Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader tips his bejeweled floppy cap to Saint Jones. Who exactly is Saint Jones? Well Mr. Jones is the proprietor of Big Daddy’s in New Orleans. And what is Big Daddy’s? It is a “gentleman’s club.” (So to speak.)

It seems as though Mr. Jones is doing his damnest to reopen Big Daddy’s. Hurricane damage and levee breaches be damned! From the article on the wire Mr. Jones is stocking up on water and supplies. As soon as he has power, and dancers, he’ll open.

Your Maximum Leader suspects that dancers are the least of his troubles.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thinks that perhaps you may have missed this lovely article off the wire. He’ll share the title with you: Eatery Sold Donkey in Tiger Urine.

What can you say but… Yum?

You know, your Maximum Leader has never had a desire to eat the flesh of any feline. The whole “cat” family has not ever struck him as a source of meat. Cats, on the whole, seem to range-y and slender to be good eating. (Marinated in urine or otherwise.) Your Maximum Leader imagines that any cat meat would be tough and sinew-y.

Well, regardless of what your Maximum Leader thinks, it appears as though tiger meat is a delicacy in China…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has learned that Susan Ann Catherine Torres has died. Aged 5 weeks.

Susan Ann Catherine Torres was the young girl born to brain-dead woman in Arlington VA a little over a month ago. If you recall, Susan’s mother, also Susan, was ravaged by cancer and died while 15 weeks pregnant. Her body was kept alive to give her daughter, and namesake a chance to live.

While the ceasarian birth appeared to go smoothly, it seems as though young Susan developed a perforated intestines and died. Your Maximum Leader can hardly imagine the heart ache of Jason Torres. Who now has lost his young wife and his infant daughter in the course of a few weeks. This fills your Maximum Leader with a deep sense of pathos.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is in DC today on business. He will try to complete a few updates today during breaks in his day.

Longtime readers will remember that the Villainschloss is not the immediate DC area, but in Fredericksburg, VA; about 45 miles from DC. So this morning your Maximum Leader had to rise very early and become a DC commuter. It has been many many years since he was regularly a DC commuter. As surprising as it seems, once and a while he misses it.

This morning evinced one reason why he sometimes misses the commute.

Your Maximum Leader boarded a Metro train in Springfield, VA to take him downtown. In most cases he would just drive the Villainmobile the whole way in, but he decided to take the subway instead. He seated himself as comfortably as possible in a seat and started to read the new issue of National Review.

At Eisenhower Avenue, your Maximum Leader became penned into his seat by a rather corpulent middle-aged man who took the open seat next to your Maximum Leader. Your Maximum Leader continued to read his National Review.

At the Pentagon City station, your Maximum Leader noticed a young woman enter the train in the crush of people. She looked very smart in her prete a porter Donna Karan suit. She had hair that was cut at about shoulder length and pulled into a sensible pony-tail.

Your Maximum Leader would not have paid much attention to her, until he noticed her exquisite arse. It was the arse of a fit, athletic woman. It was well shaped and firm. It looked great in the DK suit. The legs leading to it were quite nice as well.

Your Maximum Leader had to avert his eyes lest he be caught staring.

At the Foggy Bottom Metro Station the corpulent middle-aged man next to your Maximum Leader got up to leave the train. And the woman with stunning arse in the DK suit moved to let him out. She bent down to move her laptop case and gave your Maximum Leader two gifts. The first was a glimpse of the top of her very nice black thong underwear. The second came a moment later. She placed that lovely arse in the seat next to your Maximum Leader. She looked over at him and smiled politely. Your Maximum Leader smiled back. He then resumed reading National Review.

A moment later he caught a whiff of some scent. It was the woman with the stunning arse in the DK suit. Your Maximum Leader couldn’t identify the scent. But it was understated and not too floral. He sat for two more stations contemplating the arse, the thong, and the scent. He probably turned the page of his National Review, but he wasn’t really reading…

At the McPherson Square station your Maximum Leader had to detrain. He excused himself as he brushed by the woman with the stunning arse in the DK suit.

Thank you woman with the stunning arse in the DK suit. You allowed your Maximum Leader to indulge his lecherous nature on his commute. Thank you very much.

Carry on.

Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is grossly tardy in completing this meme for JohnL of Texasbestgrok.

The meme is this. One reviews a Robert Heinlein list of accomplishments that distinguish a generalist human from a specialist insect. After reviewing the list, one identifies the things listed in the quotation that you have actually done.

Without further adieu, the Heinlein quotation:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

As John and Robbo have already done, your Maximum Leader will take the list and address each point ad seriatim. The bold items are Heinlein’s. The plain text is your Maximum Leader’s pithy commentary.

Change a diaper - Indeed. Although this item is overrated generally. Your Maximum Leader also wonders if Heinlein had cloth diapers in mind or just the modern Velcro types. In either case your Maximum Leader can answer in the affirmative. Although he will admit that the cloth diaper he changed was a wretched mess.

Plan an invasion - Certainly if computer simulation counts then your Maximum Leader does so a few times a week. Otherwise this is a toughie. He has done some of those “survivalist” games and played capture the flag and paintball. There was strategery involved. So perhaps that counts.

Butcher a hog - In the strictest sense, no. He’s not ever butchered a live hog. He has taken whole (gutted) carcasses and butchered them into smaller pieces. Perhaps if he’s lucky he’ll do this once at Smallholder’s farm.

Conn a ship - various motorboats and one sailboat.

Design a building - Design - yes. Design a structurally sound building that could get an occupancy permit - no.

Write a sonnet - English/Shakespearian style - yes. Italian style - no.

Balance accounts - Balance accounts using generally accepted accounting practices? No. Manage the Villainschloss accounting (aka: cash flow statement) - yes.

Build a wall - Yes. A brick wall with his grandfather.

Set a bone - Never done.

Comfort the dying - Yes. A few more times than he would have cared to do.

Take orders - In business, yes. Military, no. From Mrs. Villain, once in a while.

Give orders - In business, yes. Military, no. To Mrs. Villain, once in a while. To Villainettes, all the damn time.

Cooperate - Yes. Often more than he would like to.

Act alone - Yes. Sometimes not as much as he would like to.

Solve equations - Yes. Although not in a while.

Analyze a new problem - Yes. Operations management is all about analyzing and managing problems.

Pitch manure - Yes.

Program a computer - HTML only. And not very well at that.

Cook a tasty meal - Very well in fact.

Fight efficiently - not really.

Die gallantly - not yet.

There you go. Your Maximum Leader will not tag anyone for this. But if you happen to be so inclined, please track back.

Carry on.

Thanks, everyone, for the outpouring of concern, but let me assure you that, despite today’s power failures in Los Angeles, I am a-okay. Although I did get cut-off midway through a semi-important phone conversation, there’s no need to send food or water: your love is enough to carry me through the crisis.

I think I’m going to delay this afternoon’s Home Depot visit until they get the traffic unsnarled.

Believe.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that Michael Brown, the “embattled” head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has resigned.

That is a good thing. All to often we have department heads, politicos, and pundits who refuse to resign when they ought to. Of course, there is that old truism in American Politics that “there are no second acts in politics.” Perhaps there should be. If people would fess up and recognize their shortcomings and failures; do the honourable thing and resign perhaps we could see that they learned something. People who admit to learning something are generally worth keeping around in the long haul.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that his server and website are back up and working fine this morning. That is very good news to all of you; as he is sure that you have been aching to your very core as you suffered from Naked Villainy withdrawl DTs.

Your Maximum Leader has a lot to blog about and he will get right to it shortly. He still owes JohnL a meme update (which will come today).

Alas, there is much upon which your Maximum Leader wanted to opine that now seems to have reached its expiration date. Damn the medium of the blog. If you don’t post right away some things seem like old news…

Your Maximum Leader and the Smallholder were discussing the fleeting nature of some stories (and other) topics on the phone over the weekend. A very interesting topic of conversation was the role of morality in society. That is a timeless issue on which your Maximum Leader would like to bloviate about soon.

One interesting little happening overthe weekend that your Maximum Leader will share with you all… He received an e-mail from a gentleman who googled the name “Richard T. Couture.” The gentleman was going through the extended results and found a post your Maximum Leader wrote referencing his friend “the late Richard T. Couture.”

The writer of the e-mail was a student of Richard’s in the late 1950s and was wondering “what ever happened to him?” Your Maximum Leader was a student of Richards in the late 1980s. Your Maximum Leader responed to the gentleman and gave him an update on Richard Couture’s life (and death) in the years since 1959. Indeed, your Maximum Leader is going to try and find a photo to send along to the writer.

It was this morning that your Maximum Leader stopped to think about how amazing that little virtual encounter was. Two people who have never met sharing memories of a mutual friend… How technology can do incredible things.

Expect more updates later today.

Carry on.

Just in time for your weekend, gentle readers!

In Theaters:
Junebug: intelligent
The 40-Year-Old Virgin: amusing
Transporter 2: delirious

Viewed at home:
The Player: delicious
The Deal: predictable
The Flower of Evil: French

Believe.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is told by the good people at Superb.net that the server is mostly fixed. You, dear reader, should have no problems viewing the site. Alas, it seems as though there still may be back end problems that would affect updates. The good techs assure me that problems should be resolved later today.

This is good news as your Maximum Leader has lots he would like to blog about.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has learned that his host server is experiencing technical difficulties.

Blogging will be light, as indeed viewing will be light on your end, until the problem is resolved.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is returned to the Villainschloss. Actually he was back last night and ready to blog his little heart out. But he couldn’t seem to connect to his blog. If you are having trouble reading this page (and if you are reading this it would seem as though you don’t) let you Maximum Leader know. Indeed, let your Maximum Leader know if anything seems funky about the site.

In the meanwhile… Your Maximum Leader wanted to blog about the Roberts nomination, the elections in Egypt (and an interesting question put to him by the Minister of Propaganda concerning your Maximum Leader’s support of religious groups in that election), the continuing situation along the US gulf coast, and complete a meme for JohnL of Texasbestgrok.

But he has some other things to do which are more pressing right now. He’ll blog later as he has more time. Check back for updates…

In the meanwhile…

Click through here to read about a drunk Belgian woman who died badly.

Yeah. Yeah… All the stuff in the world going on and your Maximum Leader links to a drunk woman being killed while peeing on someone’s grave. Makes you wonder why you read this site doesn’t it.

NB to Minion Molly… Your Maximum Leader is interested in any anecdotes you can share about Katrina victims in your area.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hopes that you all had a fine weekend (and for those of you in the United States - a long weekend). Your Maximum Leader spent his long weekend doing work around the Villainschloss and having some fun with the Villainous progeny. All in all it was a very productive and fun time.

When he wasn’t busy with other things, he was completely engrossed in a game of Rome: Total War. That is one hell of a great game.

Well, it was quite a weekend from a news perspective.

Chief Justice Rehnquist’s death was rather sudden. Sure he’d been suffering from cancer and seemed to be doing as well as you’d expect an 80 year old man to be doing. But his passing was still sudden. Your Maximum Leader happened to be watching CNN at the moment they cut in and made the announcement. Then he switched between CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC to see how long it would take for the other news networks to cut to the story. 8 minutes for MSNBC and 12 for Fox News. Your Maximum Leader wondered what the producers on MSNBC and Fox were thinking. It must have seemed like an eternity to them. Being scooped and all…

Your Maximum Leader was not surprised to hear the President naming Judge Roberts to the Chief Justice job. It makes sense really. Justice O’Connor has said she’d stay on until her replacement is confirmed by the Senate. And as much as your Maximum Leader would have liked to see Justice Scalia elevated, it just didn’t make sense from a political perspective.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure why the Senate decided to reschedule the Roberts confirmation to next week. Well, he does know why but it is a senseless reason. Nothing is going to change between now and then.

The President needs to name another replacement for Justice O’Connor very quickly. She’s done yeoman’s work and deserves retirement. Your Maximum Leader would hope that we know a name by the end of the week. Frankly, your Maximum Leader believes that the President would be advised to have yet another name ready too. There is no telling how lon Justice Stevens will last.

The New Orleans situation appears to have stabilized. Which is good. But the scope of the tragedy is far from being fully realized. Your Maximum Leader may try to comment more on this later today. He may also try and do a Rehnquist retrospective.

Do not expect any updates from your Maximum Leader tomorrow. He has business in DC all day and will not be able to blog. Perhaps one of his loyal ministers will be able to pick up the slack.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was cooking dinner tonight and had a horrible thought. A truly horrible horrible thought.

So there he was. Standing in th kitchen of the Villainschloss. Making up some homemade barbeque sauce for use on some ribs he plans on grilling tomorrow. That was when the thought came to him.

What if the hurricane…

He completely ignored the human suffering. The Hobbesian state of nature that has decended on New Orleans (and that now looks like the military is taking in hand) was not a concern. The corpses rotting in the street didn’t faze him.

More beneath the fold…
(more…)

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that New Orleans has devolved into a Hobbesian state of nature. At least that is how it seems from watching the news. Fear, self-interest, and force seem to have become the way of life on the streets of New Orleans.

It is horrifying.

While we watch the spectacle unfold in front of our eyes on television, the punditry is passing out blame. Your Maximum Leader would hope that our energies would go towards more constructive goals. But it seems as though blame is the only item available in abundance in the affected area.

Your Maximum Leader, like so many on television, is upset at the seemingly slow response time of the Federal Government to react. But before he puts all the blame for human suffering at the foot of the Federal Government one should try to listen carefully to the reports coming from New Orleans.

To put a fine point on it, from what he hears it does not appear as though anyone is trying to take charge in New Orleans. The Mayor appears to be a helpless whelp. The Governor of Louisiana appears to be completely ineffectual. And the helplessness and lack of leadership goes from the very top of the state and local government down to the police. No one appears to want to take charge. Are the Governor, Mayor and others so afraid of what could happen that they don’t give orders? It doesn’t seem as though it can get much worse. Why not give leadership a shot?

Where is the command center for coordinating the relief efforts? At the Superdome? At City Hall? In Baton Rouge? If they even have a command center or relief headquarters it doesn’t seem as though it is doing anything.

Is it just your Maximum Leader or does the situation not seem quite as bad in Mississippi and Alabama? At least the situation insofar as lawlessness is concerned. Perhaps it is just as bad, but all the reporters are in New Orleans and we aren’t hearing about it.

From what your Maximum Leader hears and sees it will be Sunday before significant numbers of National Guard troops (as well as regular Army/Marines) get to New Orleans. One hopes that some National Guard General (Colonel even) will take charge and start making things happen.

Your Maximum Leader reads that the city is under Martial Law. It sure doesn’t seem to be. We don’t hear of troops on the ground. The only people being shot (or shot at) appear to be the police and aid workers. This again speaks to lack of leadership.

Cicero once said that in times of war laws are silent. By extension in times of civil unrest laws may need to be silent as well. The time appears to have come in New Orleans that someone (probably President Bush) needs to suspend civil law and appoint a military govenor.

Carry on.