Deus meus, ex toto corde poenitet me omnium meorum peccatorum,
eaque detestor, quia peccando,
non solum poenas a Te iuste statutas promeritus sum,
sed praesertim quia offendi Te,
summum bonum, ac dignum qui super omnia diligaris.
Ideo firmiter propono,
adiuvante gratia Tua,
de cetero me non peccaturum peccandique occasiones proximas fugiturum.
Amen.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure if he will blog again until next week. Until then he wishes you all a very Merry Christmas.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has said time and time again here that he isn’t sure what the question it, but Venice often comes up as the answer. He continues to have a hankering to go to Venice at Christmas time. Your Maximum Leader blogged last year about a peice he read in the Guardian a few years back that planted the seed of this idea in his mind. Sadly, such a trip is still not in the cards for your Maximum Leader.

Of course, for the past two years the acqua alta has hit Venice at Christmas time. The news wires have been reporting flooding in Venice as rain, snow, and high tides combine for high water over the past few days. Apparently 60% of the city’s streets are underwater. The acqua alta this year doesn’t seem to be as bad as it was last year at this time.

In the slideshow accompanying the article linked above were a number of pictures showing the high water and people going about life in the high water. But one photo caught your Maximum Leader’s eye. Before there was rain and high water, there was snow in Venice. Here is the photo that caught his eye:

It is a sculpture of the four tetrarchs on the corner of St Mark’s covered in snow. Your Maximum Leader knows this sounds strange, but he’s known of this sculpture for years and has seen photos of it before. But for some reason he made the incorrect assumption that the peice was inside St. Mark’s, not outside. He’s now been disabused of that misconception.

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader would still jet off to Venice in a minute if circumstances allowed.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is still alive and well. His lower back is aching a little, but otherwise he is fine. As you may know, about 18 inches of snow fell on the Villainschloss over the weekend. As our good friend Skippy points out, he’s had less snow in Toronto than your Maximum Leader’s had in Fredericksburg VA. (NB to Skippy: Damn you Skippy! Having snowless sex with your girlfriend in Canada!)

At this point your Maximum Leader is sick of the snow. In fact he was sick of the snow on Sunday. He was sick of it after a few hours of shovelling. He is extra sick of it now. Your Maximum Leader’s street is now plowed or treated in any way. And the roads leading to your Maximum Leader’s street are not plowed or treated in any way either. It makes for fun driving!

There is not much else going on. Almost all of the Christmas shopping was done before the storm, so no worries there. We have made a run for some groceries, but we could have made it if we needed to.

Hanging over the whole holiday is what is going on with Kevin’s mom. It is not good news and it has me rather depressed. I have known how her story was going to end. But I find that perhaps I’d not mentally prepared myself for a sudden change in her situation. It is a sudden change that seems to have occured now. I don’t know what to hope for in terms of her health. I feel hollow and fake in saying that I hope whatever is “best” happens. I don’t know what “best” is in this case. I hope for strength for all of us who love her.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that in this down economy at least one new job has been created. Well… To be honest… It isn’t really a new job created, it is more like an old job is recreated. Or even better, one old worker is coming out of retirement.

Yes Virginia, the Noid is back.

Dominos pizza is changing their recipe to make a tastier pizza, and they are bringing back the Noid. As best your Maximum Leader can remember, he’s been avoiding the Noid since about 1990. Indeed, he’s been avoiding Dominos since about the same time. He’s never been a fan of Dominos pizza. He’s prefered Papa Johns. That is until he discovered a local mom & pop place nearby that has great pizza - Miones. So, he gets is take-out pizza from Miones (and sometimes Wegmans if the mood strikes him when he is in the store).

Good luck on the recipe change Dominos. Your Maximum Leader still likely will not buy your pizza, but he hopes that it does wind up tasting better.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wants to point out that today is the anniversary of the great naval battle of Noryang.

What? Never heard of the battle of Noryang?

Well… It was the great battle in 1598 that was the last major engagement of the Japanese invasions of Korea during the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the Taiko).

Here is the Wiki page on the battle.

The major figure in this engagement was Admiral Yi Sun-Sin, the Korean commander. Admiral Yi has been described as the Nelson of the East. (Although given the time difference, perhaps it would be better to describe Nelson as the Yi of the West.)

Now you may be saying to yourself, “My, my. My Maximum Leader is such a learned man that he can spout off famous naval battles of the East as well as the West…” Well, let your Maximum Leader set you a little straight. While he is mostly self-taught in what he knows of Korean, Japanese and Chinese history, this is a special case. (NB: your Maximum Leader did take a year long course on Chinese history in college. It was a great class, but as with all survey classes you wind up missing a lot of good stuff in the name of getting everything in…)

Why is the battle of Noryang and Admiral Yi a special case you may be wondering? Well let your Maximum Leader tell you.

Your Maximum Leader’s best bud Kevin is part Korean as you may know. At Kevin’s house was (and still may be) a model of a turtle ship. Admiral Yi used turtle ships against the Japanese. They were his fast assault ships. Now, your Maximum Leader has always had a love for things naval, and a fairly large model of a turtle ship in his friends house was pretty damned cool. Many years later Kevin gave your Maximum Leader a carved statue of a pretty kick-ass looking warrior as a gift. At first your Maximum Leader thought the statue was just your run-of-the-mill Korean warrior. Indeed, your Maximum Leader thought it was a Korean “samurai.” Your Maximum Leader was sorely mistaken. The carved statue was in fact a replica of a famous statue of Admiral Yi. (If you click through on Yi’s link above you will see the statue in question. You will also see that Admiral Yi looks like a veritable badass. Indeed, your Maximum Leader should suggest Admiral Yi to Ben Thompson of Badass of the Week.) So, for many years your Maximum Leader has had a statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin in his office/room/home. His children have asked who the “samurai” was in the past and he’s had to set them straight. Just a little while ago the Wee Villain asked if he could borrow the statue of Admiral Yi. When asked why the Wee Villain responded that he couldn’t find his Darth Vader action figure and he wanted a big guy with a sword to use “against the Barbies.”

Your Maximum Leader let the Wee Villain play with the statue for a while… Seeing as his motives were pure…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been invited to come to a close friend’s bachelor party.

In Vegas.

This event might take place next month. Possibly in February.

Bachelor party… Vegas…

He’s never been to Vegas for a bachelor party.

He has seen “The Hangover.” (And he has it on good authority that “The Hangover” will be under the tree in Blu-Ray this Christmas.)

Your Maximum Leader wishes he could say more. But if he did he’d likely have to kill you all. Then himself… Secrecy must be assured.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader broke out the Christmas song playlist on the old iPod yesterday. 7.5 hours of Christmas music for his listening pleasure.

But there is a problem. On a few different Christmas sampler albums he has on the old iPod the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” appears.

Why?

What exactly qualifies “Baby It’s Cold Outside” as a Christmas song? It is just a song about a guy trying his best to make sure he gets lucky on a snowy night. Indeed, as he thinks more about it how is this song played nowadays? Really, the guy is getting the girl to smoke and drink. He’s basically liquoring her up to make sure he can get a little play that night. Why aren’t feminists going on about this horrible mysogynistic song? Perhaps they are and your Maximum Leader just doesn’t know about it.

There is nothing particulary Christmas-y about the song so why is it on Christmas/Holiday samplers?

In case you are wondering… One of your Maximum Leader’s favorite versions of the song is by Sir Tom Jones…

He also likes the Ann Margaret/Al Hirt version.

While “Baby It’s Cold Outside” shouldn’t be thought of as a Christmas song, your Maximum Leader is all for winter makeout songs. So it still has his seal of approval.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has thought for a while, and continues to believe, that Joe Lieberman is the most powerful man in the US Senate. By extension, Joe one of the most powerful men in the whole country. (By further extension, Joe is one of the most powerful men in the world…) It is Joe we can thank for pulling the plug on the public option in the health care bill. We can also thank him for (apparently) killing the expansion of Medicare in the bill.

So long as Joe Lieberman is that 60th vote in the Senate he will likely get his way on lots of items.

Joe is what your Maximum Leader would call a moderate Democrat. In this case moderate modifies Democrat to mean “not completely loopy.” Certainly in foreign affairs your Maximum Leader and Joe Lieberman are often on the same side of issues. And while Joe and your Maximum Leader don’t as frequently see eye to eye on many “domestic” issues; your Maximum Leader finds that the can side with Joe with enough regularity to make it noteworthy.

Of course, this power that Joe has now comes at a price. His sometimes Democratic collegues will hate him for his current stance. Harry Reid and others are waiting for the time they can stab Joe in the back and put him in his place. Your Maximum Leader is sure that Joe knows that they are gunning for him; but he’s played the game a while and will not likely be taken unawares.

Way to go Joe… Now if only you could get some tort reform in the bill… That would be sweet.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is (again) stealing a page from FLG’s book. He’s now listening to:

and

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was just reading the lastest Badass of the Week entry. It is on the Kraken. Sadly, the Kraken didn’t quite do it for your Maximum Leader. But being in a badass frame of mind he provides you with this eternal question:

Ninjas vs Pirates? Which is more badass?

Well… Ben, the chronicler of all things badass, answers the question here.

Your Maximum Leader has pondered the question and agrees with Ben’s rationale.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is going to go and get his freshly slaughtered and butchered hog tomorrow AM. He will likely leave the Villainschloss around 5am to make the best of his day.

One ham and all the bacon will remain unfrozen. Your Maximum Leader will have to get to curing on Saturday afternoon or Sunday.

Yummmmm… Ham… Bacon…

He’ll try and photo the process for you… No guarantees however. If he does it all wrong he will not want to have to bask in his defeat photographically.

Carry on.

UPDATE: As excited as your Maximum Leader is to get the hog, Mrs Villain is probably just as (if not more) excited to get fresh hamburger from the steer that will also be picked up…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader feels he must point out the most intelligent thing written on the blog in a long time was just posted. Sadly, your Maximum Leader didn’t write it. It was written by your Maximum Leader’s bro Kevin in a comment to the last post. Here is the good part:

It’s unsurprising that people mix and match components of religious belief and praxis; that’s been happening since the beginning, and is a ubiquitous feature of human culture. Perhaps the issue to focus on, though, is what happens when mixing and matching becomes the prevalent ethos, and depth gets sacrificed in the name of breadth. Any particular spiritual practice takes time to master, and mastery is hard to achieve when you spend all your time gawking at the over-stocked aisles, but never buy anything. A lot of “seekers” miss this about true practice: it takes deep and serious commitment, no matter which path is chosen. Every major tradition contains some form of that admonition, but shoppers — dabblers — ignore it because they’re just too enchanted with all the variety that’s out there.

Of course, many mix-and-matchers aren’t flirting with twenty different traditions at once; at most, they’re supplementing their core practice with elements from just one or two other distinct traditions. I can use myself as an example here. As much as I respect the rich inner life found in Hinduism, I know that Hinduism doesn’t hold the same charm for me that Buddhism does. For me, it’s the Zen form of Buddhism, and just Zen, that has informed (and seriously altered) the nature of my Christian belief and practice. JuBus and others are in the same boat: far from being heedlessly promiscuous in their religious explorations, they’re looking for that one tradition that gives them a Jerry Maguire-style “you complete me” feeling.

The people who creep me out are the truly eclectic ones — the loopy folks who have utterly renounced the scientific mindset in favor of a hilariously incoherent worldview that allows all pantheons and doctrines equal air time. Sense, for these people, is far less important than sensibility. Rationality has left the building.

It’s also unsurprising to see that people still cleave to magical, folkloric nonsense. Healing prayer, evil eyes, ghosts, demonic possession, ESP, ancient astronauts, crystals, blah, blah, blah– these notions fill a need, I suspect, especially in modern societies where the romantic mindset is still cultivated, making the more classically realist attitude seem like cold comfort in the face of a mysterious and dangerous world. Alien abduction fantasies and 9/11 (or moon landing) conspiracy theories all respond to that same need as well. Superstition provides the illusion of sense without actually making sense.

Your Maximum Leader understands the impulse about which Kevin writes. At many levels he feels it himself.

Your Maximum Leader hopes that in himself the impulse hasn’t made him an idiot too. Jury may be out on that count…

Your Maximum Leader will go back to gaining childish delight from the Charmin Bathrooms in Times Square now…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees on the Reuters news wire that a new poll by the Pew Center for Religious and Public Life shows that a suprising number of Americans are superstitious idiots. The article doesn’t put it that way and is actually entitled: Many Americans Haunted by ghosts; look to astrology.

Here is a juicy bit:

The poll released on Wednesday showed that three-in-ten Americans say they have felt in touch with a dead person and 18 percent say they have seen or been in the presence of a ghost.

Other Pew surveys have shown that relatively few Americans would identify an Eastern religion or New Age spirituality as their core faith. But about a quarter of those surveyed say they believe in aspects of Eastern religions.

Nearly 25 percent said they believed in reincarnation and 23 percent said yoga was a spiritual practice. Twenty six percent said they believed “spiritual energy” could be found in objects such as trees.

A quarter said they believed in astrology, while 16 percent of U.S. adults think that an “evil eye” exists or that some people can cast curses or spells on others. Among black Protestants the evil eye figure is 32 percent.

What can your Maximum Leader say about this except that he weeps for the future.

Until he read this piece he thought that the worst thing he’s read/see/hear today was the drivel that President Obama was spewing out to a room of unfortunate Norsemen (and Norsewomen) and other dignitaries while accepting his Nobel Prize.

The “evil eye!” Really now! People actually believe that people with “powers” can use the “evil eye” to cast spells and curses… Other than the eyes that Elin Nordegen Woods is using on Tiger now, your Maximum Leader is unaware of a curse laden “evil eye.”

Sad. Just sad.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader realized that a post entitled “Nothing to report” was awfully long for a piece purporting to report nothing…

That said… This post will be much shorter.

You must, MUST, click through and read an account of a (repeat) visit to the Charmin Bathrooms in Times Square.

Your Maximum Leader only wishes it had audio too…

Carry on.