Back in the Nineties, while we were still living in Oregon, we had occasion to visit Los Angeles for a publishing conference. We borrowed Dad’s van for the trip south — unlike our Chevette, it had air conditioning — and stayed with a friend an hour east of the conference’s downtown location.

The van, alas, was not as roadworthy as we expected. One weekday afternoon, crawling back to our friend’s place on a Great Big Freeway during rush hour, the van began to stall. It wasn’t completely dead, but the slow speeds were killing it. We would pull over, wait five or ten minutes, and try again.

It was during one of those punctuated stops, on an elevated stretch of road, that we noticed the exit sign:

EAST L.A.

Oh, shit, we thought. This is the last place we want to be stuck with a stalled van.

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These photos are just heartbreaking:

For everyone who might need a break from the asshattery that seems to be too prevalent these days.

Puppeh! Wearing rabbit ears!

Shelley Oh! and Bo hanging out with soldiers and their families at Walter Reed:

And this year Bo has his own egg for tomorrow’s Easter Egg Roll.

But no worries – the wingnut welfare system will take care of him … “The National Review has fired columnist John Derbyshire after a racially charged article he wrote on another website. In a Saturday evening post titled ”Parting Ways,” the magazine’s editor Rich Lowry starts off praising Derbyshire’s writing skills and proceeds to explain his decision….” [TPM]

His interview of Frank Lloyd Wright was outstanding (happened before I was born).

Wikipedia entry here. Reactions here.

The Daily Caller, 4/8/2012:

National Review editor Rich Lowry said on Saturday that the magazine had fired columnist John Derbyshire for writing an allegedly racist article, which appeared on the libertarian site Taki’s Magazine…

There are those who believe that the following statements are racist:

(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.

(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).

(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.

(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.

Are these statements racist? The Daily Caller is not ready to go there. But it is, at least, willing to note that some people allege the statements are racist.

I wonder if there’s a position at the Caller for a recently fired National Review writer?

…meanwhile (in the long forgotten spirit of bi-partisanship): the crackhead ex-mayor of DC is, apparently, also a raging racist.

Happy Easter, everyone!

(P.S. Oh yeah, I guess this means that the other news today is that NR has fired Derbyshire.)

Title: “Trickle Down Tyranny: Crushing Obama’s Dream of the Socialist States of America”

Author: Michael Savage

Rank: 15

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Customers Also Bought: “Plano Ammo Can”

Footnote: Mitt Romney was close: Wingnut America is an Opportunist Society.

Trickle Down Tyranny [Amazon]

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