The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

Rarus Morbis Die
Do you suffer from avascular necrosis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Ménière’s disease or some other malady that no one’s ever heard of even though it makes your life [tough]? Well, this is your day!

Seriously. According to a press release from the National Institutes of Health, “Rare Disease Day, held each year on February 28, was established to raise awareness about the estimated 7,000 rare diseases that affect about 25 million Americans.”

Of course, if the guys at NIH had any wit, they’d have made it Feb. 29.

NPR’s False Alarm 
From NPR:

Getting economists to agree with each other isn’t easy. But Congress and the White House have managed to unite them.

More than 95 percent of top U.S. economists believe growth is “likely to be negatively affected” by the automatic federal spending cuts that are scheduled to kick in Friday, according to the latest survey by the National Association for Business Economics.

The story links to the survey, which makes clear NPR’s description is inaccurate. Here’s the quote, from Nayantara Hensel, “chair” of the NABE Outlook Survey Committee, in context:

“Over 95% of the panelists believe that growth in real GDP in 2013 is likely to be negatively affected by uncertainty surrounding the US fiscal imbalances and issues linked to the continuing resolution, sequestration, and the debt ceiling. . . .”

Elsewhere the quote is presented in slightly different form:

Over 95% of the panelists believe that growth in real GDP in 2013 is likely to be reduced, given the uncertainty surrounding the US fiscal imbalances–the issues linked to the continuing resolution, sequestration, and the debt ceiling.

That makes clear that the reference to “fiscal imbalances” doesn’t include the long-term problems of debt and unfunded liabilities. But contrary to NPR’s description, the economists aren’t nearly unanimously saying that spending cuts will reduce economic growth, but that the uncertainty caused by Obama’s method of governing by manufactured crisis will do so.

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.