Customer Reviews

The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas

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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.

It's not often there is a compelling argument against free speech, but anything that comes out of this idiot's mouth can be immediately disregarded by right-thinking people. That this moron has a platform to disseminate his stupidity is the shame of America.

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!

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.

A good common-sense book, where Cal shares his wisdom and insight.

If there a is man outhere that has any common sense about today issues his name has to be Cal Thomas. This book represent the best of his commentary (I highly recommend you to listen his comments in the radio there are extremely insighful)that has appeared on several of his book. There is no way I can say enough about this man's wisdom and insigh,but to buy this book and read it, absorb it, and grow... Cal if you ever read this, I have a verse for you Proverbs 12ch:ver 17-19 Thank you for been a Truthful witness. I am praying for you. God Bless

I bought this book and then returned it. Cal Thomas has nothing to contribute but foolish rantings.

It's better to donate your money to a charity instead of buying books like this one.

For all those ignorant fools who erroneasly call conservative christians degenerate iliterates, here's a clue. A conservative is closed minded only if he or she is confronted with idiotic ideaas that are disguised with the euphemism of "progressive". A christian who is stupid is not necessarily a christian. In fact, the bible states that we are to learn about the world around us (this is a paraphrase), thus the reason for all the great chrisitan scientists from Gallieo to Michael Faraday. It has often occured to me that the rambling idiots are not on the right, but on the left. The leftist ideology perperpetuates class warfare and intolerence toward all people that happen to devoted to their religion, unless of course they are muslim or secular humanist. To adress the acusation that Religious Conservatives are ignorant or stupid one should make the attempt of reading Thomas Aquinas or CS Lewis. If the left is not satisfied then they should make the effort to read the secular works of Adam Smith or Edmund Burke. The aformentionad works are probably the most signifigant works in history that actually have a slight semblance of pragmatism and reality. In conclusion, Mr. THomas's book is not a reflection of all religous conservatives, however he is a far better reflection of a conservative ideology than that of Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, who for all practical purpose is on the left. I urge those on the right to aknowledge Mr. Thomas's book as a collection of writings on modern sociological and moral thought and not a great work of history.

This book is not even worth the price of paper it's printed on.
Cal Thomas just keeps yapping and yapping incoherently while contradicting himself in many places. Cal Thomas alienates his readers by actually accusing them of ignorance.
Cal please come down from your high horse.
Save yourself some money, there is no wit or wisdom here !!

The only thing that surprised me about a book titled "The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas" was that it was 207 pages long. Initially I just assumed that it was either a typographical error (maybe 27 pages?) or that the font size must be very, very large. Instead, it appears that the disjointed ramblings of a seriously creepy man can indeed take up that much space. Thomas' opinions and polemical approach are much better suited to the read-once-then-discarded op-ed venue. Collecting them in book form only allows the reader to discern the utter lack of perspective that might otherwise remain hidden. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone needing to level a table with one short leg, or who desperately needs reading material but is unable to find any comic books. Other than that, the only thing commendable about this book is that it's recyclable.