Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader would like to note that now the lovely Annika has taken the quiz that was posted here earlier in the week. Wanna know how she answered the questions? Read annika’s responses.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader seconds the AirMarshal’s Kim Possible post. He has, on more than one occasion, found himself watching Kim Possible late at night while channel surfing. And the Villainettes were fast asleep.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is on a roll with all these single link blog entries. (Is it reallyjust a feeble attempt to break the 1000 post barrier by July?) Anyho… Your Maximum Leader would pay good money to have someone (and by that he means a real “someone” - like an elected official, or famous writer) give this speech at a college commencement.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader loves modest proposals. They are always a fun read. So in that vein your Maximum Leader commends to you the lastes from Conrad. The Gweilo Diaries: A New North Korean Export (or, Poontang from Pyongyang) Enjoy.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was going to comment on the Gore speech of yesterday. But instead, your Maximum Leader refers you to Skippy. (His post of May 26th. The one with the photo of Gore doing his best Howard Dean impression.) Skippy is, as usual, brilliant!

Carry on.

So Al Gore gave a speech yesterday blasting Bush. Ok, fine. Despite the fact that I agree with a lot of what Gore said, I still think he’s a Schmuck. Want to know something, Al? The biggest reason you aren’t President is that you were too freaking stupid to campaign in your “Home State”, or to enlist Bill’s help to win Arkansas. When Fred Thomas is working his ass off to win Tennessee for Bush, and you don’t even bother to show up, you don’t deserve to win the election.

As my daughter might say “Gore - Moore… it’s a rhyming word!”

Michael Moore won the Palm D’Or at Cannes. Oooh big surprise. As the Americans are getting booed off the court at Roland Garros by an extremely anti-American crowd, Moore winning  film award at Cannes is about as shocking as a Republican wearing a tie.

For the record, I despise Michael Moore. I don’t find him entertaining in the least. He furthers his blatant political agenda with half truths and inuendos and when he’s called to account for distortions, he reverts to the “Hey, it’s not the news, it’s only entertainment” defense. (I call this the “Rush Limbaugh” defense.)

So NPR did a special on Moore on Tuesday I believe during the afternoon rush hour. Not sure if it’s the right link I found, but it’s still appropriate. Anyway, the film critic reporting from Cannes described Michael Moore as some sort of hero to the French. God, if they think the best we have to offer is Jerry Lewis and Michael More? ugh.

In any event, The film critic (possibly Ken Turan) stated that Moore is viewed as a hero in europe, as the only American to “tell it like it is”, and speak the truth. This bothered the critic (good for him) who called Moore to task on his skewed, political view of the world, and his distortion of facts. The critic cited Bowling for Columbine as a film he didn’t like, that he felt was inappropriately labeled a documentary, and was more properly labeled propaganda.

Anyway, the critic closed out his report by describing an exchange between a French reporter and Michael Moore. I tried to google for the transcript but couldn’t find it. In essence, Moore railed against the “ban” on his film in the US. The reporter asked him if he thought the film would ever be seen in the US. More paused and said “of course it will” quietly. The French seemed to think that it was a governmental ban, and not a corporate decision to not distribute a hot potato.

Oh well.

PS. There is one Michael Moore film I really love. Canadian Bacon. In no way is it a great film, it’s a great late night cable comedy. I good $0.99 rental. A fun and stupid little movie. Much like Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I remember seeing “Killer Klowns” on cable one weekend, when MaxLeader came down to Blacksburg to see a football game. Watched it on cable after the game.

Any of the parents out there watch this? My daugter loves it. Gotta say, I enjoy Kim Possible too.

yup

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader read this Reuter’s piece: Researcher Dies After Accidental Ebola Jab, and remembered why he didn’t go into medicine.

Well… The real reason was that he doesn’t like helping people enough to do it full time, or even part time. He prefers being Maximum Leader.

Carry on.

If the Maximum Leader will be so kind as to insert the pics I sent him, here are some pictures from my land.

Pic 66670006: A view of the lower pasture. You can see the divisions; this three acre field is divided into ten smaller paddocks by wire.

Pic 66670007: A close up view of Bonnie and her boys. Bonnie is tipping the scales at 520 pounds these days - she’ll be ready to breed when she makes it to 700 - about three months from now. Bonnie is the brown and white Ayrshire in the foreground. A Holstein steer is standing slightly behind her - he is black with white markings. The angus cross is in the far background - he is all black.

Pic 66670025: Sunrise at Sweet Seasons Farm. This is how I start my day. My father and I built the barn you see out of a torn-down house. In the foreground is another of our scrap creations: the chicken tractor. If you look closely, you can see a couple of guineas sitting on top of the tractor.

Update from your Maximum Leader: Pics uploaded to site and links active. Sorry it took a while. Your Maximum Leader is spending more time away from a computer lately.

I have never understood why the Maximum Leader is so obsessed with Deuteronomy.

Update from your Maximum Leader: Because it is filled with such great laws that’s why. Really! Try Deuteronomy 22:5. “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” Or Deut 22:10. “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.” Or Deut 23:17. “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.” And the ever popular Deut 2721. “Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.”

To that your Maximum Leader says, “Amen.”

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was doing a quick morning review of his blogroll (which as he has mentioned before acts as an easy to use favourites list) and chanced upon this quick note from Misha at the Anti-Idiotarian Rotweiller. He added a reference to a Bible verse in his title banner.

This struck your Maximum Leader as a fun thing. Taking Bible verses and adding them to your title bar, or in the case of this site, the Rotating Tag line area. So, your Maximum Leader has decided to add a new rotating tag line to his list. It is Deuteronomy 23:1. Hope you like it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been reading up on many of the blogs on the ole sidebar and found some interesting stuff.

First off, allow your Maximum Leader to thank Bill for adding us to his sidebar. Your Maximum Leader knows that Bill certainly meant nothing by not adding us to the list sooner. And as Bill says himself, when the MWO comes he doesn’t want to be on your Maximum Leader’s list. Bill, all is forgiven. You aren’t on the bad list. You are definately on the good list. It was probably some weird Blogger/Blogspot problem anyway…

Which brings your Maximum Leader to his second item.

That rascally Dr. Rusty Shackleford. Thinks he can write in the “voice” of Seinfeld and get us to laugh. Ha! Using Blogger but posting to non-blogspot site! As if your Maximum Leader is trying deception… As if… Yeah… As if… Well… Okay… There might be a little deception. But on the scale of deceptions with the Gulf of Tonkin Incident being really deceptive and taking the 5th in front of a Senate select committee investigation as not too deceptive this can’t be all that bad. Hey Rusty… At least people could still read this site after Blogger screwed up all the “www” links! Maybe FTP’ing to a different host wasn’t all that dumb afterall. Nyah, nyah, nyah.

But fixing the ole blogroll was a pain. Touche.

At least there are still a few of us hanging on to Blogger… It makes Google’s takeover of Blogger a greater value proposition to Sergey and Larry.

Carry on.

I enjoy my farming chores 99% of the time. Sure, there are days when I am not so happy - like when an irresponsible neighbor’s dog kills my setting guinea and cracks all of ther eggs. Or when a lightning strike blows out my $65 electric fencer. But those types of frustrations vanish when you have a perfect day like yesterday.

In school we had an excellent day of reviews for th Standards of Learning test. After classes, i went to watch some of my children play soccer. The girls won their game and seemed excited that I had come to cheer for them. The boys game was very interesting. Our team is just incredible. Their ball-handling skills are amazing and they won their 17th game in a row with a score of 10-1. That one goal was scored when all the starters were on the bench and is only the third goal surrendered all season. I think the key to our dominance in the Valley League is that Harrisonburg is a mecca for immigrants. Our African and Hispanic players play like they were born with a soccer ball in their placentas. American kids take up the sport later and, in general, more haphazardly.

I stopped at my parents on the way home from work for dinner and arrived to find my wee daughter following Grandpa around the house on his watering rounds. Dad comes from a rather nondemonstrative German family, so it has been fun to watch my daughter wrap him around her little finger. She can even get him to do goofy dances with her.

I joined Dad and Emilie and took a tour of the new Smallholder Senior plantings. He had also (oh joy!) found a new source of organic compost - horse manure mixed with acidifying sawdust that will be a perfect mulch for my blueberries.

My wife arrived and we had a family dinner, my little sweetie of a daughter holding hands with grandpa and I during grace. Mom had made a delicious new recipe - chicken with mushroom sauce. My daughter cracked everybody up as she diligently devoured abig ear of Dad’s corn, hoilding onto the corn pins with her little 19 month-old hands.

It was dark when I got home, so I immediately went out to the pasture to check on the calves. They had demonstrated their frustration with the delayed attention by knocking over a couple of their watering bins. While I filled the bins, my Heifer Bonnie came up and laid the bottom of her jaw propreitarily on my chest, snorting foul cow breath into my face as she demanded attention. The other boys crowded around, pushing against my legs - the really demanding twin sucking on my shirttail and butting the keys in my pocket. Even one of the angus crosses came up to let me scratch his chin. The other, of course, was aloof, but wanted to stand next to me even if he wasn’t going to allow me to touch him.

It’s amazing how all eight animals have their own unique personalities. Bonnie is probably the most affectionate since she is basically a pet. The Holsteins are the next in terms of temperment; breeders have been selecting for temperment for years - an easily excited or fearful cow is bad news in the milking parlor. Angus are wilder, beefier cattle that are selected for easy calving, uniform growth, and quick gain on grain - none of which are particulalry appropriate for my operation since I don’t calve them, am not selling to a feedlot that demands uniform size, and don’t feed grain. They are certainly much wilder than the Holsteins even though they have been treated exactly the same way.

As I stood there, surrounded by Bonnie and my boys, I looked out over the dark fields and saw an amazing display of phosperesence. These were not the fireflies of my youth.

When I was a kid we used to chase fireflies in the evening. As I got older, there were fewer and fewer fireflies around - their larvae are vulnerable to herbicides and pesticides that are now applied to suburban lawns. The firefly population in the suburbs has plummeted in recent years as yuppies have escalated the turf wars.

The childhood fireflies I remember had long, slow, lazy light displays. The tail end might glow for three or four seconds and even small kids could approach and grab them. I have this type of firefly - they show up at dusk and do their little mating dance for an hour or so. But the ones I saw last night do their dance later. And instead of long glows, they emit flashbulb bursts - looking at the hills surrounding the farm, it was like being in a stadium with all the cameras taking pictures at once. Cool, cool cool. My own private, natural fireworks show.

Heh. I may be poor, but I am rich in ways you city folks can’t even imagine.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader likes reading Bill Keezer’s site. He is a very thoughtful guy. Your Maximum Leader thanks him for the compliment in this post. (NB to Bill: You like us, but not enough to link to us your Maximum Leader sees. If your Maximum Leader was one to use those little “emoticon” thingies in his blog, please know he would have put one here. Nonsymmetric linkage so to speak?) Your Maximum Leader and his Minister’s are pretty catholic in what topics we will cover. Your Maximum Leader commends the AirMarshal for starting the booze posts. He should do a weekly alcohol review…

Carry on.

1. which political party do you typically agree with? Neither, really.

2. which political partydo you typically vote for? Probably 60/40 in favor of the Dems.

3. list the last five presidents that you voted for? Too Young, Bush,Bush,Clinton,Gore

4. which party do you think is smarter about the economy? Republicans pre-2000. Neither now.

5. which party do you think is smarter about domestic affairs? Prior to Y2K, Gop Fiscal, Dem Social. Now not really sure.

6. do you think we should keep our troops in Iraq or pull them out? Keep them in with clear cut objectives. Try again for international help.

7. who, or what country, do you think is most responsible for 9/11? Saudi Arabia, Taliban

8. do you think we will find weapons of mass destruction in iraq? Some Circumstantial evidence, probably. If any were there, Blix and the UN gave Saddam enough time to dispose of them, or “donate” them.

9. yes or no, should the u.s. legalize marijuana? Yes.

10. do you think the republicans stole the last presidental election? Not sure, but there was GOP misconduct. And probably Dem misconduct as well.

11. do you think bill clinton should have been impeached because of what he did with monica lewinski? Although I thought the entire investigation was a travesty and a Witch Hunt, once Bill perjured himself, then yes, he should have been held accountable for that. Ultimately he has noone to blame but himself.

12. do you think hillary clinton would make a good president? No.

13. name a current democrat who would make a great president: Lieberman maybe. Edwards maybe. ugh

14. name a current republican who would make a great president: McCain

15. do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion? Yes, up to a point.

16. what religion are you? Agnostic

17. have you read the Bible all the way through? Most of it. Skimmed a lot of the more boring books.

18. what’s your favorite book? Shogun by Clavell, and the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien.

19. who is your favorite band? Zeppelin probably.

20. who do you think you’ll vote for president in the next election? Kerry, mainly a to vote against Bush.

21. what website did you see this on first? This one.