Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was forwarded this little You Tube gem by a friend. In it Governor Sarah Palin bestows honorary Citizenship of Alaska to CBS TV host (and a favorite of your Maximum Leader) Craig Ferguson.

Your Maximum Leader wouldn’t know what Ferguson means when he mentions a “naughty librarian vibe.”

Nope. Wouldn’t know at all.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his VP pick. Your Maximum Leader is pleased at this stage. She seems a bit light on experience, but John McCain is the top of the ticket. She seems to have the right credentials as far as your Maximum Leader is concerned. She is a fiscal conservative. She has been a reformer. She hunts and fishes. She has a big family. She is cute. (Cute is a plus - not a requirment.)

So far she seems like a good pick.

Of course, in the few minutes since the announcement was made we’ve heard a couple of complaints. There is the lack of experience. Of course, she is just as experienced as Obama himself (and her experience is executive). She doesn’t have a lot of foreign policy experience. Again… John McCain is at the top of this ticket, not Sarah Palin. Some talking head on CNN suggested that she isn’t a good pick because she wouldn’t be able to care for her newborn (April 08) son with Downs Syndrome. How about that for a double standard. Apparently Democratic women can do it all without men, but Republican women can’t.

You know something… Your Maximum Leader is impressed upon hearing that Governor Palin chose not to take the prenatal tests that would have indicated that her child had Downs Syndrome. She made the choice knowing that the outcome of the test would not change her mind about having the baby. Your Maximum Leader and Mrs Villain made the same choice. He remembers some of the sideways looks we received when we told people that Mrs Villain wasn’t getting the testing done. Your Maximum Leader remembers that he was worried for a moment contemplating being the parent of a Downs Syndrome child. But, you just set your mind to moving ahead and knowledge that the Lord presents us with tests.

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader is pleasantly surprised by the pick at this point. It doesn’t change his mind, as he was going to vote McCain to begin with. But it does seem like a good and smart move.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is really pleased now… His beloved Nationals swept the LA Dodgers at Nationals Park.

It was an unexpected string of wins. It was a string of well played games. It was fun to watch.

Now your Maximum Leader hopes that the Nats can keep pulling out the wins against the Atlanta Braves.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t had lots of free time. School is getting geared up for the Villainettes and the Wee Villain. Lots of school open houses to attend and things to buy and prepare.

Then again there is also the whole Nationals/Dodgers series. The Nats have taken two of three so far. This highly unanticipated win streak makes your Maximum Leader very happy…

One more Nats/Dodgers game tonight… It is doubtful that he will watch any of the Obama speech. He watched about 3 minutes of Bill Clinton’s speech last night (during a commercial break) and he saw highlights this morning. It looks like Bill did what he needed to do and give his seal of approval to Barack Obama. He appeared to be in good form (as was Hillary apparently the night before).

It is strange that this convention has, up to now, appeared to be the Clinton convention and not the Obama convention. One imagines that this will change tonight…

Go Nats.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader just learned that former Virginia Governor Mark Warner is supposed to give the keynote speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention.

Who knew?

If your Maximum Leader were Mark Warner (which he is not, although the Sprint money would be nice to have) he would be pretty durned put out that Senator Hillary is stealing all the spotlight. The keynote speech is, afterall, supposed to highlight the party’s up and coming talent. Although, your Maximum Leader is pretty sure that Mark Warner isn’t exactly up and coming. He was governor for four years and all… Which makes him more qualified to be President of the United States than Barack Obama.

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader might try and catch some of Warner’s speech tonight.

Provided, of course, that the Warner speech doesn’t conflict with the Nationals game.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was thinking as he read the lastest post on the Battle of Crecy over on Robbo’s blog…

Could the Battle of Crecy be viewed through the prism of air-power vs land-power? English/Welsh Longbowmen would serve as the “air power” and the French knights be the “land-power or armor” in this equation.

Okay it is a stretch. But it was a novel enough thought to prompt a short post.

Your Maximum Leader will now return to contemplating his own navel… Or even better… Someone else’s navel…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader spent Sunday night watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, and he spent last night sleeping on the sofa in front of the TV (instead of watching Monday Night Football).

Your Maximum Leader loves the Olympics. At some level he’s bought into all the hoopla (and it is hoopla) about “olympic spirit” and “competition.” He likes the athetic feats he sees. He likes the “national competition” such as it is. He enjoys the spectacle. As he mentioned before, the opening ceremonies were something else. It is not likely that he will see anything like that again in his lifetime. He already is preparing himself for the London games of 2012 being a let-down… (More on this in a moment.) It is hard for free people to compete with police states when it comes to putting on an awe inspring show. From the 1936 games, to May Day parades in Moscow, to the Beijing opening of the 2008 Olympics those police states can marshal the resources to impress.

As the games went on your Maximum Leader was reminded of how he has slowly come around to the point of view that if a sporting contest is not timed or scored in a completely objective way it is annoying. After the first few days of competition you Maximum Leader found he couldn’t watch gymnastics or diving. These ratings grabbers for NBC should be put out of the Olympics. You just can’t trust the judging. The swimming and track and field were objectively measured. Those are real contests. Sports like basketball or volleyball or soccer are scored. They can stay (even if sometimes umpires/referees determine the outcome of the game).

Your Maximum Leader enjoyed the last few days of the games very much. He searched the NBC-owned (but not NBC) channels for track and field competitions. He wished that he had CBC or BBC coverage so that he could have seen more of the shooting competitions. NBC is all leftist and anti-gun by not showing the highest forms of shooting competition. The US even (gold) medaled in shooting. Ah well… Your Maximum Leader supposes that because Vincent Hancock dedicated his medal to US Servicemen and was all patriotic he didn’t get lots of coverage. Keith Olbermann is somehow to blame here…

Anyhoo…

The Closing Ceremonies were not all that spectacular. They weren’t as sharp as the opening. Your Maximum Leader is sure that this is due to the little time they had to practice in situ - as the “Bird’s Nest” was being used for competition. It was pretty impressive, in terms of people on the stage doing co-ordinated dancing and performing. But your Maximum Leader occasionally picked out performers who were slightly out-of-sync or missed a step. He hopes that the Communist Party officials in charge didn’t notice the same problems and decide to pay a post-Olympic visit to those poor souls and lecture them about “letting down the country.”

Of course, the “highlight” of the Closing Ceremonies is supposed to be the little show put on by the next venue as a 4-years-in-advance preview of things to come. The people dancing around with umbrellas and the double-decker bus weren’t a positive portent of things to come. And if that attractive girl singing (an edited version of) “Whole Lotta Love” with Jimmy Page is the best they can do… Well… We don’t have much to which to look forward.

Your Maximum Leader supposes his suggestion of having an actor portraying Charles “Chinese” Gordon lead a division of the “Ever Victorious Army” into the Bird’s Nest and slay the hordes of “rebel” performers wasn’t what the London Olympic Organizing Committee had in mind to set the mood for 2012. Ah well… (There would have been opium invovled… That would have taken the edge off…)

Anyhoo…

The Olympics ended just in time to have the Democrats get together for their own little spectacle in Denver…

Your Maximum Leader has determined that he might (might) watch Obama’s acceptance speech. (To be fair he might (might) also watch John McCain’s acceptance speech as well.) But that one speech is likely going to be the extent of his viewing of the DNC orgy of love. Of course, if it looks like Hillary’s people will misbehave and act-up; then he might reconsider his view habits this week. Afterall, he can’t be expected to watch the DNC if the Nats are on TV!

(NB to The Director: If you would like to make a gentleman’s wager on the outcome of the Nats/Dodgers series, Your Maximum Leader will entertain suggestions… With some sort of odds included… It is painfully obvious that the Dodgers are the better team than the lowly Nats…)

Your Maximum Leader feels that the recaps on the major news channels are about all he can stomach of the convention. Last night he doesn’t think he could have made it through the whole tribute to the Kennedys thingie.

May your Maximum Leader be honest for a moment here? Your Maximum Leader feels sorry for Ted Kennedy. Yes. Sorry. More than that even. Your Maximum Leader, uncharacteristically actually, seems to be worrying about Ted Kennedy. Yes. Worries. He worries about Teddy’s spiritual well-being. As the end approaches for “the lion of the Senate” - and we all know it is coming - your Maximum Leader wonders if Teddy reflects on his life and has remorse, regret or feelings that he needs to be contrite in some way. Your Maximum Leader feels that Teddy probably ought to feel the need to get some spiritual matters in order here. Don’t fret any about your Maximum Leader in this. The act of typing out these lines seems to be erasing any worry that might have existed still in your Maximum Leader’s little black heart.

Of course it is unlikely that Kennedy himself has these self-same concerns. Ah well…

So… Unless there is misbehavin’ in Denver, your Maximum Leader will be watching the Nationals tonight…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader forgot all about the Nats game today. This is to say he forgot it was a day game in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.

Apparently the Cubbies forgot about the game too.

Nationals 13, Cubs 5

Hey! You there muttering that it was a lucky win…

When you only have 43 wins on the season, you cheer when you can.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader asks that you remember Richard III, King of England. He was killed in battle at Bosworth this day in 1485. He fought valiantly, if not triumphantly. He was the last Plantagenet to rule England. He was the last King of England to die in battle. And his death marks the generally accepted end of both the Wars of the Roses and the medieval period in England.

Richard III, By the Grace of God, King of England and France and Lord of Ireland.

It is from Shakespeare’s play Richard III that the name of this site is taken. The important lines come in Act One, Scene III:

But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

Richard is, in your Maximum Leader’s opinion, one of the most maligned kings in all history. Shakespeare’s play, while vastly entertaining, is far from an accurate portrayal of history and the man as we now know him.

Your Maximum Leader, out of habit, will republish the famous Rex Stout New York Times obituary for King Richard:

“PLANTAGENET — Richard, great king and true friend of the rights of man, died at Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. Murdered by traitors and, dead, maligned by knaves and ignored by Laodiceans, he merits our devoted remembrance.”

For those of you interested in learning more about Richard you might try the following links: Battle of Bosworth from the Richard III foundation, The Richard III Society of the UK, another Bosworth site from the US Richard III Society and finally the Wiki entry.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was looking over some images of various actors playing Richard III in Shakespeare’s play and found some fun images… A selection of which he will share here.

Here is famous 18th Century Shakespearean David Garrick as Richard III.

Is it Obi-Wan Kenobi? Nope. Alec Guinness as Richard III.

Ah yes. From everyone’s favourite filmed version of the play, Laurence Olivier as Richard III. (Sorry to all that your Maximum Leader couldn’t find a good image with that wonderful hat he wears in the first act of the film.)

Your Maximum Leader’s personal favourite, Ian McKellan as Richard III. Your Maximum Leader owns the DVD of this movie, and he also saw McKellan perform it live at the Kennedy Center years ago. Kristen Scott-Thomas was Lady Anne. Grr baby!)

And in a production your Maximum Leader must have missed while it was in town…

Apparently someone cast George W. Bush as Richard III. While your Maximum Leader thinks the photoshop job is great, he isn’t sure that W. could pull off the whole play. Not his style.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has for many years now passed a building not too far from the Villainschloss. The building housed, until a few months ago, some outfit that did architectural drawing work and some construction site planning. He supposes that the gloomy housing market and downturn in the economy did the company in. As he said, a few months ago activity seemed to stop at the building and it appeared vacant.

It sat vacant for a while. It stopped drawing his attention as it didn’t seem to change. The big “Lease Office Space” sign in the front window was there. The grounds were well kept. It was just a nondescript commerical building waiting for a tennant.

Then about two weeks ago a whole bunch of “Mark Warner for Senate” signs appeared in the small grassy patch in front of the building. Your Maximum Leader thought nothing of it, as those signs have been popping up with regularity. (Mark Warner has been visiting the Fredericksburg area with some frequency.)

Then today he drove by the building…

There are tennants…

Mein Gott! The front plate glass window that used to sport the name of the architectural firm now has a big “O” with a red, white and blue flourish at the bottom.

Yes loyal minions… The regional office for Barack Obama for President has opened up right near the Villainschloss. (Your Maximum Leader believes that Obama and Mark Warner are sharing space.) The parking lot is filled with tiny imported cars. There seem to be some scrawny college co-eds going in and out. A pair of Direct TV dishes have gone up on the building. It appears to be a functioning hub of the Obama machine.

Your Maximum Leader will have to restrain his desires to drive in one day and attempt to “discuss” the issues with some of the volunteers…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader had a fun and exciting day yesterday when he had hoped to be blogging. It involved running kids around to late summer/early fall activities that are just beginning to start. Where has the summer gone?

Of course, if you’re a member of Congress you should be saying “Where has the year gone?” According to the Wall Street Journal this Congress has done less legislatively than any Congress of the past 20 years.

According to the WSJ piece:

Barring a burst of legislative activity after Labor Day, this group of 535 men and women will have accomplished a rare feat. In two decades of record keeping, no sitting Congress has passed fewer public laws at this point in the session — 294 so far — than this one. That’s not to say they’ve been idle. On the flip side, no Congress in the same 20 years has been so prolific when it comes to proposing resolutions — more than 1,900, according to a tally by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense.

With the mostly symbolic measures, Congress has saluted such milestones as the Idaho Potato Commission’s 70th anniversary and recognized soil as an “essential natural resource.” As legislation on gasoline prices, tax fixes and predatory lending languish, Congress has designated May 5-9 as National Substitute Teacher Recognition Week, and set July 28 as the Day of the American Cowboy.

The resolutions, which generally don’t carry the force of law, can originate in either the House or Senate. However, some types of resolutions establish the federal budget, authorize the president to go to war, or condemn actions such as the genocide in Darfur. Even among the 294 laws passed thus far, many were symbolic in nature. Many of the post offices named by this Congress honor servicemen and -women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the 435-member House, fully one-quarter of the workweek is typically devoted to debating and passing symbolic measures.

Now boys and girls, you may be saying to yourself “Self, my Maximum Leader is all for gridlock. Certainly he must be happy with how lazy the Congress is this session.” Well… Yes and no is the answer from your Maximum Leader.

Let us be clear here. Your Maximum Leader likes gridlock in Congress. But in his mind, gridlock denotes that someone is trying to get something done in the first place. You see… Here is what your Maximum Leader likes, Congress gets together in January and decides this is the year to pass a new Endangered Species Act. Then they sit around and actually debate the new Endangered Species Act and decide they can’t agree on anything and go home. That way you can feel like the public’s business is a priority. One could even argue that they tried hard and that it is better that they don’t make a law than pass a crappy law.

What Congress is doing isn’t gridlock. It is avoidance. Rather than debating the public’s business, they get together and say “You know we have this whole budget thing to get done by October. But the budget is no fun; let’s get a resolution together expressing outrage at the demise of the drive-in movie theatre! Yeah! That would be super-fun!” So basically we get the worst of both worlds. We (The People) don’t get intelligent discourse on important topics facing our nation; and we get a bunch of meaningless tripe that doesn’t advance any person, cause or belief.

If Congress is going to continue to do crap, your Maximum Leader has a suggestion. Just stop pretending to “work” all year. Just go back to the way it used to be. Start the new session in January and go home in May/June. Rather than just inventing work that doesn’t really do anything; just say “Fuck it. I’m going home to raise money and watch TV.” This might make the government a better place. (Probably not - but anything is worth trying at this point.) You might be saying to yourself, “Self, what about those budget bills? What about the people’s business?” To this your Maximum Leader says “pshaw!” Congress doesn’t pass a real budget until January anyway. Just forgo the months of wrangling and dismay. Just declare that it isn’t going to get done until January and pass a standard continuing resolution. That is what they do anyway.

So… Is your Maximum Leader happy with Congress being filled with a bunch of lazy slackers? Well… Yes and no. Yes he is happy because they aren’t doing much real work so they can only be screwing things up but so badly. No he is not satisfied with Congress because they aren’t even pretending to try and do the public’s business. So there. Your Maximum Leader is just as useless as Congress is.

At least he only has a blog…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has a few moments before dinner and wanted to type out a blog post. Of course a grandiose post concerning America and her future is percolating in his mind. Alas, there isn’t time to type it out now. So… What to do… How about a page out of the ole Elisson playbook?

Yup… Highlights from what has been randomly dished out by your Maximum Leader’s little black iPod. Here you go…

1) Blood Brothers - Bruce Springsteen

2) Let me clear my throat - DJ Kool If you would allow your Maximum Leader to be open with you here… Your Maximum Leader has about 10,000 songs on his iPod. A great many of them come from the CD collection of a relative of his who was a DJ for a number of years while in college. Your Maximum Leader believes that there are probably about 5,000 songs on his iPod that he’s never ever heard before. This song is one of those. It was just dished out randomly today and listened to…

3) Pictures of You - The Last Goodnight This song was randomly dished out to your Maximum Leader as well. It turns out that he had heard the song before and never knew the name or artist until now. So he gave the song a good rating and now it will appear on some other playlists he keeps on his iPod.

4) Young Americans - David Bowie This song and “Modern Love” by Bowie always seem to compete for the honor of being your Maximum Leader’s favorite Bowie song.

5) Jesus the Missing Years - John Prine

6) Flowers on the Wall - The Statler Brothers Yes. You guessed. Your Maximum Leader isn’t a huge Statler fan, but does like this song. Since it happened to be on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, he owns it. Why is it that your Maximum Leader now only buys soundtracks of Quentin Tarantino movies? Because they fricking ROCK!

7) Anna Begins - Counting Crows

Hey Bartender - Koko Taylor This is another of those songs that your Maximum Leader didn’t realize he owned. He loves Koko Taylor, but just had never looked at this song title.

9) Concerto #3 in F - George Fredrick Handel

10) Leaving normal - Cowboy Junkies

11) Western Union - Elvis Presley Your Maximum Leader has nearly 775 Elvis songs on his iPod. Yup, you read that correctly… Nearly 775 Elvis songs. More accurately that is nearly 775 tracks. He has many versions of the same song. This is a result of your Maximum Leader owning many Elvis box sets. Sets like “The Complete 50’s Recordings” etc etc. If you ever want to hear an Elvis tune with your Maximum Leader you can bet he got it on the iPod…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has a question for you…

Background…

Your Maximum Leader was sitting today watching a few minutes of “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” that he has on the ole Tivo. As he was watching the beautiful and talented Summer Glau he wondered to himself…

Here is the question…

Would having sex with a Terminator “count” as actually having sex? Would it “count” as adultery if you were married? Afterall the Terminator isn’t a person. In this context one could suppose that the Terminator was nothing more than a really tricked out love-doll…

And before any of your Maximum Leader’s doctrinally informed friends make note of it… Yes, your Maximum Leader knows about Matthew 5:28. But even on that account if one is parsing - and isn’t that what we’re doing here - one could make a bit about the whole “woman” aspect of it. Jesus doesn’t say “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a robot covered in particularly sexy artificial flesh lustfully has already committed adultery with her/it in his heart.” Can you really have sex with a uber-sexy terminator? Isn’t really just masturbation?

Just asking.

Sad to what depths your Maximum Leader has dipped isn’t it? There is a war going on in Georgia. Inflationary pressures are rising. Hilary Clinton is going to have her name put into nomination at the Democratic convention (Kwame not welcome by the way - don’t bother RSVPing). Julia Child was a spy. And California burns. And all your Maximum Leader can choose to write about is some pointless non-ethical issue invovling imaginary killing machines that resemble sexy women.

Pathetic.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader had a good time with his family last night at the Washington Nationals game. That is to say that the time spent at the ballpark talking baseball with the family was good. The game was painful to watch. Painful if you are a Nats fan. You might have heard or read that the Nats were on the receiving end of a good drubbing by the New York Mets. The many Mets fans in attendance were happy. Your Maximum Leader would guess that at least a third of the 30,000 people in attendance were Mets fans.

By the way, who was it that was sitting a few rows in front of your Maximum Leader? Humm… Lets examine the photo…

Clicken to embiggen.

Yup… Just there under the elbow of that guy wearing the grey Pittsburgh Pirates shirt. In the blue button down shirt. That is George Will. Your Maximum Leader mentioned to him that his column earlier in the week was very good. He smiled and said thanks.

Sitting a little ways behind your Maximum Leader was Charles Krauthammer (who has a good column today - one your Maximum Leader isn’t sure he completely agrees with - but interesting nonetheless). So your Maximum Leader was sitting in the nexus of two great conservative editorialists. He could feel the positive vibe. In fact, it was the only positive vibe coming from the game. Did your Maximum Leader mention that the game sucked if you were a Nats fan.

Your Maximum Leader hears that Barry Bonds isn’t retired… Late season acquisition by the Nats? Probably not, but it could be entertaining…

Carry on.