Gretings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader enjoyed this recent post by the Big Hominid: your dose of Buddhism.

Alas, all your Maximum Leader has to add to the discussion of the categorical nature of “killing being wrong” is the following nugget from a good ole boy friend of your Maximum Leader’s. Upon hearing the news that a murderer of an elderly woman the next county over was being exectued he said, “Good. Some people are in need of killin’.”

Your Maximum Leader agrees. Some people are in need of killin.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, being the liberally educated fellow that he is, is quite familiar with the story of Abelard and Heloise. They wre the famed star-crossed lovers of medieval France. (Who’s story is, at least in part, the inspration for Romeo & Juliet, as well as interpretations of Tristan and Isolde; as well as countless ballads and poems.)

It seems as though Abelard and Heloise are still crossing stars today. This peice off the news wires discusses a debate “raging” among academics as to the authenticity of letters that may have been written by Abelard and Heloise.

Excursus: “Raging” and “Academics” Heh. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t ever known a medievalist who was prone to rage…

This is the first your Maximum Leader has heard of these letters. So he will now do some more reading and see what he can learn. It may be interesting.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is a geek. A geek in so many different ways it is hard to ennumerate them all here. But for the purposes of this post, he is a big food geek. He loves to cook. He loves to eat. (Remember one of our rotating tag lines here at Nakedvillainy.com is “Well Educated. Well Informed. Well Fed. Well hung.” Hey! Get that on a shrt! You’d be pimpin’ wearin’ it in your hood.)

(NB to Brian: Your Maximum Leader still owes you a soup review. He may give it a shot this weekend.)

When your Maximum Leader chooses to go out to dinner, he generally goes whole hog and finds a really haute cuisine place to which to go. This means he doesn’t go out often, but when he does it is memorable. (And alas, quite expensive normally…)

Anyho… Longtime readers may remember that your Maximum Leader is a great fan of the original “Iron Chef” TV show from Japan. He still finds himself watching it at 11pm on Food Network from time to time. He is beginning to warm to the new “Iron Chef America” show on Food Network.

Well… This Sunday at 9pm the two Chef’s duking it out on Iron Chef America are Masaharu Morimoto and Roberto Donna

This news has gotten your Maximum Leader positively giddy with anticipation. You see, your Maximum Leader has had meals prepared by both Chef Morimoto and Chef Donna. The meal he had at Morimoto’s in Philadelphia is still clear in his mind. He can still taste the Toro Tuna Tatare and the Kobe Beef with foie gras. (Your Maximum Leader has had to wipe the saliva off his keyboard.) That meal is still among the greatest he’s ever eaten.

But your Maximum Leader has also eaten a number of times at Roberto Donna’s Galileo restaurant. Including one trip to his Laboratorio del Galileo. And that meal, like the one at Morimoto’s, is memorable. At the meal in the Laboratorio, Chef Donna came in and chatted with your Maximum Leader (and his party) while we snacked on hors d’oerves and asked us about what we were in the mood for. He told us what he was working with that night. Then prepared at meal that was exactly what we were asking for.

So… From 9-10pm on Sunday your Maximum Leader will be glued to the TV watching the showdown between these two great chefs. Your Maximum Leader knows his personal preference is for Morimoto. Morimoto is more ingenious and a bit more global in his dishes. He fuses so many different styles and cuisines together that you never know what you’ll get with Morimoto. He pushes the envelope more. Now that sometimes results in some bad stuff. But you never find the great stuff if you don’t sometimes suffer through the bad.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is periodically wowed by some of the accomplishments of man. Take for example today’s news that Steve Fossett has completed a solo flight around the world without refueling.

Have you ever stopped to think about just how remarkable a feat that is? Most of the time you can’t drive your car to the next state without filling up. But in an experimental aircraft one man can fly around the world without stopping. The technology boggles the mind.

The other amazing substory to this story is that the flight is Fossett’s endurance. While your Maximum Leader would imagine that Fossett took some catnaps during his 67 hour flight, it is still an incredible accomplishment for a 60 year old man. Your Maximum Leader has read accounts of Charles Lindberg’s flight across the Atlantic and how hard it was for him to stay awake and focused on the job of flying his aircraft. One can only imagine the problems Fossett would have.

Congratulations Steve Fossett. Your Maximum Leader doffs his bejeweled floppy hat in your direction.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wanted to point out an interesting item off the news wire. According to the Christian Science Monitor, many governors are lining up early for a 2008 run for the Oval Office. The first governor listed is your Maximum Leader’s own governor, Mark Warner.

Your Maximum Leader didn’t vote for Mr. Warner when he ran. It is one of the few votes he’s cast for which his has a little regret. He would gladly vote for Mark Warner should he choose to run against the senior Senator from Virginia, the Honorable John Warner. He would not support Mark Warner in a senate run against George Allen.

Some of you may be asking yourself, “Self, why would my Maximum Leader support Mark Warner against one incumbent Republican Senator, but not another?” Fair question. John Warner is a good man (your Maximum Leader has met him on a few occasions); but ideologically your Maximum Leader and John Warner are not soulmates. John Warner is hawkish (which is good); but squishy on judicial nominations (which is bad). Basically, John Warner is a good ole “Rockefeller Republican.” Whereas George Allen is a good coservative. Sure Allen goes a little further than your Maximum Leader would on social issues, but in the main Allen and your Maximum Leader agree on more than we would disagree over.

Now, would your Maximum Leader still vote for Mark Warner over John Warner (whose term isn’t up by the way until 2010 - so this discussion is largely hypothetical) if party control of the Senate was in play? No. Probably not, because it would diminish the power of those on whom your Maximum Leader’s favour falls more freely.

Many have said that Mark Warner may choose to run for Senate against George Allen in 2006. Your Maximum Leader sees why this might be a good move for Warner. His term as Governor ends (effectively) this year. And he would be better positioned nationally if he was in the Senate.

But running for the Senate is fraught will peril for Mark Warner as well. George Allen is a formidable politican and campaigner. Allen is very popular among Virginians, and popular among Republicans nationally. (Among big-time Republican donors he is very well known from his recent successes as Chairman of the Republican Senatorial Committee.) A show-down with Allen is not a cake-walk for Mark Warner. A victory is not assured. Thus, if he were to win a razor thin majority, he may not be viewed as being strong enough to compete in “red states.” Also, if he is viewed as being too ambitious that wouldn’t work to his advantage. Plus, once you get into the Senate you have to start voting on things. And once you vote on things, you have a record that is hard to run on. (As your Maximum Leader has said before, Senators have too much baggage incumbent on them to run effective campaigns for President.)

Regardless of how it plays out, Mark Warner has been a good Governor of this great Commonwealth. Keep your eye on him. That young guy is going places.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader let you down. Rather than titilating you all (his loyal minions) with a fun and exciting update yesterday; he opted to spend time with his family - and then waste the better part of the night playing Medieval Total War.

This particular game of Medieval Total War started out poorly for your Maximum Leader. He was playing the Byzantines in this game. (He generally plays either the English, Byzantines, or Holy Roman Empire. He’s dabbled in the Italians and the Spanish; but generally sticks with those first three.)

Early on the Byzantines are hampered by really only “producing” military units in Constantanople. Your Maximum Leader caught an early break by expanding rapidly into the Balkans and around the Black Sea. The early nemisis of the Byzantines, the Turks, we warring with the Egyptians over Antioch and Syria. This allowed your Maximum Leader to build up Anatolia as a military production center. But, eventually the Turks and Egyptians settled their differences, and the Turks decided to attack. Your Maximum Leader caught more lucky breaks and held his own. (Mainly by executing prisoners and not ransoming them back.) An uneasy peace began. Then, after a few years, the Turks attacked again. Then, in a masterful display of defence on unfavourable terrain, your Maximum Leader’s Byzantines captured the Turkish Sultan and killed a number of his heirs in one battle. The Sultan was ransomed for a huge sum of money. And your Maximum Leader’s spys informed him that the Turkish Sultan had only one heir. Your Maximum Leader went on offence and in one glorious battle that ebbed and flowed, the Byzantines were triumphant and killed th Sultan and his heir in battle. Of course, this victory was followed-on by grabbing formerly Turkish provences.

Then your Maximum Leader was attacked by the Scilians in Naples. He lost Naples. Then the Egyptians decided to pile on and attacked into Syria. The Byzantines forced the Egyptians back and took Antioch and Tripoli from them. Then there were many years of peace. Your Maximum Leader’s Byzantines bided their time and built up his military infrastructure. Then the Scilians got greedy and attacked into Greece from Naples. The Byzantines replused the attack and ransomed back to the Sicilian king 3 princes of the blood and two dukes. With that handsome sum, he was able to build up cavalry and then with his Emperor (Michael VIII) at the head of the army, he attacked and retook Naples.

Then his leader, Emperor Michael VIII died (young - 60) and his 16 year old heir became Emperor. Constantine XI ascended. This was the big turning point for the Byzantines. He was attacked (in Bulgaria) by German and French Crusader armies bent on taking Constantanople. He crushed them both.

Then the Sicilians attacked Naples again. Using the young Emperor (aged 20 now) at the head of his armies, he counter-attacked the Sicilians and eventually eliminated them as he had the Turks.

Then the Egyptians declared a jihad against him and tried to retake Tripoli and Antioch. The Egyptians took Tripoli by stalled there. Your Maximum Leader moved his Emperor and armies by sea and invaded Egypt itself. After a few years, the Egyptians were eliminated.

Now the Byzantines control most of the Balkans (except Wallachia and Croatia), all the provences around the Black sea. All of Asia Minor. All of the Middle East. Egypt. The islands of Sicily, Malta, Rhodes, Cyprus, and Crete. And Naples on the boot of Italy. His young Emperor married an Italian princess and his producing heirs at the rate of one every two years (as well as daughters in the off years that he will use to cement alliances). All the major factions have sued for alliances with him (the only unallied factions are the Pope; the Holy Roman Empire - which is being gobbled up by neighbours; and the French). He is awash in cash, and is able to both improve his economy and trade while supporting massive professional armies consisting of many elite units.

And that dear minions is what your Maximum Leader did instead of blogging.

It did help clear his mind a little.

And the game isn’t even done yet!

Carry on.