GENETIC TESTING MAKES UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE ALL THE MORE NECESSARY. We've known for a while that genetic testing for disease susceptibility will become much more powerful and common relatively soon. The problem is that insurance doesn't work if we can predict the likely costs of insuring a particular person. No problem you say, we'll just forbid the use of genetic information in insurance decisions as Congress is about to do. Not so fast! Even if insurance companies obey the law (which they will have extremely strong incentives not to do), it creates a new problem -- asymmetrical information.

MORE UNHINGED CONSERVATIVES. It's easy to forget that there's a large contingent of conservatives who think we're at war with an entire religion. Really. Over at the National Review, Mark Krikorian makes the following prediction (via Josh Patashnik at The Plank):