Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been out there. By “out there” he means “on the interwebs.” Lurking. He’s been reading and ruminating. Occasionally he’ll comment.

All in all he’s not had much that he feels warrants a comment. That is one of the problems of blogging isn’t it. One might read a post (or a tweet or a newspaper/journal article) and say to oneself, “My self, that perfectly encapusates my thoughts on this subject.” But if you don’t actually write a post of your own linking the article/piece in question who the hell knows? Frankly, even if you did write a post and provide a link, who the hell cares?

Meh.

So hows about a post about nothing? Indeed… Lets…

Your Maximum Leader has been spending his free time watching hockey and football. He’s tried reading a few different books to see if something grabs him. He’s been sorely disappointed in his choices. What makes his disappointment more… disappointing is that all the books he’s chosen are recent additions to his library that he’s not gotten around to reading yet. Sadly, your Maximum Leader figures that he’s suffering from some sort of short-attention-span disorder.

Speaking of hockey… This Washington Post piece about the NHL “war room” in Toronto was interesting. The room is much smaller than he imagined. Although he does like the little detail of how the room smells of pepperoni pizza. That makes it all so real. So real. In a way knowing that the room is as small as it is makes your Maximum Leader sort of sad. He was hoping for a “mission control at NASA” feel. Or even better… Dr Strangelove… Alas, it looks like a production room at a secondary studio at a big city TV station…

Anyhooo…

Your Maximum Leader got word from his good friend, Smallholder, to let him know that the hog and steer raised for his consumption have been slaughtered and are going to be butchered this week. Today in fact. Your Maximum Leader has made three calls to the butcher to adjust his cutting instructions. Your Maximum Leader has decided that he needs to get the bacon and one ham fresh from the butcher. (Normally, the cut pieces are frozen for him.) Your Maximum Leader is going to try and make his own bacon and cure a ham this year. He’s got his pink salt in hand and will have to get to curing this weekend if he is going try his hand at ham and bacon. The bacon should be pretty easy to cure. It can be done in a large bag in the fridge. The ham is going to be more of a challenge. He needs more space and time. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how he’s going to manage the ham, but he’s working on it.

Actually, your Maximum Leader trying to figure out the curing of the ham at the Villainschloss has been a mentally taxing exercise.

Moving along…

Your Maximum Leader is disturbed by his use of the DVR. He feels that he is watching more tv as a result of having more control over his viewing choices and times. He records a fair number of programs. By his count he has three shows recorded daily (Pardon the Interruption, The Late Late Show and his guilty pleasure Chelsea Lately). In addition to the dailies, he records only new episodes of 8 other shows. Then there are movies as he finds them on HBO. In his defence, if he doesn’t watch one of the dailies within a day or two of broadcast he deletes them. As they are topical there is nothing like watching old news… But he has a few movies that have been on the DVR for months… Almost half of the last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm remains on the DVR. (NB - Your Maximum Leader loves Curb Your Enthusiasm; but finds he can’t watch more than one episode at a time. The humor is uncomfortable at times and has to be doled out in measured doses.)

It would likely do him well to cut down (or out) a significant portion of tv time. Your Maximum Leader supposes that compared to “regular” Americans he might watch less tv than most. But it is starting to feel like too much.

Sooo…

What the hell is up with Tiger Woods? Your Maximum Leader doesn’t get it. If you are going to be a world famous personality and you know that you like to mix it up when it comes to female company; then why do you even consider marriage? Your Maximum Leader has a certain amount of regard for George Clooney in this regard. Clooney gives off the vibe that he knows he is going to have trouble in a long-term relationship; so he doesn’t enter into one. That is a good thing in your Maximum Leader’s opinion. Know yourself and save yourself (and others) lots of heartache. Your Maximum Leader is at one level shocked and at another amazed by the scope of Tiger’s affairs. Shocked by the numbers and amazed by the efforts that went into meeting/maintaining/hiding the affairs in his schedule. One wonders if he has an assistant helping him in this… Then again, if he had an assistant to help him with these things he might not be in the mess he’s in now.

Concerning Mrs Woods. She is a very attractive woman. That said… Your Maximum Leader finds something disturbing and off-putting about her eyes in most photos he’s seen of her. He’s not saying she has “crazy eyes” or “googly eyes” or anything. There is just something wrong about her eyes to him.

In real news…

Your Maximum Leader reads that the Senate seems to be stripping the “public option” out of the Heath Care Bill. He hopes that soon the “Health Care” part will also be stripped from the bill…

This bill is a mess and just continues to linger on getting worse. One would hope that at some point the Senate would just throw up their hands and say collectively “Fuck this… Let’s pass some stimulus bills, an anti-flag-burning amendment, and declare it National Cocktail Party Month.” After putting the health care measures out of our national misery they could go home for “Winter” holidays and raise money for their re-election. That’s a good plan right? Of course it is.

Carry on.

The senior member chose the seating arrangement for the tri-annual game. She liked putting the dealer under the grand portrait of Harlan Saunders. The contrast of whites amused her.

“Two please Josef,” she said as she discarded.

“Benedict or Benny please,” the dealer replied politely.

“Right.”

A wide-faced spectacled man entered the room and sat at the table. “Sorry for being late everyone. Liz, thanks for having us.”

“You’re welcome Warren. Buy-in is 2 billion cash or a controlling stake small nation or major bank.” The Queen smiled at him.

The Pentaverate poker game was on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader did not watch the President’s speech on Afghanistan tonight. He was eating a late dinner and then watching “Castle” on the DVR with Villainette #1.

From what he can tell by a quick check of various blogs, CNN and Fox; no one liked what the President had to say. Nary a soul seems to have much good to say…

Hummm… Very curious…

Your Maximum Leader will ruminate on this overnight…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maxmium Leader took a brief moment to celebrate his Scottish heritage yesterday. Yesterday, in addition to being the anniversary of the birth of the Great Man Himself, was St. Andrew’s Day. St. Andrew’s Day is a bank holiday (as your Maximum Leader understands it) in Scotland. And while it is not Burns Day by any stretch, it is a day of some note in Scotland (and to Scots and those of Scottish ancestry) as St. Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland. Your Maximum Leader celebrated the day by making himself a Scotch Egg for lunch. Longtime readers may wonder if your Maximum Leader imbibed in a little of the Scotch Whisky as well… Sadly he did not. He needed to remain true to his 4th of July pledge to only drink domestic for the balance of the year. (Rest assured he will imbibe a bit of the good stuff at a few seconds after midnight on January 1.)

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader was going on about St. Andrew’s Day…

You know your Maximum Leader doesn’t read Andrew Sullivan’s blog on a regular basis anymore. He is less thought-provoking and more shrill nowadays. But from time to time a series of links lead your Maximum Leader back to ole Mr. Sullivan. Today that link started with a Charles Krauthammer smackdown of ole Sully. (If your Maximum Leader may… One wonders if Sully liked it, the smackdown that is…)

Well, having read the Krauthammer smackdown your Maximum Leader felt as though he ought to read the offending passage by Sully. So he clicked through and read it. (He also found, clicked through, and read Sully’s apology.)

Well… Since your Maximum Leader was on Sullivan’s blog he decided to poke around and see if anything struck his fancy. Lo and behold, something did. That something was this piece on Scottish Independence.

Before moving on to the point, your Maximum Leader tips his bejewelled cap to Sully for choosing such a fine Caravaggio to put into the post…

So… Sully linked a piece in The Guardian on how the Scottish Independence movement stands currently within Scotland; and England. The focus of the Guardian piece is that there are a number of options available to the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Tories when the subject of a referendum on Scottish independence comes up (presumably after the next national elections for the Westminster Parliament). The first choice for Scots is maintain the status quo. The second is for complete independence. The third is tweaking the existing devolution of power to the Scottish Parliament. The fourth is the “devo-max” option. The “devo-max” option is described thus:

The fourth option is the most interesting. The SNP leader calls it “devo-max”, and his opponents call it “independence-lite”. (The Scottish propensity to name political initiatives after fizzy drinks presumably being a backhanded reference to the nation’s notorious sugar habits.) Whatever you call it, though, it basically means the Edinburgh parliament and government getting control over everything except defence, foreign policy and macroeconomics. It would keep the pound, the British army and the Queen.

When your Maximum Leader read that bit he thougth to himself “Wow. That would be just like the arrangement between the Federal and State governments of the United States circa 1790.” He was intrigued.

Sullivan noted, almost in passing, that the removal of Scottish MPs from the Westminster Parliament would cripple the Labour Party in England - as a substantial portion of their majority comes from Labour members from Scotland. This point was, in your Maximum Leader’s opinion, the main thrust of Jackie Ashley’s piece in The Guardian. The political ramifications of either Scotland’s independence or a “devo-max” situation would mean that England would, as your Maximum Leader interprets Ashley’s comments, devolve into a center-right nation. That “devolution” to being center-right and governed by Tories might make Ashley a little queasy; but it sounds just fine to your Maximum Leader.

Of course, your Maximum Leader needs to go back to Sullivan for a moment. You see, Sullivan got a note from a reader that he published and commented upon. The reader points out that Sullivan (and one presumes by extention the Guardian) presented the whole situation from the English perspective. Basically the writer stated that the English seem to like to blame the Scots for all that is wrong in the nation and think it would be better for them to all bugger off. The writer then proceeds to describe the problems as he sees them. (His thoughts are well-put and are commended to you.) He makes a fine suggestion (which your Maximum Leader will touch upon in a moment); and then ends with a bang. That ending for your edification:

And in truth it would probably only do Scotland good to be cast off [from England - ML]. If nothing else, it would force some clear choices about taxation, the size and scope of the public sector, industrial and education and policy, and so on. I’d like to believe that my long-left-behind countrymen-and-women could recreate themselves to be a Tartan Denmark, but I suspect that old political habits would die hard and there’d be a rush to get money from the EU. Still, we’ve already got the chilly disdain of Eurocrats, being shot of the English might not be the worst thing ever. It would be typical if after more than 30 years of talking about finding a new landlord or maybe even buying their own place, Scotland was evicted.

Your Maximum Leader wonders if the nation of his ancestors could, in his view, recover and become a thriving vibrant state without a reliance on social-democratic entitlement programs that seem to sap so much life out of the societies they propose to help. He agrees with Sullivan’s reader in thinking that if Scotland became independent that they would go crawling to the EU for cash. They’d go somewhere. Sadly.

Well… Back to this “devo-max” idea. Your Maximum Leader does think it has merit. Your Maximum Leader thinks that the two nations should maintain a narrowly defined and mutually beneficial Union. That Union should take care of the “macro” issues like defence, foreign policy and macroeconomic policy. As with so many proposals, the devil is in the details. But a carefully crafted Union could work out well for both nations. Sullivan’s reader suggests that rather than having two parliaments after a “devo-max” event that there be three parliaments (or two parliaments and a national assembly of some sort). A parliament for England (sans Scots) one for Scotland (sans English) and one that will handle the narrowly defined issues of “Union” (and contain both Scots and English). Frankly, your Maximum Leader doesn’t see why one would need a full parliament for the “Union” issues. It could be some sort of governance committee with so many members from the Westminster and Edinburgh Parliaments. It likely wouldn’t have to be in session very long each year either…

Your Maximum Leader is intrigued by the whole idea of keeping the Union and re-establishing the autonomy of the component Kingdoms. It worked for the US (a federal system that is) for a while. He wonders if it could work in reverse for the Brits.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader decided he’d throw the whole “rabbit” thing at you on the first of the month… All three of his kids shouted it at him this morning. Around 6am… It was not fun.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has survived the holiday and he hopes you have as well. He feels particularly fat and slothlike. He’ll need to get out and exercise or something to try and counteract the urge to remain idle…

Apparently the sloth affecting your Maximum Leader is keeping him from writing a full blog post. So he’ll give you some banalities to occupy this space…

With some of the oysters left over from Thanksgiving your Maximum Leader made “angels on horseback” to have with dinner last night. They were a big hit. The kids kept trying to figure out if the oysters were the angels or if the bacon was. Tough call that one.

Your Maximum Leader must admit a certain fascination with the whole State Dinner crasher story. He’s not interested in the couple per se. Indeed, he couldn’t care at all about them personally. He is interested to know how exactly they got in. It continues to boggle your Maximum Leader’s mind. He’s attended presidential functions both at the White House and away from the White House. He knows that security isn’t perfect (certainly not away from the White House). But you figure that one would have to do more than just show up in a tux and act upset when your name isn’t on the guest list and act your way in. Your Maxium Leader is curious to learn how this happened and who is going to lose their job over it…

Your Maximum Leader thinks that Mrs Villain got him a Blu-Ray player for Christmas… That is a very exciting prospect. But it also means that he may have to get a new tv. His 46″ Sony HDTV is a rear projection job and doesn’t have an HDMI jack on the back. He suspects that he’ll live with the standard component connection for a while… But the urge to upgrade will be strong…

A close friend of your Maximum Leader and Mrs Villain will be getting married in March. It is likely that they will be celebrating the joyous day in Key West, FL. Your Maximum Leader and Mrs Villain are excited to go. But last night your Maximum Leader realized that March in Key West is sort of spring break time… Hummm… That adds an interesting (and often drunken) wrinkle to this trip.

Your Maximum Leader has been getting headaches with some regularity over the past 10 days. He thinks that the problem are his glasses. It has been about two years since his prescription has been adjusted… It might be time.

Your Maximum Leader wonders if a healthcare bill will actually get passed before the 2010 elections. He is beginning to doubt it. That is a good think all in all. If some bill must be passed he hopes it will be a stripped down one containing some insurance company reform and perhaps some minor tort reform. He realizes that such a bill is highly unlikely; but he hopes nonetheless.

What is up with Dubai? Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure if he should be concerned, worried, really worried or start to go crazy over what is going on with Dubai missing their loan payments. It seems like it isn’t a good thing no matter how you look at it.

Your Maximum Leader is also thinking about buying another turkey and cooking it up this weekend. He has left over gravy and needs to put it on something…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader might not get a chance to post anything between now and Saturday so he figured it would be best to wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving. As an American, Thanksgiving is the second best holiday on the calendar (after the 4th of July.) It is a great secular event that in which all Americans can be thankful for the bounty that is our land and remain mindful of the liberties we continue to enjoy.

At the Villainschloss today there will be a lot of pre-Thanksgiving prep going on. Already this morning a mincemeat pie and a peach pie have been made. Two pumpkin pies are in the offing now. After that there will be chestnut roasting. We will also get the dressing (with sausage, mushrooms and the aforementioned roasted chestnuts) done along with the creamed onions. Your Maximum Leader will (with the help of Villainette #2) boil the Smithfield Ham and get it ready. If the plan works well we should only have the turkey, mashed ‘taters, and brussel sprouts to complete tomorrow. That is a managable load.

Your Maximum Leader wishes you all the best. Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans, near and abroad. And a special Happy Thanksgiving to his cousins (Ryan and Cindy), and their comrades, who are serving in Iraq this Thanksgiving. We miss you both and pray for your safe return.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader found the following video very funny… Even if it is a long ad for some enhanced milk type product…

You’re welcome.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wanted you all to know that his water bill was adjusted down to the expected level. The meter reader could not acutally read a meter it seems. All is well and the overbilling is a memory now…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader and Mrs Villain have settled on the Thanksgiving Day feast. For those of you interested, here tis:

Fried and raw oysters - fresh Rappahannock River/Chesapeake Bay oysters supplied by Capt’n Red on Tuesday.
Smithfield Ham - not Darden’s ham, but Smithfield. (This is the “other” ham procured during the Quest for Ham.)
Roast Turkey & gravy - to get perfect skin your Maximum Leader covers the bird with cheesecloth and basts it in a wine/butter/herb mixture every 20 mins or so.
Mashed potatos.
Dressing with sausage, mushrooms and roasted chestnuts - new dish this year.
Grated brussel sprouts with radicchio and bacon.
Creamed onions - a colonial recipe and one of George Washington’s favorites.
Asparagus & heart of palm salad.
Pumpkin pie.
Blueberry pie.
Mincemeat pie.
Stilton & Port.

For the gentlemen (and ladies if they care to partake) there will be various whiskys available before, during and after the meal (exluding Port time of course). We also have a beautiful bottle of French wine (a 2007 sauvingon from Tourraine) for the ladies.

There you have it. The ham is soaking now. Pies will be made Wednesday morning. Ham boiled Wednesday night and reheated Thursday. The creamed onions will also be made Wednesday. Feasting will commence after the Packers game on Thanksgiving.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is a big fan of the Badass of the Week website. This week he nearly choked from laughing so hard at the Caterina Sforza bio. Caterina, by the way, is the Badass of the Week this week. You should check it out.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader apologizes for his absence from this space. Life has a way of sometimes overtaking you and requires that you put by the wayside those pasttimes you would like to partake in more frequently…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader figures he’ll share a little story with you all. If you happen to read your Maximum Leader’s twitter feed you might already know this…

So, your Maximum Leader opens his water/sewer bill today. The total of the bill… $112,818.64. Yup. You read that correctly. One hundred and twelve thousand eight hundred and eighteen dollars and sixty-four cents. Well… Your Maximum Leader assumed that there was a problem with the bill. He couldn’t have consumed a few million cubic yards of water in a month. (Afterall he just got one of those high-efficiency front loading washing machines… And cleaning the dungeon doesn’t require THAT much water…)

So, he called the Utility department. They confirmed that the bill seemed wrong, given my past usage. But the meter reading supported the bill. Your Maximum Leader actually walked out to the meter and read what it said to the person on the line. They then started to dispute your Maximum Leader’s ability to read a meter. He informed them that it was their professional meter reader who was evidently not able to read a simple dial meter. They eventually agreed to send another meter reader to check the meter and get a new reading.

The new meter reading is supposed to take place tomorrow (Saturday no less). Your Maximum Leader will keep a sharp eye out for the person and check up after them… Crazy…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t have time for a lengthy update right now but he wanted to let you all know what is going on. His father is home from the hospital (he came home Friday night) and is doing well. He will be seeing various specialists on an out-patient basis this week to confirm that all is well. He looked good (all things considered) when your Maximum Leader and his progeny visited yesterday.

Again, many thanks for the well wishes and prayers from all of you out there. It means a great deal to us.

Carry on.

Hello everyone. I wanted to thank all of you who wrote to me and inquired about my Dad. I thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I appreciate it. I also hope to take a moment to respond individually to all of you who wrote.

If you have been reading Kevin’s blog you will know a bit of what has been going on with me (and with Kevin’s mom) over the past few days.

As it stands now, my Dad had a heart fibrillation that lasted for about 12 hrs. His treatment was complicated by the fact that he’d had a minor out-patient surgery requiring a skin graft. The graft bled very badly and prevented some cardiac treatment. The bleeding is stopped and the graft is healing as it should. He has been getting tested in the cardiac department today and we are awaiting results.

I can’t thank Kevin enough for all he has done to help and comfort my Dad and me.

Hopefully I’ll be back in character next week.

Carry on.

I wanted to alert any family and friends that might read this space and haven’t heard yet from me that my dad was hospitalized last night after suffering heart-attack-like symptoms. Initial reports seem to show that he has not had a heart attack, but has been suffering from a severe cardiac fibrillation (or irregular heart-beat). There are yet many questions to answer. I’ll report back as I am able.

Many thanks to my bro Kevin for all his support. I can’t express how much it has meant to me.