When the story of the greatest villain in the history of the world is written, many will seek to explain what made William Madsdorf the man he was. His surname supplanted Hitler as a synonym for perfidy. Historians, journalists and physiatrists will pour over the documentation looking for the cause of his evil. They will only find good friends, loving parents, a happy home, a superlative liberal (and Liberal) education, and fulfillment in everything he did.

No matter how hard the writers will look, they will not find anything. Because sometimes a person is just a bad seed.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, still catching up on reading blogs, would like to commend another piece to you. This one by Professor Mondo entitled: An Echo of the Tragic View.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader must be behind on reading some of his favorite blogs… He just read this great little post over at Athens & Jerusalem entitled Fantasy Football Edition.

Reading that post both filled your Maximum Leader with self-satisfaction and self-loathing. On the one hand, he recognized almost every name on the list and why they were listed in that position. But on the other hand, the two names he did not recognize made him feel stupid and uneducated.

Of course, Winston Churchill would likely recommend himself for all three cabinet positions for which he is recommended…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been meaning to blog for about a week now. He was asked some political questions by his best buddy Kevin. Your Maximum Leader has thought about many of the questions and has formulated an answer in his brain… Sadly, his brain and his PC are two different media. Your Maximum Leader thought this weekend would provide some good blogging time… It did not. When your Maximum Leader sat down to blog, he was preempted at the computer by Villainette #1 or by Mrs Villain (who somehow now needs 2 computers running simultaneously in order to complete her work).

So sadly you will all have to live with this modest update…

First off, your Maximum Leader’s beloved Washington Nationals have already won more than the 76 games he predicted they would wind. This is a great milestone. With yesterday’s win over the slumping Braves, the Nationals have now won 78 games. It is theoretically possible that the Nationals could post a winning record (or even .500 record) with a good showing this week in Florida against the Marlins. Your Maximum Leader will be watching closely and rooting for his team.

Speaking of his team… Your Maximum Leader was at the Villainschloss doing some housework and watching the Nationals/Braves game on the TV when his cell phone rang. The caller ID showed an unfamiliar “202″ area code number. Your Maximum Leader let it go to voicemail. Then about 20 minutes later the same number called back. He picked up this time. It was a young man named Carl. He identified himself as an employee of the Washington Nationals. He asked if your Maximum Leader was at the park watching the game. Your Maximum Leader said he was at home watching the game. Carl then announced that your Maximum Leader was one of 30 “Jersey off their backs” winners. You see, a few weeks (months?) ago your Maximum Leader bought some raffle tickets from the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation. The prize being offered was the jersey off a Nationals player’s back at the end of the last home game. Well, it was the last home game, and Carl was trying to find out if your Maximum Leader was at the Park so that he could escort your Maximum Leader to the President’s Club seats with the other winners and determine who was getting which player’s jersey. Since your Maximum Leader wasn’t in attendance (and couldn’t make it to the park in time) he will get whomever’s jersey he won in the lottery… Apparently all the winners in attendance were polled as to which player they wanted. If a player had multiple winners - names were chosen by lot. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know who’s jersey will be delivered to the Villainschloss, but he was assured it would be here by the end of the week.

Your Maximum Leader will post photos when the jersey arrives. He is giddy with excitement.

In other news…

Rick Perry seems to be melting down. He can’t speak clearly at debates and seems to not be doing well in a useless straw poll. This is a minor speed bump for him. If one is going to stumble while seeking the highest office in the land, it is best to do it early. Perry will regroup and rise back up to the top eschalon of contenders.

Your Maximum Leader mentioned earlier that Kevin had asked some political questions in the comments to another post… Your Maximum Leader will quickly address some of them here. The first one was asking if President Obama’s base is really threatening to abandon him. Well… Your Maximum Leader knows a number of strong liberal democrats and they are all upset to varying degrees with the President. The President is in some trouble with his base, in your Maximum Leader’s opinion. These highly motivated and dedicated supporters are upset that the President isn’t being an effective leader. In that they pretty much agree with just about anyone of any political persuasion. Of course, is this a problem for the President? Without a primary challenge it is not a serious long-term problem. And no one is going to challenge the President in the Democratic primaries. Certainly not Hillary Clinton. As Clinton said herself recently, the further away from the mudslinging you are the better you look. She is far from the political battles that are in the forefront of our national discussion, so she is the least affected by them. She wouldn’t look nearly as good if she were, say, Secretary of the Treasury…

Lookit, President Obama will have to start talking a good game and making some changes in his administration to show he is “serious” about winning a second term. Then, eventually, the base will come back. Mainly because they have three choices come next November. Those choices are support the President, support someone else (an unrealistic choice to make), or stay home. In the end the base (all in all) turns out (that is what makes them “the base”).

The President’s political problems are going to be with himself. If “independent” voters and “marginal” Democrats feel he’s not “doing enough” to solve our economic problems; then the Republican challenger (provided the Republican isn’t insane) will have a fighting chance of winning. There is still a long time between now and November…. So anything is possible…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader just loves it when the title of a news article pretty much sums up everything.

Take for example this gem from Reuters: Man wins dumpling eating contest, then dies.

It doesn’t get any plainer than that.

Sadly, the 77 years old Ukrainian man in question only won a jar of sour cream before shuffling this mortal coil.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader remembered a post he made back in Feb 2008 about the prospect of Barack Obama becoming President.

In a moment of unearned self-indulgence, your Maximum Leader will post a link to that old post.

Your Maximum Leader re-read the post and realized that he’s not enjoying himself as much as the thought he might. The nation is a lot more screwed up than he thought it would be in 2008.

Nope. Not laughing much at all.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been trying not to pay close attention to the 2012 race for the presidency until… well… 2012. But from time to time he finds himself paying half-attention to the Republicans who hope to replace President Obama in the Oval Office.

Your Maximum Leader chanced on the Washington Post website and saw a big headline: “Defining Two Wings of the Republican Party.” The small subtitle indicated that the piece was going to be contrasting the differences between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. As it turns out, the article didn’t contain anything significant your Maximum Leader didn’t already know about the two men. (There were a few items about Perry’s family and youth that were new and vaguely noteworthy, but not much else.) Other than pointing out the oh-so-obvious Romney is an “establishment” guy and Perry is an “outsider” guy the article isn’t good for much.

So why bring it up here?

Well… As it stands now, one of those two men is poised to become the Republican nominee for President of the United States. And if the election were held soon (say this November rather than next - which it is not of course) there is a good chance that either of those men would become the next President of the United States.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t carrying the banner of Romney or Perry. If he had to choose now (which thankfully he doesn’t), he would tend towards Romney. It is Romney’s turn afterall…

Of course, the election is a long way away yet. And there are many miles to go before we sleep. (So to speak.) No telling what will happen between now and then.

Recognizing we are a long way off, your Maximum Leader can say with confidence than almost any Republican will be an improvement over President Obama. Your Maximum Leader didn’t have high expectations when Mr. Obama became President. Your Maximum Leader believed that Obama was a “European Social Democrat” type of guy. This is to say a left-center politician with a proclivity to like big activist government. While he’ll stand by that characterization still, what your Maximum Leader didn’t expect was that President Obama would be so inept a politician. The man had to jump through so many hoops to become President one would think he’d be a little more savvy. Sadly for our nation, he’s turned out to be a left-center politician who likes big activist government and a professorially-minded executive. Which is to say he is no executive at all. Your Maximum Leader firmly believes that the President would be an ineffective department chairman at a mid-level university. So he is an particularly ineffective President. At this stage your Maximum Leader will give more credit for passing “Obamacare” to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi than to the President.

The most surprising failing of the President has been his oratory. You know something… Your Maximum Leader didn’t think that the President would lose his gift for empty (yet soaring) oratory once in office. Your Maximum Leader sort of suspected that the President would have lots of soaring oratory with little to show for it once he was inaugurated. But in fact the President has had little soaring oratory with even less to show for it.

Your Maximum Leader discounts all the “Obama has upset his base” talk. The liberal base of the Democratic party has no where else to go. They could stay home, but they will not. The President has his base… The question is does he have any more than the base supporting him. Right now he does not. And all in all that is a good thing for all of us. It will spur the eventual Republican candidate to work harder, and it will make the President work harder to avoid the appellation of a failed one-termer. Neither of those items can hurt the rest of us.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader didn’t post anything on September 11. He didn’t watch much of the saccharine and overly melancholy memorial services on television. He remembered our dead from that day and those who have died around the world in our fight against terrorists since that day.

Many others commented in meaningful ways on or about that anniversary. Many said things with which your Maximum Leader could agree. But deep down your Maximum Leader started to wonder when exactly our nation started to thrive on the melancholy?

Please do not mistake that question for callousness to the families of victims or servicemen and women. (Your Maximum Leader has a number of relatives on active duty who have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.) But it seems as though our media coverage of the event was seen through eyes that focus on the sadness, the loss, the pain. There seemed to be an air of helplessness and woe that pervaded everything broadcast. When did quiet respect and solemnity become equated to restrained mourning and lamentation?

Perhaps your Maximum Leader is having a hard time writing down his impressions of the anniversary. He perceived that the undercurrent of all the coverage was helplessness and even defeat. There didn’t seem to be anything uplifting about the coverage of the day as seen through the media.

Is this an outward sign of PC/secularism? Is it that without the ability to appeal to either religion or at least some sort of universal theism or morality that we can’t try to remember the dead in an edifying manner?

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know. But what he does know is that he has moved on from the melancholy remembrance of September 11, 2001. He has resolve that we should track down and destroy the expanded networks of enemies our nation has around the world. He is respectful of the dead and holds them in his heart. But he is not wallowing in pity, victimization or sadness.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader decided to list a few people who’s very presence in our national consciousness annoys him. This list is in no particular order: (In Politics) Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, Sarah Palin, Charles Schumer, Dick Durban, Harry Reid, David Axlerod, James Carville, (In “sports & entertainment”) any Kardashian, the whole NBA, Peter King, Lindsay Lohan, Dr Oz, Dr Phil, Jay Leno, and George Lucas.

That is all.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader meant to post yesterday. As you can tell by the unaltered timestamp on this post, he did not. August 2011 was not a particularly good month for your Maximum Leader. But September should turn things around.

Since your Maximum Leader seems to be suffering from a short attention span, lets give some Twitter-esque commentary here on ye olde blogge.

By the way, you can follow your Maximum Leader on Twitter at: @maximumleader.

Your Maximum Leader didn’t think it was possible for a President to screw up getting to speak in front of a joint session of Congress. Our incumbent President apparently has.

Your Maximum Leader’s favorite primate is the orangutan. (Your Maximum Leader was always a fan of Dr Zaius.)

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how he feels about the CIA CTC killing terrorists. To be more specific, he worries about accountablility. (He doesn’t really mind killing bad guys.)

It is getting hard to remember who the Prime Minister of Japan is at any given moment. They are on their 6th PM in 5 years.

Your Maximum Leader must agree with both Dr. Krauthammer and Robbo. Those Washington Natnals are going places. FYI - Your Maximum Leader often sees Krauthammer next to the Dippin Dots near Section 128. (Your Maximum Leader often mooches tix from a friend in Section 127. At a recent game in addition to Krauthammer, your Maximum Leader enjoyed a game in the company of George Will and Ben Bernake.)

Your Maximum Leader loved this little interplay between counter-agent and customer over at Ellison’s.

Your Maximum Leader wishes there was a person running for the office of President of the United States that could elicit more of a reaction than “hummmm” paired with a heavy exasperated sigh.

You know, if all you read was the Washington Post and NY Times you wouldn’t get much of a feeling of outrage at the recent debacle over at BATF known as “Fast & Furious.” This long piece from the WaPo is about as outraged as you would get.

Has your Maximum Leader mentioned how much he loves Doctor Who now? He does. He didn’t like it as much when he was younger (in the 1970s and 1980s). But now it is very cool. Very cool indeed.

Oh…

And… One day late…

Rabbit!

Carry on.