another .htaccess question

I should add to this. I’ve searched around on the forum…
The mod_rewrite module is loaded.
I’ve also tried the various Options SymLink fixes. Pasting them at the top of the .htaccess file. This causes a generic 500 server error.
I have a suspicion that it has something to do with the apache config.

Hi, I’ve pasted the code below.
After snooping about some more, I noticed that there were a fair amount of folks with this problem before. Most ended fixing it by pasting an ‘Options’ line. I tried this in the .htaccess file. Does it belong there or in the httpd.conf file? I ask because my sys admins are really into security and they probably have some locked down version of apache running.
I could use the /index.php/ redirects (they work), but that seems to go against the idea of a permanent link, no? I like php, but who knows what will come along in the year 2030.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /palimpsest/
RewriteRule ^archives/category/(.*)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /palimpsest/wp-feed.php?category_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/category/?(.*) /palimpsest/index.php?category_name=$1 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/author/(.*)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /palimpsest/wp-feed.php?author_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/author/?(.*) /palimpsest/index.php?author_name=$1 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/([0-9]{4})?/?([0-9]{1,2})?/?([0-9]{1,2})?/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?([0-9]+)?/?$ /palimpsest/index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3
&name=$4&page=$5 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([_0-9a-z-]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /palimpsest/wp-feed.php?year=$1&monthnum=
$2&day=$3&name=$4&feed=$5 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([_0-9a-z-]+)/trackback/?$ /palimpsest/wp-trackback.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&
name=$4 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^feed/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?$ /palimpsest/wp-feed.php?feed=$1 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^comments/feed/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?$ /palimpsest/wp-feed.php?feed=$1&withcomments=1 [QSA]