What's Next, Mr. President — Cardigans?  —  Barely six months into his presidency, Barack Obama seems to be driving south into that political speed trap known as Carter Country: a sad-sack landscape in which every major initiative meets not just with failure but with scorn from political allies and foes alike.

Alliances Splinter in Debate Over Health-Care Reform  —  Once-Friendly Groups Split as Details Emerge  —  Months of relative cooperation among disparate interest groups in the heath-care reform debate appear to be coming to an end, as the major political parties and their surrogates unleash …

Congressman: Centrist Dems talking healthcare coalition with GOP  —  Some centrist House Democrats have reached out to Republicans to explore breaking with their party leadership on healthcare and crafting a reform bill with the rival GOP, one congressman claimed Saturday.

North Korean Test Missile Strikes Wisconsin Home  —  A North Korean missile struck a home near Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, this afternoon, but failed to totally detonate its warhead.  The prototype ‘Oscar Mayer Jong Il’ intercontinental ballistic missile spewed ketchup all over the place …

‘Integrity’?  Like Paul F***ing Anka, Baby  —  Ace of Spades mentions “integrity” in discussing his services last year “as an apologist for the horrible candidate John McCain.”  I traveled a good distance down that particular road myself — I'd link some of it, if only it weren't so …

A page out of the Chavez (leftist, in other words) Playbook  —  A [Spanish] Catalan newspaper is reporting that Honduran authorities have seized computers found in the Presidential Palace belonging to deposed president Mel Zelaya.  Taking a page right out of the leftist dictator's handbook …

Women on the Verge of the Law: From Anita Hill to Sonia Sotomayor  —  A lone woman sits at the witness table, hoping her Yale law degree will help her survive a charged Supreme Court confirmation hearing.  She faces a battery of powerful white senators on the Judiciary Committee …

A Year Without A Summer?  —  1816 was the “year without a summer.”  There were several causes of the abnormally cold weather that year, as this source recounts: … If this account is correct, the “year without a summer” played a role in the development of the American Midwest:

Beyond rationing: controlling more than “health”  —  First we'll talk about rationing.  But government-run health care will open the door for more than bureaucratic control over who gets the pace-makers and the Alzheimer's drugs.  —  Rationing will be necessary

No future  —  The “alarmism” of my book seems to be going mainstream.  Newsweek's economics editor Daniel Gross belatedly joins the demographic deathwatch on Japan: Japan's population peaked in 2004 at about 127.8 million and is projected to fall to 89.9 million by 2055.

Company Denies its Robots Feed on the Dead  —  I never imagined I'd print a press release in full.  Then, an hour ago, Howard Lovy e-mailed me the most incredible press release of all time...  POMPANO BEACH, Fla.- In response to rumors circulating the internet on sites such as FoxNews.com …

Their Own Medicine  —  Senators prefer the insurance they have.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  In the health debate, liberals sing Hari Krishnas to the “public option” — a new federal insurance program like Medicare — but if it's good enough for the middle class, then surely it's good enough for the political class too?