RACY PROFESSOR
The race riots at Jordan High and other schools in the last few years simply underscore MacDonald’s premise [Will Swaim’s “Where’s the Heroic Defender of the White Race?” April 9]. When push comes to shove, race matters. It always has and always will, no matter how many liberals who live away from the neighborhoods in turmoil would like to dream otherwise. [Swaim] makes the same amateur mistakes most journalists make when reviewing scientific ideas that are over their heads, but not their “morality.” It doesn’t matter whether a fact is good or bad to think about—what matters is whether it’s true. If MacDonald’s criteria are proven false, nothing else matters. If some or all of it’s true, he’s only relevant insofar as his conclusions are correct. We don’t need journalist cheerleaders trying to shame people into their political slant while standing on the intellectual sidelines—much less, as [Swaim] is trying to do, shame people for not feeling shame.

JOHN K
Via thedistrictweekly.com

The “scientific” ideas put forward by MacDonald have already been shown to be completely bogus. Nationalism and nativism are the only things that matter. Race is the artificial construct used to justify nationalism and nativism. There’s nothing scientific about it.

KELSON
Via thedistrictweekly.com

CAN ZIG DIG IT?
It’s nice to see Chris Ziegler expanding beyond indie bands at the Prospector [Ziegler’s “Work Time,”  about Sonny Rollins, April 2]. But how about some words on the local jazz scene: CasaVino, Four Olives, the Gaslamp, Portfolio? All have live jazz and attract some of the finest players in the LA/South Bay area.

JAZZGUY
Via thedistrictweekly.com

NEITHER BOHEMIAN, NOR RHAPSODIC
What about the Queen medley, Rebecca [Rebecca Schoenkopf’s “No Pleasure Cruise,” a review of “Rock the Boat,” April 9]? I saw you singing along to “Fat Bottomed Girls.” You must have enjoyed that one. No accolades?

JEREMY ALUMNA
Via thedistrictweekly.com

SHITE FOR BRAINS
Hey Theo, didn’t know that IKEA furniture is “genuine mid-century American furniture” [Douglas’ Shelter column, “The House That Poplar Built,” April 2]. And were those “before” photos? Let’s see, shite brown walls, with a fireplace whose bricks were painted an even darker shade of shite, accented by, what else, green curtains hung low, a sculptural upright piano with faux fur seat, and let’s see, a shite brown rug over a parquet floor. All with a picture of a drying yard. All right, how about watering it? How soon can I close escrow on that one? Please acquaint yourself with some architectural and design publications before your next Shelter attempt.

HENRY CHINASKI
Via letters@thedistrictweekly.com

MOON DANCE
My favorite streetline from the old I and P-T era [Dave Wielenga’s “‘Dad Roasts Devil Tot’: Remembering When the Press-Telegram Was the Most Important Paper in Town,” April 2] evolved out of a dull Sunday night (I think) in 1977. The late, great Independent night managing editor, Hank Fishbeck, had the wire editor comb the nation for anything that might sell newspapers. Shortly before deadline, a story came over the AP from Indiana about a barn dance where a group of bikers rode in, incited a brawl, and stabbed someone who later died. Two thousand miles away at Sixth & Pine, Fishbeck smiled. The following morning, Burt Fleischman broke his own previous sales record with “Revelers Dance in Dying Man’s Blood.”

You are correct about the bottom-feeding scum at MediaNews. In one of my last conversations with Otis Chandler, he warned against Dean Singleton by name as the grim reaper of American journalism. But to paraphrase Edmund Burke: All it takes for bloodsucking jerks like Singleton to succeed is for the Archbolds, Allisons and Glickens to do nothing.

DENNIS McDOUGAL
Via thedistrictweekly.com