This being the time of year for looking back and looking ahead, many have made their predictions for the coming year; most dealing with the premise that Obamacare will be the straw that finally breaks the liberals backs, revealing in all too painful detail that big government cannot be trusted. I do think that the Democrats have overplayed their hand, and that the GOP will retake the Senate and hopefully roll back the socialist tide that has engulfed our nation. So, with these predictions I heartily agree. But permit me to add a couple of my own for the not-too-distant future.

Much to the disappointment of America-haters everywhere, global terrorism will soon be on the wane. And the reason — much to the chagrin of pie-in-the-sky greenies and others who, for whatever reason, want us to return to Stone Age energy use — is the resurgence of the U.S. as the leading oil and gas producing country in the world. This is great news for us and bad news for the proponents of global jihad; those Islamists who have rained terror on much of the world for the past four decades, riding on the rich coattails of Middle Eastern OPEC members.

There’s a reason why Islamic domination lost most of its steam leading up to the fall of the Ottoman Empire: In the days of the early caliphates, not much besides brutal force was needed to subjugate conquered peoples, but with advances in technology not mirrored in the Muslim world, the West eventually prevailed. That is, until OPEC restored economic lifeblood to the forces of jihad, beginning with their Oil Embargo of 1973, which funneled billions of dollars to murderous terrorists in the ensuing decades. But with America once more leading the way to independence from Middle Eastern oil, they will hopefully recede back into the shadows of history where they so rightfully belong.

Of course, nearly all the progress leading to the energy boom has been accomplished through the U.S. private sector, although the president has hilariously taken credit for it; despite his blockage of the Keystone Pipeline, prohibitions on offshore and federal land drilling and his despicable war on coal. In fact, his major contribution to energy independence has been the liberation of billions of our tax dollars squandered on sweetheart deals with his now-bankrupt green-energy buddies. So, the indirect defunding and ultimate defeat of al Qaeda and friends will be the result of American industry; not its government.

The increasingly desperate attacks by Islamists have led to some surprising new attitudes around the world; most interestingly the revelation by Prince Charles, that he’s “deeply troubled” that Christians are being persecuted by Islamists in the Middle East. Would that our president shared the same concerns for his self-proclaimed co-religionists. Which leads to my second prediction: a resurgence of Christian morality and influence. Now, I don’t mean to say that our fallen away countrymen will suddenly begin flocking back to the sheepfold, but there are a few indications that there is a growing desire for a return to a more virtuous culture.

Many Americans, and others around the world, detached as they have become from organized worship, have come to believe in a hazy form of deism, replete with phrases like, “Everything happens for a reason,” “giving back,” and “doing the right thing.” Now, this is far from a return to strict obedience to the Ten Commandments, but it’s still a vast improvement over the hedonism of the 1960s. Many will decry the current culture; that young people are lazy, rude and uninvolved, but can we really blame those who have been brought up in a nation still dominated by the “Me Generation”? But, as I said, there are optimistic signs.

Witness the many lawsuits against the forced abortion and contraception mandates of Obamacare, mostly supported by the general public. Private citizens have joined with religious organizations to pursue and even win these cases. In the mean time, there have been more laws enacted restricting abortion in the past three years than those in the former decade combined. But perhaps most illustrative example has been the Phil Robertson saga.

It is Robertson’s critics who have made a huge mistake: launching their first direct attack on biblical teaching; a huge tactical error which, without intending to, probably sent countless Americans to open their dusty Bibles to check the veracity of his paraphrasing of St. Paul. Instead of the huge outcry against Robertson, which was expected by GLAAD and their media mouthpieces, it was A&E and Cracker Barrel who backed down under pressure from devout Christians. And it is my contention that at least some of those Bibles will remain open, to convince their readers that the word of God does not change to reflect popular opinion.

Now I have never watched Duck Dynasty but I do have friends who love it and I’m thinking that at least part of the appeal has to be that this family; self-made, well-educated and extremely devout, has changed America’s perception of rednecks, to the point that faithfully living the Christian life can be considered “cool,” particularly to young people. Couple this with the Catholic Church’s huge attendance numbers at World Youth Day — where last year’s final Mass drew close to four million people — Barack Obama’s slide in approval ratings among young voters and the coming bankruptcy of Muslim extremists and the future’s looking brighter than it has in some time.