Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how he missed George Will’s column while he was perusing the WaPo website. He was directed to a recent Will column in which Will advocates repealing the 17th Amendment to the Constitution via Ace. Here is the direct link to the meaty part of Will’s column:

The Wisconsin Democrat [the oft odious Russ Feingold - ed], who is steeped in his state’s progressive tradition, says, as would-be amenders of the Constitution often do, that he is reluctant to tamper with the document but tamper he must because the threat to the public weal is immense: Some governors have recently behaved badly in appointing people to fill U.S. Senate vacancies. Feingold’s solution, of which John McCain is a co-sponsor, is to amend the 17th Amendment. It would be better to repeal it.

The Framers established election of senators by state legislators, under which system the nation got the Great Triumvirate (Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John Calhoun) and thrived. In 1913, progressives, believing that more, and more direct, democracy is always wonderful, got the 17th Amendment ratified. It stipulates popular election of senators, under which system Wisconsin has elected, among others, Joe McCarthy, as well as Feingold.

The 17th Amendment says that when Senate vacancies occur, “the executive authority” of the affected state “shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.”

Feingold’s amendment says:

“No person shall be a Senator from a State unless such person has been elected by the people thereof. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.”

Feingold says that mandating election of replacement senators is necessary to make the Senate as “responsive to the people as possible.” Well. The House, directly elected and with two-year terms, was designed for responsiveness. The Senate, indirectly elected and with six-year terms, was to be more deliberative than responsive.

Furthermore, grounding the Senate in state legislatures served the structure of federalism. Giving the states an important role in determining the composition of the federal government gave the states power to resist what has happened since 1913 — the progressive (in two senses) reduction of the states to administrative extensions of the federal government.

Severing senators from state legislatures, which could monitor and even instruct them, made them more susceptible to influence by nationally organized interest groups based in Washington. Many of those groups, who preferred one-stop shopping in Washington to currying favors in all the state capitals, campaigned for the 17th Amendment. So did urban political machines, which were then organizing an uninformed electorate swollen by immigrants. Alliances between such interests and senators led to a lengthening of the senators’ tenures.

The Framers gave the three political components of the federal government (the House, Senate and presidency) different electors (the people, the state legislatures and the electoral college as originally intended) to reinforce the principle of separation of powers, by which government is checked and balanced.

Okay… Sadly your Maximum Leader excerpted more than he originally bargained for.

Huzzah for George Will. Your Maximum Leader has never been a fan of the 17th Amendment. He agrees completely with Will that severing the connections between Senators and State Legislatures has been a bad move. (Just as allowing the House and Senate to add air-condidtioning to their offices was a bad idea… Your Maximum Leader has a pet theory that Congress started to go to hell when the House and Senate office buildings were air-conditioned. Before a/c Congress met from January to May/June and then got the hell out of dodge. If you’ve ever visited (or lived in) Washington DC from July through September you know why one would want to leave. With a short legislative year, Congress got shit done and done quickly. Once it became possible to stay in relative comfort in the Nation’s capital you start to get a professional Congress that sucks…)

Anyhoo…

Senators should be selected by State Legislatures. Your Maximum Leader is confident that changing the Founders formula in this way hasn’t been a good thing…

And while we’re speaking of repealing Amendments to the Constitution…. Here are a few others we could do without…

The 26th Amendment. - Fuck the whiney 18-20 year olds. They hardly vote anyway.

The 23rd Amendment. - Fuck DC. It annoys your Maximum Leader to know that there is a law working its way through the current Congress to give DC a full vote in the House (and off-set that vote with an added vote for Utah). The District is not a state. It shouldn’t be treated as a state. It is expressly not a state in the Constitution. If you want to have full represenation in Congress and you live in DC you should move to Virginia or Maryland. Your Maximum Leader might be in favor of shrinking down the actual size of the District and giving the rest of the city back to Maryland. (Just as Arlington County was given back to Virginia.)

The 22nd Amendment. - Hell. If voters are stupid enough to want someone as President for more than 8 years they should be able to vote for that person for more than two terms. Your Maximum Leader is against all statutory term limits. We have elections to limit terms in office. (Your Maximum Leader can think of precisely two men for whom he’d vote to see a third term. The first is George Washington, the second is Abraham Lincoln. Although in all honesty, a Lincoln third term would have depended on how a full second term would have gone. So that is a tenative endorsement.)

And although he wouldn’t like to see it repealed, he’d like to see one modification to the first section of the 14th Amendment. Your Maximum Leader would like the first line to read something like this: All persons born to citizens of the United States and those naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

The more Libertarian readers of this blog might want your Maximum Leader to advocate the repeal of the 16th Amendment. Your Maximum Leader believes we need income taxes - if for no other reason than the modern world economy will not tolerate crushing tarriffs.

So there…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been following the story surrounding the NY Post editorial cartoon concerning the shot monkey and the stimulus package. Apparently the NY Post has sort of apologized for possibly offending people. According to the piece:

After two days of protests, the New York Post apologized Thursday for a cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police. But the newspaper also said its longtime antagonists exploited the image for revenge.

The qualified apology didn’t mollify at least some of the cartoon’s critics, who said they might continue protesting Friday.

The newspaper posted an editorial on its Web site Thursday evening saying the cartoon was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but “to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

The piece was posted hours after 200 picketers chanting “Boycott the Post! Shut it down!” marched in front of the paper’s office, saying the cartoon echoed racist stereotypes of blacks as monkeys.

The editorial said that “most certainly was not its intent,” adding that some media and public figures who have long-standing differences with the paper saw the cartoon “as an opportunity for payback.”

Calling them “opportunists,” the editorial said: “To them, no apology is due.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped lead the outcry over the cartoon, criticized what he called the paper’s “conditional statement” of regret.

“Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended, they seem to want to blame the offense on those (who) raised the issue, rather than take responsibility for what they did,” he said in a statement.

The tabloid, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., is known for its feisty attitude, provocative headlines and conservative outlook — a mix that has garnered hundreds of thousands of readers, but also criticism over the years.

The newspaper had stood by the cartoon, which its editor called “a clear parody” about the death of Travis, the chimp that Connecticut police killed Monday after it mauled a friend of its owner. Editor-in-chief Col Allan had said the intent was to ridicule Washington’s efforts to revive the economy.

The drawing by longtime Post cartoonist Sean Delonas, published Wednesday, shows a dead chimp and two police officers, one with a smoking gun. The caption reads, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

Humm… Was someone just saying that you can’t have a dialogue on race when one side always throws around accusations of racisim? Oh yeah. That someone was your Maximum Leader earlier this week…

Your Maximum Leader saw the cartoon and thought it was amusing. He never associated the cartoon with Obama at all. Why? Because President Obama didn’t have anything to do with writing the spending bill… It was Congress… So Congress is the monkey in this case… (Or is Congress an infinite army of monkeys clanking away on their typewriters until they come up with a spending bill…)

People…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was disturbed in one of his morning progresses this morning by the presence of news vans from the major networks. Why you might wonder?

Apparently your Maximum Leader’s neighborhood is a haven for men who have defrauded investors of $10 Billion. Damn R. Allen Stanford. Bringing the hordes of reporters here.

Your Maximum Leader hopes they leave soon.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wonders how one can feel good about washing one’s hands when the soap dish (in which the soap bar is located) is dirty - or if the pump on the bottle soap is dirty and crusty?

Is your Maximum Leader the only one who keeps dispensers of cleaning materials clean?

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees an interesting headline on the Washington Post: Gender Line is Blurred in GMU Homecoming Pageant.

Hum… A Homecoming Queen… Figuratively…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s blood pressure was raised a little yesterday after watching some of (and reading some of) new Attorney General Eric Holder’s comments on race yesterday in a speech to staff at the Justice Department. Your Maximum Leader will just use the AP story he saw yesterday as a starting off point. According to the AP:

Eric Holder, the nation’s first black attorney general, said Wednesday the United States was “a nation of cowards” on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues. In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” Holder said.

Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, but “we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race.”

Humm… Your Maximum Leader wonders why we don’t discuss race? Could it be because the voices of dissent on racial topics are silenced by the omnipresent threat of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who are ready to brand anyone with an unpopular opinion an inveterate and unrepentant racist? It seems to your Maximum Leader that the problem is not that we are cowards and can’t speak about race; the problem is that you can’t have a conversation about race when the past actions of one conversant discourages future action of another (possible) conversant. Who wants to engage in a dialogue on race when one believes that the reward for discussion will be social stigmatism and marginization as a “wacky racist?” Perhaps this might be cowardice as Holder defines it.

Your Maximum Leader notices an affinity for many liberals to celebrate “speaking truth to power.” But that affinity doesn’t seem to extend to serious discussions about race. If one says that the economic misery of many inner city blacks could be the result of the breakdown of the traditional civil structures of the historic black community (like the family and strong churches); then one is chastized and marginalized because you are against non-traditional families (of any sort) or a religious nut.

Perhaps we should encourage all who want to talk about race to put aside childish ways of thinking about race. The most childish way of thinking about race in America is summarized as if you disagree with the leaders of the “black community” then you are a racist. This is really no different a mindset than your Maximum Leader’s son’s mindset that if he doesn’t get his way then the world is unfairly persecuting him. We need to recognize real persecution where it exists and act to end it. We also need to actively call out and marginalize those who will claim persecution where none exists.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader got an email from an old college friend yesterday. It contained a link to a You Tube video. The only clue to the link was the subject line of the email “Best beer ad ever.”

To wit, your Maximum Leader presents the “best beer ad ever.”

Heh. Your Maximum Leader will have to get a Guinness tonight.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was sitting down at the computer typing out a 100 Below story. While your Maximum Leader was typing his son, the Wee Villain (aged 4) sauntered in and asked what your Maximum Leader was doing. After explaining a 100 Below story to him, the Wee Villain asked if he could tell one and get it posted on the interwebs.

Your Maximum Leader agreed. Here is the 100 Below story from the Wee Villain:

Once upon a time there was a boy. He got up. He went to school. He came home from school. He played Star Wars Legos. He pooped. He had ham for dinner. He went to bed. The end.

In retrospect, his story is just as good as the one your Maximum Leader thought of writing…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that many contributors over on National Review Online are writing about their favorite presidents today (being “Presidents Day).

Your Maximum Leader agrees with John Hood in the NRO piece… James Knox Polk. Should be on anyone’s list. Any sensible “anyone” at any rate…

Since he’s thinking about it… Here is the list of the top 10 Presidents of the United States according to your Maximum Leader. (This is the 2009 edition.)

1. George Washington
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt (I don’t have to like their politics for them to make the list.)
4. James K. Polk
5. Theodore Roosevelt
6. Andrew Jackson
7. Harry Truman
8. Ronald Reagan
9. Dwight Eisenhower
10. Thomas Jefferson (For the Louisiana Purchase mostly.)

If you care… Here is your Maximum Leader’s list back in 2006.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader reads on Joan’s site that the bust of Winston Churchill loaned to the United States by the UK and displayed in the Oval Office under President Bush has been returned to the British by President Obama. (BTW, your Maximum Leader also voted in Joan’s poll.)

This makes your Maximum Leader sad, but what really do we expect. Our new president is making a break with the past. That includes office furnishings. According to the various linked pieces, Churchill has been replaced with Abraham Lincoln. Your Maximum Leader has no problem with replacing Churchill for Lincoln in the Oval Office. But it seems as though this whole exchange has been handled badly. It also seems from the tone and tenor of the articles that the diplomatic community is all atwitter at what the return of the bust might actually “mean.”

Your Maximum Leader, for his part, thinks that this whole (very minor) incident means nothing more than Obama’s people don’t know how to do things in a way that don’t upset our allies and friends.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s Valentine’s Day did not go as planned. It started to go south when Villainette #2 started acting up with her friends here (from the sleepover). Your Maximum Leader disciplined her quietly and not in front of her friends so as not to embarass her too much. Alas, she was a bit thickheaded and needed another go - this time in front of everyone. No fun… Your Maximum Leader’s mood perceptibly grew a little foul.

Then, Mrs Villain and the Villainettes had a group of kids over to work on a school project. This school project involved painting some sheets to use as a backdrop to a play. Mrs Villain didn’t think through the painting and had the kids paint the (thin cotton) sheets on top of a (thin cotton) sheet on the carpeted floor of the Villainschloss basement. Needless to say, the carpet got painted too. Your Maximum Leader had to go out and get one of those industrial-strength carpet cleaner thingies to save the day. The day is pretty much saved - but it wasn’t pretty and your Maximum Leader was starting to get really pissy.

Then came time for dinner. Your Maximum Leader had planned a feast of T-bone steak, fried oysters, roasted-garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. Well… Villainette #1 decided she didn’t want to help peel potatoes. Your Maximum Leader told her that if she didn’t she was getting a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. Villainette #1 thought the threat was an idle one, so she left. Your Maximum Leader was now very pissy. He cooked four (instead of five) steaks, fried up the pound of oysters he bought (already shucked - this morning in fact), and got everything cooked. Dinner was served and Villainette #1 was surprised to discover that not only was she going to actually get a peanut butter sandwich for dinner; but that it was served to her on a Lightning McQueen plate normally reserved for her 4 years old brother. She was all sorts of upset. She sulked through dinner. Your Maximum Leader was informed by Mrs Villain at the table that she didn’t want any oysters (fried or otherwise). Villainette #2 had a couple of oysters (she liked them but wanted more steak). So it fell to your Maximum Leader to eat pretty much all of the oysters. (NB: They were quite delicious. Lightly breaded in a corn-meal/flour mix and a little buttermilk.)

Did your Maximum Leader mention that he started drinking bourbon and coke from his 20 oz tiki mug earlier in the day? No? Ooops.

So now your Maximum Leader is all hopped up with oysters and liquor. And what does he decide to do?

Go and read blogs of course…

He should draw your attention to the best “Valentine’s Day” type post he’s read in a long time. Mr. C.S. Perry is a friggin genius. Not only is Mr. C.S. Perry a friggin genius, but he caused your Maximum Leader to remember through a bourbon induced haze that he is filled with the amourousness that comes through alcohol and oysters in mass quantities. In fact he is likely filled with enough amourousness to occupy two normal men his age (or one 16 year old boy).

Mrs Villain has, of course, turned in early and is fast asleep.

At this point your Maximum Leader is seriously considering… Well… He’s considering lots of options…

Damn.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader decided to watch Battlestar Galactica last night on the little TV rather than wait for tonight.

Well… He can’t decide if BSG just jumped the shark (or nuked the fridge - or whatever the hip expression is now). He’ll have to watch the episode again to see if he can get more out of it a second time.

So the final five are the ones who taught the Cylons how to resurrect. The toasters came up with monotheism. Brother “John” Cavil is more evil than we thought. And there might be a grand design implemented by God at work here.

That was a heck of a lot to come up with in one episode.

Your Maximum Leader is wondering if the stress of writing the show isn’t now affecting the storyline. One almost feels as though the writers sat down one day and said “Holy shit! We’ve only got 6 more episodes to wrap this baby up.” (NB: Do people speak numbers rendered as numbers or numbers written in words? Should those writers have said “Holy shit! We’ve only got six more episodes to wrap this baby up.”) Then they went back to the outline and wrote an episode to bring us up to speed.

The status of Starbuck and the mentioning of God at work led your Maximum Leader to have an intersting shower thought. You know how the writers have (mildly) incorporated a few elements from the old series into the current one? (Your Maximum Leader is thinking Pegasus here. Which by the way - it has always stuck in your Maximum Leader’s craw that Pegasus was destroyed and not Galactica. Why sacrifice the the newer better ship and keep the older one around? Especially now that we know that Galactica is falling apart…)

How about this… Remember in the old series that big blue ship that harrassed the fleet for a little bit and then deposited with them that guy who turned out to be some sort of demon? Remember those? What if (in the current series) we have a group of humans/cylons out there who are acting in the role of God? This could be a separate group who’s role is to observe from afar with their superior technology and then hit the reset button when required? They are the ones leaving additional clues - or changing the ones already left to suit altered circumstances (since there seems to be some other force at work per the conversation between Cavil and Ellen about the “Temple of Hope.”)

It’s just a random thought.

Still can’t decide if BSG has started to suck or not.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was beginning to worry. Villainette#2 sleep over is scheduled for tonight. Your Maximum Leader feared for what he was going to have to do in terms of TV watching. He knew that the big uber HD TV was likely out for viewing Battlestar Galactica tonight. He was afraid he was going to watch BSG on the little TV.

But now there is a new plan.

Your Maximum Leader will record BSG on the Tivo in all its HD glory and watch it tomorrow night. Tonight on the little TV he will watch the little gift he gave himself for St Valentine’s Day - but didn’t expect to receive until next week.

Your Maximum Leader bought “My Name is Bruce” from Amazon. He actually ordered it a few weeks ago. He pre-ordered it rather. It was supposed to be released this week. Amazon said that your Maximum Leader should receive it on February 17th. Unexpectedly it appeared at the Villainschloss yesterday evening. Woo hoo!

So, tonight your Maximum Leader will make himself a large adult beverage in a large tiki mug called Grog; pop up some popcorn and watch Bruce Campbell, Sam Rami and the lovely Grace Thorsen fight Guang-di the Chinese God of bean-curd.

How lovely is Grace Thorsen by the way? Judge for yourself:

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader should take a moment to recognize the 200th anniversary of the birth of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln. If you haven’t heard that today is Lincoln’s 200th birthday you are ignorant or living under a rock somewhere.

Your Maximum Leader has at various times, for fun and mental exercise, rated the “greatest” presidents of our great republic. His first four don’t ever change. They are (in decending order) George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and James Knox Polk. Beyond those four your Maximum Leader changes his mind.

For a great many thoughtful (and some not so thoughtful) people, Lincoln is number 1 on that list. Your Maximum Leader can see why one would rank Lincoln above Washington. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t agree with that assessment, but if that is your opinion it is a sound and thoughtful one.

Washington in the popular American mind is a legendary figure. More man-myth than real man. It takes effort in our times to better understand George Washington. But Lincoln is an accessible figure to so many. Your Maximum Leader believes that this actually starts with Lincoln’s photographs. We can see that face and connect with the man. Also, the problems of Lincoln’s time, in many ways are still the problems of our times. Race continues to be a central issue in American life. Lincoln’s role in defining that issue is still relevant daily. (Whereas Washington’s influence on American political life is not as easily seen day-to-day. Although it is there in everything surrounding the Office of the President.)

Last night your Maximum Leader watched about half of Henry Louis Gates Jr’s, “Looking for Lincoln” on PBS. He watched half because he didn’t know it was on and just stumbled upon it while surfing. If it comes on again your Maximum Leader will try to tivo it and watch the whole thing. It was good. Gates did a good job of describing his own inner conflict about Lincoln. On the one hand you have the Lincoln that was taught to Gates by is slave-decended relatives. This Lincoln was the Great Emancipator. The free-er of the negro. The new father of all Americans. Then you have the actual historical Lincoln that Gates grew to know through his study of history. This Lincoln was defined by political motives, expediency at times, and doubts about what he was doing. Watching Gates try to reconcile the two Lincolns was good (and informative) television.

Your Maximum Leader likes to think that he tries to these great men of history in their own time. He tries not to force his own knowledge of history and present values on men of different times. It is hard to do with figures like Lincoln and Washington. But certainly in the case of Lincoln, if you view him in his own time and try to put his actions in context and try to imagine a veil of uncertainty on how his actions would turn out you get a compelling narrative of a man to whom we all (as Americans) owe a great deal. You also get a moving story about human suffering and the trancendence of that suffering to create a greater good.

If you are in Illinois you might stop by the Lincoln Library. Or, if you are in the DC area (as is your Maximum Leader) you might want to stop in and see the Lincoln artifacts (including the Emancipation Proclamation) at the American History Museum of the Smithsonian. Or you might go by the refurbished and reopened Ford’s Theatre. Or go to the Peterson House across from Ford’s Theatre. The Peterson House is the house where Lincoln died. Your Maximum Leader remembers visiting the Peterson House many years ago (mid 70s perhaps) and looking at the bed where Lincoln died, which at the time had the blood-stained pillow resting on it (in a plexiglass box), and being a little overwhelmed.

Your Maximum Leader admires Abraham Lincoln very much. He thanks God (and Providence as the Founders might have said) for Abraham Lincoln.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was over at Ted’s site and decided to clicky through on the link to visit the “Shrine of the Mall Ninja.”

Oh. Mah. Gawd.

Your Maximum Leader was afraid he was going to laugh so hard he would have some sort of infarction and need medical attention. Your Maximum Leader has met some “mall ninja” types in his day. If you ever visit a gun shop or gun show you are bound to run into your fair share. He thinks he pretty much lost it when he read this:

You’re just jealous that SPECOPS and I have something to show for our lives and you do not. The Corporation’s work is the only thing I can talk about, SPECOPS may have led a more adventurous career, but his actions must have been very above-board for him to be able to discuss this much of his work with you. My “Black-Ops” history ensures that you will never know about the missions I accepted in my younger days, and Vietnam still shudders when it hears the name of a an assasin so skillful and deadly, he is remembered decades later. I hope all of you manage to find some meaning in life, because you obviously have never put your life on the line for others, and until you have almost died, you have never lived. In my profession, you take risks that would be considered impossible to 99% of other men, and undergo pain that the mere shock of which would kill any three of you pantywaists.

Oh my goodness this is good stuff. If you have any experience with this type, you will get a kick out of this site.

Carry on.