Since Al Gore is now a partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which in turn partners with his own investment company, Generation Investment Management, his climate change crusade can no longer be mistaken for a selfless act of political leadership.

As Generation Investment Management says: “Our preference for performance-based fees aligns our interests with that of our clients and is typically based on long-term performance.”

I’m all for private investment into alternative energy and green technology research. There’s a lot of great innovation going on there, and the field is full of promise and opportunity. In fact, private investment and free markets are how one discovers where the real cost-benefit of green technology lies. Competing marketing messages is how consumers discover new products, and get the opportunity to satisfy unmet needs or wants. If this includes the need for a cleaner environment, good on them, and good on the companies that profit from supplying that need.

Provided, of course, that governments don’t introduce market-distorting protectionist or interventionist policies.

Green activists love to paint skeptics as “oil-company funded”. As if the generalisation is true, and even when it is, as if oil companies don’t have a contribution to make to the debate, or have no right to lobby against laws and restrictions that are inimical to their interests.

Gore’s venture into capital merely underscores the point that environmentalism is a big business. Thousands of “climate scientists” depend for their income on global warming being a scary crisis that needs research funding. Thousands of green technology and alternative energy companies rely on the climate change scam for their marketing.

Every time Gore calls for a biofuel subsidy, a green tax rebate, a legal restriction, an environmental mandate, or a carbon offset, know that it is simply a marketing message for Al Gore Inc and his partners at KPCB. Know that he is simply lobbying for protectionism in favour of his own vested interests. All protectionism distorts markets, prejudices one group in favour of another, and ultimately destroys wealth. And so does every law or government policy on Al Gore’s action agenda.

What a great post over at Murder of Ravens:

Whenever I fill my pipe – perhaps a Sasieni made back in the 1920’s out of briar that was 100 years old back then–with a fine matured Virginia, sit back, light up, see the ember glowing in the bowl, and taste the exquisite flavor, my mind and soul find peace. There really is nothing to compare to the taste of the Virginia, the feel of the warm briar in my hand, and the visual beauty of the finely grained wood. They all combine into one of the most satisfying sensory experiences known to man.

(Via Nuke Gingrich.)

That’s it, then. Campaign 2008 is over, and Mike Huckabee has won.

You wouldn’t dare argue, would you?