~More Green Grass~

Read the posting and comments to the New York Post article at The Huffington Post.

Is it about John's ROTTEN ATTITUDE or is it real? The article read:

"SEX Pistols singer John Lydon isn't impressed with Bono's political activism. The aging anarchist snarled to gigwise.com: "Every time I see Bono in those big fly glasses and tight leather pants I just can't hack it. I can't see that as solving the world's problems. He's crushing his testicles in tight trousers for world peace." Clearly on a roll, Lydon took a shot at another saintly rock royal — Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof. "It was a very shoddy and weak production," Lydon said of Live 8. "And there weren't enough black faces in the show for my liking. I don't don't think it achieved anything. Bob Geldof is too self-serving."

The Maginot Mind would add that The Dave Matthews Band & Pearl Jam are artists who are genuine and authentic toward their fans as opposed to crybaby’s like Metallica and Paul McCartney who want to squeeze every last cent from their fans.

The Grass is always Greener...

What’s in a name? Well, some would say it's a witches brew as the Surf City USA™ trademark debate begins anew.

In 1991, the city of Huntington Beach passed a "Surf City" Resolution, and a state bill was proposed to assign the Surf City name to Huntington Beach, California. This southern California city takes the matter very seriously as it has applied for 9 "Surf City" trademarks.

Like in the early 1990s, local elected officials from Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz are again offering up challenges to surf contests to prove who is more deserving of the Surf City moniker.

Well, rather than sour grapes, the town of F******, Austria would say that the grass is always greener on the other side.

~Strange Brew & nothing but the Truth~

NEWS FLASH: DNA analysis has indicated that Alfred Hitchcock is the father of Karl Rove.

This revelation helps to explain why the Iraqi War has taken on the tones of a modern, but still dark and chilling, Hitchcockian drama.

To repeat, Alfred Hitchcock has been found to be the biological father of the White House deputy chief of staff and top handler, Karl Rove.......not.

It's Like Déjà Vu All Over Again

Background to this morning’s post at: The Huffington Post

The morning of Monday, June 27, 2005, the last day of the U.S. Supreme Court session, a unanimous court ruling in the case of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster Ltd. was handed down. It was a victory for the entertainment industry and a potentially damaging blow to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing firms as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that P2P firms can be sued if they encourage the use of their products to illegally swap copyrighted music and movies.

However, it was the precedent-setting Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios 464 US 417, 104 S. Ct. 774, 78 L. Ed. 2d 574 (1984) "Betamax" decision that enabled the motion-picture industry to reach levels of staggering profitability. This decision held that as long as a technology had a substantial non-infringing use, it would not be prohibited under law or liable in civil copyright infringement suits.

History shows that conventional media reflexively shuns novel technology. In 1908, a music publisher sued a player piano company. The Supreme Court ruled that making piano rolls was not close enough to publishing music to be prohibited. Now, The Maginot Mind, would like reactions from its readers as to the following:

The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Music Publishers’ Protective Association (MPPA) have now made it illegal to broadcast records. This may sound odd, but the very idea of broadcasting music from disc seems not only cheap but trivial, and above all commercial suicide. Why would the radio want to promote sales of its rival, the record business? Conversely, why would the record industry want to help out the popularity of radio by allowing discs to be used for broadcast, giving the radio stations free programming?

Pink Floyd

Today's blog will be dedicated to the music of: Pink Floyd

"Pretty Boy Floyd" & the Supreme Court

In the recent U.S. Supreme Court "Eminent Domain" case that has caused an uproar, the highest court in the land once again played super legislature by trying to 'make' rather than 'interpret' the law by changing PUBLIC USE to PUBLIC PURPOSE.

Woody Guthrie had kinder words for Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd in his song ~

The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd.
As through this life you travel, you meet some funny men;
Some rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.
As through this life you ramble, as through this life you roam,
You’ll never see an outlaw take a family from their home.

The more things change, the more things stay the same…who was it that said ‘the pen is mightier than the sword'!

The Shadow knows!

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

These opening lines, from the "Detective Story" program that began 75 years ago and captivated listeners with tales of the macabre, foreshadow the blogosphere of today.

The writers of these weblogs (e.g. The Maginot Mind; The Huffington Post; TPMCafe, et al.) are never seen, only heard…invisible with the ability to “cloud men’s minds.”

a Cuban Cigar ≠ a Buick

Newsflash: American political life and the blogosphere is where emotion masquerades as opinion.

The commentary to the following ad posted by Amazon.com at The Huffington Post on August 23, 2005 at 05:21 PM: “Coming September 2005: ‘Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed’” had produced 120 comments by 04:42PM ET today.

Get a feel for the emotions that ran in this sampling of children’s book titles: "McDonald's Inc. Had a Farm;" “The Big Engine That Couldn't;” "Once Upon a Party;" “My Real Birthday;” “Don't Hop on Pop;” "The Fat Cat in the Hat;” "There Are Liberals Under My Bed" A.K.A. - A Nightmare On Elm Street.”
Some other good conservative books for kids include: “Curious George Stomps A Faggot;” “Why Do Jews Go To Hell, Mommy?” “The Happy Songs Of Slavery;” “The Little Chickenhawks Who Couldn't;” “Little Fake Turkeys For You And Me;” “The Magic Beans Of Enron;” “Daddy's Chinese Bosses;” “Bedtime With The Saudis;” “Make Way For Duct Tape;” and soon to be followed up by:
“Hey Mom! There's An Anti-War Extremist Under My Bed!”
“Hey Mom! There's A Smelly Hippie Under My Bed!”
“Hey Mom! Michael Jackson Is Under My Bed!”
“Hey Mom! There's Forged Documents Under My Bed!”
“Hey Mom! There's Yellow Cake From Niger Under My Bed!”
“Hey Mom! There's Bush's Military Record Under My Bed!”
“Hey Mom! There's A Draft Deferment Under My Bed!”
“Hey Mom! There's a Pissed Off Sunni Starting A Civil War Under My Bed!”
and just in time for when bin Laden is captured...
“Hey Mom! There's Bin Laden Under My Bed!”

Islamic fundamentalism = Libertarianism

Islamic fundamentalism may best be regarded as a kind of conservatism which finds expression in a religious context. It is within this setting that conservatism can be contrasted to radical Libertarianism or anarchism.

However…Benjamin Franklin is best at describing the soul of America:

“Learning is valuable. But on the Day of Judgment, we’ll not be asked whether we have learned languages or philosophy, or even the proper name of every star. The sun and the moon will have vanished. The constellations themselves will have disappeared along with all of nature. But our deeds, our good and bad works, shall remain forever recorded in the archives of eternity.”

Political Correctness = Red Herring

:::Statement of the Year:::

Some background...
The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy by Reuel Marc Gerecht who is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and a former Middle Eastern specialist with the CIA.

In this book he examines the prospects for ending anti-American Islamic extremism and promoting democracy in the greater Middle East.

The statement...
In yesterday’s Meet The Press, it was refreshing to finally hear some honesty and historical realism. As a candidate for "Statement of the Year," Reuel Gerecht made the following statement:


Transcript::
MR. GERECHT: Actually, I'm not terribly worried about this. I mean, one hopes that the Iraqis protect women's social rights as much as possible. It certainly seems clear that in protecting the political rights, there's no discussion of women not having the right to vote. I think it's important to remember that in the year 1900, for example, in the United States, it was a democracy then. In 1900, women did not have the right to vote. If Iraqis could develop a democracy that resembled America in the 1900s, I think we'd all be thrilled. I mean, women's social rights are not critical to the evolution of democracy. We hope they're there. I think they will be there. But I think we need to put this into perspective.

Economic Primer

Last weekend was the 70th anniversary of Social Security, and the following information puts into relief the difficulty with which the management of risk and return in investment accounts is easier said than done since the world is now flat and the economy is now global.

Market Close – Friday August 19, 2005
Major U.S. Indexes		Close
Dow Jones Industrial Average		10,559.23
S&P 500 Index		1,219.71
NASDAQ Composite		2,135.56
Money Rates		%
Bank Prime Rate		6.50
Discount Rate		4.50
Federal Funds Rate		3.50
Currencies
Nation	$1 in Foreign Currency	Foreign Currency in Dollars
Britain	0.5568	1.7961
China	8.1042	0.1234
Euro	0.8222	1.2163
Mexico	10.7410	0.93101
Switzerland	1.2743	0.7847
Vietnam	15,858	0.000063
Notes
Nations that trade in Euros: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain.
Source: Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com/markets)

INXS

Today's blog will be dedicated to the music of: INXS

The Vietnam era redux

Cindy Sheehan wants President Bush to act and be Presidential!
Cindy's oldest son, 24-year-old Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan, was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. It is her desire to confront the president and force him to explain why her son died. Cindy's protest has acted as a lightning rod for the long overdue media attention on the anti-war movement. To learn more about Cindy and her protest: read her blog entries

For Shame!

Whose free speech?

Another example of where the left meets the right!

In this case, the liberal "TheHuffingtonPost.com, LLC" style of censorship reads as: “Thank You for Commenting…We read each comment when it is submitted, so there may be a delay before your comment appears.”
This sounds a lot like the conservative "The Trump (Donald) Blog" where their censorship phrase reads: “Note: The author of this blog has enabled comment validation. Your comment will not be displayed until it is approved by the author.”
The form maybe nuanced but the effect on the substance is the same, and is commonly known as Censorship.

Hardball or Softball?

Is the U.S. meeting objectives in Iraq?

Report Card
Grade A	13%
Grade B	26%
Grade C	24%
Grade D	17%
Grade F	16%
Source: Council on Foreign Relations (June 1-13, 2005)
“Hardball” is silent as to whether the margin of sampling error for each individual question in the survey is +/- 4.0 percentage points, with a 95% level of confidence.		4%

On the Tuesday, ‘Hardball with Chris Matthews’ show for August 16, the following commentary about the above table. Chris Matthews posed the following question:

MATTHEWS: “We‘re back. Fighting here with HARDBALL political analyst Bob Shrum…here‘s a poll that was asked by the Council of Foreign Relations. Would you give the president A, B, C, a D or an F for his handling of the war? Most people don‘t give him an A, only 13 percent, or an F, only 16 percent. Most people give the president somewhere above a C and below a B. It‘s about, you know, 26 percent say B, 24 percent say C, 17 say D. It seems like the American people, Bob Shrum, are reasonably unhappy with this war but they‘re not ready to just pull the plug nor do they think it‘s a disaster. What do you think they think it is?

SHRUM: I think there‘s increasing disillusionment of the war. I think when you see number in the range of 40 percent approving of what the president is doing, 60 percent disapproving, you might average those out to some kind of C, although not in the school I went to.

Hardball? See the commentary to the following post at The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/archive/2005/08/ratings-for-political-blo_5726.html

Is this hardball, softball, wackoball, or wiffleball?

Fall Activity Favorite

2005 UCLA Football Schedule

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME (ET)
Sat, Sep 3rd, 2005	at San Diego State	3:30
Sat, Sep 10th, 2005	Rice	3:30
Sat, Sep 17th, 2005	Oklahoma	3:30
Sat, Oct 1st, 2005	Washington	3:30
Sat, Oct 8th, 2005	California	10:00
Sat, Oct 15th, 2005	at Washington State	3:30
Sat, Oct 22nd, 2005	Oregon State	10:00
Sat, Oct 29th, 2005	at Stanford	3:30
Sat, Nov 5th, 2005	at Arizona	9:00
Sat, Nov 12th, 2005	Arizona State	7:00
Sat, Dec 3rd, 2005	at USC	4:30

The big issue: Who’s listening?

Concerning protest music in our culture, and how it collides with business and politics…set for release September 6 is an anti-Bush song, Sweet Neo Con, from the new Rolling Stones’ album, “A Bigger Bang.”

There is no mention of President George W. Bush or the war in Iraq. However, it does refer to military contractor Halliburton, which was formerly run by Vice President Richard B. Cheney, and has been awarded key Iraqi contracts and has benefited from the rising price of gasoline.

The question for the Rolling Stones, with a combined age of 245 years, is when will they stop rolling since their wheels haven’t fallen off yet.

A sampling of lyrics:

"How come you're so wrong? My sweet neo-con, where's the money gone, in the Pentagon," goes one refrain.

The song also includes the lines: "It’s liberty for all, democracy's our style, unless you are against us, then it's prison without trial." “You call yourself a Christian. I think that you’re a hypocrite. You say you are a patriot…I think that you’re a crock of…@#$%.”

Who will sing along to Sweet Neo Con?

“You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite. You call yourself a patriot, well I think you’re full of s---… How come you’re so wrong, my sweet neo-con?”

In the 1960's and 1970's, protest songs helped to unite a generation. A tradition since the Middle Ages...are we again in need of the medieval troubadour or Town-crier to help unite a country?

Lance Armstrong…a disingenuous cancer survivor!

Some history…on October 2, 1996, at age 25, Lance was diagnosed with testicular cancer. During the period from that October to December of 1996, he underwent surgeries to remove the involved testicle and then to remove cancerous brain tumors, and he received chemotherapy.

He established in 1997, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, an international nonprofit organization to provide leadership in helping people manage and survive cancer.

Since then he has went on to win the Tour de France in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. He was also appointed to the President's Cancer Panel by President George W. Bush in May 2002.

In the George Stephanopoulos interview this morning, Lance said “cancer is one word, hundreds of diseases,” “the outcomes so very different,” “they’re all CURED differently,” and that “I consider myself fully and completely CURED” as he spoke about “this bastard called cancer.”

However, it was disappointing seeing Charlie Rose fawning over him in their interview two weeks ago…a very big disappointment because what Charlie believes about Lance could be very, very dangerous advice to others seeking medical attention.

At this year’s Tour de France, Charlie Rose was in the stands a couple of rows above Sheryl Crow, and Senator John Kerry was in a car behind Lance as he rode his bike.

Lance told George Stephanopoulos that “I’m going to Crawford, Texas to ride mountain bikes with the President.” Thus, it appears that President Bush has the time to ride bikes with Lance, but not hold a meeting with Cindy Sheehan, a mother whose son died in the war in Iraq.

In the July 2005 issue of Outside Magazine, Lance was quoted as saying that “Maybe I’ll run for governor”…(of Texas)…I'll leave it at that. Not in '06, though.”

Is he following in the footsteps of George W. Bush from the governorship of Texas to the Presidency of the United States?

A caveat is that we need more truth in advertising!

Yes…Lance is CURED of his cancer. But there are only 2 curable cancers - Hodgkin’s and Testicular. That’s the fact that separates Lance from all the other cancer SURVIVOR’S! In fact for those who have survived more than five years---they have PREVAILED!!!

∑ [535+(270/538)+9]

There are 535 in Congress + a President elected by the electoral college + 9 members of the Supreme Court. This is the American formula for its brand of liberal democracy.

The 535 members of Congress can more promptly correct a bad federal law they previously passed than the 9 Justices of the Supreme Court can correct a bad decision.

Watchdogs: On the left (Whigs) - “The Nation” founded in 1865 by Edwin Lawrence Godkin (October 2, 1831-May 21, 1902), and on the right (Tories) - the “National Review” founded in 1955 by William Frank Buckley, Jr. (born November 24, 1925).

August 6, 1945

Newsflash: The atomic bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 bomber, at 8:15 in the morning of August 6, 1945.

Last weekend was the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. The Cold War had already begun DURING World War II, and the bomb was dropped to exhibit cojones to the Soviets and stop the Soviet march into Japan.

:::You know the rest of the story:::

Huffington Trumps trump

The (Arianna) Huffington Blog has been “delivering news and opinion since Monday May 9, 2005” while the (Donald)Trump Blog has been delivering “ideas and opinions from Donald Trump and his circle of experts” since Wednesday, August 10, 2005.

Two posts found at the Huffington site aptly caricature "the Donald" as to his narcissism http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/deepak-chopra/self-importance-self-rig_5432.html and likeness, hair included, to Kim Jong-il of North Korea. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/chelsea-peretti/kim-jong-is-the-illest_5152.html
The Maginot Mind has been delivering ideas, news and opinion since Sunday, August 7, 2005.

Meet the Press vs. Face the Nation

Two posts from the Huffington Crowd & Milieu concerning autism from Meet the Press (Sunday, August 7) with Tim Russert:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/robert-f-kennedy-jr/vaccines-and-autism-loo_5316.html, and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/david-kirby/my-take-on-tim_5374.html, but why ignore the issues presented that same Sunday morning on Face the Nation with moderator Bob Schieffer?

Also, why no TheHuffingtonPost.com submissions about the fact that the 2005-2010 additions to the deficit include the Energy Bill ($10 billion), Veterans Health Benefits ($1.5 billion), and the Transportation Bill ($600 million) while President Bush still wants to increase the deficit even more by cutting taxes in the Fall?

Outage

Two sections of the broadband network, nodes HA14 & HA15 are down, so The Maginot Mind is offline today.

Posts+Comments of the Day

Two excellent posts+comments to peruse:

(1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/catherine-ingram/maher-vs-stewart_5215.html

(2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/harry-shearer/the-russert-watch-patt_5271.html

It's important to separate the wheat from the chaff on the Internet...that's why in the future there will be postings on the maggots in the blogsphere.

The Maginot Mind

The blogesphere is infested with maggots...so beware.

However, the best post of Saturday, August 6, 2005 can be found at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/chuck-gutenson/the-ant-and-the-grasshopp_5241.html

Avoid the maggots, check out this post.