Some quick links for Saturday morning (and Open Thread)

I’ve promised myself that, if I can get my thoughts together, I’ll spill them on my blog.  Until then, other people are doing the thinking for me:

The “mosaic” privacy theory and its intersection with police scanners that don’t track your speed, but simply log your travel patterns (and everyone else’s too).  (H/t:  Earl)

It won’t save California’s Central Valley, but there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that even the far-Left 9th Circuit couldn’t stomach the greenies’ lies.

I  wasn’t tracking the news the other day, and couldn’t understand why my friends were posting pictures of pink sneakers.  It turns out, they were applauding Texas state sen. Wendy Davis’ filibuster.  The Anchoress weighs in on the sad statement made by those shoes.

Britain continues to be a nation in decline.  Melanie Phillips talks about its decision to ban Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, both of whom accurately report on actual Islamist behavior.

I wasn’t charmed by the New Yorker cover showing a gay Bert and Ernie.  Sure, adults have always joked about those two characters’ affection for each other, but these are children’s puppets and it’s just wrong to sexualize them.  If PBS had some decency, it would protest, but it doesn’t, so it won’t.  The Children’s Television Workshop, however, which owns the characters, did identify their sexual orientation (none) back in 2011:  “They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.  Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

Congratulations to Hobby Lobby for clearing one hurdle in its fight against the HHS mandate requiring the religious corporation to fund birth control and abortifacients.  Whether or not one agrees with their religious views about reproductive rights, everyone should agree that it violates the First Amendment if the government forces them to fund activities antithetical to those rights.  (And no, I’m not going to get drawn into a discussion about the fact that anti-war protesters see their taxes used to fund war.  The government’s right to wage war is part of the constitution, so the First Amendment is not intended to protect people from funding properly declared wars.)

PowerLine is right — it is the greatest. headline. ever.

Obama continues his push to destroy this country’s infrastructure.  He won’t be happy until we look like South Africa.  (And maybe that’s why he tapped someone with no diplomatic experience to be America’s ambassador to South Africa.)

Mark Steyn has long been a witty Cassandra.  I wish he wasn’t right so often.

Palin is striking the right note regarding the amnesty bill:  it will destroy the working class, both by depressing wages and, in combination with ObamaCare, by giving employers an incentive to fire American workers (who are part of ObamaCare’s mandates) and hire amnestied workers (who aren’t).

Prisoners who convert to Islam in prison too often transfer their anger and anti-social conduct to Allah’s service.  Prisoners who convert to, or re-embrace, their Christianity, go on to better things.

Of course, the IRS’s Lois Lerner waived her 5th Amendment when, instead of shutting up, she gave a statement protesting her innocence.  What’s good is that the House is going to act on that wavier.  The question now is whether she’ll lie or do something strange such as telling the truth.  I expect the former, but it would certain by great — and interesting — if she did the latter.

Good for the NFL for refusing to become a shill for the Obama administration.

Fox is promising more news about Benghazi.  Good, because with summer, House Republicans seem to have become supine.  Or perhaps they’re preserving their collective backbone for the amnesty fight….

Barry Rubin explains that the word “peace” in the phrase “Middle East Peace Talks,” is being misused (at least on the Palestinian side) unless one hews to Tacitus’ description of a Roman “peace” — “They make a desert and call it peace.”

Forget reading the news.  Just look at Michael Ramirez’s political cartoons.  Then you’ll know everything you need to know.

In San Francisco, especially with Gay Pride weekend happening right now, we expect rainbow-colored lights on City Hall.  But St. Louis, Missouri?  And — really? — the war memorial?

J.T. Young thinks 2014 will be even worse for Democrats than 2010 was.  The question is, considering the speed with which Obama is completing his “fundamental transformation” of America, will it matter?

This is an Open Thread, so please feel free to contribute.