Today’s Links: May 8, 2012

OPINION

FUTURE TENSE: “Tumblr and Facebook Reps Discuss ‘The Business of the Internet’” (VIDEO)
“[Tumblr Vice President Andrew] McLaughlin (whose résumé also includes stints as head of global public policy for Google and deputy chief technology officer for the Obama administration) puts on his “Stanford lecturer in law” hat to explain clearly the considerations facing any Internet company considering going international. ‘There’s two broad issues when you’re an Internet company,’ he says. ‘One is censorship and the limitations of speech, and one is surveillance and the surrendering of your users’ data to government. They’re related, but they’re distinct.'”

CATHERINE RAMPELL: “Baby Boomers and the Shrinking Workforce”
“Among the lowlights of the jobs report for April was the news that the share of adults who are either working or looking for work fell. For men, this measure — called the labor force participation rate — was at its lowest level since 1948, when the government first began keeping track.”

ROBERT BRYCE: “The Sierra Club Opposes Clean Energy”
“‘Clean energy’ isn’t a specific thing — it’s a marketing slogan. And the slogan is designed to obscure the green movement’s desire to impose carbon taxes, set limits on carbon dioxide emissions, or both. Politico reporters Erica Martinson and Jonathan Allen made that clear in their article on March 21 of this year. Environmental groups admit that “they’ve lost ground by tackling global warming head-on,” the two wrote. ‘Their best bet now lies in a bit of a bait and switch.’ The result is a campaign to demonize ‘dirty’ hydrocarbons by conflating carbon dioxide emissions with asthma.”

NEWS

AUTHORITARIANISM – Texting Thai Grandpa Died Serving Ridiculous 20-Year Sentence
“We’ve followed Amphon’s strange case over the past year, as he was made into an example of the Thai government’s crackdown on lese majeste, the very real crime of slandering the Thai monarchy, which the government has recently extended to Facebook likes and the Internet. Let’s just say it’s hard to ignore a government willing to jail a 60-something-year old man with mouth cancer, because he sent four text messages, which according to The Guardian, were deemed offensive to the queen. ”

NANNY STATE – Massachusetts Junk Food Ban Could Take Bite Out of School Fundraisers
“Bake sales, the calorie-laden standby cash-strapped classrooms, PTAs and booster clubs rely on, will be outlawed from public schools as of Aug. 1 as part of new no-nonsense nutrition standards, forcing fundraisers back to the blackboard to cook up alternative ways to raise money for kids.”

CLIMATE CHANGE – Public Support Slips for Steps to Curb Climate Change
“From gas-mileage standards to tax breaks for windmills, public support for “green” energy measures to tackle global warming has dropped significantly in the past two years, particularly among Republicans, a new poll suggests.”