Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s blog is in need of updating. He has comments that he is planning on posting very soon about Richard III and Benedict XVI. Perhaps some political comments as well. Perhaps this Sunday will be the day of updating…

In the meanwhile, please refrain from being martyred on this “holiday” known as “Valentine’s Day.”

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sure that by now you have heard the news. No it isn’t that the Ball’mer Ravens won the Super Bowl. The news is greater than that. (Though the news has been overshadowed by the big football game.)

The remains of King Richard III of England have been positively identified. According to the Washington Post (and many other news outlets) the remains found five months ago under a parking lot in Leicester are “beyond a reasonable doubt” those of the last Plantagenet king of England.

Your Maximum Leader is positively giddy with the news. As long-time readers (if there are any of you left) know, your Maximum Leader is a big fan of Richard III. Your Maximum Leader supposes that the next big decision for the archeologists and others involved with the dig will be how to re-bury the King. Your Maximum Leader believes there are really only two choices available for re-burial. The first, and most likely, is that Richard should be lain to rest in Leicester Cathedral (a short distance from where he was found). He has, after all, been buried in Leicester for 500 years already and short of being put back under the parking lot, this is a reasonable choice. The other choice is that specified by Richard himself. As your Maximum Leader understands it, the King had plans in his will to be buried in York Minster.

Your Maximum Leader knows that Leicester wants to keep Richard’s remains and seems to be lobbying for that outcome. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure if the good people of York are anxious to have Richard buried there. But it would seem as though they would want him. What community wouldn’t want to have a king buried in their city? Your Maximum Leader is pretty sure that Westminster Cathedral shouldn’t be in the running. That said, many people will probably argue for Westminster…

The one sidebar on this whole discovery that your Maximum Leader would like to see it this: a 3-D model of Richard’s skull used to make an image of what he looked like in life. That would be the most fascinating bit of discovery yet to be revealed. We’ve seen what King Tut looks like (and countless other Pharaohs). I’d like to see Richard’s face.

More on this as it becomes available. In the meanwhile… God Save the King! Hail King Richard III.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s Christmas & New Year’s did not go as planned. The trip to the National Christmas Tree did go wonderfully. We had a Suburban full of kids and had a great time going to DC to see the tree. Then the illnesses hit. Luckily, your Maximum Leader’s immediate family was spared. But his extended family was not. His Christmas dinner for 17 turned into dinner for 7. (That has meant that your Maximum Leader has been finding new and exciting ways to re-heat roast beef for a week.)

Then the post-Christmas quiet contemplation your Maximum Leader had hoped for evaporated quickly. Apparently, your Maximum Leader’s offspring decided to bicker and argue pretty much constantly for days.

It wasn’t the best.

Then, Mrs Villain declared that since January is shaping up to be a busy one for us… All the Christmas decorations had to come down. Once the decree had gone out, it had to be accomplished. So the Villainschloss is completely de-Christmas-ed. That makes your Maximum Leader a little sad; because he likes to keep the house festooned until at least the Feast of the Epiphany…

Anyhoo…

Yesterday, New Year’s Day (Rabbit by the way), was quiet enough. Most everyone in the Villainschloss stayed in their rooms and interacted very little. Your Maximum Leader watched a number of “Sherlock” episodes on Amazon Prime. Your Maximum Leader isn’t a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes “re-boots” that have come out. The 1st Robert Downey Jr. film was enjoyable as a “buddy film” but wasn’t Sherlock Holmes. Your Maximum Leader has also seen “Elementary” on CBS. While your Maximum Leader is happy to look at Lucy Liu for an hour in almost any circumstance, that show isn’t all that. But Stephen Moffat’s “Sherlock” is a different beast all together. It is great. If you haven’t had a chance to see the six episodes (all done before Benedict Cumberbatch had to go off and make the new Star Trek film and then Martin Freeman had to go and make the Hobbit films) you should watch them.

Your Maximum Leader wishes you all a happy and prosperous 2013.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader trusts that if you are reading these words, your Christmas is very very boring.

This is, now, the lull before the storm that will be Christmas at the Villainschloss and there-bouts. Today, Saturday, December 22, was consumed by a few hours of last moment shopping. Then the wrapping of gifts began. Indeed, most of the gifts are wrapped right now. A few stragglers remain. (They shall be dealt with tomorrow.)

In an hour or so, friends of your Maximum Leader’s children will descend on the Villainschloss. They will be fed and then we will trek up to Washington DC to see the National Christmas tree on the Ellipse near the White House. Your Maximum Leader is the only parent who will do the drive apparently, and he believes in letting as many people share the joy of the season as possible.

Tomorrow your Maximum Leader will go to church (where he has been a lector now for about a year - though he doesn’t read every Sunday or Holy Day). Then the rest of the day will be cleaning and preparing the schloss for visits.

Your Maximum Leader’s sainted in-laws arrive on Monday. Monday evening the whole extending family here in Fredericksburg will go to the Presbyterian Church for services (where your Maximum Leader’s niece and nephew will perform in the holiday pageant). Then it will be over to his Brother & Sister-in-law’s house for dinner. Your Maximum Leader’s family will need to depart early, as he is lectoring at church on Christmas day.

So, your Maximum Leader will be up Christmas Day at 5:45am so that he can prepare the family to go to church. He is reading at the 7am mass. Then it is home for gifts and stockings. Then will come the cooking. Dinner is, as always, roast beef, yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes and two green veggies. (This year the veggies are likely to be green beans and asparagus.) Then there will be pies…

Your Maximum Leader wishes you and yours a happy Christmas.

And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people:
For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.
And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying:
Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.

Peace and good will to you all.

Carry on.

Greetings. I sat down today to try and write a post and update this moribund blog.

But just as I logged into the internet I saw.

I can’t say how grief-stricken I am for the families of the 20 slaughtered children and the 6 murdered adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. I am also saddened for the parents of the shooter, who were apparently murdered by their son before he went to do his grisly work at the school.

My heart is so heavy I can hardly wish all manner of Dantean misery on the soul of the shooter.

As my wife is a teacher in an elementary school, my mind is conjuring scenes of what Sandy Hook must be like now.

I can hardly bear it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has had this tune running through his mind (and off his lips) for a few days now… For your earworm pleasure:

In case you were wondering about the end of the video. That is a public service from the Melbourne (Australia) Metro system.

If only WAMTA here in DC could be so ingenious.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was wrong. Not wrong wrong; but just wrong. Sure he knew that it was not going to be a good night for Romney when New Hampshire wasn’t close. Your Maximum Leader, optimistically, thought that New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Iowa and Colorado were going to break for Romney. When New Hampshire broke heavy for Obama your Maximum Leader realized that his most optimistic scenario for Romney (which still had Romney losing by the way) was not going to play out. Your Maximum Leader is a little surprised at Virginia going for Obama. Your Maximum Leader had spoken with people who are well connected with both parties and figured that the Commonwealth was going to be close (which it seems to be still) but that it would break for Romney. It didn’t.

Well… There is not much else to do on this one (save the requisite blame game and internecine warfare about who is “pure” enough to win in 2016) except to say, congratulations President Obama. Your Maximum Leader hopes the next four years are better for America than the first. (But he’s not holding his breath.)

In other election thoughts… Gay marriage measures passed everywhere they were on the ballot. That is a good thing. The Federal Government should just drop all objections and road blocks to gay marriage and we should just put this issue to bed. Your Maximum Leader still isn’t sure why the courts haven’t ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act and nullified it completely… But they haven’t.

There is only one place to put the blame for the Republican party not picking up seats in the US Senate. That place is the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party got nominated people who were just unelectable to the majority of people in their states. Your Maximum Leader firmly believes that the American people are, on the balance, of a center-right persuasion in the broadest sense. But, they don’t like extremists of either party. (Some of you out there think that Obama is a left-wing extremist; your Maximum Leader has to respectfully disagree with you and say that his is more left-center than far-left.) An opportunity to win the Senate, while remote to start with, was ruined back in the summer when electable Republicans like Dick Lugar (and Olympia Snowe) were done.

Well… Enough on this one… There will be more to come in the following days and weeks.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has voted. The line was short and moved at a good clip. The good people at the Stafford County Board of Elections seem to have things well in hand now. He hopes it continues to be so during the day.

Your Maximum Leader believes he’ll turn on the TV about 10 pm tonight and see what is going on at that point. Until then he will stay away from news sources that will do nothing but bloviate nonsense until some of the east coast states start to close…

In other news… As your Maximum Leader tweeted this morning: He is looking forward to seeing ads for breakfast cereal and boner pills reappear on TV beginning tomorrow.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader supposes that he ought to give some final election predictions on this, the last day before the election. Here you go…

Your Maximum Leader, as he has for a while now, believes that President Obama will win reelection. Mitt Romney has made it close; but the electoral math just breaks the President’s way. Your Maximum Leader isn’t positive that the President will win, but he is 65% certain. Looking at the electoral breakdown, your Maximum Leader has Romney at 267 and Obama at 253 with Ohio undecided - but leaning towards the President. Your Maximum Leader gives VA, NC, NH, FL, IA, and CO to Romney. He gives NV, WI, MI and PA to the President. Your Maximum Leader also thinks that Ohio will break for Obama. That would put the final count at Obama 271 to Romney 267.

It is possible that WI and OH are still too close to call… But your Maximum Leader rather doubts it. He didn’t have these doubts last week. He thought OH was really in play. But then he started to check the early voting numbers and he sees that many more Democrats have been voting early. He has even read some numbers that imply that up to 40% of those who are going to vote in the election have already voted. Those numbers seem, to your Maximum Leader, to favor the President.

Ugh… Not good news all in all…

In Virginia, we are also voting for a US Senator. The race is between George Allen (R - former Senator and former Governor) and Tim Kaine (D - former Governor). Your Maximum Leader has, in years past, voted for George Allen. But recently your Maximum Leader has come to be persuaded that Allen probably has a wide streak of racial prejudice in him that hasn’t been reformed. That sours your Maximum Leader on Allen. Tim Kaine on the other hand seems to be a good man personally; but has supported liberal policies that make your Maximum Leader’s stomach churn. What to do? At the dinner table on Saturday night your Maximum Leader’s family had a debate about which was the better course: voting for the man who advocates policies you support - but might be a bad person; or support the man who’s policies you don’t support because you believe he is a good man. There is no simple or easy answer if you are being pragmatic. If you are judging the contest on the basis of personal ethics, the choice is clear. If you are judging on the basis of pure politics, the choice is also clear.

Your Maximum Leader can honestly say that he hasn’t fully made up his mind on this race. He feels like a turd for saying so, but he probably will not know until he steps into the voting booth. All things being equal, your Maximum Leader is likely going for Allen… Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how this race will turn out. It will all come down to turnout in Northern Virginia. From what your Maximum Leader can tell, both President Obama and Governor Kaine have “given up” on winning Virginia south of your Maximum Leader’s home in Fredericksburg. So it all comes down to turnout in the most densely populated region of the state. If you pressed your Maximum Leader he’d say that Allen wins in a squeaker. But if your Maximum Leader is wrong on Romney winning Virginia and the state goes for Obama, then Kaine will win the Senate seat.

Of course, we in the US are also electing the whole House of Representatives. Your Maximum Leader will vote for his current Congressman, Rob Wittman. He expects that Wittman will be reelected easily.

There are also two State Constitutional Amendments on the ballot. One deals with moving the “veto session” of the General Assembly so that it does not fall on the Jewish Passover holiday. Your Maximum Leader will be voting for it and he can’t imagine why anyone would vote against it. He expects it to pass overwhelmingly.

The second amendment has to do with property rights. After the Kelo v New London decision by the US Supreme Court, many states passed laws that narrowly defined a “public purpose” that permitted the taking of private land under eminent domain. Virginia was one of those states. Many people (and political types) believe that those laws protecting private property are not strong enough in themselves but should be added to the state constitution. This amendment will add property protections to the state constitution. Your Maximum Leader will be voting for this amendment as well. He expects it to pass overwhelmingly.

So there it is.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is alive and well. His family is alive and well. His property is undamaged by Hurricane Sandy. For all of that his is thankful. His heart goes out to those in New Jersey and New York who are suffering so much right now.

Your Maximum Leader spend the weekend before the storm getting the Villainschloss ready for the storm. We cleared up the leaves. Cleaned gutters. Secured loose items in the yard. Verified the backup generator was working and that we had spare fuel. All the stuff you do. The only real concern we had was for the many trees around the house. You can never tell when one is going to decide to give up the ghost and fall on your home or auto.

Providentially, nothing bad happened. We didn’t even lose power. It flickered once or twice, but remained on. Your Maximum Leader believes that the derecho storms of this past June helped us out. Those storms, which left your Maximum Leader without power for nearly three days, probably culled out lots of the trees that would have fallen otherwise during Sandy.

Your Maximum Leader is, again, thankful that he doesn’t have anything interesting to report.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader happened to drive by three grocery stores today during lunch time. If the crowds in the parking lots (of people buying milk, water, toilet paper and the like) are any indication of the level of apprehension associated with the impending arrival of Hurricane Sandy; then your Maximum Leader can only declare that we are all gonna die. And soon.

Your Maximum Leader does need to buy some milk, by the way. But that is because he and his family consume about 5 gallons of milk a week and we normally buy on Friday…

Damn.

This all being said… Your Maximum Leader has his backup generator standing by with plenty of spare fuel. So that means we should be just fine…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader learned this morning (thanks to a tweet from the AP) that renown historian Jacques Barzun had died at the age of 104. Your Maximum Leader, not meaning to sound horrible, had thought that Dr. Barzun had already shrugged off his mortal coil a while ago. Your Maximum Leader remembers reading (part of a borrowed copy of) “From Dawn To Decadence” when it came out. At that time Dr. Barzun was in his early 90s. Your Maximum Leader, sadly, assumed that the masterwork had been published and with his life work complete death followed. (NB: Your Maximum Leader has still never finished that book… And he doesn’t think he owns it… Humm…)

So it is with some sadness and surprise that we can read his obituary as it appears today. The Washington Post obit is here “Jacques Barzun wide-ranging cultural historian dead at 104.”

Your Maximum Leader is glad to see that Dr. Barzun’s aphorism about baseball is in the obituary. Your Maximum Leader remembers seeing the aphorism on a plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame (just like the article says). The saying is: “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.”

Rest in peace professor.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that this is St Crispin’s Day. That means that today is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. A great English victory over the French in the 100 Years War. A victory that, thanks to the Bard, probably clouds our collective memory and makes us Anglophiles assume that the English won the 100 Years War, which they did not.

The best remembrance of the Battle of Agincourt actually comes from the ole Twitter machine where user Michael Gebert (@skyfullofbacon) tweeted: “Christ, it’s St. Crispin’s Day and that means the old man will be showing his arm scars and going on about Harry the King & Exeter all night.” That made your Maximum Leader laugh aloud.

Of course, if it is St. Crispin’s Day, that means it is also the anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava.

And overlooked in all this is St. Crispin himself.

If you are so inclined, and your Maximum Leader is, lift a glass and remember Harry the King, Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester and their great victory today. After a few celebratory glasses, you can wallow in the plight of the Light Brigade. And after a night of hard drinking you can be thankful that you didn’t end up like St. Crispin.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader grew up in an area that was, once upon a time, part of the large land holdings of George Washington. Your Maximum Leader lived close to Mount Vernon and in a strange way thought of Washington as something of a neighbor. A neighbor with a large house with a great view (among other things).

(NB: In high school your Maximum Leader had classmates who worked summers at Mount Vernon. He was often able to use these connections to “sneak” into the estate on beautiful summer days and waste away time sitting on Washington’s yard watching the river roll by.)

So why is your Maximum Leader bringing this up now?

Well, a few days ago (in fact on the first of the month) your Maximum Leader mentioned that his good buddy Mark had won an essay contest sponsored by the Ladies Association of Mount Vernon (the owners and maintainers of Washington’s estate - and memory). As a winner Mark was invited to come to Mount Vernon and be schooled in all things Washington and Mount Vernon. Well, by pre-arrangement, your Maximum Leader went to visit his buddy after the day’s programs ended. It was late (after 9:30pm in fact); but a visit with Mark is always a good time. So, after having a drink and some oysters in Alexandria, we returned to the estate.

We entered through a side gate and went to a complex your Maximum Leader had never seen. Apparently the estate keeps a number of fair-sized “houses” on the grounds to house people who are participating in educational programs (like Mark, the Smallholder) or, one supposes, donors who would like a special perk… In addition to staying on the grounds, Mark was invested with a pass that allowed him to walk the grounds at all hours (provided, of course, that he didn’t attempt to enter any building and otherwise behaved himself). Armed with this pass, Mark took your Maximum Leader to do something he’d never done before…

Now, over the course of his life, your Maximum Leader has been able to go many places in Mount Vernon that others normally don’t go. He’s been up to the third floor of the mansion and seen the bedrooms and storage rooms up there. He’s also climbed up to the cupola and looked out of it at the Potomac and the estate. It is pretty fun… But last night he got a treat he’d never expected to get.

Mark and your Maximum Leader wandered the grounds at midnight. There wasn’t another soul about. It was wonderful.

One often never stops to think how a place might be other than the times at which you are used to seeing it. Your Maximum Leader always associates daylight and other people with being at Mount Vernon. But it is a different experience in the dead of night. It is quiet. Real quiet save for the wind and noise of insects. And that there are no other people around gives it a completely unusual feeling. It was very cool.

Your Maximum Leader snapped a few pictures on his iPhone. Sadly, he didn’t know how to adjust the settings to make the photos better than they are. But he did try to lighten them up a little for your viewing pleasure…

Here they are:

And in case you are interested, you can click here to see the daytime view of the first image (big picture) or you can click here to see the daytime view of the second image.

Your Maximum Leader will remember this visit for a very very long time. Thanks Mark!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been thinking about this for a while now…

Dear Skippy.

We hope that you know that among all the bloggers of the world, you are among our most favored. Your political insights and commentary so often mirror what we are thinking that often we don’t see the point of writing on a subject after you have discoursed on it. This election year (in the US) has not been different than past election years in that respect. We, like you, have thought from early on that Romney will be the nominee. We have also believed, as you have that President Obama will win re-election. This is not due to his deserving to be re-elected; but due to Romney and the Republicans being so pathetic.

We have read and taken to heart your many exhortations (including the latest one) that we should vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson for President of the United States. After much consideration, we have decided that we could, in good conscience, cast our vote for Governor Johnson. He is a sensible Libertarian, and although we don’t agree with him on all the issues - as if we have ever agreed with every candidate on all the issues, he does have a reasonable plan for addressing the most pressing problems facing the United States today.

This is a big step for us. We normally don’t believe in voting for 3rd party candidates in national elections. We believe that voting for the 3rd party candidate is not a “protest” vote in a meaningful sense but more “throwing one’s vote away.” This year though, the two major party candidates just aren’t doing it for us. So we have thought long and hard about voting for Governor Johnson.

But then a crazy thing happened to our home state of Virginia four years ago. For the first time in our life, Virginia went for a Democrat in a Presidential election. Virginia awarded her electoral votes to Barack Obama in 2008. Now, in 2012 it looks like Virginia is a “swing state.”

We wouldn’t need to see a talking head on some cable news program to tell us we are living in a swing state. We’ve lived it for nearly a year now. You can’t turn on the TV or radio (or often the interwebs) without being bombarded with political ads.

You know, for years we’ve wanted to see all the attack ads and know what it is like to be a contested marketplace. Now we’re wishing we could go back to the days when the only time you saw a political ad was when it was highlighted on the news or when you went looking for it on the interwebs. It has been hell. The ads are maddening in their omnipresence. It is enough to drive a man to drink (much more than he normally does).

So, Virginia is a swing state. For the first time in our lifetime, our vote actually does mean something (Presidentially speaking). Now we find we are faced with a major problem. Do we cast our vote for a deserving man (Gary Johnson) who has no chance of winning or cast our vote for Romney or Obama in hopes that our vote does affect the outcome of the national election.

We know that the press are reporting that (alternately) Virginia is very close or the President is slightly ahead. According to information we’re getting from people who have access to internal polling from the various campaigns, everything is within the margin of error of any poll.

If we thought that Virginia was going solidly for either Romney or Obama, we’d vote for Gary Johnson. But this year it seems to be a more prudent course to use the lesser of the evils approach to casting our vote. Although we don’t think it will help him in the broader Electoral picture, we will likely vote for Romney. He is not our first (or second or probably third - okay he is our second choice actually) choice; but he is a better choice than voting to re-elect President Obama. And just so you know, even using the lesser of two evils approach the choice between Romney and Obama is an unpleasant one. Neither man has a serious plan for directly addressing the most serious problems facing the US. But one man has had nearly four years to work on those problems and has pretty much fucked it up at every opportunity. So, perhaps change is the best course.

We’re actually quite disappointed that it has come to this. But there it is. We’re pretty much screwed no matter how we vote; but it is wiser to do it this way than any other.

Cordially,

Your Maximum Leader

PS - if you are ever down our way, you have an open invitation at the Villainschloss.

So there you have it.

Sad.

Carry on.