A collection of bits about my big, amazing, odd and oft-times infuriating country:

First off, Sp3ccylad on the increasing difficulty of becoming an American and how it's all worth it.

The cost of becoming American. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; And your cash. Especially your cash."

Immigration is a subject close to my heart for all sorts of reasons - not least because I've been an immigrant. It's a costly business, and in the USA that applies more than most. I remember being fleeced for two Employment Authorization Documents... [Abroad at home]

BoingBoing looks at some govermental self-love, from the shadiest of shady three-letter organizations, the NRO.

Declassified NRO video: Forty Years of Reconnaissance. David Pescovitz:

BB pal Vann Hall says:

This is one of those cases where reality is far weirder than anything a parodist could imagine: "NRO: Forty Years of Reconnaissance."

It's a now-declassified, um, music video by and in praise of the National Reconnaissance Office, the once super-secret spy agency responsible for the U.S.'s satellite and aerial reconnaissance missions. (Established in 1960, the NRO's very existence was classified until 1992. This was timely, as a couple of years later the agency built itself a $300 million headquarters -- the existence of which it also tried to keep classified, until someone thought to check the local planning office -- using part of the $1.5 billion or so in unspent funding it had socked away in a "rainy day fund.")

The video is a hoot: Over a montage of satellite launches, dial-twiddling technicians, and military hardware, intercut with historical footage from the past 40 years, an overly earnest rock balladeer sings of "Keep[ing] the Peace Alive." The Memory Hole, responsible for putting the spot online, was especially impressed by the song's timeless refrain:

"And we'll be there when you call,
Even Friday night's all right.
We'll see and hear it all,
Taking it on with all our might
To keep the peace alive."

Link to video at the Internet Archive, Link to more NRO videos at the Memory Hill [Boing Boing]

DRM, bye-bye: At a press conference today in London, Apple and record giant EMI announced what tech blog rumors had been suspecting for some time: All of EMI's catalog will now be available on iTunes without the digital rights management software that limits copying. Tracks from EMI artists -- from the Rolling Stones to the Decemberists -- will be of a higher quality (256k) and higher price, but will let users do with the MP3s as they will. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a press release that "selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry." (Tech Crunch, EMI) [Salon]

Word of the day: says what it does, does what it says.

arriviste: Dictionary.com Word of the Day. arriviste: an upstart. [Dictionary.com Word of the Day]

And now, one of my favorite new arrivals, Larry "Senior Black Correspondant" Wilmore.

They Call Me Mister Correspondent. Larry Wilmore, one of the newer fake reporters on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” stakes out his comic targets with the glee and democracy of a kid in a candy store. By FELICIA R. LEE. [NYT > Arts]

Now, go take the gay robot quiz; we're done!

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