Today is March 21st. On this date in 1788 the Great New Orleans Fire nearly destroyed the entire city, which lost 856 of about 1,100 buildings. It is widely believed that George W. Bush was responsible. Also on this date, in 1824, a Cairo munitions dump fire killed over four thousand horses. On this date in 1934, a fire destroyed the Japanese city of Hakodate, killing 2,166. Basically, I’m saying you should watch it with the matches today. On March 21, 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was born. His music is exemplary of the Baroque Period, and his death in 1750 marked the end of it. (My personal J.S. Bach favorite.) And speaking of great composers, on this date in 2006, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey composed the very first tweet, which read: “just setting up my twttr.” We’ve come a long way, baby. Yeesh. And finally, today is National Kick Butts Day. I know it’s technically about quitting smoking, but I choose to celebrate in my own way. Consider this an Open Thread.

Walker’s Recall Showdown | NRO
“‘They’re now talking $70 to $80 million total spent in this race, of which I’m sure the vast majority will be out-of-state union money,’ says Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. ‘It’s their Waterloo.’”

White House reporters LOL at Biden | The Right Scoop
“Even the White House Press reporters realize Joe Biden is a buffoon. Just listen to them crack up laughing as Norah O’Donnell asks Jay Carney to comment on Biden’s absurd remark that the Bin Laden raid was the most ‘audacious’ plan in the last 500 years.”

Questions Arise on Gasoline Data | Wall Street Journal
“But the EIA had been vastly underestimating export demand from late 2010 to August 2011, said Robert Merriam, who oversees the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report.”

Buffett Rule would bring in less than $3 billion a year in revenue | Hot Air
“Now the Joint Committee on Taxation has scored Obama’s Buffett Rule, put forth by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and concludes that it would increase revenues by less than three billion dollars a year”

ObamaCare’s Costs Are Soaring | Senator Ron Johnson
“And last month the administration’s proposed fiscal 2013 budget included $111 billion in additional spending for the premium subsidies in the health law’s insurance exchanges—further eroding any confidence in the original ObamaCare projections.”

Today’s Word of the Day comes via Luciferous Logolepsy.
widdershins (wi-d?r-sh?nz): adverb 1. in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction. 2. counter-clockwise.