Dr. Ravi Zacharias is always good, but there was a story he recounted on his broadcast this weekend that really touched me. It was the story of Hien Pham, a man he knew in Vietnam before it fell to the communists. I’ve been walking with God for quite a few years now, trying to obey Him and getting to know him through prayer, meditation, reading the Scriptures, and just observing how He works. When I heard this story of Hien Pham, I thought, “That’s the God I know!”

In the case of Virginia v. Sebelius, Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled that the mandatory coverage mandate in ObamaCare is unconstitutional. This was undoubtedly the most offensive aspect of ObamaCare–forcing people to purchase a product they may or may not want, and may or may not need, on the basis that they are alive and live in America.

Most of us have become frustrated nearly to the point of rage when we here that some federal judge has declared this our that religious or cultural tradition to be “discriminatory” or in violation of “separation of church and state” or when a judge can negate the wishes of the people as in California (over gay marriage) and Arizona (over illegal aliens). Happily, a judge has finally ruled on something correctly and appropriately and is to be applauded by those of us that love and respect our country and our Constitution.

Chris “Tingle Up My Leg” Matthews and Richard Wolffe made themselves look like complete dufuses when they yucked it up over Barbara Walters’ interview of Sarah Palin when Palin said she likes reading C.S. Lewis for inspiration. These “deep thinkers” of the liberal intelligentsia apparently have no inkling of Lewis’ theological and philosophical works.

Leftist “journalist” Katie Couric recently interviewed former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. When Couric started regurgitating the same old tired spin about weapons of mass destruction and how the Bush Administration somehow lied to the world about that (even though most of the world’s intelligence services believed Saddam Hussein either was hiding a WMD program or was trying to get his program restarted including former President Bill Clinton and a lot of Democrat members of congress who also believed this), Rice stopped her in her Left-leaning tracks.

Don’t be fooled as the Democratic Progressives race the Republican Progressives to the microphones complaining they were rolled in Mr. Obama’s Great Compromise. What they’re really arguing about is how much of the money we earn they can afford to let us keep.

There are skeptics all around us, but about this time every year we seem to hear and read much more about all kinds of cynics, detractors, naysayers and down right pessimists. At about the same time every year I like to tell the story about Virginia O’Hanlon and Frank Church, an editorial writer for the New York Sun. To me, their story is the “second best” Christmas story ever told.

The best of the best articles at Dakota Voice over the last week, including: LPGA in Lockstep Caves to Radical Homosexual Agenda; Huckabee Has the Gall to Talk 2012?; Al Sharpton to FCC: Take Racist Rush Limbaugh Off the Air!; Global Warming Confab Brings a Record Chill to Cancun; Surgery Wait Times Increase in Socialist Canada; Report: New Iranian ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’ Coming in Venezuela; Kathy Griffin: Garbage Peddler; Congressional Prayer Caucus to Obama: Issue National Motto Correction; and more!

Charles Krauthammer talked yesterday about the “almost religious hatred” liberals have of the most successful of Americans, and how self-defeating that is for them. Former CBS journalist Bernard Goldberg says we should thank God for the wealthiest Americans because, though the Left doesn’t want anyone to realize it, they are the ones who build the businesses that employ most Americans and they are the ones that purchase the goods and services produced by most Americans.

Rep.-Elect Kristi Noem (R-SD) gave the Weekly Republican Address today. She pointed out that in our troubled economy, businesses badly need stability. They need to know the federal government isn’t going to come in and pull yet another scheme to make things harder on them. She’s going to go far if she sticks to the conservative values that got her elected.

Neil Cavuto on Fox News talked to T.J. Rodgers, the CEO of Cypress Semiconductor about a report from the Federal Reserve for the third quarter of 2010 (no further details available) which claims businesses are sitting on about $1.93 trillion in cash. In other words, rather than spending this money on expansion, they are holding on to it. He says that until the economy stabilizes and we get a president who understands the government can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow, business is going to “hunker down.”

In Washington, the special interests don’t give away money for nothing. There are always strings attached, and there is always an expectation of a quid pro quo. Once a member of Congress finds himself indebted to the lobbyists and corporate interests that run Washington, it’s nigh impossible to maintain one’s independence. Let the American people take note: the wooing has begun.

Three of four Americans say that the country today is on the wrong track. The key question today is where we want to go and what it takes to get there. If we want to get back to prosperity, then it should be axiomatic that protecting freedom, entrepreneurship and family is the answer. Not the politics of power and envy.

Gary Harvey is the brain injured man from New York, who seems to have his own private “death panel” determined to kill him off and to make his and his wife’s life as miserable as possible, until the sentence is carried out. Here it is the holiday season of 2010 and Sara Harvey gets a letter from Bryan Maggs, Chemung County Attorney, stating that her visitations with Gary is suspended immediately–the same holiday gift they offered last year.

Record cold weather in Cancun of all places sure puts a damper on the credibility of socialists who desperately want to redistribute our wealth based on the hoax of anthropogenic global warming. With science, history, common sense and even the daily weather conspiring against the global warming enthusiasts, I’m almost tempted to feel a little sorry for them. Almost.

Congress has routinely, regularly, and eggregiously exceeded its constitutional authority since the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Through generations of abuse, Congress has come to feel entitled to ignore the Constitution, as well as the liberties of the states and the people. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) has introduced HR 1754 to require all legislation to specifically cite the enumerated power granting authority for the legislation. We need to push for passage of HR 1754 for the survival of our republic and our liberties.

I love Wal-Mart, but they could have used better judgement about partnering with Janet Napolitano and DHS to show these Big Brother-like PSAs in their stores. When you consider how incompetent our current government is in keeping our nation secure, and how our current government sees average patriotic Americans as a greater threat to itself than Islamic terrorists, a good parody video of the whole situation is definitely in order.

As if being spied on by the government wasn’t bad enough, now the government is asking us to spy on one another. As part of its “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign, the DHS is partnering with Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, and other corporate entities to urge Americans to report “suspicious” activity to their local police. The multi-million dollar, multimedia blitz, paid for by taxpayer dollars, includes videos in Walmart stores, as well as posters, billboards and advertisements in airports, public transit, movie theaters, gas stations and on local radio stations.

By a 212-206 vote on December 8, the House passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (formerly S.510) as an amendment to H.R. 3082 (the “Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011″ to fund the government through September 2011). A food safety act should not be part of a spending bill. House Democrats attached what was S.510 (as passed by the Senate on November 30) to H.R. 3082 because they were worried about Republican opposition to it as a stand alone bill. The next step for H.R. 3082 is to go to the Senate for a vote.

Great news! The Democrats threatened repeal of the prohibition against homosexual behavior in the military failed in the Senate today. It went down 57-40 on a cloture vote that needed 60 votes. Democrats could still try again in the lame duck session, or a fresh one next year, since Democrats will still control the Senate.

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) says the proposed Senate version of the lame duck budget bill would serve as a Trojan Horse to fund ObamaCare next year. Democrats want to provide $19 million to give the IRS teeth to enforce ObamaCare, as well as billions to other bureaucratic agencies to push this mess forward. The Democrats don’t care what the people said on Election Day; they are determined to have their socialism…and make us eat it, too.

An article in the German daily Die Welt which says two of the biggest America-hating countries in the world plan to partner together to put missiles on America’s back door: nuclear-intent Iran, and anti-American Venezuela. These missiles have the range to strike America, and Iran is on the verge of being able to produce nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the world–including the U.S.–is doing nothing.

The Mitchell Daily Republic reported today that Senator John Thune (R-SD) may be wavering on the Democrats’ efforts to force open homosexuality on the U.S. military. South Dakota’s other senator, Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), has made it clear that he favors forcing open homosexuality on the U.S. military. Concerned citizens should contact both to let them know that this is a bad idea which will be detrimental to troop moral and military effectiveness.

Democrats are scrambling to package dozens of land designation, wildlife and water bills into a massive omnibus package that they hope to shove through before the 111th Congress adjourns in December. There are about 60 bills approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that would designate over 2 million acres of national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries.

Dr. Robert Owens has a new book out from Xulon Press called “The Constitution Failed.” Dr. Owens maintains we face the painful reality, “The Constitution failed.” As a member of the Richmond Tea Party and a contributing author to the websites of numerous Tea Parties across the fruited plane Dr. Robert Owens, the author of the History of the Future builds upon Dispatches from that History to show not only that the Constitution has failed but that in many ways that failure was foretold before it was ever ratified by the arguments of the Anti-Federalists. He then goes on to offer recommendations for how We the People can organize and advocate for a solution which will preserve liberty in the land of the free and the home of the brave.