Nice link for Veterans Day from ML.
Also time to reflect upon all the soldiers giving their lives daily in Iraq. I was hawkish at the beginning regarding Iraq. Now I don’t know. I hope Bush et al. have come clue, any clue, what they are doing. I’m not so sure anymore.
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hopes that you take some time today to remember those brave men and women who have died for our country. I read this from Gregg Easterbrook’s blog, and got a little emotional.
Carry on.
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader directs you to this church. (And he would like to note that if all Baptists were this “right thinking,” your Maximum Leader would become a Baptist.)
Many thanks to Allah, for leading me to The Cheese Stands Alone, who in turn directed me to A Boy and His Computer.
Carry on.
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has had a great start to his day. He had two fried eggs (over-easy) on toast, a small piece of ham, and a small peice of roast beef with horseradish sauce. (The roast beef was leftover from a particularly festive dinner last night in honour of your Maximum Leader’s esteemed father.) He washed it down with Earl Grey tea from Harrods of Knightsbridge. All while reading the paper. Now he is going to call the Poet Laureate and see if we can arrange a movie today.
Of course, it doesn’t look like your Maximum Leader will get to much substantive blogging today. Or next week perhaps. (Schedule shaping up to be quite busy.) That is somewhat disappointing, but soon enough I will be blogging on more substantive issues. (Although that breakfast was pretty substantive in its own way.)
Carry on my minions.
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wants to draw your attention to this article off the Reuters news wire. In France a man was shot by his dog. Humm… Two thoughts. I didn’t think you were allowed to own shotguns in quasi-socialist France. But more importantly, was the dog a German Shepard? If so, that explains everything.
Carry on.
Just a question; is an offensive idea more dangerous than intolerance of offensive ideas?
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader majored in history in college. He was disturubed to read this article. I have studied “new social history” and it does have its place in the ivory tower. But, focusing on social history to the exclusion of diplomatic and polictical history poses serious problems for the future. Thanks to Derb on the Corner for posting the original link.
Carry on.
Heard a wonderful commentary on NPR this morning by Frank Deford which got me thinking about college football. I’m a big fan of Va Tech, having spent 11 years in Blacksburg and eventually emerging with a couple of degrees. And it’s nice to finally be one of the football elite that in my undergrad days, we resented and envied. But the whole BCS thing is a joke.
Division 1-A College football should have a playoff system. It would be simple to implement within the framework of the Bowl games. You simply use the BCS rankings to seed an 8 game tournament, and pick 7 bowls to host the 7 playoff games. Or maybe pick the top 6 and give the first two seeds a by in the first week. Then you have 5 Bowl games involved in the playoffs. And the excitement level among sports fans would be intense. It would rival the final four in NCAA Basketball.
It’s amusing to hear proponents of the current Bowl system use the academic concerns of athletes as a rationale for the current flawed system. The fact that every other level of NCAA football implements a successful playoff system, with no significant impact on those true student athletes… athletes who in many cases aren’t on athletic scholarship… shoots that argument down.
Still, it’s only football. To say “College football NEEDS” a playoff system is silly. It doesn’t NEED a playoff system. Noone is starving or dying because of the deficiencies in the system. At best, it’s should only be athletic fluff that’s a pleasant diversion. At worst, the BCS represents the corrupting effect that money has on our institutions of higher learning.
I don’t think it’s any worse then the idealogical corruption of Political Correctness that has infected many of our finest universities. But that’s an entirely different argument.
Anyone remember that Duran Duran spinoff band, Arcadia? Back in our days of debauchery in High School, I remember ML and I both enjoyed their album “So Red the Rose” with the song “Election Day”. Fluffy new-wave crap, but fun. Not as good as Power Station, though.
Elections are an interesting subject in our culture. It frequently seems that those in power spend more time concentrating on remaining in power, than actually doing their jobs. In the old days, this meant eliminating rivals. Now, in America, it’s all about stumping and fundraising. At least on the national level.
Here in my little corner of the People’s Republic of Maryland, We didn’t have Elections yesterday, so I didn’t get the chance to exercise my responsibility. But I have to admit I get a thrill going to vote. Participating in the system should be a big deal. People died for these rights. People are dying and killing for these rights throughout the world today. But I guess that just doesn’t matter to some.
To paraphrase my wife “If you don’t vote, you forfeit your right to bitch and whine about things.”
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is really in the mood to blog today. Blogging here. Blogging on the Poet Laureate’s site. Writing comments on the lovely Annika’s site. Just write, write, write…
Well, today was Election Day. And your Maximum Leader exercised his franchise and voted. This experience (going to vote) prompted a number of thoughts. I figured I would share them.
First… Your Maximum Leader promises that when the MWO comes he will dispatch the execution squads to drag out and shoot any media personality who uses the word “disenfranchise” incorrectly. To “disenfranchise” a person means you are taking away the right to vote of a person who was granted the right to vote after some interval when they were not allowed to vote. For example, literacy tests in the Jim Crow south disenfranchised freed slaves after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. When you take away the vote from someone who was historically granted the privlege of voting you are “disfranchising” them. Even the fricking Webster’s dictionary (one of the lamest excuses for a dictionary extant) gets it right. If you look up “disenfranchise” is gives the definition “To disfranchise.” So, short of passing an amendment to the Constitution raising the voting age to, lets say 21 (which hypothetically would take away the right to vote from those aged 18-20), no one in America is being “disenfranchised.” Thus, your Maximum Leader asks rhetorically, if even the lamest dictionary gets it right WHY CAN’T PEOPLE USE THE RIGHT DAMNED WORD!!!! Just another sign of the dumbing down of American society.
Second… Your Maximum Leader, who resides in the wonderful and historic Commonwealth of Virginia (come visit us and stimulate our economy!), where we believe in voting every year. Yes, our Commonwealth-wide elections are held in odd numbered years (to provide a counterbalance to federal elections held in even numbered years). Your Maximum Leader declares this to be a good thing. But, something that is not good is the silly “Virginia is for lovers” ad slogan that has gone on for years and years. I’m not really sure what it means. Lovers? Platonic lovers. Adulterers? Familial lovers? Animal lovers? History lovers? It is too ambiguous for your Maximum Leader’s TJ traits. (Your Maximum Leader’s Myers-Briggs personality type is INTJ.)
Third… When your Maximum Leader entered the voting booth, he believed that the MWO was established and in full swing. This caused him to become shocked (shocked!). Why you my ask yourself? Why indeed… Every office on the ballot (State Senator, State Delegate, Sherriff, Commissioner of Revenue, Clerk of the Court, and County Supervisor) was being contested by a single person. Every person on the ballot unopposed. And to make it even more interesting, every candidate was known to your Maximum Leader personally or by their positions on various issues. And to make it EVEN MORE interesting, every one of the candidates held (for the most part) positions on local issues with which your Maximum Leader fully agreed. Now surely your asking yourself “Self, why would this cause my Maximum Leader to be shocked? And he really shouldn’t call me Shirley.” Allow me to tell you…
I didn’t have any choices. That is not what voting in the United States is all about. Now don’t get me wrong. I am very happy (estatic in fact) to be represented locally by people who ideologically are not far from me. But I am sad that they didn’t have to compete for their jobs. In this case, I will blame local Democrats. They didn’t even field a challenger. I don’t believe any office of public trust in this country should be uncontested. I don’t care if the incumbent is much beloved and nearly impossible to defeat. It is just wrong. I know some local Democratic leaders and I plan on telling them that I am very sad that they couldn’t even be bothered to get someone to put their name on the ballot. Now I know that my State Senator and Delegate were very unlikely to be defeated. But come on, the Democrates can’t even get someone to fill out the paperwork, get some friends to sign the petition, and then sit on his bum until election day? They didn’t have to spend lots of money trying to defeat the incumbents. But they could have made some personal apperances somewhere and given interviews to the local papers. It is just sad. (What’s worse is that the incumbents had more of a challenge getting the party nomination than they did in the general election.)
And, honestly, Republicans are no better. They didn’t contest a number of seats state-wide. They should have. I can’t believe that there wasn’t someone who would volunteer to run just to give the other person some competition. But hey! When the MWO comes your Maximum Leader promises that every seat in the huge parliament (#2) will have at least two people running in every election.
That is all your Maximum Leader can blog today my minons. His fingers are getting sore…
Carry on.
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader dares you to read his posting on the Big Hominid’s site. Okay… I really don’t dare you. Actually, it is just a rundown of some news worthy items. So, read if you would like.
As for college drinking… As the AirMarshal reports, I did once make such a bold claim. But I can honestly say that the moment referenced by the AirMarshal was in fact the first time I did get sick from alcohol. Frankly, I deserved to get sick for wasting a fine bottle of Glenfiddich in a night of idle drunkeness. That has not been repeated. I also used to be able to boast that I hadn’t been hungover before. But, since I have grown older, I have found that if I drink a wee bit too much I get stiff and achey (ache-y?) the next morning.
And once again, your Maximum Leader must point out that when there are important issues to discuss, and weighty world-dominating ideas to disseminate, they are focusing on alcohol and what the Maximum Leader may (or may not) have done in college. This is why the evil index of this site is down around 49%… Hrumph!
And allow your Maximum Leader to publically thank the Minister of Agriculture for raising a fine feast for the Villainschloss. Your Maximum Leader will add, that if you are interested in agricultural and farming techniques, write me and I will pass along your message to the Minister of Agriculture. Perhaps we could convince him to post a regular column on farm-life and organically sound farming for this site… And if you are interested in purchasing organically raised farm products (next growing season) send an e-mail to this site. Your Maximum Leader will pass it along to the Minister of Agriculture. That e-mail again… nakedvillainy@cox.net.
And yet another plug… Do you have your Maximum Leader thong yet? (Your Maximum Leader asks this question of his female readers. Of course, if you are a man and like thongs… Well keep that to yourself.)
Carry on.
I seem to remember a night of drinking preceded by the ML claiming that he never got sick from alcohol. Karma bit him on the ass that night for making such a bold claim. Much puking resulted.
IIRC we consumed a fifth of Glenfiddich that night.
Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is greatful that his Minister of Agriculture has some time today to post to the blogsite. Although I would be hesitant to comment upon his characterization of your Maximum Leader in college, I do remember an occasion or two when the behaviour described did manifest itself…
What your Maximum Leader really wanted to do was to direct his readers over to the Classical Values blog and read this post. Very interesting and thought provoking. Your Maximum Leader hopes to write more about this subject tonight.
And if you live in a state or city for which today is Election Day, don’t forget to vote.
Carry on.
The Minister of Agriculture, being temporarily relieved of his teaching responsibilities by the election, has followed the Maximum Leader’s quiz link and discovered that his mythological type is a unicorn - innocence. I am remarkably impressed with the perspicacity of this quiz. When my friends and family think of me, I am sure that that particular adjective is the first thing that pops into their mind‚ÄövѬ
Intrigued by the insightful prowess of the quizmaker, I checked for other quizzes by the same author and took the ‚ÄövÑv What type of drunk are you?‚ÄövÑvp quiz. In this realm, unfortunately, the quizmaker‚ÄövÑv¥s omniscience seems to have failed. I was labeled a ‚ÄövÑv loud drunk.‚ÄövÑvp As the Maximum Leader can attest from our days together in college (Particularly the ‚ÄövÑv Wattage in the Cottage‚ÄövÑvp parties), I tended to be a wallflower at social events. If memory serves, it was always the Maximum Leader who was dancing maniacally and pulling ‚ÄövÑv Bobo the party bear‚ÄövÑvp out of coed cleavage with his teeth, then flinging the stuffed animal into the crowd. I can‚ÄövÑv¥t tell you how many times I had to pull him away from lasses who lacked fine moral character.
Finally, the Maximum Leader has hazarded a guess on the Big Hominid‚ÄövÑv¥s site about the Big Hominid‚ÄövÑv¥s weight in stone. By some fluke, it appears that the leadership cadre of the MWO hovers in the same weight range. Except, perhaps, the newly appointed Baseball Commissioner.
On a final stone note, the Maximum Leader‚ÄövÑv¥s humanely raised, grass-fed organic steer has now passed 47 stone. Since my original goal was to bring the lads to six hundred pounds by the end of November, I am one happy farmer. Mmm‚ÄövѬ Steak‚ÄövѬ
