DOES APPLE REALLY WANT TO CRIPPLE YOUR IPHONE? “The leading computer company plans to build a system that will sense when people are trying to video live events — and turn off their cameras.”

Sounds like totalitarian governments would love this. Kinda makes me wish I’d bought a Droid. If this is really an Apple initiative, I hope that it really hurts their stock price and market share. Meanwhile, it’s another argument in favor of cheap flipcam video cameras.

UPDATE: Reader James Eric Johnson emails:

For a company that built a reputation on the back of its “1984: Big Brother” ad, this type of thing is perplexing. Apple has no conceivable duty to police the use of its products in this fashion. In fact, by doing so, Apple may be assuming a duty to act as a big brother. At the very least, it is enabling Big Brother.

And this coming from a recent Apple convert who would dread the idea of going back to PCs for my personal computing functions (primarily Adobe CS and programming). I’m not at all anti-Apple; I’ll defend their products, but not their worldview.

Indeed. Perhaps this story will turn out to be incorrect.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D BE WAGING EXPENSIVE WARS AROUND THE GLOBE WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORIZATION. And they were right! “Obama’s unauthorized Libyan war costs $9,241,000 a day: Are you getting your money’s worth?”

SHOULD WE CARE if people don’t pay their debts?

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF WEINER: Report: Weiner Tells Friends He’s Stepping Down.

MICKEY KAUS: Google: Built For Favoritism?

KATIE GRANJU: My Totally Unsolicited Advice For Huma Abedin.

ICELAND: WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE? “Iceland didn’t rescue its banks. It couldn’t afford to do it. So, they went bust. Iceland looked like it was going down a path of permanent financial armageddon. However, Iceland is in better financial shape than the rest of Europe today.”

A CULTURE OF ENTITLEMENT: “Defiant Bay State lawmakers saw no need to change their Beacon Hill ways yesterday, despite the stunning news that their erstwhile leader, disgraced ex-House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, had been found guilty of extortion, fraud and corruption — the third speaker in a row to be convicted on federal charges.”

HMM: Expert: China Social Unrest Getting Out Of Control.

STUDENT LOAN DEBT ADVICE FROM ELIE MYSTAL: Kids, Get High Off Drugs, Not Debt. It’s More Fun And People Are Nicer To You When It’s Time To Recover. And if you have a choice between Harvard and Yale, whatever you do don’t pick Harvard. Good grief. Plus this: “I can’t smoke a cigarette in the park without the government stepping in to ‘save’ me from my own choices. But I went from a happy college graduate to a person who will be in debt for the rest of his life on the advice and counsel of a form and two conversations over a three-year period.”

Semi-related thought: One ground for getting out of student loan debt is disability. I wonder if we’ll see a rise in disability claims by hopelessly-behind student loan debtors?

HOPE AND CHANGE: Nearly Half of US Thinks New Recession is Coming: Poll.

What’s amazing is that this is happening despite all the happy-talk from the Big Media folks that we’ve been hearing since before Recovery Summer I. That seems to be starting to fade, though . . .

But hey, the recession hasn’t been tough for everybody: Pelosi’s wealth grows by 62 percent. “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saw her net worth rise 62 percent last year, cementing her status as one of the wealthiest members of Congress.”

UPDATE: Reader Ken Lawton emails: “Hmmm … ‘Misery Index’ Up 62 % Since Obama Took Office while Pelosi’s wealth grows by 62 %. Coincidence?”

HOUSE DEMOCRATS COULD STRIP ANTHONY WEINER of key committee seat.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: More regulations: EPA’s fantasy solution to unemployment.

TOM BLUMER: ATMs and Other Machines are Exempt from ObamaCare: That’s why businesses are buying more equipment and not hiring more people.

THE HILL: GOP peeved paper got White House Libya report before Congress. “House Republicans are annoyed at the White House for releasing its 32-page report on the Libya military mission to the New York Times before delivering it to the Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).”

You always share documents with your own people first.

COULD A GREEK DEFAULT destroy American money-market funds?

SO THIS IS MORE “CHANGE” THAN “HOPE,” I GUESS: “Misery Index” Up 62% Since Obama Took Office. “We can only hope the president will admit to his mistakes and make a sharp course correction, rather than continue to try to lay blame for all bad economic news at the feet of his predecessor. After a prolonged recession and a terrible recovery, the nation doesn’t deserve even more misery.”

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Exclusive: Georgetown U. Received $325,000 Funneled Through Terror Front Group.

THE “TRIUMPH” OF NEW AGE MEDICINE? Well, not so much. I expect more of this stuff to be pushed, though, for the same reason Mao pushed “barefoot doctors” and acupuncture — it’s cheap.

WHEN ATTACK ADS “Go Gangsta.”

UPDATE: Reader Dan Jacquemin on escalation: “I blame Obama: ‘If they bring an animated GIF to the fight, we bring a pop-up window.'”

JUST WORDS? Obama, February 2009: If this economy hasn’t rebounded in three years, I’m a one-termer. The must-watch video’s at the link.

Sounds like he was anticipating Walter Russell Mead.

REP. DARRELL ISSA: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SHOULD BE ASHAMED. “Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Wednesday escalated his standoff with the Department of Justice over a gun-tracking program that might have contributed to the death of federal agent. As the family of slain ATF agent Brian Terry pleaded for justice, Issa said officials should be ‘ashamed’ for handing over heavily redacted documents about the program.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YOU? Politico: Top Barack Obama donors net government jobs.

THE AXIS OF AGING.