OK it's official now. Bill Clinton has a failed ex-presidency:

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's a diplomatic failure at the highest level: Bill Clinton couldn't get Led Zeppelin to reunite.

The CBS "60 Minutes Overtime" webcast reported Monday that the former president was enlisted to ask the British rock gods to get back together last year for the Superstorm Sandy benefit concert in New York City. He asked, they said no.

Oh, for God's sake:

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is taking heat from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after he killing a spider on his desk in front of a class of fourth graders.

The depressing news, from The New York Times:

From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent, to 17.6 deaths per 100,000 people, up from 13.7. Although suicide rates are growing among both middle-aged men and women, far more men take their own lives. The suicide rate for middle-aged men was 27.3 deaths per 100,000, while for women it was 8.1 deaths per 100,000.

Equality, baby:

The FBI put a woman, Joanne Chesimard (also known as Assata Shakur), on its Most Wanted Terrorists list for the first time in history Thursday.

A '70s radical who authorities say murdered a New Jersey state trooper, Chesimard made a daring daylight escape from prison and fled to Cuba.

Am I right in thinking there is something fundamentally unfair about this, or am I just being envious of people who are getting to have their cake and eat it, too:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Some home-schooled students will be able to play on sports teams at public schools under new rules adopted by the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

Yeah, yeah, sure, teens are going to drink on prom night no matter what we do, so let's provide designated drivers for them, even if that might send the signal that we're condoing teen drinking. And they're going to have sex no matter what we do, so let's pass out condoms in high school, even if that might say to teen boys that we're giving our approval for them to put even more pressure on teen girls to sleep with them.

I don't get it:

Rep. Paul Ryan, last year's Republican vice presidential nominee, said Monday that he regretted voting to ban same-sex couples in the District of Columbia from adopting children.

Unless, of course, his anti-gay stance was affected for the purposed of getting votes or his "conversion" is a dishonest bid to get votes. If either of those is true, no apology would make him anything but a pandering political hack.

Here, from an editorial in the Bloomington Herald-Times, is the essence of the liberal argument against the just-passed 5 percent cut in the Indiana income tax. I've heard and read variations of it from all over the state:

For those who like averages, the "average" Hoosier would realize $114 in annual tax savings, or $2.19 a week.

Thank goodness they've solved all the city's other problems in Washington, so the D.C. Council can concentrate on truly important stuff like this: