SO HOW’S IT SELLING? Nissan Leaf Named World Car Of The Year.

IN THE MAIL: From Will McIntosh, Soft Apocalypse.

AT PJM, still more video from Syria.

BLAME GAME: The Hill: Battered by gas prices, White House starts attacks on oil companies.

Related: AP: Costly gasoline clouds Obama re-election prospects. George Korda saw this coming.

INTERESTED IN DISASTER-PREP? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.

And here’s a list of recommended survival gear.

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S NOT FIT TO PRINT, in China. “The press guidance provided by China’s censors is so voluminous and detailed that leaked copies of the guidance are now available on a regular basis. China Digital Times publishes a weekly list of what China’s censors tell their journalists not to report or hype. It’s a remarkable glimpse into the dark soul of Chinese bureaucracy, a guide to what really scares China’s rulers. But there’s irony there as well. I mean, why read Chinese papers when we can get all the juiciest bits from the censors themselves?”

WAL-MART IS testing online grocery delivery in California.

I’d rather have Amazon Fresh, but I’ll take what I can get. Which at the moment is none of the above . . . . And then there’s what happened to poor Amazon Tote.

TED LECTURE: Kirk Sorensen: Can Thorium End Our Energy Crisis?

ON SALE, TODAY ONLY: A JBL iPod/iPhone speaker dock.

HAPPY EASTER!

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Is War In Syria Next?

THE TELEGRAPH: Welfare handouts aren’t fair – and the public knows it. “A new survey shows that despite years of propaganda from the Left, Britons retain a deep-seated sense of fairness and individual responsibility, says Janet Daley. If you could work, but won’t, a large majority think you should have your benefits either reduced or stopped completely.”

DODD HARRIS: Nice move, Dearborn: You’ve made Terry Jones a Koran-burning martyr. “This case won’t have to go all the way to the Supreme Court. Michigan’s appellate court should vacate the convictions immediately. And then Pastor Jones will get to file his 1983 action and be entitled to damages from the state. All of which will do nothing but increase his media exposure and generate sympathy for his asshattery.”

THE HILL: Democrat rips Obama for not focusing more on jobs.

LITTLE MISS ATTILA: Caitlin Flanagan Trips Over A Shark. “In the past, Ms. Flanagan has peppered her subjective pieces with some real insights. This one was just flimsy, bigoted, and awful.” Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel.

Plus, from the comments: “Stories like this drive me crazy. What is the moral supposed to be, that young women are too fragile to be allowed outdoors without a chaperon? That if you let them in your institution in the first place, you’ll have to remake it so that it’s a place of special security? Those were exactly the arguments that used to keep women out.”

THEY DON’T HAVE MUCH LEFT: Fareed Zakaria plays the “John Smith” card.

AT AMAZON, up to 65% off on select knives. You can never have too many knives, right?

MATT WELCH: “To follow up on Peter Suderman’s great post from yesterday about the predictive unreliability of interest rates (and the bubble mentality inflated by those who cling to low interest rates as proof that there’s no real borrowing problem), here’s a selection of commentators who reacted to this week’s Standard & Poor’s downgrade by flaming the messenger.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Dollar’s Decline Speeds Up, With Risks for U.S.

THIS COULD POSE A PROBLEM FOR THE RECOVERY: “This Easter weekend, Americans will spend a lot of money on items such as marshmallow peeps, plush bunnies and fake hay, begging a question: How much does the U.S. economy depend on purchases of goods and services people don’t absolutely need? As it turns out, quite a lot.”

UPDATE: Reader John Marcoux writes: “I’ve said it before, and it seems especially so to me now, there is nothing in Best Buy that I really need. I think most people are capable of accepting that. Hence the problem for the economy, and for stocks if the sidelined boomers don’t take the bait and finally lunge back into the market.”