Paul Ibbetson

The Repeal of DADT: To March or to Sashay into the Future?

On December 22, 2010, President Barack Obama signed a law that repeals the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays wishing to serve in the military. DADT was enacted by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and was a considered by many liberals a compassionate turn from the military’s previous ban on gays’ serving in the military. In a somewhat ironic turn of fate, in order to move the homosexual agenda forward Barack Obama would have to classify the social engineering escapades of Bill Clinton to be barbaric. At the repeal signing President Obama said that the new law would strengthen the country’s national security and upholds the values that the military fights to defend. He also spoke about the new law allowing skilled homosexuals who were previously turned away from the military to now join the American fighting forces and increase the ranks of our national defense.

Love, hate, and a dry-eyed look at the future of the country

One reality of the 2010 midterm election is that voters have rejected the current agenda of President Barack Obama. Uncontrolled government spending with its repetitious forays into the private market has not settled well with the American people. The president’s promise of decreased unemployment after huge government spending did not come to fruition as promised, and as expected, people began to grumble.

LGBT: Kansas, you’re not in Kansas Anymore

“Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.” Those were the troubled words of Dorothy Gale as she found herself in a foreign world in the movie The Wizard of Oz.

Taxes and Punishment: Why attacking achievement hurts everyone

The political wrangling over what to do with the Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire has created another opportunity to observe the ideological difference in perspectives between liberals and conservatives on the issue of taxes. Most importantly, it highlights differences that go beyond differing blueprints for the economic future of the country and more to the contrasting viewpoints in how taxes should be used in modern America.

Political correctness and your body: Why TSA security measures won’t fly

This just in: TSA airport security personnel have now reaffirmed, after thousands of overtly aggressive body pat-downs, that elderly grandmothers and little children are still not attempting to commit terrorist attacks by carrying explosives onto planes. The growing discontent at the government’s new intrusive security measures are now being seen throughout the country. The reasons people don’t like it can be broken down into three areas of discussion: efficiency, invasiveness, and the strategic end results.

Oklahoma: When Sharia comes sweeping down the plains

During the recent mid-term election, voters across the country voiced their will on more than just which politicians or political party they wanted to see in power for the next term. Voters in Oklahoma voted on whether or not Sharia, Islamic law, should or should not be used or considered within the state’s court system. Seventy percent--that’s right, seven out of ten Oklahoma voters—said no to Sharia and international law, and within days Oklahoma’s chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma State Election Board.

Stewart and Colbert: Laughing with the left until it hurts

There is just something about humor that makes it inviting in almost every situation. We love to have our funny bone tickled in so many ways, and it is both the joke and its creative delivery that keeps us coming back for more. Good comedy has the power to transcend many a strong grievance and many a harsh battleground.

National Public Radio and the Skinny Fat Man

I once knew a guy who was about 50 pounds overweight. Any time a friend or family member would address him on the issue of cutting out the sweets, he would get indignant and quickly inform inquiring souls that he was completely fit in all areas except his midriff, which he would address in his own good time. We might surmise that from this gentleman’s thinking he thought his body was nothing short of a series of physical quadrants of which he had worked to address all but a final set of coordinates: his stomach. More than likely, the man was just fat and did not like being told so.

California: The Gateway Drug State

When California legalized medical marijuana in 1996 with Proposition 215 to address their citizens’ headaches and shoulder pains, I along with many others saw this as the beginning of a push for wider legalization of the drug. This concern has now been validated with Proposition 19 that is on California’s November 2 ballot. If passed, California’s new pot law will allow individuals 21 years or older to legally possess one ounce of marijuana as well as to create “pot gardens” for recreational use. Legal pot will have transcended the need of any ailment to be consumed openly by Californians. Of course, the federal government may still throw you in jail, and that is an issue that might keep those secret marijuana-growing rooms secret.

Westboro Baptist Church and the Ten-Mile Proposition

The Westboro Baptist Church… need I say more? The nation watches as the Supreme Court deliberates on the limits of free speech in America involving the right of families to bury the dead in peace versus the need of the little Kansas cult to disrupt military funerals and tell grieving families that their dearly departed are going to hell. Going to hell, mind you, because somewhere in the world, a homosexual exists.

Death before truth: Political correctness in America

If you want to see the pervasive nature of political correctness in America today, the national public outcry following the Rigoberto Ruelas suicide in California is a salient example. Ruelas, a fifth grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in south Los Angeles, is believed to have committed suicide after receiving poor ratings in a teacher-rating database that was posted in the Los Angeles Times.

Mid-term elections in Venezuela: Did revolution make it on the ballot?

As reported by the Christian Science Monitor, Venezuela’s communist dictator Hugo Chavez faces his biggest challenge to retain his political voting monopoly since ascending to power almost twelve years ago. Citizens of Venezuela are building in dissatisfaction with the country’s growing crime rate and poor economy. As Steven Bodzin of the Monitor reports, the token opposition parties that currently exist under the totalitarian reign of Hugo Chavez will attempt to use any mid-term election successes as a springboard to actually defeating the president in 2012. Good luck.

Values Voter Summit: Why winning is not enough

The recent Values Voter Summit in Washington gave people a chance to hear from some of the potential Republican presidential candidates for 2012. Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, the lesser known of the political lineup that spoke at the event, took first place with 24 percent, narrowly beating former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who received 22 percent of the votes from the 700 plus attendees of the event.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research: The blood trail of progress

With a recent federal appeals court decision temporarily lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research, the question of destroying a life to save a life is again thrust back into the realm of public debate. As reported by medical AP writer Lauran Neergaard, the National Institutes of Health will rapidly resume embryonic stem cell research as well as remove holds on grants and contracts allowing the use of embryonic stem cells.

Just relax your throat: Liberals and their need to force-feed America

Are you hungry, America? Got a rumble in the tummy telling you it’s time to eat? If we are honest about it, Americans have a really big appetite for almost everything. I will admit that to self-loathing liberals, who bemoan this country at every turn, that this is a characteristic requiring praise, not apology.

Lt. Col. Allen West: A Voice for the Leavenworth 10

Is somebody watching over you today? Is there someone somewhere that is willing to put your well-being ahead of theirs? Those are powerful questions that we seldom ponder here in America. Why?

Classic Monster Politics

What do Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney Jr. have in common? They are forever known as the faces of the classic monsters Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, Phantom of the Opera, and the Wolf Man. Whether you were frightened by these classic representations or the continual evolutionary adaptations that have followed, we all know these monsters when we see them and we all do the same thing when they are thrust into our faces: we take a big step back.

Gay Marriage: Court Decisions from Sodom and Gomorrah

In a recent court decision, California’s Proposition 8 initiative, which stated that marriage was to be between a man and a woman, has been struck down as unconstitutional. As reported by Fox News, the decision that overruled the voters of California was made by openly gay U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. Walker, one of three openly gay federal judges in the country, said that the people’s choice in California for traditional marriage was unconstitutional because “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license.

Too Dangerous to Print: Liberal University Bias

Thomas Paine once said, “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.” How true these words are. One of the most fundamental reflections of liberty is the freedom to question, challenge and debate the world around us. This freedom does not exist everywhere in the United States and certainly not at the university level.

Mega Mosques and the Territorial Mark

Right now at ground zero in New York a battle over the construction of buildings following 9/11 is raging. It is hard to believe that almost nine years following the Islamic attacks that took thousands of American lives, post-9/11 construction has moved at the speed of a dying snail. Even more perplexing than the failure of New York officials to take on aggressive construction projects to breathe life back into areas destroyed by 9/11 is the proposed mega mosque building project only blocks away from ground zero.