Tim Murphy

Denver, Colorado—Just a quick sketch: Andrew Breitbart is midway through his keynote address at the Colorado 9/12 rally (on 9/13) when he's interruped, loudly, by a middle-aged black man in an orange Broncos hat and a Hawaiian shirt, with a fundamental disagreement: "You Tea Partiers are racist!"

"Go back and watch television and they'll affirm your worldview," says Breitbart.

Breitbart continues his remarks (about ACORN—maybe you've heard of it?) but the focus shifts away from him for a few moments as the dissenter keeps up his charge. He's quickly encircled, but shows no sign of relenting. "You white people out here are splittin' the country up with your hateful views!" Now he's surrounded, by video cameras looking to capture this moment for posterity, and a dozens faces flush with vindication. This is what we're up against; this is what the media never show you; this is the real racist.

To his right, a man and two women are holding hands tightly and bowing their heads; they're praying, out loud, for his soul. A Tea Partier wants to know: "Did your mother teach you to talk like that?" Answer: "Did your mother teach you to be so goddam stupid?" The situation is not defused. Finally, he unleashes a furious: "Why don't you all go down to Mississippi and burn some goddam crosses," and makes his exit. Throughout all of this, a woman is standing just a few feet away from the spectacle, pleading with the crowd not to encourage him. "Don't give him an audience! Don't give him an audience!"

[Read more in the Road Trip Blog blog]

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Someone Walked: The National Park Service doesn't mess around when it comes to terrifying signage. Meanwhile, why does the one adult in this scene seem totally unfazed by the screams of these poor children? (Photo: Tim Murphy).Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming—Back on the planet Earth where I was raised, I'd never given much credence to the notion that the Yellowstone Supervolcano was part of a New World Order plot to exterminate two-thirds of the world's population, bring about the Messiah, and restore large swaths of the continent to their original wilderness state. Then I discovered the Internet:

"The Illuminati may be planning to use the destructive nature of the Yellowstone Super Volcano as their major tool to accomplish their coveted 'Re-wilding' project."

I guess Lady Gaga was just a decoy. Fortunately, there's a whole community of independent Internet researchers who have committed themselves to constant vigilance of all things supervolcano—they monitor seismographic charts, earthquake patterns in the shape of a "Y" (Yellowstone has a calling card, apparently) in the western part of the continent, and the National Park Service's Old Faithful webcam (which you can, and absolutely should, do as well). Rest assured that, should things start to get hairy, you'll be able to plan accordingly and move somewhere remote like Montan—oh. Oh.

[Read more in the Road Trip Blog blog]

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