My outraged little pals, are you feeling a little put off by the 21st century? Me too, dammit. Well, just now I got nothing to make you feel better, but if you'd like to sharpen the blade of your outrage to a gleaming edge, one of the best whetstones out there is ZNet, the online alt-press clearinghouse of Z Magazine. Great critiques of just about any crucial issue you can think of, with articles, links, reports, and other resources that will make you grind your teeth in righteous frustration at the efftup state of the world.

Aww, Smith, you say, ain't it more blissful to stay ignernt? Yes. But it feels good, sorta, to be in the know, and pissed off.

So try ZNet. Now is a good time, too. For one thing, they've consolidated a number of appriciations by friends and admirers of Edward Said, the activist and all-around intellectual renaissance man who died this past week. For another, they're in the early stages of developing Z Daily, a service that apparently blitzes subscribers with articles every day and includes a forum for contributing authors. They could use your input in their poll.

One of the best reasons to visit ZNet is that they publish Robert Fisk, the incredibly gutsy journalist from the Independent whose reporting from Iraq and the Middle East is among the best out there.