On his way into the offices of ACORN (the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now), dressed in a pimped-out outfit circa the 1970s -- fur jacket, cane, and fedora hat -- James O'Keefe looked confident and ready to deal. And deal he did.

"O'Keefe exploded onto the right-wing media scene in the fall of 2009 with a series of videos that prompted calls for congressional investigations into ACORN, including one video showing employees of the community organizing group advising O'Keefe and young woman, who were posing as a pimp and prostitute, on effective strategies in breaking the law," Politico's Andy Barr recently pointed out.

As the culture wars moves into the second decade of the 21st century, the religious right continues to use the "gay agenda" as its premier launching pad: The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins is upset over the possible passage of ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) which, he maintains would release hordes of cross-dressers into America's workplaces. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality is apoplectic that President Barack Obama dared to name the first transgender person in a presidential administration, Amanda Simpson, as the Senior Technical Adviser to the U.S. Department of Commerce.  

In a recent article headlined "Sour notes -- 'homophobia' and music ed," published by the American Family Association's OneNewsNow news service, Professor Louis Bergonzi was raked over the coals for pursuing the "gay agenda" by daring to raise questions about the way traditional music education is conducted.

Over the past three decades, you've probably seen its advertisements on television, in newspapers and magazines, encouraging you to donate money to provide food, medical supplies, and clothing to needy children across the globe. The Oklahoma City-based Feed the Children, founded 30 years ago by Larry Jones, is a Christian, international, non-profit relief organization, which, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, it is the seventh largest charity in the United States based on private support.

After years of getting away with a series of shady activities -- and enriching nearly everyone in his immediate family -- Jones has some serious explaining to do. The founder, president and public face of Feed the Children has been fired from the organization after being accused "of taking bribes ... hiding hard-core pornography" in his office, and planting "microphones in the offices of top executives who opposed him," Charisma News Service reported on January 5.

It was the best of times (the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African American president in U .S. history), it was the worst of times (the killing in Iraq and Afghanistan rages on), it was the age of wisdom (a time to find solutions to difficult problems), it was the age of foolishness (birthers, deathers, gun-toting anti-Obama protesters), it was the epoch of belief (can we really come up with meaningful health care reform?), it was the epoch of incredulity (Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck), it was the season of Light (could real solutions to climate change be at hand?), it was the season of Darkness (tea partiers were on the move), and, it was the spring of hope ("Yes We Can"), it was the winter of despair (Is this the change we believed in?), we had everything before us (a brand new day), we had nothing before us (same as it ever was), we were all going direct to heaven ("It's a Beautiful Day"), we were all going direct the other way ("I still haven't found what I'm looking for) - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Links to 18 of the stories I covered in 2009:

According to RedState.com's Erick Erickson, Real Housewives of Atlanta or New Orleans' House of the Rising Son has nothing on a number of the state's elected Republican officials (http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/12/07/when-breaking-out-the-gu illotine-it-is-best-to-chop-off-all-heads-at-once-the-costs-of-cl eanup-are-cheaper/).

If over the past few decades you didn't take Ralph Reed seriously enough, you clearly misunderestimated the man.

Whatever else Reed might be, he is a serious man. He was serious when, as Executive Director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, he helped make it the most important and influential religious right group in the 1990s. He has had a serious post-Christian Coalition career, turning his Century Strategies, a public relations/political consulting group, into a high-powered enterprise. In 2000, it took some of Reed's serious smearing of John McCain in the South Carolina Republican primary to get George W. Bush's flagging presidential campaign back on track.

However, according to Lisa Baron, a former spokeswoman the Christian Coalition's Reed (she was Lisa Gimbel at the time), there's a side to the cherubic-looking, soft-spoken one-time political wunderkind that cable television viewers and political observers might not be able to square with the man that Time magazine once called "the Right Hand of God."

When it comes to the "War on Christmas," you never know what to expect. Which so-called "incident" will be blown totally out of proportion? Which religious right organization will threaten the most boycotts of stores not righteously Christmasy enough? Which Fox Television News commentator will take the lead in mustering the troops? What super-Christian Christmas-related products might be offered up to a beleaguered public?  

The answer to the last question is the CHRIST-mas tree, which is brought to you by a company called "Boss Creations," an enterprise that apparently nothing to do with "The Boss", Bruce Springsteen, or even Hugo Boss.

It does have everything to do with the "War on Christmas." And, if you're looking for a "which side are you on" moment, check out the new "CHRIST-mas" Tree -- an 5-7' simulated wooden cross planted in an adjustable phony Christmas tree.  

A few days before issuing a video (http://www.crnewswire.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=siteContent.defaul t&objectID=18098) opposing legislation in Uganda that would impose the death penalty for that country's homosexuals, a playful and downright jolly Pastor Rick Warren, author of the mega-best-selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life" and the Pastor of Lake Forest, California's Saddleback Church, appeared on the Fox News Channel to promote his book, "The Purpose of Christmas."

In the 4-minute-plus interview, Warren smiled and laughed. He told Fox's Steve Doocy and Martha MacCallum that this is the season for "celebration," "salvation," and "reconciliation."

He closed out the segment, by invoking Rodney King's "Can't we all just get along?"

While a number of religious leaders had already spoken out against the the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009, Warren remained silent.

Now, after a media mini-maestrom, it is good that Brother Rick -- as Cornell West might call him -- has stated his opposition.

Last week I learned two things about Hawaii: First, thanks to The New Yorker's Sam Tannenhaus, I found out just how much Sarah Palin couldn't stand the place during her brief stay there; and, Second, my much-trusted Hawaii-based religious right watchdog informed me of a move afoot by the state's Christian Right to put the kybosh on any possibility the state legislature might pass a Civil Unions bill next year.  

According to The New Yorker's Tannenhaus, Chuck Heath, Sarah's father, told Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, authors of "Sarah from Alaska" (PublicAffairs; $26.95), that the reason that his daughter dropped out of the college she was attending in Hawaii - the first of four colleges she ultimately went to - was because she was uncomfortable in the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders. "They were a minority type thing and it wasn't glamorous, so she came home," her father said.

Enough Sarah Palin for now; on to the state of Civil Unions in the state of Hawaii, or the lack there of.

Despite what you may have suspected, thought, or maybe intuited in this brave new world of tweets, Facebook and MySpace social networking, and You Tube's viral videos, there is still a place for direct mail fundraising appeals that are delivered directly to your mail box by the U.S. Postal Service. And, at the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council (FRC), the six-page letter appears to still be king.

As has been the case for years with religious right organizations, the most popular direct mail subject matter -- and fundraising fodder -- is the gays.

This time around there's an added bonus; a warning from Perkins that ENDA could unleash a horde of cross-dressers in your workplace.

Anyone that has followed the career of Pastor Rick Warren knows that he is a very busy man. The founder of the Lake Forest, California-based Saddleback Church has things to do, people to see, and projects to push forward. In this maelstrom of activity, Warren apparently does not have the time nor will to condemn one of the most horrific and outrageous anti-gay proposals to come down the pike in years.

As of this writing -- one day after World AIDS Day -- Warren still refuses to condemn legislation that is currently being debated in Uganda that would make gay sex punishable by death.

Two movies with doomsday scenarios highlight this year's pre-holiday Cineplex fare.  "2012," a special effects spectacular starring John Cusack, is based on the Mayan calendar, whose end date -- not the end of the world most scholars agree -- is December 21, 2012.

In its first weekend at the box office it took in $225 million -- $65 million domestically and $160 million internationally. At the two-week mark, "2012" had brought in $110 million domestically and nearly $350 million internationally.

A hearty testament to the drawing power of apocalyptic movies!

The other film is "The Road," adapted from Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. "The Road" opened in theaters on Wednesday, November 25. (McCarthy is also the author of such best-selling books as "No Country for Old Men" and "All The Pretty Horses.")

"The Road" is a complicated tale about a father and son attempting to survive in post-apocalyptic America.

A. Larry Ross, president of A. Larry Ross Communications -- a Christian media company -- was asked by the movie's production company to take the film to the faith-based community. Ross believes that since "The Road" has already generated significant buzz as well as Oscar chatter, Christians should get in on the action: "The impact [of this film] will not be in the theater but over coffee when discussions happen," said Ross.

And while few expect "The Road" to equal "2012"-type numbers, the film has certainly generated buzz, thanks in part to A. Larry Ross.