Fred explains the whole East Waynesville thing, and in so doing reveals why, if pressed, we still cop to being “Baptist.” (Hint: the SBC isn’t really Baptist anymore.)

Editors say they forbid undercover operations:

“It is important that sources be aware that they are dealing with journalists,” said Tim Franklin, editor of The Sun in Baltimore. “It is not something that I feel comfortable with. This is a form of undercover journalism that, thankfully, went out of vogue in the early 1980’s.”

Presumably, the “early 1980s” represent some sort of ancient period in journalism wherein it didn’t almost universally suck.

The famed security expert explains why REAL ID is a complete waste of time. Of course, it’s also almost certain to become law.

There is a story about this — Google stumbled — but mostly we just wanted to use the headline.

JWZ points out this little gem of a headline: Chlamydia Outbreak Kills a Dozen Penguins.

There’s a joke here about retired, pedophile priests finding work in animal husbandry, but we’re not touching it.

So to speak.

Some high school teachers are still assholes.

The so-called “Broadcast Flag” has been struck down by a 3-0 decision. BoingBoing, Wired News and Godwin’s Law (yes, that Godwin) have more.

Atrios points out that Stephen Colbert is getting his own show, which will run after TDS.

From our hometown paper: Rick James on the issues.

From here:

Media On the Run:
Sweet merciful motherfucker, the Rude Pundit is so fuckin’ glad that there’s no more war in Iraq and the soldiers have returned home, the Social Security debate is over, the terrorists are on the run, Tom DeLay’s crawlin’ under a porch lookin’ for termites, the public education system’s been fixed, North Korea’s handed over all its nuclear technology and opened itself up to inspections, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are tryin’ to figure out who’s gonna be the top in their shared prison cell (the smart money’s on Cheney), and more, more, so much more, so that we could waste, waste, fuckin’ waste hours upon hours of television news time on a crazy goddamned bug-eyed bride-not-to-be who lied about being kidnapped. Because otherwise, it’d be pretty fuckin’ stupid, wouldn’t it? This time it’s worse – it’s worse than Michael Jackson, Laci Peterson, Robert Blake, and Chandra Levy because it ain’t about jack motherfuckin’ shit, not even a crime, not even a celebrity, not even a politician – it’s about the committing of a misdemeanor by an idiot in order to fool other idiots, but its massive, overwhelming coverage only reveals who the real idiots are. At one point, Sunday morning, all three “news” networks were doing long pieces on who-the-fuck-cares-what-her-name-is, interviewing “experts” about why someone wouldn’t want to get married, why would someone claim they were kidnapped and, no, really, truly, who the fuck cares. Do you think Wolf Blitzer can look at himself in the mirror anymore? Do you think he wants to hock a loogie at his own reflection because he knows, he fuckin’ knows that that’s what he deserves from the rest of us? Do you think he knows how much harm he does or does the bell ring and he just obeys?

Achtung!

You thought the Ralph Reed bullshit was significant? Try this bit on for size, where Chairman Bill outright lies to NPR about Redmond’s flip-flop on the Washington gay rights initiative. Fuckers.

That’s the title of Al Gore’s piece in Salon (from a speech on Wednesday). It should be required reading for all those who think the “nuclear option” — as the GOP termed eliminating judicial filibusters — is a good idea. Hell, everybody ought to read it.

In our experience, John Gruber over at DaringFireball is occasionally too much a Mac partisan to be taken seriously, but more often than not he’s spot on. This time, though, he completely nails just exactly what is fucked up about the Adobe-Macromedia merger: it’s more evidence that the sales guys have taken over. Simply put, this invariably means more marketing bullshit and less technical excellence, or as he puts it:

Now that it’s run by a sales guy [Bruce Chizen, who took over from the founders], it has turned into a company that seems more interested in the sales and marketing of its products than in the products themselves.

Word. Gruber concludes with:

Like most sales guys, Chizen seems like the sort of person who believes that what matters most is not the quality of the product itself, but merely the marketing in which you package it. Marketing does matter, and so does salesmanship. But the main reason Adobe Systems has been a success is that they created and developed terrific, innovative software. Engineering talent isn’t enough; you need passion for innovative products at the top of a company. If that spirit continues to wither, Adobe will continue its slide into mediocrity, and will become just another software company. But if it becomes a bigger company while doing so, I suspect that will suit Bruce Chizen just fine.

Meanwhile, I suspect more and more folks will opt for the Gimp.

There now exist bras designed for unaugmented women to give the distinct impression to observers that they have in fact joined the silicon masses.

The Evolution bra is aimed at “women who lust after the look of cosmetic breast implants,” according to Brastraps Inc., a Florida-based company that introduced the new bra on Friday. The Evolution features a sculpted, graduated cup “specially designed to mimic the appearance of cosmetic breast implants.”

In other words, they produce ersatz fake breasts.