Thursday peaks the arc

Ah, such a melange of symbolism in one image!

MORNING LINKS — a few updates of interest.

MAJOR ITEM (bumped from overnight links): My co-blogger Bruce Henderson applies his intelligence background to the forthcoming North Korean launch and whether Japan will intercept it. Go read the article.

ITEM: Hope and No Change: there’s a group that wants to repeal the 22nd Amendment so that Obama can run for President in 2016. (Hat tip to Ryan Cole over at the AmSpec Blog.) Of course, he’s got to win in 2012 first. . . .

ITEM: Dumb criminal alert — let’s play, “Who’s more clueless?” Is it the teenager who ‘tags’ police cruisers in a police station parking lot with police watching? Or is it the  27-year-old college student who placed false bids on BLM drilling parcels in order to disrupt the auction with an expectation that President Obama would get him out of trouble?

DeChristopher said he didn’t regret bidding on 13 drilling parcels near Arches and Canyonlands with no intention of paying the $1.8 million for them. But he did believe the Obama administration might see the seriousness and morality of his mission to protect the future against global climate disruption.

“Those hopes were misplaced,” he said. “Now my hopes rest on a jury of my peers.”

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines under charges he organized and participated in a scheme to “defeat” federal law and made a fraudulent statement when he registered as a bidder at the BLM’s Dec. 19 lease sale in Salt Lake City.

ITEM: China’s political leaders, choosing between economic stimulus and environmental protection, opt for the economy. What’s amusing in this article is that the author seems to have really thought that the Chinese might go for the environment; the tone of disappointment is palpable.

ITEM: Remember Encarta? Microsoft’s run at the encyclopedia companies (World Book and Britannica)? It’s dead, done in not by the traditional encyclopedias but by (you guessed it) Wikipedia.

OVERNIGHT LINKS — and no, I’m not sure what the post’s title means, either. Just go with it.

ITEM: “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.” The Hope-and-Changers blithely overlook Obama’s Chicago roots.

ITEM: By the way, Obama’s in Europe. How’s that working out?

ITEM: I was going to pass on the Obama-gives-the Queen-an-iPod story, but Ace of Spades has some details that makes me cringe:

But here’s what’s on the iPod, among pictures of the queen’s previous visits (as if she doesn’t have an entire staff of court photographers for that purpose):

* Photos from President Obama’s Inauguration

* Audio of then-state senator Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and

* Audio of President Obama 2009 Inauguration Address

And in case you’re wondering what the Bushes gave Queen Elizabeth when she visited the US, here’s a list:

President and Mrs. Bush gave Her Majesty a bronze statuette “High Desert Princess” with a personal inscription on the bottom of the base. It is a replica of the original life size statue that is located in front of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth, Texas.

President and Mrs. Bush gave The Prince Philip an exclusive sterling silver eagle box by Tiffany & Co. with personal inscription on the inside lid.

President and Mrs. Bush gave Their Majesties a leather presentation box filled with a collection of documents from the National Archives. One of the items was a copy of an original letter from President Roosevelt to her father, King George, written in 1938. There were also photos from previous royal visits and a DVD of the footage from the Queen’s visit to the United States when she was Princess Elizabeth in 1951.

But the glorious President Obama gave her an iPod. (“Made in China by exploited female workers“, as Legal Insurrection points out.)  With his own speeches on it. I am embarrassed. Has this man’s ego any bounds?

ITEM: Meanwhile, Rachel Lucas (our Redneck in England) reports another Obama gaffe that was definitely noticed in the UK but not mentioned at all back here in the Colonies (at least not in the Mainstream Media). Also, Obama’s teleprompter weighs in on the same gaffe.

ITEM: Creeping socialism/fascism alert: Geither says more CEOs could go. This raises an interesting question: just where the US government get the power to replace corporate CEOs at will? Is there fine print in the bailout agreements? And this article is hardly comforting.

ITEM: In the meantime, check your paystubs for that extra $10/week. Feel stimulated yet? Frankly, the “economic stimulus” strikes me as being a lot like those class-action lawsuits, where the attorneys walk off with millions (or even billions), while the actual injured parties get coupons worth $7.95 towards their next purchase of whatever it was that went bad in the first place.

ITEM: Meanwhile, Penn Jillette tries to figure out if Obama is skidding or crashing. (Hat tip to Instapundit.)

ITEM: As much as the Left/Media tries to obscure or deny the problem, most “feel good” environmental measures end up hurting the poor more than anyone else.

ITEM: And speaking of the media, while Richard Scott’s background is fair game, I’m still waiting for the NY Times to do some serious coverage about ACORN and voter fraud. Oh, wait — that could be a “game changer“! On the other hand, the Times may be feeling just a touch of buyer’s remorse themselves (another tip o’ the hat to Glenn for the last item).

ITEM: And speaking of Glenn, he has been wondering for some time if college admissions are a bubble waiting to pop.  Maybe so.

ITEM: My wife listens to Ed Schultz on Air American on a regular basis. She says that he’s actually a nice, intelligent guy, but he’s also an avowed socialist (as in, “Yes, I think we need more socialism in America!”). So it’s no surprise as to which cable channel picked him up.

ITEM: After dealing with economic idiocy idealism for a while, it’s easy to forget just how loony it really is (hat tip to Samizdata):

So when people – archbishops, G20 demonstrators, the preposterous psychologist Oliver James – attack consumerism, and as the credit crunch brings them bigger audiences and more credibility, I think they are really attacking something far more banal. I think they are dressing up their assault in fancy language – like undergraduates who get involved in college politics and start calling themselves student unionists – to make a prosaic idea sound impressive.

I think that they have looked back at 5,000 years of human history – at pestilence and famine and disease and degradation, at genocide and civil war, at fear and loathing, at bigotry and ignorance, chauvinism and dictatorship – and concluded that our biggest problem is… shopping.

ITEM: Movie recommendation of the week: “Peter Pan” (2003). Far outstrips the old Disney version.

More links in the morning, maybe.  ..bruce w..