Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader didn’t know it was Bike Week in Daytona.

Click here for a slideshow of goings-on. (Your Maximum Leader is somewhat partial to the cole slaw wrestling (work safe!) photos in there.

Your Maximum Leader is also sure that somewhere in all those photos is a Red Hat America entry from the Velociman…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that a judge has ordered the arrest of Michael Jackson.

The wire story gives all the details about Jacko being at the hospital and all… But your Maximum Leader thinks that Jacko has finally cracked and is on the lam.

Not that he should be hard to find… Just look at him…

Now if his disguise were to be a shortish black man with a ‘fro he might just pull it off.

Carry on.

UPDATE: Damn.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, when not wasting time on computer games, has been musing on death over the past few days. As he blogged recently, two people in your Maximum Leader’s life have died in the past few weeks. But these are not the only deaths about which he is musing.

Excursus: To those of you who sent kind condolence e-mails to me - many many thanks.

Your Maximum Leader thought he would commit a number of these musings to the ether of the internet as a long-ish blog post. But it just wasn’t working. The posts seemed too personal, or too morose, or too detached. None of the variations on the theme seemed to resonate enough with your Maximum Leader. So, he cut his efforts down to just one thought.

The only death he would like to muse about is not a physical death. It is a blog death. Yes, our glorious blogger dead. Anna was first. Then Conrad. Mister Green also passed. Now one of your Maximum Leader’s Loyal Minions has passed on. Yes. Kilgore has put his blog out to pasture.

Reading Kilgore’s most recent, and as best we know final, post has really saddened your Maximum Leader. (Saddened him so much he couldn’t blog about it for days.) He can hardly explain how much (mental) pleasure he got from reading Kilgore’s posts. Kilgore is a much better writer than your Maximum Leader. And his well crafted posts stand in stark opposition to those posted here. He will be greatly missed. For as long as the URL is active, he shall remain up at the top of the blogroll with the other loyal minions. And who knows what will happen after that.

Excursus: Hell, your Maximum Leader kept Conrad’s blog on the blogroll for months although it was dead and gone. He only removed it a day or two ago. And that was to make room for a new blog “Gypsy Scholar” by Dr. Horace Jeffery Hodges - who has in the past been a kind correspondent and reader of this site. (Welcome to the blogosphere!)

Just so you all know, after your Maximum Leader read Kilgore’s sign-off; he poured himself a big ole glass full of Ardbeg and ice and toasted the departed. It was sort of like a little Scottish wake consisting of one person pounding ine whisky alone in front of a computer monitor in his underwear late at night. Somehow, that was rather fitting.

Excursus - Isn’t a solitary Scot drinking in his underwear in front of his computer the definition (or picture) of a Scottish blogger geek wake?

One can only hope that from time Kilgore (your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that he could ever use his proper appelation: Lawrence) will choose to grace a blog with his presence. Kilgore, please know that you are always welcome at Nakedvillainy. Someday your Maximum Leader hopes you’ll do a guest blog.

Requiscat In Pace Kilgore. The blogosphere is diminished by your departure.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will encourage you all to go over and read Christina’s post on Old Time Country Lessons. The Smallholder, if he is still out there, will, your Maximum Leader is sure, be able to duplicate certain lessons for his wee offspring.

Your Maximum Leader is working on the whole bit with “Yes, sir.” and “No, sir.” with the Villainettes. Indeed, today has been a particularly bad day (if you are a Villainette) in terms of learning that you live under the autocracy of your father.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doffs his bejeweled floppy hat and gives a royal nod to the lovely Annika on the occasion of her Second Bloggoversary. Go on over there and join her in the merriment and on-line poker party that is the celebration.

Your Maximum Leader will just sit here and try to come up with new lyrics to “For He’s A Jolly GoodFellow.” He thinks he nailed that first line down. Perhaps the second verse could start with “For she’s a jolly good hottie…” But that might be pushing a line.

And hell… While your celebrating with Annika, get out your checkbook and give her some love. Or perhaps send her some plain ole dollars. Annie needs some new shoes.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is doing a little guest-blogging for Sadie this week. Click here to read his post for White Trash Wednesday.

And remember… Your Maximum Leader will not be posting next week as he will be in Vegas… Sadie has kindly agreed to do a guest post or two. Perhaps the Smallholder will come out of the barn to type a post or two. And even, if we are really lucky, some of the other ministers might choose to grace the blog with their thoughts.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was channel surfing last night. Now, allow your Maximum Leader to state that on the big 46 inch Sony Widescreen HDTV he has programmed out a number of cable channels. That way he is never subjected to ever viewing them, even for a moment during channel surfing. However, on the smaller 32 inch analog TV in his and Mrs. Villain’s bedchamber some channels appear which do not appear on the big TV. One of the channels is the “Oh! Oxygen” network.

As a matter of course, your Maximum Leader finds that there is nothing worth watching on “Oh! Oxygen.” It is too… Well… Geared towards She-Woman-Man-Haters. Well imagine his surprise when he was surfing last night and caught a glimpse of his Muse/Goddess. That would be, for those of you who have forgotten, Jennifer Love Hewitt.

It seems that Miss Hewitt is going to be starring in an “Oh! Oxygen” orginial presentation entitled: “Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber.” (Click here to watch a trailer.) There is even a contest involved. (The grand prize appears to be tickets to the San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball. No mention of attending said ball with Miss Hewitt…)

Now… What should your Maximum Leader do? Should he actually tune into “Oh! Oxygen” and watch this movie? Should he try to enjoy it? Should he watch with the sound off and make up his own dialogue? It might be fun. After all it isn’t every day that your Maximum Leader could watch Miss Hewitt star as the enderingly despicable Katya Livingston.

Decisions, decisions…

Oh, Jennifer! Why do you tempt your Maximum Leader so!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees on the news wires that some women in New Zealand bared their breasts at Prince Charles in protest during his state visit. It seems they cried “Shame, shame” and “Get your Colonial shame off my breasts” and “I just want to feed my baby” at the Prince as he approached a Wellington art gallery.

This brings up some interesting questions. Were these women attractive? Were their breasts attractive? And what was on their minds when they chose to bare their breasts as a sign of protest? Did they think that Charles would (being a man) naturally be attracted to breasts and turn and walk over to them and listen to their protests, all the while being fixated on the protestor’s breasts?

It makes one wonder.

Just so that you all know. Just as wearing spandex in public will be a tightly regulated operation in the Mike World Order; so will exposing one’s breasts in protest of your pseudo-benevolent Autocrat. Frankly, your Maximum Leader does not want to have old, deformed, saggy, or otherwise imperfect breasts exposed in his presence as a means of protest. If, during the MWO, a female would like to expose her breasts in protest of some policy of your Maximum Leader she will have to appear in front of a FOM (Friend of Mike) and apply for a permit. Her breasts will need to be visually inspected in their natural form by the FOM before a permit will be issued. Women flashing their breasts in protest without a permit will be dragged off and shot.

Harsh? Such is life in an Autocracy my friend.

Carry on.

UPDATE: Although it is hard to judge from one (pretty much wor safe) photo, but this protester might have been issued a permit in the MWO. Your Maximum Leader would have preferred a broader panoramic photo… And as for this other bare breasted protester… That child is much too old to still need breast feeding.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leadr knows that you were all at home last night watching Iron Chef America. What? Even after he told you it was going to be a Morimoto Vs. Donna battle you still didn’t watch?

Losers.

Well, your Maximum Leader and Mrs. Villain watched. And was it interesting. The secret ingredient was scallops. They had a great variety of bay and sea scallops. The early part of the battle went well for both chefs. But around the half-way mark you could tell that Chef Donna was running out of time. Morimoto and his sous-chefs were working like a madmen. Donna and his sous-chefs didn’t appear to be hurried.

And that killed Donna.

He ran out of time.

Roberto Donna ran out of time. He didn’t complete but two (count ‘em 2) of the required 5 (count ‘em five) dishes! Morimoto got his five. But Donna just got two. It was very sad really. Very very sad. Your Maximum Leader could hardly believe it. It struck your Maximum Leader that Donna hadn’t practised in a timed setting. That one hour is a killer. When your Maximum Leader ate at Donna’s Labortorio, it was a slow process. Donna didn’t rush. He and his assistants prepared the food. Talked about the food. They didn’t hurry anything. That was the same Roberto Donna your Maximum Leader saw on Iron Chef last night.

So, while Morimoto came away with a victory, it wasn’t what your Maximum Leader had hoped. It was something of an empty victory. Your Maximum Leader hopes that Chef Donna will be invited back for either a rematch - or a new battle with a different chef. (Your Maximum Leader would love to see Donna duke it out against Bobby Flay. Damn, your Maximum Leader can’t stand Bobby Flay. Flay is a great cook - and your Maximum Leader has even learned a thing or two from him about grilling vegetables - but he is an annoying bastard mostly.)

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader spoke rather briefly with the Smallholder over the weekend. While many parts of that converstation will not interest you, one part would. Here is a fabricated version of the conversation we had (but it is true to the spirit of that conversation):

Smallholder (SH): So, did you read Skippy’s post about Allan Greenspan?

Maximum Leader (ML): Yeah.

SH: So are you ready to admit we’re on the right side of the Laffer curve now?

ML: What?

SH: The Bush people are admitting that tax cuts will not stimulate the economy enough to make up for the revenue lost by the tax cuts. So we’re on the right side of the Laffer curve.

ML: You mean the left side of the Laffer curve.

SH: Whatever. You know what I’m talking about. Are you going to admit you’re wrong? Or are you pathalogically incapable of admitting when your wrong biyatch?

ML: You know, I thought that quotation Skippy posted was in the context of escalating costs for Social Security.

SH: That isn’t how I read it. You’re just trying to wiggle out of admitting it aren’t you?

ML: I wouldn’t say that. I thought I read something addressing that point on National Review Online or the Wall Street Journal or something. I think there was more to that quote than you think.

SH: I think the quote was pretty darned clear. You’re just being difficult because you can’t admit it when you’re wrong.

ML: I’m not sure I’m wrong on this. If I am wrong I’ll admit it. But I think there is more to this than you think.

SH: Come on! You know you’re wrong and that we’re on the wrong side of the Laffer curve. You just can’t bring yourself to admit it.

ML: I’ll read up on it and get back to you.

SH: You just need time to figure out how to weasel out of admitting that you’re wrong. I will not expect a retraction any time soon. (Muttering: Biyatch.)

So. Your Maximum Leader spent most of his limited free time this past weekend reading the 397 page Economic Report of the President. If you go to page 55 and start reading the section entitled “The Effect of Tax Relief on Interest Rates,” you’ll find the quotation in context. The full jist of the context is this. The tax cuts, given the size of federal spending and the debt to GDP ratio, are not likely to stimulate the US economy enough to cause federal revenue to increase revenues to their pre-cut levels. BUT (and it is a big but), raising taxes in an effort to lower interest rates (and thereby lower the debt to GDP ration) is also unlikely to work.

You might also want to go on and read the whole chapters entitled “Macroeconomic Performance in 2002″ and “Tax Policy For A Growing Economy.” After reading those point you may come away, as did your Maximum Leader, believing that the culprit behind federal revenue issues is not tax cutting, but federal spending and debt maintenance. We need to cut spending and reduce the debt to get our financial ship in order.

Excursus: Your Maximum Leader was surprised to learn (via a straw poll of a few of Mrs. Villain’s friends over the weekend), that many people are under the mistaken belief that the national debt was paid off when the federal budget was balanced and showing a surplus in the late 90s. During that period, depending on how you wanted to look at it, the federal government was not increasing the size of the national debt. (At least not increasing it due to overspending. They weren’t paying it off either so in that respect they were incresing the overall debt.)

So, where does that leave your Maximum Leader and the discussion of the Laffer Curve?

First off, it is good to know that the Smallholder actually agrees with Dr. Laffer’s curve. Many (if not most) “liberal” economists do not. So that is a start.

Next off… According to the Administration’s economists, we appear to be near the apex of the tax/revenue curve described by Dr. Laffer. We are at that stage were tax increases and tax cuts will start to negatively affect revenue. What the Administration seems to be pushing for now is: 1) keep tax levels the way they are now (ie: make permanent the President’s tax cuts); 2) revise the tax code (without increasing or decreasing the overall tax levels); 3) balance the budget; and 4) pay down the national debt.

Now, your Maximum Leader has read the work of other practitioners of the Dismal Science and their thoughts on tax rates in the US. There are some who, like the Smallholder, believe in Supply Side Economics AND believe that the US could afford to raise tax rates without fear of negative affects on the economy. There are some who are Supply-Siders and think that tax rates should be cut further. There are many more economists who are not Supply-Siders and believe a great number of things.

As for your Maximum Leader, his natural inclination is to cut taxes a bit further. But he will concede that according to the Administration, further tax cuts would not have a proportionate stimulative affect on the economy. This isn’t quite the same as saying we’re on the left side of the Laffer Curve. I don’t believe that any Administration economic advisor would agree on the record with the Smallholder that we are on the left side of the Laffer Curve. But one could easily draw that conclusion from reading the President’s report.

So, is that a concession? Maybe. In so much as your Maximum Leader would agree with the Smallholder that (after partisanship is stripped away) the Administration may admitting that their tax cuts went a little to far - yes. Your Maximum Leader will concede that a careful reading of Administration documents are saying what the Smallholder is claiming. Does your Maximum Leader happen to agree with that assessment concerning tax rates? Not exactly. He is willing to concede that further tax cuts, without deep cuts in federal spending and debt reduction, will not have the stimulative affect that one would expect. But, if federal spending could be curtailed and a sensible plan for debt reduction be enacted, further tax cuts would have the stimulative effect that a Supply-Sider would hope for.

Of course, are we close to deep cuts in federal spending? No. And are we on the path towards debt reduction? No. The likely follow-up to these points is, “And who is responsible for that?” Congress would be the answer. The Republican Congress needs to spend more time looking after its fiscal responsibility to all citizens of our republic and make some hard choices about how our tax money (and future tax reciepts) are spent. So far they have not proven capable of doing that. If Democrats could find some serious deficit hawks out there, your Maximum Leader would be willing to give them a try. But unfortunately the Democrats seem no more capable of spending cuts than are Republicans. It is sad really.

We need more fiscally responsible politicans in Washington. What ever happened to that balanced budget amendment that Ronald Reagan supported? Of course, even if we had a balanced budget amendment in place; we’d disregard it at this time because of the war on terror. And temporarially, your Maximum Leader could support that. But it is not how we should run our budgets year-in and year-out.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has followed with interest the story of the release, then shooting, of Guiliana Sgerna. Your Maximum Leader does mourn the death of Nicola Calipari. It appears, at this point, to be a tragic accident.

This is what your Maximum Leader thinks happened, for what that is worth. In a nutshell, the car carrying Sgerna and Calipari approached a checkpoint manned by the US 3rd Infantry Division. They approached the checkpoint at night and at high speed. The US soldiers fired signaled and fired warning shots at the vehicle. He believes that these warning shots may have scared the driver into thinking they were under attack and provoked him to drive faster. Which in turn caused US troops to open fire to stop the car.

Of course, your Maximum Leader is willing to revise any of these assumptions as facts become clear. The good Dr. Rusty is also revising some of his previous statements. It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong. Rusty must be a big man. The good Dr. also has some information about how Sgerna’s story is changing.

Your Maximm Leader will continue to follow the story and comment as he can.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader felt he needed to take a moment to take care of a few disjointed items that are lingering out there in his mind. So here goes…

First, consider yourselves warned. Your Maximum Leadr will not be posting from Sunday, March 13 (though he rarely blogs on Sunday anyway) to Saturday, March 19. You read that correctly. No bloging from your Maximum Leader for a whole week. Why you may ask yourself? Two words for you. Vegas. Baby.

Yes, your Maximum Leader will be in Las Vegas, Nevada for the week. He will be travelling with Mrs. Villain, but not the villainous offspring. Since he is travelling with Mrs. Villain the possible depths of depravity and debauchery to which your Maximum Leader would like to decend are, alas, limited. And, in keeping with his (and the Las Vegas Tourism Bureau’s) rule, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” do not anticipate an accounting of the goings-on. Except maybe an account of gourmet meals eaten. (And he has a number of them scheduled.)

If you would like to guest blog in this space between March 13 and March 19, shoot your Maximum Leader an e-mail at: maxldr-blog -at- yahoo -dot- com. Or use the link on the left side of this page.

Of course… It would be nice to have your Maximum Leader’s various ministers do some posting while your Maximum Leader is away… But other than the Smallholder the other ministers are AWOL. Perhaps your Maximum Leader needs to re-evaluate crony status…

Second. Do not - repeat do not - make yourself an ice cream sundae in the dark. You might wind up pouring wasabi peas on your French Vanilla and hot fudge instead of peanuts.

Third. Many thanks to the lovely Annika for inviting your Maximum Leader to join her fantasy baseball league. While he didn’t respond to here initial e-mail fast enough to make her listing, but he has signed up now. He will let you know of his progress throughout the year.

Fourth, the Llama Military Correspondent asks us to name some more flash in the pan babes of the 80s. Your Maximum Leader first thought of Rebecca DeMornay. Really, after “Risky Business” she really only had one more big file “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.” And nothing since. How about Kate Capshaw? She did one Indiana Jones movie, marries Spielberg, and is never heard from again. (Perhaps thankfully.) Or Elizabeth McGovern? Or Karen Allen?

And lastly, if you adjust for February being a short month, the site traffic here at Nakedvillainy.com continues to grow. We are averaging 225-240 unique visitors a day. Thanks very much to all of you who come back day after day. Your Maximum Leader really appreciates it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was pleased to hear from Dr. Rusty that Italian hostage Guiliana Sgrena has been released.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t have any doubt that Ms. Sgrena’s politics helped win her release. Although he wouldn’t go so far as to say that she staged her own abduction. Some of the other theories concerning her abduction seem plausible, but without having more facts your Maximum Leader will not pass judgement.

We can only hope that other hostages meet with a similar happy fate.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has read the blog “Misspent Life” for a while now. Today he noticed that for some mad reason Misspent was not on the blogroll… That mistake is now corrected.

Anyho… Your Maximum Leader was reading this post of the Misspent One today and laughed aloud at Number 3. Mrs. Villain asked what your Maximum Leader was laughing at. He showed her the post. She read it. He said, “Isn’t number three really funny?” Mrs. Villain said she didn’t get it. Your Maximum Leader tried to explain Vercingetorix. He then realized that it was hopeless. Inwardly, your Maximum Leader realizes that he wishes the Smallholder was there.

He would have gotten it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader jumps on the grammar testing bandwagon with Robert The Disney Loving LLama Butcher and Brian of Memento Moron.

Your Maximum Leader scores on this test were:
100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 72% Expert.

He believes if he had spent more than 2 mins on the test he might have done even better. Of course, his score does not mean that (sadly) he still doesn’t play fast and loose with his language while blogging on the fly.

Carry on.