Well, if you ask me […] the International Red Cross is a joke. Folks, there are terrorist-supporting regimes throughout the world, there are dictatorships slaughtering their own people everywhere, but the International Red Cross focuses on us because we make our prisons available to these thugs and of course the New York Times is once again the media outlet of choice for the U.S. bashing as in Abu Ghraib, and then the IAEA leak about our supposed failure to secure munitions in the last week of the campaign, and now G’itmo.

You know, this paper, I don’t know. It appears to me the New York Times just hates this country. They hate red states. They hate traditional marriage. They hate our military. It’s just amazing. Here, the International Red Cross, for crying out loud! The International Red Cross never once reports on the abuses of thugs and dictators and what they’re doing to their own country.

— Rush Limbaugh, “Int’l Red Cross Hates America”

Good advice for anyone: stop when it becomes impossible for someone to parody you.

You know how it’s been hip for a long time to call Rolling Stone “irrelevant”? (bonus points if you reminisce about the good ol’ days when it still was relevant.)

I wonder how long it’ll be before calling Pitchfork Media “irrelevant” will be cool.

Here’s an article from the New York Observer about the humble beginnings of the Chicago-based Pitchfork and why they have cred while so many others don’t.

…and a site that Zippy would use to help fill up his iPod: Music from TV Commercials.

I’ve enjoyed Zippy the Pinhead for a long time (I’m probably one of the many to have been introduced to Zippy by /usr/games/fortune) but the universal response from everyone whom I’ve tried to get to read Zippy is “uhhhh yeah I don’t really get it, it just seems stupid.”

Well here’s Understanding Zippy in Six Easy Lessons.

Musicblogger Mystical Beast in response to the question “The head of Sony/BMG is sitting across the table from you, asking how to improve the music industry for both the consumer and the company. What do you say?”:

“Put more women in charge. Seriously.”

So the new design is up.

There are still a lot of things that need to be fixed, gaps here and there, and much code ugliness, but I think it’s at a point that it’s “better enough” than the old way even with its failings.

Any problems? Anything look weird? Suggestions, comments, criticism?

More soon.

Here’s the best article I’ve read on the ways religion, politics, and culture influence each other in the United States South.

(Yes, it’s from a Harry Potter slash [if you don’t know, don’t ask] writer’s LiveJournal. But, seriously, read it.)

As someone from an extremely similar background and who has taken a similar path (well, other than the fanfic writing), I share the writer’s perspective. And as someone who has lived in the South my entire life, I was as surprised to read the comments on the article which said things like “I had no idea” and “It’s amazing to see it from your perspective” as the commenters seemed to be about the article.

Though I have some significant disagreements with her on a few parts, I haven’t seen anybody “get it” better than this.

On another note: “The New wordparts” is coming soon. It’s almost done. (This way I’m obligated to actually finish it.)