IN THE MAIL: From Gary Becker and Richard Posner, Uncommon Sense: Economic Insights, from Marriage to Terrorism.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Dodd Dodges Protesters:

Rather than face a crowd of protestors who jeered at his appearance, Sen. Chris Dodd entered LaCupola’s restaurant through the back entrance Saturday for a luncheon with Democrats.

Lining Route 202 and carrying signs that read “Dump Dodd,” more than 80 protestors underscored the political perils the senator faces as he runs for a seventh-term.

Quinnipiac polls released earlier this month show 54 percent of Connecticut voters disapprove of Dodd’s job performance. Polls have him trailing Republican challenger Rob Simmons by more than 10 percent ahead of next year’s election.

Seems that whole health-care thing isn’t buying him much popularity. . . .

CLIMATEGATE STORY makes the Washington Post in a big way. And don’t miss Charlie Martin’s piece on what it all means.

And Ann Althouse notes threats of violence against politically incorrect researchers.

JAY TEA: “There’s a trend emerging in American politics. I don’t think it’s a new one, but it’s growth is disturbing to me. And it’s the amazing hostility to the common people.”

AN AWAKENING IN AFGHANISTAN?

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE parodies Obama in China. I eagerly await Wolf Blitzer’s fact-checking.

FROM POPULAR MECHANICS, a DIY Thanksgiving guide.

SCOUTS SCORE SEIU SCALPS: “Note that the SEIU itself hung Balzano out to dry: when your guys are already out there on camera beating up protesters and gadflies, it’s not a good time to start a fight with the Boy Scouts of America*. I suggest that the various loyalists of that organization keep that in mind.”

I INTERVIEWED BRANDI EMMA AND RICK TORRES OF THE SMART SET earlier this week, and now their new album is available via Amazon.

MORE ON THAT CLIMATE DATA-FUDGING SCANDAL: Global WarmingGate: What Does It Mean? Charlie Martin explains.

The hackers released about 172 megabytes of data, and we can be sure examining it closely will take some time. But after a few days, certain things are beginning to become clear.

* The data appears to be largely, perhaps entirely, authentic.
* The emails are incendiary.
* The implications shake the scientific basis for AGW, and the scientific reputations of some of AGW’s major proponents, to their roots

Read the whole thing.

WHEN IN DOUBT, delete.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON THE UCLA TUITION “RIOT:”

In the first place, reliable counts say that there’s only about 200 students at the protest–out of an enrollment of almost 40,000. 0.5% is not exactly the March on Washington.

In the second place, what realistic alternatives would the protesters prefer? . . .

I believe that the UC system is going to have to get smaller. We can’t fund everything. We need to right-size, however, rather than downsizing. Cuts should be made strategically, so that the strongest programs on each campus remain strong. If you want to think about it this way, we have to cull the herd and the weakest members have to go.

We also have to face the reality that tuition and endowments are going to be the major sources of funding going forward. Unfortunately, in the present economy, development and fund-raising are tough. So we must look to tuition to fund our programs.

I think this will be the case nationwide. Plus, some related thoughts from Jerry Pournelle:

got my education in a state university system: indeed I went to the University of Washington because I was legally a Washington state resident due to my parents then residing in the then Territory of Alaska — Alaskans were Washington state residents, since Alaska was an economic colony of Seattle at the time. I couldn’t afford a private university, and I was running out of the GI Bill which had paid my way through much of the University of Iowa where I was certainly not a resident. Long story. My point is that I can hardly denounce the state university system in this country.

But whether given the new and enormous costs of state universities — see the Iron Law of Bureaucracy for many of the reasons why — and the enormous expansion of that system (California used to have a system in which the Universities had tiny elite undergraduate programs and were mostly graduate schools, and the State Colleges were undergraduate schools with little graduate school activity — but that got thrown out in the name of diversity and equality, and now there’s no sane allocation system.

But the students had to be dispersed by riot police. And it’s not over. That’s education for you.

The solution is to admit fewer students to the expensive education systems, and expand the cheaper ones. But that won’t happen. It would make too much sense.

Transparency and subsidiarity… That is, keep the State centralized university system, scale it to what can be afforded, and give the local state colleges to their local districts, to control and to finance as they can and will. But that is not likely to happen.

Stay tuned.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Federal Clerkship Applications Hit Record High.

BYRON YORK: Why was it so hard for Dems even to start health care debate?

DAVE KOPEL EXPLAINS: President Obama Is Not A Jihadi. “There is not a scintilla of evidence to suggest that our President is a jihadi.”

From the comments: “I think to be a jihadi you have to belief in something larger than yourself.”

SANJAY GUPTA ON those new mammogram guidelines.

SARAH PALIN: Cloned?

She may need some doubles, what with the attacks.

JIM TREACHER: Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, No Breast Exams for Mama.

JERRY POURNELLE: “The present administration seems determined to continue its policies while protesting that cutting the deficit is of primary importance. One wonders how we can increase spending and cut the deficit. The only way I know is to run the printing presses. We live in interesting times. I thought Weimar Germany already ran that experiment; apparently they don’t teach much history now. The Health Care Bill will now be debated. The price of getting enough votes even to debate it was billions in new deficits. I do not know what the final result will be, but adopting that bill in any form will make the deficit higher, and runaway inflation even more likely.”

THE 2009 GEEK PARENT GIFT GUIDE.

POLIWOOD: British Sex Appeal: Will ‘An Education’ Seduce the Academy?

INTRODUCING Burka Barbie?

RADLEY BALKO: Bernard Baran served 22 years on dubious child molestation charges, but the prosecutor who convicted him was promoted to judge. “In this case, prosecutor Daniel Ford, now a judge on the Massachusetts Superior Court, showed the grand jury that indicted Baran an edited video interview with the children. According to court documents, the video shows several kids alleging that Baran had sexually abused them. Edited out was footage in which some of the children denied any abuse by Baran, interviewees accused other members of the day care faculty of abuse or of witnessing abuse, and, most important, interrogators asked the same questions over and over—even after repeated denials—until a child gave them an affirmative answer. Some children were even given rewards for their answers. ”

Read the whole thing.

ARMY OF DAVIDS TRAINING in the show-me state.

NEW GIRL MEDIA vs. Old Girl Network.

THE COMING deficit disaster.

BLOGGER ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR Louisiana’s 12th Congressional District.

REDSTATE DEMOCRATS who voted for Reidcare.

GADGETS THAT I LIKE: We’ve had the universal package opener for quite a while now, and while it’s not perfect, it’s close. It lives in the kitchen drawer and gets used all the time.

Another one that we’ve had for a while is this light bulb changer, which makes changing bulbs in high fixtures a lot easier. Every couple of years I have to get a new one as the suction-cup rubber hardens with age, but it’s worth it.

Unfortunately, bulbs in the chandelier in the foyer go in upside-down, so you can’t use this for that. I keep thinking of getting a winch installed to lower it, but that would probably be prohibitively expensive. Though kind of cool.

UPDATE: A couple of readers recommend the Giraffe system. Not as cool as a motorized winch, but . . . .

REID GETS 60: Health Care bill moves forward.

HOT AIR: “According to a report from Ohio today, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked the ACORN-tainted Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, to investigation ACORN’s voter registration work in the state.” Hot Air does lots of dot-connecting.

KIM ZIGFELD: Putin Murders Another Lawyer.

ANDREW BREITBART:

In response to the Columbia Journalism Review’s accusing me of “blackmailing” the Attorney General of the United States, I must take notice that the mainstream media as a journalistic establishment IS paying attention to the ongoing ACORN scandal. Good. I thought so.

What the Columbia Journalism Review is doing is very similar to what Media Matters is doing: protecting the Democrat-Media Complex, the natural alliance of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. This ACORN investigation has been going on for two months and Hannah, James, and I have proven to be truth-tellers every step of the way, while the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now has been proven time and again to be liars.

And CJR has become harder and harder to distinguish from The Nation. Except that The Nation will, occasionally, take on the establishment.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM/SIRIUS RADIO, the new PJM Political is now online.

PROTESTING OBAMACARE in St. Louis.

GLENN BECK OFFERS a 100 year plan.

OH, GOODY: Drug-resistant swine flu.

SOMETHING NEW: The Insta-Wife interviews Jessica Custer of the Network Of Enlightened Women.

JOHN LOUDON: Congress, we don’t trust you with health care at all.

THEY’RE RALLYING AGAINST OBAMACARE AT THE L.A. FEDERAL BUILDING this afternoon. Reader Lowell Brown sends this pic.

JOHN HINDERAKER HAS MORE on that global warming data-fudging scandal. Making a fool of Andrew Revkin?

CHEVY VOLT UPDATE: Still needs some refinement.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news from the Apple empire. Including more iTablet talk. . . .

A STIMULUS CONSENSUS?

How do economists reach consensus? Do they confer and corroborate like climate scientists? Or is the consensus achieved through a newspaper editorial process of strategically collecting quotes and designating the speakers as “dispassionate”? Or is it more a matter of slapping a headline on an article that doesn’t make a convincing case for consensus at all?

I’m guessing it’s that last.

RATING CARS BASED ON “cost to own” instead of MPG.

SINCE SOMEBODY ASKED, here’s my recipe for Thanksgiving leg of lamb.

That’s me taking it off the grill last year. (Hey, image-recycling is all the rage these days.) Note that I had already carved off a slice to “test” it. Test passed!

Hope it turns out as well this year.

BOB OWENS: The unrequited dream of smart guns. “They look wonderful in theory but fail miserably in practice.”

FROM 1952: POPULAR MECHANICS looks at Robert Heinlein’s new house. (Via reader Robert Racansky, who saw it at Jerry Pournelle’s.).

HEAVY BREATHING at a nuclear weapons plant.

A SUMMARY OF THOSE LEAKED GLOBAL-WARMING DOCUMENTS. (Via Volokh).

IN THE MAIL: From Gary Hull, Muhammad: The “Banned” Images. Containing the pictures that Yale was afraid to print, plus a ringing statement in favor of free speech.

SHOCKING NEWS: Report: ACORN Mismanaged Grant Money.

COST CONTAINMENT: “We’ll save even more money if we just get these women who are bitching about pain to hold their boyfriend’s hand or look at a picture of their kid. . . . And those silly Pap tests that had us thinking we needed a pelvic exam every year?The official word has come that you don’t need that testing so early or so often.”

Plus this: “Although women tend to love the notion of government control more than men do, it is women who will be told they’ll have to cut back. On treatments. And years. You know we’ve been taking more than our share.”

UPDATE: A reader emails:

My ex wife has spent her life in health care, and is now involved with clinical trials in cancer research. I asked her what she thought about the new guidelines on mammograms and Pap smears. She said, “Well, if they die sooner, I suppose that will save a lot of money in the long run.” She also commented on how many women they see in their 30s and 40s who have breast cancer.

They do seem to be turning on a dime regarding the early screening and detection stuff, don’t they?

UPDATE: Reader Jon Barlow, an orthopedic surgeon, writes:

Evidence that we are overscreening has been documented in the literature in various manners for the past 10 years or so. One excellent example is breast self exams for women. Evidence has shown in a fairly reproducible manner that breast self exams do not improve mortality, but do lead to unnecessary procedures (for cystic change, etc). In any system, we should do what is right for patients. I don’t know the literature on mammography, but we need to ensure that we are doing what is right for the majority of people. That’s the rationale behind evidence based medicine. To cite that one knows “many women in their 30s” with breast cancer doesn’t imply that we should all get mammograms at 30. I am as vehemently opposed to the current health care reform as you are….we just need to be certain that we continue to use facts as our basis rather than feelings.

Well, it’s true that there’s a genuine dispute over the value of early screening. But it’s also true that the turnabout on this seems to be happening quite suddenly. And that timing gives rise to a worry that the shift, perhaps just from one plausible approach to a different plausible approach, is taking place now because of politics. Perhaps that’s harmless — they’re both plausible approaches, right? — but it’s still troubling.

It’s also true, as Ann Althouse points out above, that any politically inspired limits on health care will affect women more, because women are considerably bigger consumers of health care services. That’s something we’d be hearing a lot about, if the usual suspects weren’t lined up firmly behind ObamaCare.

MORE: Reader Tim Johnson writes:

I’m a fourth year med student going into Ophthalmology (eyes). The medical community seems to have known for a while that breast self-exams weren’t effective. But as recently as Breast Cancer Month last month, we were telling women to self exam monthly. The real reason for the seeming quick turnaround is where the debate occurred. Like I said, while the medical community has debated this for a while, we continued to tell women to keep self-examining as if nothing had changed. I think this episode really offers lessons for future controversies and guidelines. As new data debunk prior assumptions, slow transitions in the lay community should reflect those in the medical community, so as to avoid the whiplash we’re seeing now.

When experts try to present a united front to the public despite doubts within the profession, it usually produces less, not more, credibility in the end.

ENTREPRENEURS go on strike? (Via Michelle Moore)

MICHAEL TOTTEN: A Third Lebanon War Could Be Much Worse Than The Second.

TOM MAGUIRE: “Work with me here – suppose we get a conviction on some terrorist who then discovers that his former defense attorney has been active on his case at the DoJ. Why wouldn’t that be grounds for a mistrial? If attorney-client privilege is an issue at all, it is an issue for the defendants, who have the right to assurance that their former defenders are not now aiding in the prosecution.”

UPDATE: Bush-era Justice Department alumni Jim Comey and Jack Goldsmith defend Holder’s decision. “Mohammed is many things: an enemy combatant in a war against the United States whom the government can detain without trial until the conflict ends; a war criminal subject to trial by military commission under the laws of war; and someone answerable in federal court for violations of the U.S. criminal code. Which system he is placed in for purposes of incapacitation and justice involves complex legal and political trade-offs.”

POLITICAL ADVICE FROM ROBERT HEINLEIN:

Your object… is to win elections, not arguments. If you will always remember that, you can’t go far wrong.

The second thing to remember is that elections are won with votes; those votes are out in the precincts, not down in the politico-financial district, not in political clubs, not at political rallies.

The third thing to remember is that a vote for your side never becomes a reality unless you see to it that the holder thereof gets down to the polls and casts it. This should be printed in red ink and set off with flashing lights.

The fourth thing to remember is not to waste time arguing with a hard case. In the years I have spent in politics I cannot honestly say that I recall ever having persuaded anyone to change his mind about how he was going to vote on an issue or for a candidate if he had already made up his mind when I approached him. Yet I know that I have influenced and sometimes changed the outcome of elections through my own efforts.

It’s good advice, and his book, Take Back Your Government, is still pretty good. The technology is obsolete — though not as much as you might think — but the basic approach is still good.

JAMES TARANTO: Failure Is Not An Option: Obama and Holder’s Assault On Due Process. “Obama’s and Holder’s assurances that KSM will be convicted (and, according to the president, “put to death”) make a mockery of due process. Nothing is more fundamental to America’s criminal justice system than the presumption of innocence, and if terrorist detainees are to be treated as criminal defendants, they are entitled to that presumption. For the sake of political expediency, Obama and Holder are refusing even to make a pretense of respect for due process. If KSM & Co. are convicted and put to death, America’s critics and enemies will point to Obama and Holder’s assurances in arguing that the defendants were subjected to sham justice. Nice work restoring America’s moral standing, Mr. President.”

“BOMBSHELL:” John Hinderaker has been reading those leaked global warming documents. “What they reveal, more than anything, is a bunker mentality. . . . They also suggest that pro-global warming scientists fudge data to get the results they are looking for.”

GPS UPDATE: Reader Frank Brown writes, “Please give an update on your new Garmin GPS. How is it?”

Still fine. (Most impressively, it’s stayed suction-cupped to the windshield the whole time without coming loose once. The old one would barely stay up an hour.) The “traffic” feature works fairly well, though driving home yesterday I noticed that the Interstate was backed up (luckily on the other side) and it didn’t show up on the traffic display. I’m not sure how they gather information or update it, but in general it’s been pretty good.

For those who missed it, I got the Garmin 1390t.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DRINK ON THANKSGIVING? Glorious American Cabernets.

FIRST CHINA, NOW THIS: Germany warns US on market bubbles.

WILL JOHN MCCAIN need Sarah Palin to save him in Arizona? J.D. Hayworth is polling well against him, and would likely enjoy Tea Party support in the primary . . .

SPOILED RICH KIDS?

First and foremost, the protests are about privileged kids demanding subsidies from working people. The UC system will continue to be heavily subsidized by taxpayers, and the students who attend are among the most naturally gifted, with the highest future earning potential, in the country. This is especially true at the system’s flagship schools of Berkeley and UCLA, where the protests have been most intense. Narcissism and self-absorption are the norm on college campuses, but it really is pushing the limits to throw such a tantrum at the idea that you will be getting a smaller amount of free money taken out of the paychecks of strapped taxpayers, most of whom could never dream of the advantages and opportunities you enjoy.

Read the whole thing.

IPHONE OWNERS demand to see Apple source code.

ANOTHER FAKE CANDIDACY FOR A FAKE DISTRICT: Dodd Harris emails: “I announced my candidacy for Kentucky’s new 00th (Zero-Zeroth or Aught-Aughth?) a couple of days ago on Facebook. I live in KY-03, but it seems pretty obvious there’s no residency requirement.”

STILL MORE ON “CLIMATEGATE,” FROM Charles Martin and Richard Fernandez.

NOBODY TELL ANDREW SULLIVAN: The Sarah Palin’s Uterus Blog.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

GEORGE LOPEZ, JOY BEHAR: Stay-at-home dads are “bums.” Ah, the progressive Obama era . . . .

“CLIMATEGATE?” Well, stay tuned and we’ll see. It does look bad, though.

And it’s made The New York Times: Hacked E-Mails Fuel Climate Change Skeptics. “Hundreds of private e-mails and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change.”

TALKING ABOUT TIM GEITHNER’S FUTURE, OR LACK THEREOF, over at The Hill.

THE GREG CRAIG “Debacle?”

BIG GOVERNMENT: Whistleblower Video Reveals SEIU Ballot Fraud.

TOM BLUMER: Big, Bigger, Biggest: Three Examples of Government-Induced Failure.

CAMERA TECHNOLOGY IS NICE but you still need talent. Dang. Can’t I just get an app for that?

CLIMATE RESEARCH DATA UNIT HACKED, embarrassing data leak out.

UPDATE: Tim Blair: “If true . . . the phrase ‘hide the decline’ may mark something of a turning point.”

A LITTLE ANXIETY MAY BE GOOD FOR YOU.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, Obama drops below 50% on Gallup.

CANDIDATE ENTERS RACE FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE’S FICTIONAL 00TH DISTRICT: “Even a fake district needs real leadership.” Heh. Press conference video at the link.

CAR LUST: Remembering the 1968-1974 Chevy Nova. I had a ‘76 Nova when I practiced law in Washington; it was a hand-me-down from my grandparents. Living in DuPont Circle and walking to work, I didn’t need a car much, but it was nice to have something, and my apartment came with underground parking. The Nova was reliable, and held a lot of people, groceries, or Ikea furniture. It didn’t impress women who thought that a lawyer at a big-name firm should be driving something fancier, but for the most part I regarded that as a feature, not a bug.

SO IF YOU’RE IN L.A. TONIGHT, you can go see The Smart Set at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. I interviewed Rick Torres and Brandi Emma of The Smart Set here.

POPULAR SCIENCE: So Do Prosthetic Limbs Give Sprinters An Advantage Or Not?

THE SOLAR SYSTEM ain’t what it used to be. Personally, I miss the one where Venus had steamy jungles inhabited by lightly-clad barbarian princesses.

MEMOREX’S NEW HD POCKET CAMCORDER GETS A BAD REVIEW: “a shameless Flip wannabe that does nothing to surpass — let alone keep up with — the competition.” Ouch. They prefer the Kodak Zi8. I’ve got one of those, and I like it.

JOHN SCALZI: Education Is Not the Answer for Star Trek’s Bad Science.

MICKEY KAUS: Does Harry Reid’s Health Care Bill Create a “Fed” for Medicare?

MORE GOOD NEWS. “Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests. The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.”

IN THE MAIL: From Victor Davis Hanson, How The Obama Administration Threatens Our National Security.

ANDREW KLAVAN: Limbaugh And Coulter And Beck: Oh My!

UH OH: Congressional Report: Rhee did ‘damage control’ after sex charges against fiance Kevin Johnson. “A congressional investigation of the volunteer organization AmeriCorps contains charges that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled ‘damage control’ after allegations of sexual misconduct against her now fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and a prominent ally of President Obama, The Washington Examiner has learned.”

KEITH HENNESSEY: Breaking the no middle class tax increase pledge (again). With helpful-reminder video.

ADVICE TO MEGAN FOX: Trashing Your Audience Is A Bad Idea.

TIM CAVANAUGH ON HOLLYWOOD’S STIMULUS: Why $23 million creates just 21 jobs.

JAMES TARANTO: TAKE COMFORT. A president who knew what he was doing could do lots more damage.

TOBY YOUNG ON STATUS ANXIETY. “No, the only people who take offence if you Anglicise foreign words are upper-middle-class Caucasian Americans. They imagine that other, less fortunate people will be insulted by your ‘imperialist’ attitude and they get offended on their behalf. In fact, to imagine that non-English-speakers are a poor, victimised group, requiring the protection of the American elite, is far more condescending than mispronouncing non-English words.”

CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE FAKE DISTRICTS.

AMBUSHED BY Norah O’Donnell.

JOHN DICKERSON: Does it matter that Obama is behind schedule on most of his major plans?

I’M GETTING KINDA TIRED OF VAMPIRE STUFF. Besides, Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula could take ‘em all.

UPDATE: John Lunde emails: “Too true. What male reader of Ann Rice hasn’t exclaimed at some point, ‘Damnit, man, shut up and bite someone!’” Ann Rice has male readers?