Today’s Links: October 16, 2012

OPINION

CHARLES LANE: “Liberals’ green-energy contradictions
“Al Gore is about 50 times richer than he was when he left the vice presidency in 2001. According to an Oct. 11 report by The Post’s Carol D. Leonnig, Gore accumulated a Romneyesque $100?million partly through investing in alternative-energy firms subsidized by the Obama administration. […] As the Democrats become more committed to, and defined by, a green agenda, and as they become dependent on money from high-tech venture capitalists and their lobbyists, it becomes harder to describe them as a party for the little guy — or liberalism as a philosophy of distributive justice.”

RICHARD RAHN: “Tax-raisers lack compassion
“Many advocates of increasing taxes acknowledge that higher taxes, particularly on labor and capital, will slow economic growth, but they claim ‘the government needs the money.’ Part of the mistake they are making is treating tax revenue as a constant function of the tax rate rather than a variable that is dependent on the size of the economy.”

DECLAN MCCULLAGH: “Verizon draws fire for monitoring app usage, browsing habits
“Verizon Wireless has begun selling information about its customers’ geographical locations, app usage, and Web browsing activities, a move that raises privacy questions and could brush up against federal wiretapping law. ”

NEWS

GIMMICK? – Chinese e-tailer to launch brick and mortar supermarkets filled with only QR codes
“The point of shopping online is because it is possibly cheaper and more convenient, which is why we have to wonder what is the point of launching actual physical retail stores without any products in them. This is what Chinese e-commerce company, Yihaodian, has decided to do when they revealed that they will be launching 1,000 supermarkets around China that do not actually stock any physical product, but rather show the images of the product along with a QR code that can be scanned and used to buy the items, which will then be delivered to homes.”

ANTITRUST – Dem warns FTC against suing Google
“Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) is warning the Federal Trade Commission that a lawsuit against Google would be disastrous and could prompt Congress to limit the agency’s authority.”

MARIJUANA – Marijuana Backers Courting Conservatives
“Appealing to Western individualism and a mistrust of federal government, activists have lined up some prominent conservatives, from one-time presidential hopefuls Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul to Republican-turned-Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.”