GOOD QUESTION: “So how do we know there haven’t been other gate-crashers?’

PJTV WILL HAVE CREWS IN COPENHAGEN covering the “climate change” conference.

SCIENTISTS BEHAVING BADLY: Steve Hayward on the ClimateGate scandal. “The behavior of the CRU circle has cast a long shadow over the entire climate science community, and many honest scientists will now undeservedly bear the stigma of Climategate unless a full airing of the issues is conducted. Other important climate research centers with close ties to the CRU–including NASA’s Goddard Institute and the Climate Change Science Program at NOAA–should not be exempt from a full-dress investigation. Such a reevaluation must begin with an understanding of the crucial role the CRU circle has played in the global warming drama.” Read the whole thing, which provides a nice summary of the issues so far.

A ROUNDUP ON THE Max Baucus sex-and-appointments scandal.

UPDATE: There’s a Max Baucus joke contest. Don’t bother trying anything involving “the pubic option.”

CANADIAN POLITICIANS TALK GENDER EQUALITY but fold like a cheap suit where the Olympics are concerned.

CHENEY’S REVENGE: Pew poll: Public support for torture at five-year high. “In case you’re wondering who won the de facto debate between Obama and Cheney earlier this year, wonder no more.” Andrew Sullivan weeps. Though, frankly, I think his self-glorifying use of the issue has done more harm than good.

SCOTT ROSENBERG looks back at paywalls. “Paywalls are psychological as much as navigational, and it’s a lot easier to put them up than to take them down. Once web users get it in their head that your site is ‘closed’ to them, if you ever change your mind and want them to come back, it’s extremely difficult to get that word out.”

VIRGINIA POSTREL ON GIFT-GIVING AND THE KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM: “The problem of buying good presents for other people, even people you supposedly know well, illustrates that old familiar Hayekian concept, the knowledge problem. If you can’t even give your loved ones the right presents, how likely is it that a central authority could make the right decisions for everyone?”

ENVIRONMENTALISTS ATTACK PROSTITUTES, prostitutes fight back. “Møller adds that it is reprehensible and unfair that Copenhagen politicians have chosen to use the UN Climate Summit as a platform for a hetz against sex workers. ‘But they’ve done it and we have to defend ourselves,’ Møller says.” You go, girl.

NEW THOUGHTS ABOUT nuclear power. Faster, please.

IN THE MAIL: From John Brown, Servant of a Dark God. Nicely blurbed by David Drake and L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

CLIMATEGATE UPDATE: British Meteorological Office to Re-Examine 160 Years Of Climate Data. “The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails. The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012.” (Via SonicFrog).

ROB PORTMAN CALLS FOR PAYROLL TAX HOLIDAY. Nonstarter. No opportunity for graft.

SOME RECOMMENDED TOYS FOR BOYS.

I can’t wait until my nephew is old enough for the Snap Circuits electronics kit. I’m guessing next year. . . .

Plus, there’s always The Dangerous Book For Boys. Okay, it’s not technically a “toy,” but . . . .

UPDATE: Reader John Henry emails: “My grandaughter was almost 5 last Christmas and I bought her one. Partly as an excuse to play with it myself. She loved it. She could even figure out some of the simpler things by herself once I had shown here. Bottom line, don’t wait to buy one for your nephew. Do it now.” Hmm. Okay. He’s awfully smart for 5, so it might work out.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Looking good — reader James Doherty writes: “I got that for my son when he was 4. At that age, he needed help with the instructions, but he snapped the parts together himself. Much like legos, but with switches, lights and noises. Extremely cool.”

MORE: Further suggestions here.

THE ’70S REALLY ARE BACK: The return of man-cleavage.

CAN THE GOVERNMENT DO ANYTHING RIGHT? A state-run monopoly on an industry that basically takes people’s money, and yet: NYC’s Off-Track-Betting Seeks Bankruptcy Protection.

OWEN FISS: Obama’s Guantanamo Betrayal.

UPDATE: Col. Douglas Mortimer isn’t impressed with Fiss:

“But the sad fact is that Obama has not carried through on this promise and now presides over the very horror he himself had the courage to denounce.”

Courage, my ass. I can’t remember who it was, but some guy somewhere said something about how the Left’s pre-November 2008 loud and constant denunciation of Gitmo looks more and more like it was intended to do nothing more than bamboozle the rubes.

Yeah, I think I heard that someplace too. . . .

SHOULD AL GORE’S OSCAR BE RESCINDED? And other questions in this PJTV climate change survey.

FROM THE FOLKS AT NBC: A “payday loan” scam for freelancers.

If a non-media company were doing this, there’d be a Dateline story about evil corporations abusing their employees . . . .

CLIMATEGATE IN THE WASHINGTON POST: In e-mails, science of warming is hot debate. “In an effort to control what the public hears, did prominent scientists who link climate change to human behavior try to squelch a back-and-forth that is central to the scientific method? Is the science of global warming messier than they have admitted?”

NEW HEALTH CARE COST-CONTAINMENT HEROINES! More women choose do-it-yourself births. Soon: Articles on the hip new trend of DIY brain surgery!

WHAT SAN FRANCISCO REALLY NEEDS: Public sex tents.

UTAH TEA PARTY ORGANIZER DAVID KIRKHAM WRITES:

These 4 pictures should strike more fear into the heart of a politician than any rockous town hall meeting, call, letter, or Tea Party. 24 hours ago we put out the word we needed 13 volunteers to be “Legislative Captains,” (one for each of the 13 state legislators we have here in Utah county). The Legislative Captains would work in their respective legislative districts to recruit delegates for the convention. We sent about 50 very targeted invites to people based on their address. We gathered the names from our Tea Party sign up sheets. 20 people showed up. So, with the extra people, we asked what expertise everyone had. We then divided up duties on Facebook, events, marketing, and a new website, www.utah912teaparty.com. On the whiteboard “POP” stands for Precinct Operation Program. Just say NO to RINOS.

Here’s one of the pics. Cool setting!

UPDATE: A reader emails: “I like it: Garage-band politics.” Heh. But that’s no ordinary garage.

AN EARLY SNOWFALL here in Knoxville.

SO DOES THIS MEAN I SHOULD CHANGE MY LAST NAME to “Beck?”

UPDATE: A reader suggests keeping the last name, but changing my initials to “R.J.” I’d happily swap bank accounts either way . . . .