Lightning Round 121509

Still following the AGW beat, but some other stuff, too:

• Clive Crook in the Financial Times brings up several important points in this column, but here's the key one: "Once scientists are engaged as advocates, science is in trouble. Like intelligence agencies fitting the facts to the policy, they are no longer to be trusted. The IPCC may be serving a righteous cause, but it is not the honest broker this process needs. It has made itself a political agency – at times, a propaganda unit. All this, the public can see." Indeed, if the public chooses to. Read the whole thing.
• Speaking of honest brokers. . . during the Watergate scandal, the key admonition was to follow the money. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is a busy man. Follow the money here. And by all means, read the whole thing.
• Mitch Berg celebrates the 30th anniversary of the release of one of my all-time favorite albums, the Clash's London Calling. It's amazing that we are 30 years on. And to my ears, the album hasn't aged a bit. Mitch identifies two of his favorite songs in the post. Here are two of mine.