Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, like many of you, has been thinking and observing and thinking some more about the situation in Egypt. Your Maximum Leader must be honest, he has no one clear line of thinking on the whole matter at all. He has decided though, since he has a blog, he’s just going to throw out some of those thoughts and see what sticks.

By way of a beginning, the Mubarak regime is oppressive, has been oppresive, and will continue to be oppressive if it remains in power in any way. Your Maximum Leader is pleasantly surprised by the (overall) restraint of the police and army up to this point. Apparently the situation is changing rapidly and pro-regime individuals seem to be escalating the level of violence today and one can expect in the future as well.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how violent the situation will become. He frankly disregards anyone who says that they do know how the situation will proceed from here. Once these movements start there is no telling where they would go. (One doubts that anyone would have thought that convening the “Estates General” by King Louis would have lead to Napoleon eventually…) Your Maximum Leader certainly hopes that the situation will not devolve into mindless violence. It certainly could. It could also devolve into more “mindful” violence. By this your Maximum Leader means targeted killings of pro/anti-regime figures. Indeed, your Maximum Leader suspects (but it is only a gut feeling) that before all this is over there will be a number of very prominent dead Egyptians.

Your Maximum Leader is a little torn about the demonstrations. He certainly understands and sympathizes with the aspirations of the crowds of anti-regime demonstrators. They want to end the oppression and enjoy a measure of freedom. Your Maximum Leader is torn about this for a number of reasons…

If for a minute your Maximum Leader thought that the anti-regime demonstrators wanted to establish a open, secular, western-style democracy he’d not be torn at all. But let us all be completely honest. The demonstrators don’t want that. (Some of them might, but he doubts that even 10% of them want western-style democracy.) They want to be rid of the oppressors and to have the opportunity to select a new government. If given that opportunity they will likely select some branch of the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist (or proto-Islamist) group to lead them. Egypt is not a participant in the development of the modern western world. As such we need to look realistically at what would come after Mubarak.

Since we can’t be sure what would follow the Mubarak regime - but can be sure it will not be a western-style democracy, your Maximum Leader is reluctant to throw the whole regime under the bus. (So to speak.)

While we’re being frank lets hit a few important things to remember. The Mubarak regime has been good to the US and has been good to Israel. We should all be for less oppression and more freedom in Egypt. But we shouldn’t be for a radicalized Egypt that will dramatically add to the unstable region and may be a net negative for the US (and Israel and Saudi Arabia and Jordan etc).

Your Maximum Leader recalls that way back in the early days of the G.W. Bush Administration (and before this blog), he was in favor of regime change in Iraq. He supported the invasion of that country. He supported the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his sons. But back then your Maximum Leader wondered if Iraq was “ready for democracy.” He concluded they probably weren’t and speculated that the US should set up a strong, multi-ethnic, provisional government and stabilize the nation and then leave. If the Iraqis went down the path of democracy that would be great. If they didn’t, well then they didn’t.

(NB: Your Maximum Leader also speculated that the US could establish a Constitutional Monarchy that would share power with the Army and with a Parliament. But that was his own speculation. He knew that the US, in this day & age, wouldn’t go around establishing monarchies. Also, you can see how well your Maximum Leader’s support for regime change in Iraq turned out. We really screwed it up… So much so that your Maximum Leader, if he could go back and do it again - he would be less likely to do so again… Your Maximum Leader was in favor of regime change in Iraq in part because he thought that by “shaking things up” we could affect positive change in the region. He believed at the time that the Bush Administration had a plan for the invasion and stabilization of Iraq. As we’ve seen, they didn’t. If - in the context of time travel - the Bush Administration HAD a reasonable plan for invasion and stabliziation and exiting Iraq then he’d continue to be for regime change in Iraq. If - in the context of time travel - the Bush Administration was going to do the same thing all over again; then he would obviously not support regime change in Iraq. Because we didn’t have a reasonable plan that we could execute in Iraq, we screwed up our one chance to “shake things up” and affect positive change. There are no second chances in these sorts of things and as such US led regime change in the region is out of the question in any circumstance your Maximum Leader and imagine.)

With this in mind, your Maximum Leader tepidly supports regime change in Egypt. He doesn’t expect Egypt to become a western-style democracy overnight - or even in a few years. What he does support is a change in government that will be secular, less-oppressive, and acceptable to the most people in Egypt. Of course, what your Maximum Leader wants doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world…

Your Maximum Leader can’t say he’d be terribly displeased if Mubarak resigned (before September) and left the country (for Saudi Arabia or even the US) and left behind some sort of governing committee that would manage the nation until elections could be held. This governing committee would likely consist of some of Mubarak’s people, some of the demonstrator’s people, and some key army people. The governing committee (a provisional government of sorts) would draft a new constitution and set up the terms by which political groups could participate in the upcoming elections. The new constitution should be guaranteed by the Army with some understanding that it wouldn’t be changed/scrapped/horribly amended after the election outcomes are known. Frankly the Army can write itself some governmental role if it wants to.

The preceeding bit assumes (as your Maximum Leader indeed does) that the Egyptian army is run as a largely secular institution that is not insane and understands Egypt’s long-term needs and role in the region. In a way your Maximum Leader posits that the Egyptian Army is much like the Turkish Army. Assuming the Egyptian Army is a gurantor of a “moderate and secular” Arab state; then it should has a major role to play in the transition from Mubarak to something else.

Your Maximum Leader personally believes that most of the demonstrators want “someone other than Mubarak or one of his chief cronies” to govern them. At some level your Maximum Leader believes that if Mubarak and his chief cronies were to depart and be replaced with someone the Army likes that would satisfy the great majority of Egyptians now demonstrating. After 30 years the people of Egypt likely want “change.” They might not want dramatic change. They might just want some “change.”

Your Maximum Leader suspects they will get “change.” He only hopes that they will not get too much change and become radicalized. He believes that the Egyptian Army can facilitate this change. He also suspects that the longer these demonstrations go on and the more violent they become the more inclined towards change the Army will become.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader generally doesn’t stay up late too much. That said, he is a big fan of TV’s Craig Ferguson and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Your Maximum Leader DVR’s the Late Late Show and watches it the next day.

So, your Maximum Leader was watching Ferguson’s monolouge from the other night and learned something that he didn’t know. Ferguson was talking about Burns Night and haggis and mentioned that haggis is illegal to import into the US because it contains lung. Wha? Your Maximum Leader has wondered in the past why he could find canned (tinned?) haggis in Canada and Britain, but couldn’t find it in the US. Until last night your Maximum Leader figured “Hell… It’s haggis… How much demand could there be?” and assumed that the demand was so low that it wasn’t economical to import canned (or other) haggis into the states. But apparently there is a law against importing foods into the US that contain sheep’s lung. Again your Maximum Leader writes “Wha?.”

After a little poking around, sure enough, it seems to be the case that one cannot import haggis to the US due to the content of sheep’s lung in the pudding.

This caused your Maximum Leader to wonder if he’s had traditional haggis in the US. He knows he got a traditional haggis in Scotland. (If you can’t get it there where can you get it?) And he suspects that he could get it in Canada (if he wanted to). But he’s had haggis a few times in the US and now wonders if the sheep’s lung was included in the mix? Since it was domestically produced one may assume that it was. But if there is this import ban on sheep’s lung is there some sort of other ban on using the lungs of domestic sheep in haggis?

Your Maximum Leader wonders.

If you care… Here is the Craig Ferguson monolouge in which he discusses Burns night and haggis.

One final note… Your Maximum Leader and the Smallholder had threatened for years to have a “bad heritage food dinner.” This dinner would feature the most awful food we could make from our ethic backgrounds. This would be haggis for your Maximum Leader, and probably some sort of blood sausage for the Smallholder (who’s heritage is German). Since the Smallholder could raise a sheep for the meal, it might prove to be the opportunity your Maximum Leader needs to make an authentic haggis.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know why he watched the State of the Union speech last night. He did watch of course. He always watches. Well, almost always watches. There were a few George W Bush SOTU speeches your Maximum Leader missed; mainly because he couldn’t stand to watch the man give a speech. It was painful.

Of course last night’s SOTU speech was painful in a different way. It was painful in that way that a rational person feels when his brain is about to explode due to the contradictions. Sadly this is how most SOTU speeches have been for 20 years. The president stands up there and tells everyone what they want to hear. In last night’s example, President Obama called for lots of new spending as well as spending freezes. He wants to invest and cut the deficit. He wants to spend wisely and eliminate the debt.

By the way… Is “high speed rail” actually code for something else? Your Maximum Leader wanted to think that “high speed rail” was actually code for “riding the love train to Bill Clinton’s office in Harlem” - which is something many women would like to do (at least this is what your Maximum Leader is told).

Anyhooo….

Luckily for your Maximum Leader, his lovely wife (Mrs Villain) came in about 25 minutes into the President’s speech and wanted to talk about other things. This talk went on for about 30 minutes. So your Maximum Leader was able to preserve his brain from damage by focusing on his wife and largely ignoring what was going on at the Capitol.

Your Maximum Leader thought that Paul Ryan’s response was competent. Your Maximum Leader has heard Ryan speak before and last night wasn’t his best work. Sadly, your Maximum Leader missed Michelle Bachmann completely as Mrs Villain needed some help on the computer (which is not code by the way) and he was away long enough to miss the “tea party response.”

All in all your Maximum Leader believes that he’ll have completely forgotten the SOTU by about 2:47pm today.

In other news…

Who’s rooting for the Packers in the big game? Your Maximum Leader is. So are you if you’ve got any sense about you. Sadly it looks like your Maximum Leader will be watching the Super Bowl at the home of some close friends who are Pittsburgh fans. Your Maximum Leader worries about the dynamic in the house during the game. Perhaps he should cancel and stay home… Perhaps he should find new friends….

Di ye knew wha to-day is? It is Robert Burns Day! Huzzah! While your Maximum Leader will not be partaking of haggis sliders; he will have a little of the “water of life” to go along with his poached salmon with dinner. He may even read a poem or two to the family.

Finally… We are on snow watch here in Virginia. The Villainschloss is in the “wintery mix” to 5″ of snow zone. As with all these winter storms, one never knows what will happen until it is happening. Frankly, your Maximum Leader is hoping for rain and nothing more, but with his luck the snow will come and cancel schools and thereby disrupt his harmony.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wishes his friend Buckethead and his lovely wife many congratulations on the birth of their fourth perfidious offspring…

Your Maximum Leader is sorry he missed this last week, but is glad that mother and daughter are well.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader mentioned, a few days ago, that he’d been at a fancy dinner in DC recently. The guests of honor at the dinner were Cal Ripken, Jr. and Alex Ovechkin. The event was hosted by Lindsay Czarniak of DC’s own NBC 4 news. Your Maximum Leader sadly doesn’t have an impromptu photo with Alex Ovechkin that turned out okay. (Most were slightly out of focus.) But he does have a few others for your viewing pleasure.

Here is your Maximum Leader and Washington Capitals Coach (and hockey lifer) Bruce Boudreau. (Clicken to embiggen.)

Here is your Maximum Leader and Cal Ripken Jr. (Clicken to embiggen.)

And here is your Maximum Leader with Lindsay Czarniak. (Again, clicken…)

Your Maximum Leader hopes that the official photographer was able to capture your Maximum Leader and Alex Ovechkin. And once again for the record… Lindsay Czarniak is both charming and attractive. She also shows a tremendous amount of patience with middle aged men who want to be photographed with her.

In the sports musing department…

Your Maximum Leader has been watching a fair amount of hockey of late. His beloved Washington Capitals are something of a puzzle. They are getting and taking shots. But they aren’t scoring. Coach Boudreau is mixing up the lines to good effect, yet the big superstars of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin are not scoring. The team is surviving on good play from the second and third lines.

The Caps have been playing a more defensive style of game, rather than last year’s (very exciting) wide open game. The defensive habits they are practising now should help the Caps if they make it to the playoffs. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t want to jinx the team, but right now they are in a tight race for the lead in the Southeast Division. The Caps can’t afford to assume that they will win the division and make the playoffs. After crushing the other teams in the division for so long those other teams have been able to build in the draft and are now showing significant signs of improvement.

Anyhoo… Your Maximum Leader is generally pleased with what he sees from his Capitals. They are on the right path and he is hopeful that they will continue to travel on this path for a long while.

In other sports news…

Your Maximum Leader is darn near estatic over how the football playoffs have been going. His much loved Green Bay Packers have found a running game to compliment Aaron Rodger’s great control of the passing game. Your Maximum Leader is giddy with anticipation over the NFC Championship game this weekend. The Packers and the Bears. The oldest and most storied rivalry in the NFL. The only way the game could be better would be if it were held at Lambeau and not Soldier Field. But Soldier Field in January is pretty good… Your Maximum Leader thinks the Packers can pull off the upset. But he will be watching very closely.

Lastly… Is it too early to be thinking baseball? Your Maximum Leader’s beloved Washington Nationals have been pretty active this off-season. They have been overpaying players to fill out the roster. Of course, when you suck for a few years and don’t show an inclination to win you have to spend some big bucks to attract good players to come to town and turn around the team. Your Maximum Leader thinks it is too early to judge if the moves have been good, but his early gut feeling is that the Nats should have kept Dunn. The offence Dunn produced for the team generally offset his defensive shortcomings. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that LaRoche and Werth are going to fully make up those runs (but they will save runs on defense). Your Maximum Leader should probably engage in some advanced statistical analysis to figure out how the runs would change, but he doubts he’ll do that…

With that… Your Maximum Leader will cheer on his Caps and Packers and hope for the best for them.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees on The Superficial, that The History Channel has decided not to air their 8 part miniseries on Jack and Jackie Kennedy. Apparently the miniseries wasn’t up to the rigorous standards of The History Channel.

What? Not up to their standards?

This is the same History Channel that runs all those great shows like “Ancient Aliens,” “Nostradamus Effect,” and “UFO Hunters”? Because you know there is all sorts of legitimate historical evidence of aliens/UFO’s…

Great jeezey chreezey… What is going on in the world?

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s 2011 has started out with him running around quite a bit and now feeling the need for a long night of sleep.

This week started with your Maximum Leader going out to a school function with the Villainettes on Monday night that wound up going on until 8pm. By the time we got home and got settled it was sort of late. Tuesday started very early for your Maximum Leader. You see, your Maximum Leader ran afoul of some laws regarding the speed at which one is able to operate a motor vehicle and Tuesday AM was a court hearing. (Your Maximum Leader was minimally admonished in case you care. He thanks the judge for her wisdom in deciding his case.) Then Tuesday night your Maximum Leader and Villainette #1 went and saw his beloved Washington Capitals fall in OT to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Wednesday was a late night because your Maximum Leader and Villainette #2 went to a fundraiser in DC with Cal Ripken Jr and Alex Ovechkin as the guests of honor. (More on this later he hopes - especially when he can get photos together.) Then last night your Maximum Leader trekked up to Kevin’s house to mark the 1st anniversary of the death of Kevin’s mother.

With all this running around your Maximum Leader is dragging a little bit this morning. He could use a few hours more sleep. Sleep he hopes to get tomorrow in fact.

And in the real mundane crap department… Your Maximum Leader has a lot of TV on the DVR that he’s got to get watched. About a week worth of the “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” the last two episodes of “The Walking Dead,” the last three episodes of “Burn Notice,” the last episode of “24/7 Capitals v. Penguins,” and various other stuff.

By the way… Also at that fundraiser was NBC4’s Lindsay Czarniak. After meeting her, your Maximum Leader can say that she is a charming person as well as quite pretty. He should also report that when we watch her on the news we don’t get to see her most outstanding physical asset, which are lovely legs. Your Maximum Leader thinks that she should get out from behind that desk for some reporting.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wishes you all a prosperous new year. He hopes that one and all of you will experience more joy than sorrow, more optimism than pessimism and that you all will be showered with blessings in 2011.

Your Maximum Leader hopes to blog more, read more and think more than he did in 2010.

Some images of the new year from around the world for your view pleasure…

From Sydney Austrailia (courtesy of the AP):

From Moscow (courtesy of the AP):

From Venice, Italy:

And from London, England:

Now back to the bubbly for one more drink before bed.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sitting in the Villainschloss right now in the middle of a domestic crisis. Apparently the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America is not “family friendly” viewing. (So says Mrs Villain.) Additionally, your Maximum Leader has learned that Mrs Villain has no interest in any of the college football on TV right now. So your Maximum Leader has done the wise thing and vacated the TV viewing area for the solitude of his study. (He will likely move back in and watch something a little later this evening.)

Your Maxmium Leader is really looking forward to dinner tonight. Delmonico’s raised on Smallholder’s farm. Matched with baked potatoes and some sparkling wines from around the world.

Your Maximum Leader’s offspring are taking a pool to see which of them will fall asleep first. Your Maximum Leader bet all of them that he will be the only one up at midnight and that he’ll have to wake them all for the change to the new year. Indeed, your Maximum Leader raised the possibilty that he might turn in early and let them all fend for themselves.

Your Maximum Leader got some nice comments to his post on spinning the Civil War. Your Maximum Leader thought the post would elicit some sort of response from the whole “slavery wasn’t the cause of the Civil War crowd.” Sadly, those idiots must know that this is not the place for them.

The interesting comments were about your Maximum Leader’s speculation that Mitt Romney will get the Republican nod in 2012. From Professor Mondo: “Meanwhile, Mitt Romney remains a charisma-free zone. I’m just afraid that the folks down here in Mondoville will go for the Huckster, who is just another statist. At this point, I’m kind of pulling for Mitch Daniels.” Our friend Polymath wrote: “My Lovecraft fantasy has me wishing for a re-animated Reagan.” And our very own farmer, the Smallholder, wrote:

Republicans give their nomination to the last cycle’s runner-up.

But Romney may be the exception that proves the rule. Since Republicans are on a jihad against Obamacare, the fact that Obamacare is essentially Romneycare does not bode well for Romney. It will be difficult for him to squirm away from his record during the primaries, particularly given his preexistent reputation for flip-floppigng. Gingrich advocated a version of health care very similar to Obamacare in ‘94, but he may be able to sidle away because it never went anywhere - Romney actually got it passed.

Mondo, I kind of like Mitch Daniels too. But he’s a bit too centrist to survive the primaries. He would make a good VEEP to appeal to the middle.

Polymath, I doubt Reagan could actually get tea-party votes today. He was too much of a pragmatist, rasied taxes to balance the budget, was in favor of arms control, and advocated tax rates higher than Obama’s. Folks are in love with an idealized person who never existed.

First off, your Maximum Leader must put an end to all this re-animated Reagan stuff. WE CAN’T GO ELECTING ZOMBIES TO OFFICE. Any office, not just President of the United States. Every person with an iota of sense knows that a re-animated corpse is a zombie and zombies aren’t cool. Zombies just want to eat our brains. Your Maximum Leader fears that a re-animated Reagan would not be a strong leader because he could always be sidetracked by a plate of warm steaming brains.

(NB: could one distract zombies by throwing them turrines of sweatbreads?)

Anyway… Even if you were able to safely reanimate Reagan (which your Maximum Leader doubts by the way) the 22nd Amendment still applies and he wouldn’t be eligible. Your Maximum Leader fears that a re-animated Harry Truman is our only option for zombie chief executive.

Your Maximum Leader will stand by the charisma-less, former Massachusetts Governor as the leader for the Republican nod right now. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t really think he knows enough about Mitch Daniels to get worked up one way or the other about him. Smallholder’s comment about Daniels being too moderate for the primaries seems to ring a little false as John McCain (no raging social conservative) didn’t have much of a problem navigating the primaries in 2008. Of course one can argue that the results (and “rage” as the media likes to call it) of the 2010 elections might have changed that. Frankly, your Maximum Leader doesn’t think so. The primaries are the primaries and any Republican who wants a crack at the top job will cater to the base to win the nomination. We speculate about how this year it will be different from past years; but it rarely is that different one cycle to the next.

The whole Obamacare/Romneycare bit isn’t too much of a reach. One can spin it as a question of scale and affordability. Use the Constitution, Obamacare is massive federal overreach; but what Romney did in Mass. is not the same type of deal. States can implement broad social programs within the state if they want. Since the state has to pay for the program it isn’t an unfunded mandate to all or a major source of future debt. It is a subtle argument to be sure; but it might have legs. (Also, Romney can claim that the program has been mismanaged in the years since he left the Governor’s mansion.)

It was Professor Mondo’s comment that Mike Huckabee seems to be enjoying wide support down his way that caused a little distress to your Maximum Leader. Mike Huckabee is one of those potential candidates that really does upset your Maximum Leader. Perhaps your Maximum Leader has a latent prejudice against social conservatives who might actually rise up the the highest office in the land. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t think that he is prejudiced against prominent social conservatives. He thinks his problem is when the conservative in question has ONLY social conservative credentials.

Winston Churchill once said that a fanatic was a person who wouldn’t change their mind and wouldn’t change the subject. Your Maximum Leader thinks that his major objection with many social conservatives is that everything boils down to abortion, prayer and whether or not the US is a Christian nation. Don’t get your Maximum Leader wrong, he is a pretty socially conservative fellow; but he is often looking for policy discussions on a whole host of subjects from his candidates, not just an exposition on religion and politics.

So back to Huckabee… He has executive experience (from a state that has already given us one chief executive). He also seems so authentic and natural as to be everybody’s friend. It is when he starts going on about his young Earth beliefs that he loses your Maximum Leader. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t begrudge anyone their own beliefs concerning the creation and age of the universe; but he finds that there is a strong correlation between those who believe that the universe was created exactly per the Book of Genesis and a lack of curiosity to the natural world. Curiosity in the natural world may not seem like a big prerequisite to higher office, but in your Maximum Leader’s mind it is. That type of curiosity should lead to an appreication for (if not an aptitude for) observation, recording of facts and formulation of hypotheses. Understanding and applying the scientific method (as it were) is a useful tool for developing mental acuity. Mental acuity is a trait of which your Maximum Leader is fond in political leaders.

So back to Huckabee… Your Maximum Leader just can’t imagine him as having the mental acuity needed to be president. This is based solely on Huckabee’s religious beliefs. This type of assessment (a prejudice if you will) is based solely on observations and experience your Maximum Leader has made of others. It may be that Mike Huckabee is a brilliant man with wisdom and understanding beyond what your Maximum Leader has observed. But given what your Maximum Leader has observed, Huckabee is sorta scary as a potential nominee.

Well… Your Maximum Leader believes that he’s run this train of thought off the rails and has no more to say (for the moment) on this subject. He’ll now open the first bottle of bubbly for the evening and see when he might get those steaks.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was, until about 14 minutes ago, blissfully unaware of the conspiracy that exists in this nation to exterminate a certain minority group. This conspiracy is based in the public schools, churches, Planned Parenthood, the pyschiatric profession and organizations of “European” manufacture.

To elaborate on this conspiracy further your Maximum Leader presents this video (about 14 minutes in length):

Your Maximum Leader is stupified. Just when he starts to forget how insane some people are a video like this one serves to remind him of what craziness people are willing to believe.

Oh yes, one more thing… Your Maximum Leader is glad that Mr. Johnson doesn’t feel the need to subject himself to the oppression of conventional spelling or grammar in the graphics of this video.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t find himself in agreement with E.J. Dionne regularly. Indeed, it is, at the very best, a once in a blue moon type of thing. But E.J. writes a piece in the Washington Post today with which your Maximum Leader completely agrees. Like E.J. enjoins us to do, “Don’t Spin the Civil War.” The money quote:

After the war, in one of the great efforts of spin control in our history, both [Confederate President Jefferson] Davis and [Confederate Vice President Alexander H.] Stephens, despite their own words, insisted that the war was not about slavery after all but about state sovereignty. By then, of course, slavery was “a dead and discredited institution,” [noted Civil War historian James] McPherson wrote, and to “concede that the Confederacy had broken up the United States and launched a war that killed 620,000 Americans in a vain attempt to keep 4 million people in slavery would not confer honor on their lost cause.”

It is all about slavery. Lets not forget that.

Oh yeah, and about that whole Haley Barbour thing from last week (Clicky here to read more about Barbour’s “Citizens Councils” comments), your Maximum Leader thinks it will torpedo any chance of Barbour becoming President of the US any time soon. He may still have a fighting chance in the primaries; but your Maximum Leader thinks he could be done before he got started.

FYI - Some well-connected Republican party types your Maximum Leader knows have maintained that Barbour was going to be the dark horse candiate in the 2012 campaign. They cite Barbour’s access to big money and his success in fundraising as support for this belief. Your Maximum Leader still thinks that the Republican nominee will be Mitt Romney in 2012. If the economy stays crappy, and all signs point towards the economy staying crappy; then Romney can run on economic issues (his strength) and downplay the social-conservative creds needed to win primaries.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minons. Your Maximum Leader thought he’d have a chance to write Christmas well-wishes on ye olde bloge on Christmas Eve. Sadly, he was overcome by events and is only now getting the chance to sit in front of the computer to type out a post.

Your Maximum Leader hopes that you all had a great Christmas. It was a good Christmas at the Villainschloss. Your Maximum Leader was surrounded by family (his own, his parents, his in-laws and his sister’s family). We feasted on roast beast and yorkshire pudding. We had a wide assortment of pies. A great time was had by all.

In the bad news department, Christmas dinner was the first meal that your Maximum Leader prepared in his remodeled kitchen. It did not go off without incident. He did burn the broiled potatoes. (Some of them actually - not the whole batch. His saintly mother-in-law was able to cut of the bad parts on the burnt potatoes.) He also partially burned the second yorkshire pudding. (Again, not badly. But we had fewer crispy pieces as some was stuck to the pan.) The lesson here is that his new oven works better than his old one and he’ll have to watch things a little more closely until he figures out the peculiarities of his new oven.

Before Christmas your Maximum Leader went out to the locale cinema and saw “True Grit.” By happenstance, Turner Classic Movies showed the John Wayne “True Grit” a few days earlier. The Wayne version of the film didn’t stand up as well to a viewing as your Maximum Leader thought it would. He remembers it more fondly than it might deserve. The acting seemed a little forced in the Wayne version and your Maximum Leader got constantly annoyed by Kim Darby (who played Mattie Ross to John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn). On the other hand, the Coen Brothers did a great job on their version of the film. Yes, it was not ironic in any way (like most Coen Brothers works), but it was an adaptation of a great book. Both films have a lot to commend them. Your Maximum Leader, if forced to choose, would likely choose the Coen Brothers’ adaptation over the John Wayne vehicle. (Let’s face it, True Grit wasn’t Wayne’s finest role, it was the one they decided to give him the Oscar for since they didn’t yet have “lifetime achievement” awards.) Frankly, both films are a great way to pass a few hours.

Lest you think you’ve escaped a mention of Venice at Christmas, here is the famous porphyry of the Four Tetrarchs found on the side of St. Mark’s in Venice:

And in keeping with his own tradition, here is “The Adoration” by El Greco:

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been quite busy lately. There have been some major improvements going on at the Villainschloss. The improvements involve cabinets, appliances, gas lines, water lines, flooring and black granite. Yes, the Villainschloss has gotten a new kitchen. The process has been quite disruptive around the Villainschloss. In an effort to keep the stress level lower, he and Mrs Villain have been a little more permissive when it comes to time watching TV or getting on the interwebs for our brood. And since we have a new kitchen, we don’t have an additional computer. No additional computer means not lots of blogging time for your Maximum Leader. (Your Maximum Leader has been tweeting if you use the “Tweety Box” as Craig Ferguson calls it. (Follow him at twitter.com/maximumleader)

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader should have some time tonight to write. He’ll probably do some sort of lame-o Christmas post that will consist of a large graphic of an El Greco painting (as has become his habit of late).

Carry on.

The Marshal stepped into Wallace’s Saloon. He had a scattergun in one hand and a Peacemaker in the other.

He’d been shot three times during his career. His face was scarred on one side from buckshot and on the other from knife wounds. The knife scars created a pull on one corner of his mouth.

He looked to a table with three disreputables.

“Nate,” he commanded. “Come with me or throw down.”

Sadly what most of the saloon heard was “Come with me to the hoedown.”

That is when the laughing started.

Shortly after the laughing came the killing.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees in the news that a Federal District judge has ruled that some provisions of the recently enacted health care reform bill are unconstitutional. This is good news.

Of course, it is good news of a moderate sort. By this your Maximum Leader means that other judges have ruled that the same provision (namely the requirement for individuals to buy insurance) is constitutional. This is just another shot in a long legal battle that stands before opponents of the law (represented here by Virginia Atty Gen Ken Cuccinelli and other Attorneys General from around the US) and the US Department of Justice.

Your Maximum Leader sees in the piece that VA AG Cuccinelli has requested the US Supreme Court to handle the appeal directly bypassing the federal appeals courts. Your Maximum Leader thinks that this would be a good thing for the SCOTUS to do; but he doubts that it will happen.

Carry on.