One of my favourite shameless climate-change deniers, Amy Ridenour, did us the favour yesterday of linking to a DeSmogBlog post on her husband, David, who got all righteous recently, arguing, in Amy's words, "that dissenters have not always been properly appreciated by the advocates of orthodoxy."

Typically, as between Amy and I, we agree on broad principles but wind up in sticky disputes over the specifics. She's arguing that the most accomplished scientists in the world represent "orthodoxy" because they agree overwhelmingly that humans are causing climate change. I'd be inclined to argue that ExxonMobil and other funders of Amy's National Center for Public Policy Research are more representative of the kind of self-interested defenders of the status quo who, in the past, have tried to slap down heretics like Copernicus and Giordano Bruno.

On one question, though, I have no hesitation in agreeing with the adoring "Mrs." Ridenour: husband David looks handsome indeed in the photo that we used (without her permission). It is, therefore, my pleasure to pay her suggested fee - 20 times over - for rights to the photo in question. I have, however, taken the liberty of writing in a beneficiary - assuming that we may have disagreed, again, on which charity was deserving of a donation in my name.

The cheque, as they say, is in the mail.