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

 
The Future of Marriage: Who Decides? ~ “Who gets to make the decision about restructuring and redefining the basic cell of the civil order?”
 
Colorado Couple Builds An Incredible Treehouse Village In Costa Rica ~ Nice idea for a little R & R, but even the tree-huggers wouldn’t last for long without sustenance from civilization.
 
Record number of coal-fired generators to be shut down in 2012 ~ Guess Obama’s making good on his campaign promise. Better brace for those sky-rocketing prices.
And treehouses?
 
Batman 3: Going there and Batman Battles The Politics Of Resentment ~
Seen the new Batman movie yet? I was planning to avoid it, mainly because each sequel to the series seems to get darker and more violent. But according to these two reviews, there’s an important redeeming quality to the film. It offers a stark picture of the ugly results of redistribution; equal misery for all.

“The Dark Knight Rises”—deserves to be loudly celebrated as a masterful and stunningly honest work of Western popular culture.
 
The movie is a bold apologia for free-market capitalism; a graphic depiction of the tyranny and violence inherent in every radical leftist movement from the French Revolution to Occupy Wall Street; and a tribute to those who find redemption in the harsh circumstances of their lives rather than allow those circumstances to mire them in resentment.

~ Andrew Klavan ~

 
Sounds like a message the filmmakers’ target audience – the under 50 crowd – really needs to hear. Take your teenagers.
 
Report: Illegal Aliens Released by Federal Gov’t Committed 19 Murders, 142 Sex Crimes ~ Are these the “Dreamers” the progressives want America to embrace? Sounds more like a national nightmare.

Of those released, CRS found that about 17% of illegal and criminal immigrants, or 26,412, were rearrested on criminal charges. These 26,412 recidivists accounted for a total of 42,827 arrests and 57,763 alleged violations.

 
Gabby Douglas Wins Gold, Gives Glory to God ~ My Olympic highlight of the week
Oddly enough, (OK, not really) the MSM rarely mentions the significance that Gabby’s Christian faith has in her life ~ Gabby Douglas vs. secular journalism.