Today’s Links: November 30, 2012

OPINION

VIRGINIA POSTREL: “A Free-Market Fix for the Copyright Racket”
“While most of the punditocracy was chattering earlier this month about Mitt Romney’s “gifts”gaffe, another Republican took an unexpectedly bold stand about a huge and controversial special-interest handout that largely benefits Democratic constituencies. A young Capitol Hill staff member named Derek S. Khanna published a Republican Study Committee policy brief titled ‘Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix It.’ The paper attacked the current copyright system, particularly the continual and retroactive extension of copyright terms at the behest of entertainment-industry lobbyists.”

ADI ROBERTSON: “New World Order: is the UN about to take control of the internet?”
“The future of the web will be decided in a dark room by UN politicians and authoritarian governments — at least according to Google and some other opponents of the International Telecommunication Union’s plan to reform its 25-year-old guidelines. Leaked documents have shown that ITU members are interested in adding more internet regulations to the ITU’s mostly telecommunications-focused rules, something critics worry will let countries justify repressive filtering of the internet or upset the current balance of power by pushing more regulation.”

PAUL HOWARD & YEVGENIY FEYMAN: “The Obamacare bait and switch”
“Democrats sold -and continue to sell the ACA – as a way to cover the ‘millions of people’ with pre-existing conditions who can’t get affordable insurance. For instance, in defending their recently released guaranteed issue regulations, HHS claimed that 129 million Americans have pre-existing conditions. This is a huge bait and switch. The vast majority of Americans with ‘pre-existing conditions’ already have insurance. Why? Age is strongly correlated with developing a chronic illness – and seniors are covered by Medicare.”

NEWS

GOP – Erick Erickson will not run for senate after all
“CNN contributor and RedState blogger Erick Erickson thought a lot about it, and decided not to challenge Saxby Chambliss in 2014.”

TECHNOLOGY – Microsoft’s ads deride Google a bad place to shop
“Microsoft is trying to skewer Google as a lousy holiday shopping guide in its latest attempt to divert more traffic to its Bing search engine.”

CLIMATE CHANGE – UN calls for urgency on climate, says Doha deal to delight no one
“The United Nations said on Friday greater urgency was needed to slow climate change and that even success at current low-ambition talks among 200 nations in Doha would delight no one.”