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…
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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.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was over reading Pejman Yousefzadeh’s new blog and took great interest in this post.

Your Maximum Leader can’t recall if it was in a past blog post, or just in a conversation with Smallholder, that he railed against Europeans (specifically) and others (generally) who are holding up use of genetically enhanced or even bio-engineered foods in Africa and Asia.

Your Maximum Leader has yet to hear a fully formed argument against using genetically modified crops. The most common argument against is that genetically modified crops will contaminate native crops. This is the favourite argument of Greenpeace. What would be the outcome of cross-pollination between modified and unmodified crops? That the modified crops might become less disease resistant and the unmodified might become more disease resistant? No one ever seems to ask that question.

And no one ever seems to address the plain fact that cereal staples have been bred for millennia (albeit using more primative methods than genetic engineering) to promote certain characteristics. Characteristics like greater yeilds and desease resistance. Where is the outcry over that?

Your Maximum Leader remembered reading about starving Africans in 2001 who could have been saved had they been allowed to eat golden rice that had been donated for relief. But due to concerns about the genetically modified rice, it was not distributed. (An interesting article about Greenpeace’s objections to golden rice is here.)

Your Maximum Leader is not going to be an avatar for genetically enhanced foods and claim that they will solve the problems of the starving in Africa. Indeed, if you read the carefully the statements of those who produce genetically modified foods they don’t claim that their foods alone will solve Africa’s problems. But they will help. And they will help a damn sight more than another pontificating rock concert. If European governments wouldn’t scre African governments we might get some crops that might help to Africans. It would also help to let African farmers use pesticides. If that could happen we might not have to have more gargantuan rock concerts to benefit starving Africans. Of course, it might also help if Africans didn’t fall into a rut of monoculture.

It is tragic that help is being kept from those who need it by those who have the sense to know better.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will jump on the bandwagon of pointing readers to relief organizations. Although he knows that his loyal readers should have already found those sites on their own.

As he always does, your Maximum Leader commends to you the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

He also wants to point out a way you can be both selfish and giving all at once. Bid on a website services from Apothegm Designs. (Bid money gets donated.)

Your Maximum Leader also endorses Catholic Charities USA as a worthwhile and noble organization for your donations.

Glenn Reynolds seems to have the most comprehensive list of charities over on Instapundit.

Give money if you are able. Give your time and effort if you are able. And keep the people affected in your thoughts, prayers, and mediations.

Carry on.

A little snarkyness below the fold…
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