abhors a vacuum," Thomas says. Actually, physics says that all of intergalactic space is vacuum, which might lead us to believe that nature loves vacuum. Aristotle said that nature abhors a vacuum to support a theory of motion long since discredited.
Perhaps these are nitpicky points, but the point that Thomas wants to make is that "when people stop believing in God, the danger is not that they will believe in nothing, but that they will believe in anything." The problem with this is that the Christian Right insists that we understand the Bible as the inerrant word of God, despite the fact that this strict interpretation defies the scientific evidence from fields as diverse as geology, embryology, biochemistry, and astronomy, as well as logic, common sense, and simple human decency. Such belief is already "anything." We want something real to believe in.

Thomas blames the current state of moral disagreement upon "the most empty and dangerous philosophy of all: Pragmatism." He then gives a snot-nosed definition of pragmatism as "doing what seems to work without regard to fixed principles of right or wrong." Actually, pragmatists believe that our best way of determining truth is to see what works. In the absence of evidence to support one of two conflicting views, such as the existence or nonexistence of objective morality, then choose the view that is most uplifting. Cal complains, incorrectly, that we have abandoned a process by which an objective moral code might be discovered. We have not - it is pragmatism. What he does not like is that we have abandoned dogmatic moral codes that insist that we behave in a specified way despite the fact that these values have been proven not to work. We do remember what family values really are, and we are happy to reject yours.

8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Morality always challenges the sceptics., October 30, 2004

By	Richard Kay - See all my reviews

It takes a man of courage and conviction to stand up for Christian morality and ehics. And Cal's book does just that. And the predictable response of the sceptics chimes in just as expected. Morality is the central issue of man and Cal's articulation hits at the heart, where each person must take a position. Thanks Cal for your excellent book.