Zod Bless America! General Zod has a few things to say about the Pledge of Allegiance.

It’s summer break from my job. So of course, I get sick. I hate this so much. I should feel lucky; this is the first illness I have had since October. But I still hate it.

Apparently Pete and Roger are going on with the Who tour after all. I don’t know who will be playing bass. They won’t really be the Who anymore anyway, but perhaps it is easier to deal with the loss by keeping busy on the road. (I would like to think that is the reason for it. If I were more cynical, I might think it was all only about the money. But I don’t believe that. This interview from shortly before John’s death gives some insight into the band’s activity these days. They were going to go into the studio this fall; I wonder if there is any point to that now?)

The greatest rock bassist of all has died.

Apparently there is some question whether the Who’s tour this summer will go on. I hope they cancel. They haven’t really been the Who since Keith Moon died in 1978, and without the Ox they would be only the Roger ‘n’ Pete show, not the Who. I will be listening to Quadrophenia tonight; the bassline in “The Real Me” is sheer genius. Goodbye, John.

The royalty deal between Yahoo! Broadcast and the RIAA that the Librarian of Congress used as a basis for all royalties to be paid by webcasters (see my posts from last week) was designed specifically to force small webcasters out of business for themselves (pushing them to Yahoo! as a provider) and decrease competition, Broadcast.com’s founder Mark Cuban admitted to the Radio and Internet Newsletter. More grounds to get the whole thing overturned? Can we say MONOPOLY, boys and girls?

Another reason to boycott Wal-Mart. (NY Times link, login required.) This stuff makes me so mad.

“The FBI is visiting libraries nationwide and checking the reading records of people it suspects of having ties to terrorists or plotting an attack, library officials say.” And what’s worse: “The same law that makes the searches legal also makes it a criminal offense for librarians to reveal the details or extent.”

We need to speak out against actions like these. This does not make us safer; this makes the US a police state. I do not want to live in a police state. I wish libraries would offer anonymous accounts; the libraries around here require ID of some sort. I guess they have to do that to reduce loss, but it seems that some sort of anonymity would be a useful service. Perhaps an account that doesn’t keep track of the names of the books checked out, only their value. The names would be tracked separately from user names.

Help save Internet Radio by signing up for the Save Internet Radio mailing list. And listen to my net radio station on Live365 — while you still can.

The Librarian of Congress has issued a ruling on the rates webcasters will have to pay for streaming copyrighted material. The RIAA didn’t get all they wanted, but they got enough. This decision may drive most webasters out of business. See RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter for ongoing coverage, including response from Congressmen Inslee (yay, Jay!) and Boucher.

The Oxford English Dictionary News is some fun reading for language geeks. Each issue contains articles (e.g. ‘Doh!’ before Homer: the Appeals list and the process of continuous revision, Nachos, anyone?), as well as appeals for help from the public in finding earlier or later citations for certain words or phrases. It’s fascinating reading if you are inclined to an interest in the English language.

An excellent game and a classic rivalry that most of the US slept through. *Sigh* Soccer is a wonderful sport to watch, and lots more fun than American football. Why are so many Americans so oblivious?

I always knew New Yorkers were the Devil’s henchmen. That’s why they live on Sodom Road! But some residents don’t like living on a street named after the Biblical party town.

“Either it’s a nasty word or it’s a part of the Bible,” Malloy said. “But that’s like naming the road ‘Devil Place.’”

Or New York Yankees Avenue. Same diff.

I really should read Pop Culture Junk Mail more often. While I was on my blogging hiatus, I kind of avoided reading blogs, as well. (Except for the one I just couldn’t wean myself from.) Bad, bad me. Anyway, as usual, I found tons of way-too-cool stuff on Gael’s site. I won’t link to all of it — just go to PCJM yourself and look around, it’s all good — but I did have to borrow one cool idea. Slumberland now has a guestmap. Go there and mark your location, so I can see where my (remaining) readers live. (You diehards, you.)

Yahoo!’s new home page is online. First thought: Yuck. Still too busy, still a pain to find anything on, and now a giant ad in the middle. Loads fast as always, though. Remember when Yahoo looked like this?