Brown Teases Santorum About Using ‘Protection’  —  Sen. Scott Brown joked at a St. Patrick's Day that Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum's secret service detail may be the first time he's ever “used protection.”  —  “I'm hopeful that all of you are actually following presidential politics.

The Collapse of Employment-Based Coverage  —  Reed Abelson at Economix points us to a startling study on the effects of the Great Recession on health insurance.  You can see similar trends in the Census data, but for whatever reason this survey — carried out by a highly reputable group — is even stronger.

Executive Order — National Defense Resources Preparedness  —  NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2061 et seq.) …

SAN DIEGO TEA PARTY LEADER ARRESTED FOR KIDNAPPING, RAPE  —  Lemon Grove resident Michael John Kobulnicky, 50, a leader in the San Diego Tea Party and former regional director of the Southern California Conservative Party, is under arrest for allegedly kidnapping and raping a local woman on Fiesta Island.

Haley Barbour: Contested GOP Convention ‘Not Necessarily Bad’  —  While he will not weigh in on who he thinks should get the GOP nomination, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said said on the “This Week” roundtable that it is growing more and more likely that it will be months …

The Power of Plutocratic Pettiness  —  Via Rich Yeselson, Alec MacGillis has a fantastic piece in the New Republic (unfortunately paywalled) about how hedge fund managers' love for Obama has turned into blind, spitting hatred.  His main argument is that it's all about feeling disrespected:

THE VETTING - HOLDER 1995: WE MUST ‘BRAINWASH’ PEOPLE ON GUNS  —  Breitbart.com has uncovered video from 1995 of then-U.S. Attorney Eric Holder announcing a public campaign to “really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”  —  Holder was addressing the Woman's National Democratic Club.

Progressivism and the authoritarian impulse  —  Performed rather perfectly by Stanley Fish, who — because he has spent an academic career immersed in the insular logic of the linguistic turn — is able to comfortably slide into a description of benevolent “liberal” tyranny that he counsels …

The Hunger Games: Post-Apocalypse Now For Young Adults  —  The revolution will be televised.  So will the post-apocalyptical fight to feed ourselves on a ruined planet.  —  Those are two key themes of the wildly popular YA trilogy that begins with The Hunger Games, whose movie version comes out this week.

New Low: 28% Give Supreme Court Positive Ratings  —  Even before the U.S. Supreme Court begins hearings later this month on the constitutionality of the national health care law, fewer voters than ever view the high court positively.  —  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey …

McCain: Stop contraception talk  —  Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the GOP needs to stop talking about contraception and that focusing on the issue is hurting voter perceptions of the party.  —  “I think we have to fix that,” the Arizona Republican said when asked by David Gregory on NBC's …

The Kennedy assassination: Did Castro know in advance?  —  A new book by former CIA analyst Brian Latell details evidence that Cuban intelligence knew beforehand of JFK's assassination  —  The orders surprised the Cuban intelligence officer.  Most days in his tiny communications hut …