LOSING A LIMB DUE TO ACUTE COMPARTMENT SYNDROME:

Journalist Miles O’Brien earlier this week related a harrowing experience that began when a piece of TV equipment fell on his left forearm, leaving it sore and swollen but not enough for him to seek medical treatment. Two days later, after the pain and swelling had increased, a doctor delivered some terrible news to O’Brien. A sharp increase in pressure inside the journalist’s injured forearm was killing the nerve cells and damaging the arteries and veins. Hours later doctors amputated the dying limb.

O’Brien had experienced a medical condition known as acute compartment syndrome in his lower arm as a result of his injury. The condition—which can affect the arms, hands, legs, feet and buttocks—develops when pressure builds up within groups of muscles, nerves and blood vessels that together compose compartments in different areas of the body. Sheets of relatively inflexible connective tissue called fascia cover these compartments. Too much pressure within these fascia-bound compartments disrupts blood flow, damaging vessels and tissue.

Ugh.

AN APP THAT Listens for Danger When You’re Not Paying Attention.

TRAIN WRECK UPDATE: Obamacare’s Failed State Exchanges: The federal government spent more than $1.2 billion on state-based online insurance portals that remain broken.

BRYAN PRESTON: So, What Happens when Lois Lerner Returns to Testify Next Week? She’s clearly angling for immunity, which is enough to tell you that this isn’t a “fake scandal.”

FORECASTING THE FLU to build a better vaccine.

CHANGE: Republicans catch another break in the 2014 Senate elections. “‘Senate Republicans have scored an unexpected recruiting coup, with Rep. Cory Gardner (R) opting to challenge Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) this year, according to a person with knowledge of his plans. Gardner, who is considered the state’s top GOP rising star, previously said he would not run for Senate and would instead seek reelection in November.’ As important, failed Senate candidate Ken Buck has opted for the House race, avoiding a bitter primary and winning the gratitude of his party. This is a huge improvement for the GOP and puts yet another Senate seat in play.”

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 294.

THE RUBES ARE CATCHING ON: The Uninsured Are Turning Against Obamacare. That’s A Problem. “Fifty-six percent of those who identified as uninsured in a new poll conducted in February by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a research institution, had an unfavorable view of the health care reform law, compared to just 22 percent who said they view it favorably. The uninsured now see Obamacare less favorably than they did when the enrollment period began in October. As recently as September, more uninsured approved of the law than disapproved.” Well, that was before people knew it was a train wreck.

SPYING: UK spy agency intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users. “GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not. In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.”

CHARLES KING: Ukraine After Yanukovych: Crimea On Edge.

One of the results of the fall of Viktor Yanukovych’s government has been the rising specter of the break-up of Ukraine and the secession of Crimea. The interim president, Olexander Turchynov, spoke recently about the dark prospect of “separatism” in his country, while early reports of the whereabouts of Yanukovych placed him in Crimea itself. Is Crimea likely to become the ex-president’s redoubt, and if so, would Russia intervene to support the secessionist region?

Both scenarios are unlikely. Yanukovych’s support is limited across the country as a whole, and if the new government is able to act calmly and deliberately, there will be little incentive to push toward a strategically risky—and potentially devastating—separation, either by Crimeans or by other Ukrainian citizens in areas of the country with sizable Russian-speaking communities.

Stay tuned. And don’t worry — we’ve got Smart Diplomacy^TM on the job!

A PJ MEDIA SYMPOSIUM: Will Ted Cruz Be a Plus or Minus for Republicans in the Midterm Elections?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TEA PARTY.

Here’s something I wrote about the Tax Day protests in 2009.

WHEN URBANIZATION FAILS: Why I Miss The Suburbs. “Another area where suburbs often trump cities is in the quality (or lack thereof) of their public schools. From the mass closing of public schools in Chicago to the ‘dizzying, byzantine system’ eighth grade students and their parents go through to select a public high school in New York City, it is as hard as ever—if not harder—for parents to find quality public education for their children in large American cities.”

Well, as Joe Biden has explained, that’s because cities have too many black people. But I have an alternative explanation.

AT AMAZON, St. Patrick’s Day Deals on Books, Costumes, Party Supplies and More.

Plus, deals on most-wished-for items.

Also, today only: 40% Off New Balance Trail-Running Shoes.

BRAD SMITH: Connecting the Dots in the IRS Scandal: The ‘smoking gun’ in the targeting of conservative groups has been hiding in plain sight.

GEORGE LEEF: Senator Rubio Advances The Ball With Higher Education Ideas That Could Be “Game-Changers.”

I agree, though, with Leef’s critique of a universal income-based-repayment system. The effect is to make less-valuable majors more attractive, leading to distortions such as are seen in Australia.

I sent Rubio a copy of my book. I wonder if he’s reading it?

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Top Treasury employees swindled thousands of dollars, in-the-know bosses did nothing. One in the Bureau of Public Debt, amusingly.

DON’T WORRY, WE’VE GOT SMART DIPLOMACY^TM ON THE JOB! Russia Seeks Several Military Bases Abroad – Defense Minister.

Russia is planning to expand its permanent military presence outside its borders by placing military bases in a number of foreign countries, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

Shoigu said the list includes Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore and several other countries.

I wonder where this fits on John Kerry’s priority list?

UPDATE: From the comments: “Remember: ROMNEY was the idiot for suggesting that Russia was our primary adversary in foreign policy.”

UKRAINE: Gunmen Seize Government Building In Crimea, Raise Russian Flag.

ABUSE OF POWER: New IRS Rules Called ‘Campaign Finance Regulation Disguised as Tax Regulation.’

EPISTEMIC CLOSURE: Obamacare Victims Are “Liars” Says Top Democrat: Denied medication, their long-term doctors, and having premiums and deductibles soar, everyday Americans are now told they’re faking it.

JAMES TARANTO: Our Overregulated Government: Labor-market rules hit public-sector employers too.

That’s right, ObamaCare’s employer mandate applies to the public as well as the private sector, and although it’s been delayed until next year, “many public employers have already adopted policies, laws or regulations” to avoid its costliest effects, the Times reports.

That means making sure part-time workers don’t reach 30 hours a week, the threshold at which the mandate kicks in: “Among those whose hours have been restricted in recent months are police dispatchers, prison guards, substitute teachers, bus drivers, athletic coaches, school custodians, cafeteria workers and part-time professors.”

Local officials from across the country describe the dilemmas ObamaCare has forced upon them. “Are we supposed to lay off full-time teachers so that we can provide insurance coverage to part-time employees?” asks Mark Benigni, schools superintendent of Meriden, Conn. “If I had to cut five reading teachers to pay for benefits for substitute teachers, I’m not sure that would be best for our students.”

In suburban Cleveland, Mayor Dennis Hanwell of Medina (population 26,678), tells the paper his city had to reduce the hours–and thus the pay–of office clerks, sanitation men, park inspectors and police dispatchers to 29 hours from 35. “Our choice was to cut the hours or give them health care, and we could not afford the latter,” the mayor says.

The Times reports the American Federation of Teachers website has a list of “three dozen public colleges and universities in 15 states” that have restricted working hours of adjunct or part-time faculty members. By our count it’s 34 institutions in 17 states, but in any case the list isn’t comprehensive. The introductory text asks for more information: “Do you know of employers cutting faculty workloads and blaming ACA? We want to hear from you!”

It’s train wrecks all the way down.

ED DRISCOLL: Layers and Layers of Editors and Fact-Checkers. “Hey, don’t knock ‘em — those Gibson hollow body Stratocasters are awesome guitars, and they fit very easily into the limited trunk space of a Chevrolet Mustang. And who can forget Eric Hendrix playing the Star-Spangled ‘Tis of Thee on one at Woodmont?”

GEORGE WILL: Shut Up, They Explained.

When a politician says, concerning an issue involving science, that the debate is over, you may be sure the debate is rolling on and not going swimmingly for his side. Obama is, however, quite right that climate change is a fact. The climate is always changing: It is not what it was during the Medieval Warm Period (ninth to 13th centuries) or the Little Ice Age (about 1500-1850).

In Indonesia, Kerry embraced Obama’s “Shut up, he explained” approach to climate discussion: “The science of climate change is leaping out at us like a scene from a 3-D movie.” Leaping scenes? The “absolutely certain” science is “something that we understand with absolute assurance of the veracity of that science.” And “kids at the earliest age can understand.” No wonder “97 percent” — who did the poll? — of climate scientists agree. When a Nazi publishing company produced “100 Authors Against Einstein,” the target of this argument-by-cumulation replied: “Were I wrong, one professor would have been quite enough.”

Climate alarmism validates the progressive impulse to micromanage others’ lives — their light bulbs, showerheads, toilets, appliances, automobiles, etc. Although this is a nuisance, it distracts liberals from more serious mischief. And conservatives incensed about Obama’s proposed $1 billion “climate resilience fund” — enough for nearly two Solyndra-scale crony capitalism debacles — should welcome an Obama brainstorm that costs only a single billion.

Besides, the “resilience” fund will succeed. It will enhance liberals’ self-esteem — planet-saving heroism is not chopped liver — and will energize the climate-alarmist portion of the Democratic base for this November’s elections.

And, as with Solyndra, divert taxpayer money to Democrat cronies, some of which will be recycled into political contributions to Democrats who will then complain, with a straight face, about “too much money in politics.”