Today’s Links: April 9, 2012

OPINION

L. GORDON CROVITZ: “Complexity Is Bad For Your Health”
“The Supreme Court has long had the role of declaring what the law is. That’s becoming a harder and harder task thanks to the White House and Congress concocting laws so complex that no one knows their meaning before, during or after they’re passed. In an era when people expect transparency and abhor complexity, three days of skeptical Supreme Court hearings on the president’s health law showcased a complex law collapsing under its own weight. Information is supposed to flow freely, but consumers of health care operate in the dark, including without any understanding of how the law is supposed to work. And they are not alone.”

WASHINGTON EXAMINER EDITORIAL: “For Obama, Green Is the Color of Money Wasted on More Solyndras”
“Last week, as President Obama delivered his economic speech deriding the so-called ‘trickle-down’ economic policies that created 16 million jobs under President Reagan, his Energy Department was preparing to announce the next stage of a policy that may never create any. […] Why Obama is doubling and tripling down on one of his worst and most embarrassing policy mistakes is anybody’s guess. Maybe it’s change that only he and global warming diehards can believe in.”

GREG BEATO: “Better Off Dead”
“In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District, for example, an abbey of Benedictine monks is currently challenging the constitutionality of a Louisiana state law that restricts the sale of ‘funeral merchandise’ to licensed funeral establishments. (The monks would like to sell handmade wooden coffins directly to the public but have no interest in taking on other funerary services such as embalming or transporting bodies.) In states unimpeded by the sort of economic protectionism the monks are seeking to abolish, the Web has had a dramatic impact on casket prices. The wholesale discounter Costco has been selling caskets on its website since 2004, with the least expensive model going for just $949.”

NEWS

INTERNET – Judge Rules That Sharing Porn Is Okay
“A California judge has blocked an attempt to prosecute alleged downloaders of copyrighted material in a move which is being championed as a win for American users of the Internet.”

ENERGY – Are Denmark’s Renewable Energy Goals Wishful Thinking?
“Denmark has announced that by the end of this decade, it will produce a third of its energy from renewable sources – wind power, in particular, but also solar power and the burning of ‘biomass.’ More ambitiously, the Danish Government has set a goal of running the entire country on renewables by 2050.”

SOUTH KOREA – South Korea’s Twitter generation may give liberals upset win
“South Korea’s liberal opposition, bolstered by the under-40s and power of social media, could spring a surprise win in this week’s parliamentary elections despite opinion polls that show it tied with the ruling conservatives.”