Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
It’s the Holiday Season, and Global Warming Hype Is Filling the Air ~ Wouldn’t want the facts to spoil the festive mood of the climate alarmists.
 
Drone surveillance quickly becoming routine in Colorado ~ Big Brother – the future is here.
“These aren’t the drones you’re looking for. Move along.”
 
Pope Benedict Denounces Gay Marriage During Annual Christmas Message: An ‘Attack’ on the Traditional Family ~ Which of course it is.

He said God had created man and woman as a specific ‘duality’ – “an essential aspect of what being human is all about…”
 
…”When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God.”

[Additional coverage: UK Daily Mail]

 
But the assault on marriage really got rolling in the 60’s with the introduction of no-fault divorce ~ Why is there no national conversation about the divorce? ~ Interesting article that discusses the damaging impact his parents’ divorce had on Adam Lanza. It may have been the tipping point ~

Family friends said Lanza’s problems started to escalate when his parents divorced in 2008 after 18 years together.
 
“He was always weird but the divorce affected him. He was arguing with his mother. He was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.”

I’ll Trade You My Guns For Your Abortions ~ Interesting proposition. The Left is awfully subjective when it comes to the sanctity of life.
 
Mayan Apocalypse: world survives predicted doomsday ~ Whew!

The end of the Mayan ‘Long Count’ calendar on December 21st was thought by many to herald the apocalypse, with the end expected by many at 11.11 GMT. The date marks the end of an era that lasted over 5,000 years, or 13 “bak’tuns”, according to the calendar.
 
“The whole thing was a misconception from the very beginning,” said Dr. John Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy. “The Maya calendar did not end on Dec. 21, 2012, and there were no Maya prophecies foretelling the end of the world on that date.”

“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.” ~ G.K. Chesterton