Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hopes that you all had a great long weekend (assuming of course that you didn’t have to toil for The Man). Over the weekend your Maximum Leader hoped to use all the free time he had loitering around the Villainschloss to write some posts to put up during the week. Alas, a sick Wee Villain and the allure of the PC game Rome: Total War pretty much killed most of his creative time.

Then again, there is the issue of his fingers. Yes, his fingers. Your Maximum Leader seems to have lost the ability to type. Thanks to the work of Mrs Lamb in high school, your Maximum Leader has been a competent typist. Not the type of serious typist you would have seen with a beehive coiff and sensible shoes in a typing pool at General Motors in the 50s or 60s mind you. But a competent typist. He has been known, when on a roll, to hit about 80 words per minute. Reasonably few errors. But honestly, thanks to the joy of word processors your Maximum Leader has been rather careless about errors.

Then, on Sunday he noticed something. He can hardly type. Indeed, just to type out this little missive is taking forever. He just can’t seem to control his fingers. Is he thinking about what his is doing too much? Has he made a slight adjustment in his posture? Has his computer become the pitcher throwing a killer sinker that your Maximum Leader just can’t pick up - but swings for anyway?

Who knows? But whatever the problem is your Maximum Leader hopes that it will pass. Perhaps he’ll pick up some book off the shelf and just try retyping it into Word to get his groove back. Sort of like being sent to the minors for rehab…

Anyhoo…

For your reading pleasure, for your Maximum Leader has been reading a bit, here are some cool links…

You know… Your Maximum Leader was just thinking that he’s not gotten a Canadian Politics update recently from our friend Skippy… Just the thought must have willed it to be so… Here tis. Does your Maximum Leader detect gruding admiration for Stephen Harpr’s political skilz in this post? Humm…

Did you catch the Hatemonger’s riff on Buffalo last week? Well… As one might expect, it has ruffled a few very large feathers. One wonders if Buffalo-born Tim Russert will leap to the defence of his hometown?

Has your Maximum Leader mentioned recently that he anxiously awaits the posting of the Velociman? He does. Anxiously. If you don’t read Velociworld you are missing… Well… You are missing out on some of the best writing out there. Just in the past few days we’ve gotten subsitute teachers, dunce caps, and cornholing and zombies.

You know something? The Velociman is a well-rounded fellow… He wrote that whole post about “cornholing” to which your Maximum Leader linked above. One wonders if he’s heard of this cornhole? Your Maximum Leader hadn’t until a few months ago… It seems to be very popular on college campuses…

And lest you think your Maximum Leader isn’t always thinking (and linking) political/current events stories….

Your Maximum Leader must agree with Mr. Holmes on the awful nature of the McCain-Feingold Law. Your Maximum Leader isn’t a big McCain fan, but in all honesty he doesn’t have the loathing for McCain that Preston does. Indeed, your Maximum Leader thinks that McCain is a pretty conservative fellow. He does hold a number of positions with which your Maximum Leader takes exception, but he doesn’t really have strong emotions one way or the other towards McCain.

Kate on Outside the Beltway points out a proposal by the Blair Government in Britain to intervene in to save children from miscreant parent before the children are born. Wow! Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know what to say. The idea is unimaginable frankly… Well not actually unimaginable since someone has gone and proposed it…

Well… This post has taken waaaaay too long to type out. So… Here it ends.

Carry on.

I have so many things to post but work has been overwhelming. I just took this short quiz so that I could make fun of the Maximum Leader for scoring as the Italians. But then it turns out I’m a rifle-dropper too. Rats.

A happy three-day weekend to all.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader found a quiz that he didn’t think was crap. So his results are reproduced here.

Your Maximum Leader was a little surprised that he came up so strong in Italy. But he supposes it is because he likes uniforms and the Italians had among the coolest uniforms of the war.

Doffing bejeweled (floppy) myllan cap to Rachel for the quiz.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, as promised, is glad to present for your reading pleasure the third and final installment of his little series “It is good to be the King.” In episode one, your Maximum Leader epistilized on why it is good to be Vladimir Putin. All that power. All those resources. And he is a stud.

In episode two, your Maximum Leader epistilized on why it is good to be Hu Jintao. Indeed, there are lots of reasons why it is good to be Hu Jintao. And you know, last night your Maximum Leader remembered another one. Hu is the only man in the world who has any sway at all over North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Il. This is not to say that he has lots of sway over Kim (who is pretty much an insane-I’ll-do-what-I-want-when-I-want type of dictator); but some sway is better than what the US and the rest of the world has. Which is to say that everyone else has bupkis. Nada. Rien. None.

So… Your Maximum Leader is pretty sure that you all are waiting with bated breath to know whom your Maximum Leader will choose as the A-number-one-top-of-the-heap guy to be in the world. To be honest, it was quite hard to choose just three world leaders sitting in their catbird seats. But, being even more honest, the big winner today was an easy pick. It was harder to narrow the field down to make a second and third choice. Yes, Hu and Putin were harder choices than today’s number one.

So… Who is it really really go to be in the world today?

Easy peasey lemon squeezey…

It is good to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Yup. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The President of Iran is truly in the world’s catbird seat. Why? It should be painfully obvious. First off, he’s got oil. Lots and lots and lots of oil. And frankly, everyone in the world (except the US) wants it. Everyone in the world needs it, and is buying it from Iran and paying $70 a barrel to get it. So Ahmadinejad has that going for him.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just got a group of surrogates to fight a war for him. Yup. Ahmadinejad just had Hezbollah fight a little war against Israel. He supplies the guns and rockets; they supply the crazy jihadists and the territry. Then guess what happens… Hezbollah fights the war… And pretty much wins. Sure you can quibble over the definition of winning. But your Maximum Leader will put things bluntly. When you attack Israel and have the Israelis come after you (with pretty much a free hand to do what they wanted) for a month and you are still standing; you can call that a win. With the success of his Hezbollah surrogates, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s stature in the Muslim world grows.

Ahmadinejad is in line Flynn with his Iranian Mullah bosses. This was the one weak point in this little essay in your Maximum Leader’s mind. Sure Ahmadinejad is a popularly elected (and popular) leader of his people. But we all know that the Mullahs are the final arbiters of what is going on in Iran. Of course, the Mullahs love Ahmadinejad. So he’s got that going for him.

And then there is the abiltiy to thumb his nose at the West and go “Neener, Neener” to the US, the UK, the EU, and the UN pretty much every day. What are they going to do? Ohhhhh watch out! The UN might sanction Iran. Really? Do you think for a second that Iranian oil will be sanctioned? So long as the oil flows and Iran has money; Iran can buy what it needs. They might pay a premium, but they can afford it.

You know, there are very few leaders in the world who can wake up every morning and announce that the Holocaust didn’t happen; that Israel needs to be destroyed; and that the US is the Great Satan - without reprecussions. Not only can he say what he wants, but soon he will have the first Islamofacist bomb.* Baby Jeebus wants peace on earth and goodwill towards men. Allah wants a nuke. And Allah wants Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to get it for him.

Sure there are pundits out there who say that George W. Bush will not leave office with Iran on the verge of crashing the nuclear club. Already there is talk of the US, UK, and Israel bombing the Iranian nuclear facilities out of existance. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t doubt that this line of thinking is going on in the halls of power. But your Maximum Leader doesn’t think that the US will do it. Too risky politically. This is that rock and a hard place situation. Forcibly stopping Iran from getting the bomb is too risky to attempt; and letting Iran get the bomb is too risky to let happen.

But you know… Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is, right now, playing all his cards right. He’s got wealth, power, and stature. Sure he doesn’t have good taste in clothes, and he walks with a slouch, and he can come off as a bit crazy… But he has a fan club out there. There are gagillions of good Muslim girls who would love to be Mrs. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and try and “fix” him. Clean him up some… Make him sound a little less crazy sometimes. Learn which fork is the salad fork and which one is the dessert fork… You know.. That type of stuff.

Yes, loyal minions. It is good to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Carry on.
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Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, as promised, is plesed to provide the second installment of his three part series “It is good to be the King.” As clever readers will note, the first installment was posted yesterday; and in it your Maximum Leader pointed out some of the reasons why it is good to be Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Big Hominid even was kind enough to write an e-mail to your Maximum Leader wanting him to elaborate on the possible Russian Mob/Russian Government connections to which he alluded yesterday. As your Maximum Leader told the Big Hominid in a reply e-mail, those connections are mostly conjectural right now, but your Maximum Leader will try to research some on the subject and get back with you all.

So… Who else is it good to be?

Well loyal minions, it is good to be… Hu Jintao.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is a lucky man. He is the leader of what most people will concede is the next great world power. China is proof of what goes around comes around. China was, for centuries, the greatest nation in the world. They fell to second (or even third) rate status over the past few hundred years. But now they are on the verge of breaking out again. So why is it good to be Hu Jintao? Let us examine the reasons.

Hu has a booming population. Surplus labor provided by Chinese farmers is the engine that fires the massive Chinese economy. Sure there are concerns about farmers leaving the country side too rapidly and this causing a serious decline in Chinese food production. There are also concerns about too many unemployed farmers in your cities being a source for political unrest. But really now? Are these problems?

Hu is the leader of a Communist Dictatorship that is doing what it can to harness a market economy. That makes Hu an adaptive sort of fellow. He’s learned that so long as enough Chinese are happy making money and reaping the benefits of the market they don’t much care that they don’t have much political freedom. So are those migrant farmers really a problem now? No… If you need more farmers back on the farm, you call out the army and forcibly relocate them back to the farms. If the farmers in the cities are a cause for unrest, you call out the army and squash them with tanks. Either way you come out the winner.

You see, so long as the growing “middle classes” of China see the government as protecting their interests; they will likely continue to support even heavy-handed government action to supress and keep under control the teeming masses.

Hu has lots of other things going for him. He’s got political clout all over the world. If he wants to throw his weight around, he can. His economy and population are so huge that all he has to do to get his way most of the time is just threaten that he’ll cut off access to Chinese markets to the offending party. It works with gamy-handed, weak-willed Europeans (but then again - what doesn’t). It works with his Asian neighbors. (Of course, the massive Red Army will all those soldiers and tanks and guns and missiles helps back up the economic threat.)

Hu is a useful counterbalance to the US as well. In a way that Russia is not. Russia might be opposed to US action for a whole bunch of reasons. But Russia is the past. China is the future. When the US tries to get anything done in the world who does it go to (after the Brits and Austrailians) the Chinese and Russians. If the US can get the Chinese on board with a plan (which happens rarely) then pretty much everyone else in the world community will go along. Frankly, the Chinese very often take positions indirectly opposed to the US simply because they are forward thinkers. To the Chinese, when the US is engaged in an activity it buys China more time to grow stronger.

Did your Maximum Leader mention that Hu Jintao is the Communist Dictator of a huge country? Let us not ever forget that fact. Being a Communist Dictator has its advantages. Hu has authoritarian powers of government beyond our daily conception in the west. Can you imagine the outcry if George W. Bush tried to block internet content? Hu Jintaodoes it every day. You know the outcry when Americans learned that their Government might be tracking phone conversations they make? Hu Jintao has buildings full of people listening to wiretaps and reading e-mails. Can you imagine how people would react if George W Bush outlawed the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Hu Jintao has all sorts of religious activity banned. George W Bush is hounded by Cindy Sheehan where ever he goes. She’s even bought a house in his neighborhood. Hu? He’s got no problems like that. Hu has people who hound him “taken care of.” And by taken care of your Maximum Leader means that the people disappear or find themselves in a nasty prison camp until Hu changes his mind. (And Hu doesn’t change his mind.)

Oh yeah… Did your Maximum Leader mention that China needs oil? They need oil like the US needs oil. That makes them a big competitor for resources. A competitor with an appetite for winning. You know, dependence on foreign energy sources is probably the only big negative that Hu has against him right now. But if his economy continues to grow, he’ll have the resources to overcome that problem. He’ll probably be the ones that help the Russians get at all that oil and gas in the far east…

Anyhow… Hu Jintao has another big drawback… He’s just not nearly as studly as Vladimir Putin. Those glasses are sorta dorky and he needs a better tailor. (Your Maximum Leader thinks he’d be better served with smaller, rounder frames. Also, his suits have no style. With all those great tailors in Hong Kong you’d think he’d go for something a little more dynamic…)

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wants to take a moment to wish the Pontifex Maximus of Scatology a very happy birthday. Yes, good readers, this is the birthday of none other than your Maximum Leader’s best buddy, Kevin, the Big Hominid.

What can one say about a friend you’ve known for 30 of your 37 years on this green earth? Well… As your Maximum Leader has said to Mrs Villain on occasion, if Kevin were a woman we’d probably be married. Our kids would be horrible monstrocities of quasi-humanity… But we’d be happy.

(NB to Loyal Minions: Your Maximum Leader is very happy and very much in love with Mrs Villain… Just so you all know… He’ll even buy “things” for Mrs Villain when she asks. Without griping…)

Kevin is a good man. I am glad to be his friend. Sometimes I wish he weren’t hanging out in Korea. That would allow us to hang out more often. But… Distance is what it is.

Anyhoo… Your Maximum Leader thought he would re-run his Big Hominid creation myth post for your reading pleasure…

As we have all learned from Joseph Campbell, there are archetypes within the various religious and spiriual traditions of the world. After much careful research, your Maximum Leader can now illuminate for you, his dear minions, the similarities in the Big Hominid creation myth from the various world traditions.

According to the Nordic tradition, from the Ginnungagap (the emptiness) came Audhumla. Audhumla was the first creature, the primeval cow in fact. From Audhumla’s teats flowed the four rivers of milk which fed the next creature, Ymir the frost giant. Ymir spawned many frost giants who inhabited the world and became the enemies of the gods. During the time of the frost giants Audhumla found a salt lick to sustain herself. As she licked the salt, she created the first man, Buri. In time Buri found a mate and their child Bor was the father of the god Odin (Wotan for you Wagnerians out there). But after the creation of Buri, the tale of Audhumla fades. Your Maximum Leader has pieced together ancient runes and discovered that after creating Buri from the salt lick, Audhumla became constipated. She wandered throughout Midgard and Asgard seeking relief. After the Gods defeated the frost giants, Audhumla was found near Valhalla by Thor. Seeing her constipated state, Thor struck Audhumla on the flank with his hammer. A great torrent of manure flew from Audhumla. The manure mixed on the earth with her life-giving milk and formed a great boiling pit. Seeing the festering pit, the god Odin foresaw the eventual coming of a great being who would alternately use his powers equally for good and ill. Odin foresaw that the liquid would coalesce into a child. A child who would be known by his nom-de-blog, the Big Hominid…

According to the Greco-Roman tradition, Cronos (the titan and ruler of the heavens) ate the children he produced with his wife-sister Rhea. But Rhea determined to save one of her children. So she gave a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to Cronos. Cronos, distracted by Gaia the earth-mother doing a striptease, ate the stone thinking it was his newborn son. The son grew to be Zeus. Zeus, in a fit of teenaged pique, faught his father and forced him to vomit up his siblings (Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter); who joined Zeus in deposing his father and becoming the ruling gods. The little known postscript to this tale is that after vomiting up the siblings of Zeus, Cronos shat out the stone he’d eaten believing it to be Zeus. The feces-encrusted stone fell to the earth and it landed in the sea. The titan feces mixed with the same sea foam that would later spawn Aphrodite. The floating morass of titan feces infused sea foam drifted across the seas. It caused the destruction of Atlantis, and helped keep the sea monster Kraken entombed in the sea. But its greatest creation would come much later. That creation/spawn was to be the scatalogically preordained being, the Big Hominid…

According to the Indian tradition, Vishnu was walking one day and a lotus flower blossomed from his navel. Brahma sprung forth from the lotus blossom and set about creating the world. The oft forgotten part of the story is that after the lotus flower sprang forth from Vishnu’s navel, a Titan Arum blossomed from his anus and from that odourous flower were sprung a line of men who would join together the world of spirituality and scatology. It is said that this line of men continues to this day, and that the Big Hominid is known in some parts of rual India and Nepal as the 69th incarnation of the Rectali Lama…

Now you all can see the similarities of the various Hominidal creation stories. Accept them for what they are. And be joyous in your celebration of the anniversary of the birth of the one and only Big Hominid.

Happy Day! And many happy returns.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was watching Mel Brooks’ “History of the World Part 1″ the other night. If you’ve not seen the film there is one part where Mel Brooks is playing King Louis XV - as a hypersexed twirp. After offering to save a poor maiden’s father from certain death (by extracting a promise for him to ravage her later); Brooks - in villainous fashion - turns to the camera and says “It’s good to be the King.”

So your Maximum Leader was thinking about that phrase a little bit. He was tossing about the idea in a semi-serious and then serious fashion. Who in the world is it good t be right now? He came up with three world leaders who are currently (in your Maximum Leader’s opinion) are on the top of their game. Right now you are reading part one of what will be a three part series.

So, without further adieu…

It is good to be… Vladimir Putin.

Okay… So Vlad is not really a King… But he might as well be a Tsar. He’s got sweeping nearly dictatorial powers over Russia. He has a democratically elected, yet completely subservient to his will, parliament that gives his government just enough credibility with those silly westerners who like to deal with “democratic nations.” He’s been popularly elected twice - and frankly could be again if he decides to change that pesky (and meaningless) constitution.

Vladimir has ultimate control over all press outlets in the nation. If he doesn’t like what they say about him, he can shut them down. Sure there is outcry in the west, but what do you care? What can they do to you? Sure the Russian army isn’t what it used to be; but they still have more nukes than you can shake a stick at. In a pinch you can get cash to the army by selling more oil or gas.

Oh yeah… Did your Maximum Leader forget the huge natural resource reserves in Russia. While it is a fact that they are hard to get to, the oil and gas is there. With gas and oil needs rising so dramatically around the world soon the opportunity cost of getting that gas and oil will be low enough that plenty of companies around the world would chomp at the bit to drill it out.

Now, surely there is lots of corruption and crime in Russia. But if you are Vladimir Putin you know that all you need to do to get that under control is to crack down in the name of freedom and democracy. Vladimir is the former KGB agent afterall. He has plenty of experience with cracking down. Your Maximum Leader is pretty certain that a lot of crime money somehow trickles up to Vladimir and his henchpeople… So a crack down might not be in the offing anytime soon.

Oh yeah… Did your Maximum Leader forget to mention that Vladimir does have problems with various seperatist groups. But those problems can be dealt with. Afterall, all Vladimir has to do is claim the seperatists are terrorists and he has carte blanche from the west. But then again, who the hell cares what “the west” says about heavy-handed dealings with seperatists?

For all these reasons, and many many more (not the least of which is just how plain studly he is), it is good to be Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader must thank Loyal Minion Dr. (Infidel) Rusty Shackelford for the linky-love yesterday. It caused a little “Jawa-lanche” here at Naked Villainy. Don’t fret. Your Maximum Leader has piles of unused bandwidth - so keep visiting.

Dr. Rusty placed a siginifcant quotation from Augustine’s masterpiece “City of God” on his site. Your Maximum Leader will reproduce the salient point.

Whoever gives even moderate attention to human affairs and to our common nature, will recognize that if there is no man who does not wish to be joyful, neither is there any one who does not wish to have peace.

For even they who make war desire nothing but victory,–desire, that is to say, to attain to peace with glory. For what else is victory than the conquest of those who resist us? and when this is done there is peace. It is therefore with the desire for peace that wars are waged, even by those who take pleasure in exercising their warlike nature in command and battle.

And hence it is obvious that peace is the end sought for by war. For every man seeks peace by waging war, but no man seeks war by making peace. For even they who intentionally interrupt the peace in which they are living have no hatred of peace, but only wish it changed into a peace that suits them better.

They do not, therefore, wish to have no peace, but only one more to their mind.

Peace more suited to their desires… There is a reason that St. Augustine is, and will be long remembered, and why so many others will not be remembered.*

Anyhoo…

The discussion of war and peace is a rather cheap segue for your Maximum Leader to pose a moral question to his readers. A moral question he’s been thinking a lot about in the past few weeks. Here it is:

What does it mean to follow Jesus’ admonition to “love thy neighbor?”

Really. Think about that for a moment. What does it mean? What does it mean practically?

Your Maximum Leader recently listened (twice) to an interview with Karen Armstrong (the noted theologian). During the interview she noted that the great monotheistic traditions all call for action tied to belief. Religion calls on you to “do something” and not just to “believe something.”

When Jesus said that we should love our neighbors what did he mean? Your Maximum Leader, in a glib sense, actually does like his neighbors quite a bit. Those blessed to live in the environs of the Villainschloss are good people. But your Maximum Leader will concede that this is notthe meaning that Jesus intended.

So what does it mean? There are lots of “neighbors” in your Maximum Leader’s extended community. Is he to love them like he does his family? Is he to tolerate them and be on his best behavior with them? Is he to approve of what they do? Of how they act? Is he to attempt to better their lot in life through his own action? Is writing weekly checks to his favorite charities enough? Is keeping the less-fortunate in his prayers enough?

What is the extent or type of love he must show his neighbor in order to live up to Jesus’ command?

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure of the answer right now. Although he thinks that he is on the right path when he is thinking to himself that he shouldn’t allow his neighbor to be victimized by injustice. Surely that is a broad and sort of wishy-washy or “feel good” definition for now. (Perhaps it is a little new-agey even.) But allow him to explain.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t feel that he needs to go far out of his way (or out of his way at all in fact) to help the crack addict who has lost everything to feed their addiction. That person made (at some point) a choice to take the crack and start down that path. (Your Maximum Leader thinks it is safe to assume that it is fairly common knowledge that crack isn’t good for you.) They are not victims of any injustice there. They are victims of their own bad choices.

On the other hand, many people of the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana are likely the victims of an injustice. They have not been well served by their elected representatives (at any level) and they continue to suffer because of this disservice. What can your Maximum Leader do? He can give money to local relief organizations. He can write Congress to conduct more oversight on how disaster recovery is going. He can volunteer to build a house, or clean up a homesite. There are lots of things that can be done.

These are (as they always are for arguments it seems) extreme examples. But perhaps they are a starting point. If you Maximum Leader can admonish you to do something, it would be to think for a little today about what it means to love your neighbor.**

Carry on.
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Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will point out to those of you of the Anglo-Cathoic (and by that he means Anglican/Episcopal/Roman Catholic) tradition that today is the feast day for St. Augustine of Hippo.

Your Maximum Leader, who was raised in the Roman tradition, chose St. Augustine as “his saint” when he was confirmed in the Catholic Church. For those of you so inclined, here is a reasonably good web site to St. Augustine.

Knowing that today was the feast day, your Maximum Leader thought it was somewhat serindipitous that he should see a new biography of St. Augustine in the local Borders over the weekend. Moments of serindipity like that should be taken advantage of (especially when they only cost you about $10). So he bought the book. He will begin it later today.

The book, Augustine: A New Biography, by James O’Donnell is very well reviewed. If any of you Hoyas out there in the reading audience know anything about Dr. O’Donnell you should let your Maximum Leader know. According to the reviews, O’Donnell is the Provost of Georgetown U.

Carry on.

The trial was yesterday.

The boys wanted to plead guilty and the assistant DA called me out of the courtroom to give my consent - she was prepared to go for the whole nine yards of a trial if I wanted to prosecute to the fullest.

The plea deal was that they would plead to malicious wounding of livestock. They would each get a year in prison with six months suspended for the accomplice. The DA thought that if there was any chance of turning around the lives of these young men, it was this. They had been in Juvie before, but a lot of kids think the justice system is playing pattycake. They won’t be going to little kid jail anymore. This is the real thing. I think there was a quote in “Office Space” about this sort of thing. Luckily, there won’t be any pounding because the kids will be seperated from the violent population and do most of their time with drunk drivers and druggies. I was all for that - I wouldn’t wish prison rape on anybody so I’m happy the boys will be protected from that. But hopefully the real time will make them rethink their futures. If not, this does count as a prior offense and one strike so they will get a whole new set of sentencing guidelines if they reoffend. Another condition of the guilty plea was that the triggerman give up the right to own a crossbow.

Justice was served, but Sally and I agreed that it should be lenient justice. I hope something good comes out of it.

As an aside, the trial prior to mine was of a broken-down sixty-three year old man who was stopped with a cigarette pack full of crack cocaine. As he was being arrested, he broke away and tried to run - with his hands handcuffed behind his back. The arresting officer, a fit-looking man in his mid twenties was trying not to laugh on the stand, but the guy, looking back at the pursuing officers, ran into a tree and knocked himself out. Heh.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s mind is awash in cascading nodes of thought.

But he shall not blog a vaugely original thought right now. Instead he shall dump links! Woo hoo.

(Your Maximum Leader knows that Naked Villainy readers are really just waiting with bated breath to hear how CSI:Batesville turns out. Or since it is a trial we’re waiting to hear about are we really into the second half hour of Law & Order: Porcine Victim’s Unit?)

Anyhoo… On with the links!

First off… The funny links…

Go see the You Tube of Wilford Brimley on Big Stupid Tommy’s site. He wonders if a Concerned Fan has seen the video.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how in all the hub-ub about Pluto being dropped back to the Minor League of Planets he missed Congressman Murtha’s call to withdraw from the International Astronomical Union. Many thanks to The Colossus for drawing our attention to this one.

Leave them behind. They deserve it. Nigel deserves nothing less than being left behind.

Now the serious links…

You know something loyal reader… Dr Rusty and his compatriots at the Jawa Report really do their best to keep you informed of the situation with western hostages and the continuing war against islamofacists. You should read his latest on the Steve Centanni situation. A situation which seems to be getting very little air time actually…

Very little air time compared to that sicko Karr and the whole stinking Ramsey Murder thing.

Your Maximum Leader had thought of doing a whole separate post about the Ramsey Murder thing, but he’s just decided to pour his invective into this post.

Let your Maximum Leader tell you a thing or two. First off… About 10 years ago he was sick to death of the whole Jon Benet murder story. After a few days it became apparent to your Maximum Leader that this case would never be solved. He wasn’t sure it was the parents, but at most levels he didn’t care who did it. That is a horrible thing to say, but your Maximum Leader was so disgusted over the level of coverage that it made him actually lose any feelings of sdness or pity he had towards anyone involved in the case. Sure it is a horrible thing for a child to be horrifically murdered. But at some point you have to move on.

Then you get this sicko John Mark Karr. Your Maximum Leader would like to see him dragged out in front of the Boulder Courthouse, publicly sodomized by some big angry convict, then shot in the head. Leave his body there to bloat in the sun and rot for a while.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t actually care or know if Karr committed the crime. Your Maximum Leader thinks that anyone who confesses publicly to a captial crime before speaking (with their attorney) to the prosecutor involved should be dragged out and shot. He doesn’t really care at all if they did the crime. He doesn’t care if the people confessing have “problems” and need “help.” Your Maximum Leader will posit for you all that all the “help” these people need is actually a .45 slug to the back of the head.

If 20 people publicly confess to the same crime, before speaking (with their attorney) to the prosecutor involved in the case, then we shoot 20 people in the head. We leave the case open until the last of the confessors comes forward.

Regardless… Your Maximum Leader is sick of the whole story. There are more important issues before us than who murdered a little girl.

Sad to say… But its true.

Now your Maximum Leader’s invective have drained him of the ability to continue the link dump. Damn that guy Karr… Now there is another reason to shoot you.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader should admit something to you.

As heretical as it might seem to some jazz enthusiasts and Peanuts TV special lovers…

Your Maximum Leader prefers Dave Brubeck’s “Linus and Lucy” to Vince Guaraldi’s.

He just thought he’d share that with you all.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been reading up on some of his favorite blogs recently. He’s not kept up with things like he wants to. For instance, your Maximum Leader didn’t know that Pamela had vlogged in a wet bikini, nor did he know who the hell Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey was.

But he did know that if he went over to Tacitus he’d find something good. And sure enough he did. You should cruise over and read this post. The money quote:

In warring with a religion, decades of secularism have left us utterly disarmed. We are trained to think of faith as either irrelevant or benign: and when it is undeniably malign, we ascribe its malignancy to “fundamentalism,” which is (in direct negation of the meaning of the word) somehow separable or diversionary from the fundamentals of the faith in question.

Damn Tacitus for summing up on one line the concept that your Maximum Leader has been batting around in his brain for weeks.

As your Maximum Leader has written before, he is not sure that the great majority of Muslims throughout the world wouldn’t just as soon kill an American (or Israeli, or Brit, or Aussie) as say hello to one. Your Maximum Leader has (in good post-modern Western fashion) tried and tried to ascribe the malignant elements of Islam to a small and somehow backwards, sect or splinter group. But under some scrutiny, those ssignations dissolve under closer examination. It is quite discouraging really.

This discouragement your Maximum Leader feels when he contemplates the vastness of the problems with Islam is made worse when he then contemplates that a shrinking majority of Americans (and Westerners) seem willing to break with their self-destructive pacifism (or variants of pacifism) to defend themselves in a conflict that will end with one side broken and discarded.

There is probably a longer epistle needed on this subject. But this will do for now…

Carry on.

The trial is tomorrow. Wish me luck.

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