Sure, internships are supposed to be tough, but the rabid neoconservatives who run the New York Sun seem to be going out of their way to be severe to the unfortunate young souls who somehow find themselves paying their dues there. The dress code, for example, stipulates not only a suit and tie but a specific color of shirt, shine to the shoe and knotting of neckwear. Is this really the paper that celebrated Middle Eastern women who defiantly wear tight jeans, bikinis and punk-rock-inspired clothes under their burkas in the name of not being "dressed like everybody else?" And is the de facto ban on subway rides of more than 30 minutes coming from the same editors who slammed the mayor for taxing suburban commuters? Apparently so! Whether there's hypocrisy at work in them or not, the Sun's "Guidelines For Interns" are pretty hilarious, assuming you don't have to slave under them. Someone who did just sent us a copy, and we've highlighted some of the fun bits:

Writes our tipster:

Note that we were still expected to wear suits, ties, and dress shirts every fucking day (except "casual" Sunday, when we were "allowed" to wear blazers with dress shirts ties and dress pants), thus leading to at least $100 in dry cleaning costs alone over the course of the summer.

There are internships with far looser rules at news organizations that are better known, better regarded, less slimy, less politically biased and less racist than the wingnut-driven Sun. Some of them even pay! But there is a seemingly endless supply of young writers desperate for some — any! — sort of experience, even if it's at an anemic daily newspaper that doubles as an "animal shelter for unemployed New York writers" and comes complete with the draconian rules required to keep order in such a zoo.

By the way: In addition to the rules above, uppity interns, remember never to say anything nice about a filthy red communist!