Look who’s back,
Back again.
Smallholder’s back
Tell a friend.

Stay tuned.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader does love his minions. You are all so bright and beautiful. And from time to time one of you writes him with something really really smart. (As opposed to all those soliciatations for viagra, tight college nymphomaniacs, and off-shore investment opportunities that he receives.)

This week a post prompted a thoughtful question. The post was concerning the Smallholder’s assertion (which appears to be confirmed in a roundabout way by the Bush Administration) that the US’s tax rates put us on the left side of the Laffer Curve. (Read here to catch up.)

To the whole concept of the Laffer Curve and tax cuts, loyal reader “S” writes thus:

Discussion of your posting between me and some of my fellow independent Philistines led to a debate about whether or not tax breaks at the top of the socio-economic matrix were more or less beneficial than breaks more towards my end of the spectrum, which is squarely middle class.

While it is immediately obvious to me that, as an American, I should always back whichever measure decreases my simple taxes, I am in favour of further reduction of taxes for other reasons as well. Specifically, I am in favour of reducing taxes on the middle class. My reasoning is simple. The benefits of tax cuts among corporations and the very wealthy are wisely applied. That is to say, they are invested, often overseas, or they are held as cash reserves, or, maybe, if there is a good economic or political reason, they are invested locally in ways that may or may not help stimulate growth of the local economy.

The fact of the matter is that corporations that are profitable and people of wealth already have the basic necessities and reasonable amounts of fun monies. The middle and lower classes do not, as a whole. Nor do they, as a whole, have a great deal of economic sense. This means that a three hundred dollar tax break among the ranks of the lesser economic entities end up in a return of nearly three hundred dollars into per person into the economy, while a corporate break most often does not.

As you and your gang of henchmen are undoubtedly more informed in such matters, do you have any relevant comment or observation which speaks to where and how to best apply tax cuts in order to benefit the overall economy?

Whew! What a question.

Well “S,” your Maximum Leader will have to provide just cursory comments to your thoughtful question. If he had more time, he would attempt to get some hard numbrs for you. He used to have a fun little book from which he could get some figures for you - but he can’t lay his hands upon it at this moment.

Your Maximum Leader will have to rely on the teachings of Karl Marx to disagree immediately with one of your premises. Namely the premise that additional money (from a tax cut) to the wealthy is “invested, often overseas, or they are held as cash reserves, or, maybe, if there is a good economic or political reason, they are invested locally in ways that may or may not help stimulate growth of the local economy.”

Comrade Marx teaches us that a Capitalist (aka: a wealthy person) is always looking to accumulate more capital. Thereby making himself (or herself to use sex-inclusive language) more wealthy. Money that is invested, whether overseas or domestically, is done so to create capital. A cash reserve is money invested in a bank. And as we all know, banks loan out money to capitalists to create more capital. So all the money you are describing, in one way or another, is being put back into the economy and (one hopes) creating more wealth.

Your Maximum Leader will have to rely on a personal anecdote for now (perhaps he’ll be able to get some statistics for you later) concerning the wealthy and investing. Your Maximum Leader knows quite a few people who would - by any reasonable person’s estimation - qualify as being wealthy. All of these people, regardless of how they came into their wealth (by inheritance or entrepreneurship) are all actively pursuing making more money. They do not invest overseas as much as one might think (because overseas markets do not afford basic protections as does the American market - protections like financial transparency and regular accounting standards). And they tend not to hold large cash reserves (because all a cash reserve gets you is a simple interest return - investing in blue chip stocks will - likely - get you a much greater return long-term).

These are individuals, not corporations. Admittedly, many corporations will do what they can to squeeze out every bit of profit they can. This is especially true of public corporations. But one shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that profit and increasing shareholder wealth is what a corporation is all about. That is its basic reason for being. If you own stock, or shares of a mutual fund, or invest in a 401(k); you are one of those shareholders. Wouldn’t you feel cheated if the corporation didn’t try to earn you some return on your investment? Isn’t that what you are counting on?

Anyho… Back to the tax cuts…

The basic argument made by Arthur Laffer, Jude Wanniski and other supply-siders is that money in the hands of individuals and not the government will stimulate the economy. So long as tax rates remain modest, government revenues will increase as the economy grows. When tax rates are too high, individuals will hold on to their money and not spend/invest it in a way that will result in stimulation of the economy.

Now, many economists argue these premises. But since Ronald Reagan no politician has effectively argued these premises. So, US tax rates are among the lowest (if not the lowest) in the developed world. And our economy is the strongest and largest.

According to the prevalent theory, a tax cut favouring “the rich” will have a more salutary affect on the economy because, as your Maximum Leader anecdotally related, “the rich” will put more money back into the economy. The $300 tax cuts received by the “middle” and “lower” class people also will go into the economy and cause it to grow. The question comes down to how much money do you want to put into the economy.

As for your Maximum Leader, he is a general proponent of tax cuts. Where will a tax cut do the most good? That is a tough row to hoe. Given the complexity of the federal spending/debt side of the equation goes, it is hard to tell just what one would want to do. As the federal debt grows, it shrinks the amount of available capital; thereby reducing the possble growth of the taxable economy. So, cutting the debt is a good step towards boosting the economy. Cutting spending (thereby slowing the growth of the debt) is also a good call. Your Maximum Leader believes that these are more prudent steps to take right now than further tax cuts. This is a change of position for your Maximum Leader from just a few months ago. After reading a few big economic reports from the GAO and Congressional Budget Office he thinks that freezing the tax rates where they are, and then working to cut spending and pay down (off?) the debt is a better course of action.

This is, upon a moments reflection, a rather facile discussion of quite complex issues. (But as facile as it is, it was more detailed than either candidate in the late presidential election.) Perhaps another blogger could provide some good material or links to expand on this theme.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is so pleased to announce that finally Colonel Blimp has gotten back to the basics. He has given us a tie post. Not just any tie post however, but one that gives you the tie; then raises you a watch and some shoes.

Of course, you might want to read Col Blimp’s site for his lucid discussions of British politics, global warming, or even Bunnies in Bondage.

Or you can just be superficial and read for the ties….

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thought he was going mad. He thought he read a post on Eric’s site that asked what was on the walls of the room where one blogged. Your Maximum Leader thought he read it, but then couldn’t seem to find in on Eric’s site. Then he looked again, and behold here it is.

Your Maximum Leader decided to pull a Jackie Kennedy and take you all on a one-view, one-room, tour of the Villainschloss. This is to say taht he’ll let you get a low-res view of what his office looks like. Here it is.

The wall hangings are (l to r): Kitchener recruiting poster, Winston Churchill photo, linen wall-hanging showing the English Royal Succession from Alfred the Great to Elizabeth II (gift from your Maximum Leader’s friend PH in Hotlanta, GA), Lord Nelson, and an interwar period Royal Navy poster (gift from your Maximum Leader’s college roommate JW). You might also catch a glimse of the the corkboard on which are hung such items as a postcard of Elvis, some old Dilbert cartoons, a collection of drawings by the Villainettes, a Ronald Reagan calendar, Kilgore’s original artwork entitled “Avoid Uncle Earl” (which alas must be partially covered as the Villainettes keep asking why you should avoid Uncle Earl), and a Korean fan (gift from the Big Hominid).

Above the corkboard (and largely unviewable in this photo) is a seal reading “United States of America, War Office.” The seal used to hang in your Maximum Leader’s grandfather’s office in the Pentagon in the late 1940s. When the “War Department” became the “Department of Defense” he asked if he could have the old seal. He was told he could. And from 1949 until his passing in 2003 that seal hung in your Maximum Leader’s grandfather’s workshop bathroom.

In case you were wondering… The desk is Queen Anne Style (cherry). The chair is modern (black leather). The chair does not match the desk because your Maximum Leader requires comfort when blogging. There is a bust of Winston on the desk as well as some speakers and the docking port for the Kodak digital camera. The monitor is a NEC Multisync 2010. The table next to the chair (upon which rests the old HP printer and cable modem) is a desk from your Maximum Leader’s alma mater. Yes, they used to have desks like that in every classroom.

Well… They had desks like that a little before your Maximum Leader’s time. That desk was purchased by Longwood College around 1939. It was in regular use by students until 1959. That particular desk was rescued from a trash heap by a friend of your Maximum Leader’s and used in her office on campus (under a tablecloth) to hold a large fern. She got new office furniture, and your Maximum Leader rescued the desk before it could be thrown onto the trash heap. The desk was in miserable shape. It had been painted and stripped a few times. It had a wretched wood-grain contact paper pasted all over it. And was generally falling apart. But your Maximum Leader kept it anyway. Years later, your Maximum Leader’s sainted father-in-law decided he needed a new project. So he stripped down, repaired, sanded, and refinished the desk. It is better looking now than it was in 1939.

And nowyour Maximum Leader has written a long-ish post about almost nothing. Wow! How easy it was.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader once read that to Vince Lombardi the priorities of his players should be (in decending order): God, their Families, and the Green Bay Packers.

Recently God has been dealing some bad cards to Brett Favre. His dad died. His brother-in-law was killed in an accident. His good friend Reggie White died suddenly. And his wife (and childhood sweetheart) Deanna was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Farve let the team know that he was going to take the off seaso to think about returning to football. If Deanna was doing well, the Packer great (and future Hall of Famer) said he would return to football for his 15th season. According to press reports, Favre to play in ‘05.

This is good news for Packers fans, and good news for the Farve’s. Deanna seems to be recovering well.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader admits that he has never seen the film (and he uses the term in the technical sense only) Van Wilder, but if it puts ideas bad ideas into the heads of America’s youth… Well, America’s youth are a little worse off than he thought.

What idea you ask?

This idea.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader didn’t know it was Bike Week in Daytona.

Click here for a slideshow of goings-on. (Your Maximum Leader is somewhat partial to the cole slaw wrestling (work safe!) photos in there.

Your Maximum Leader is also sure that somewhere in all those photos is a Red Hat America entry from the Velociman…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that a judge has ordered the arrest of Michael Jackson.

The wire story gives all the details about Jacko being at the hospital and all… But your Maximum Leader thinks that Jacko has finally cracked and is on the lam.

Not that he should be hard to find… Just look at him…

Now if his disguise were to be a shortish black man with a ‘fro he might just pull it off.

Carry on.

UPDATE: Damn.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, when not wasting time on computer games, has been musing on death over the past few days. As he blogged recently, two people in your Maximum Leader’s life have died in the past few weeks. But these are not the only deaths about which he is musing.

Excursus: To those of you who sent kind condolence e-mails to me - many many thanks.

Your Maximum Leader thought he would commit a number of these musings to the ether of the internet as a long-ish blog post. But it just wasn’t working. The posts seemed too personal, or too morose, or too detached. None of the variations on the theme seemed to resonate enough with your Maximum Leader. So, he cut his efforts down to just one thought.

The only death he would like to muse about is not a physical death. It is a blog death. Yes, our glorious blogger dead. Anna was first. Then Conrad. Mister Green also passed. Now one of your Maximum Leader’s Loyal Minions has passed on. Yes. Kilgore has put his blog out to pasture.

Reading Kilgore’s most recent, and as best we know final, post has really saddened your Maximum Leader. (Saddened him so much he couldn’t blog about it for days.) He can hardly explain how much (mental) pleasure he got from reading Kilgore’s posts. Kilgore is a much better writer than your Maximum Leader. And his well crafted posts stand in stark opposition to those posted here. He will be greatly missed. For as long as the URL is active, he shall remain up at the top of the blogroll with the other loyal minions. And who knows what will happen after that.

Excursus: Hell, your Maximum Leader kept Conrad’s blog on the blogroll for months although it was dead and gone. He only removed it a day or two ago. And that was to make room for a new blog “Gypsy Scholar” by Dr. Horace Jeffery Hodges - who has in the past been a kind correspondent and reader of this site. (Welcome to the blogosphere!)

Just so you all know, after your Maximum Leader read Kilgore’s sign-off; he poured himself a big ole glass full of Ardbeg and ice and toasted the departed. It was sort of like a little Scottish wake consisting of one person pounding ine whisky alone in front of a computer monitor in his underwear late at night. Somehow, that was rather fitting.

Excursus - Isn’t a solitary Scot drinking in his underwear in front of his computer the definition (or picture) of a Scottish blogger geek wake?

One can only hope that from time Kilgore (your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that he could ever use his proper appelation: Lawrence) will choose to grace a blog with his presence. Kilgore, please know that you are always welcome at Nakedvillainy. Someday your Maximum Leader hopes you’ll do a guest blog.

Requiscat In Pace Kilgore. The blogosphere is diminished by your departure.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will encourage you all to go over and read Christina’s post on Old Time Country Lessons. The Smallholder, if he is still out there, will, your Maximum Leader is sure, be able to duplicate certain lessons for his wee offspring.

Your Maximum Leader is working on the whole bit with “Yes, sir.” and “No, sir.” with the Villainettes. Indeed, today has been a particularly bad day (if you are a Villainette) in terms of learning that you live under the autocracy of your father.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doffs his bejeweled floppy hat and gives a royal nod to the lovely Annika on the occasion of her Second Bloggoversary. Go on over there and join her in the merriment and on-line poker party that is the celebration.

Your Maximum Leader will just sit here and try to come up with new lyrics to “For He’s A Jolly GoodFellow.” He thinks he nailed that first line down. Perhaps the second verse could start with “For she’s a jolly good hottie…” But that might be pushing a line.

And hell… While your celebrating with Annika, get out your checkbook and give her some love. Or perhaps send her some plain ole dollars. Annie needs some new shoes.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is doing a little guest-blogging for Sadie this week. Click here to read his post for White Trash Wednesday.

And remember… Your Maximum Leader will not be posting next week as he will be in Vegas… Sadie has kindly agreed to do a guest post or two. Perhaps the Smallholder will come out of the barn to type a post or two. And even, if we are really lucky, some of the other ministers might choose to grace the blog with their thoughts.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was channel surfing last night. Now, allow your Maximum Leader to state that on the big 46 inch Sony Widescreen HDTV he has programmed out a number of cable channels. That way he is never subjected to ever viewing them, even for a moment during channel surfing. However, on the smaller 32 inch analog TV in his and Mrs. Villain’s bedchamber some channels appear which do not appear on the big TV. One of the channels is the “Oh! Oxygen” network.

As a matter of course, your Maximum Leader finds that there is nothing worth watching on “Oh! Oxygen.” It is too… Well… Geared towards She-Woman-Man-Haters. Well imagine his surprise when he was surfing last night and caught a glimpse of his Muse/Goddess. That would be, for those of you who have forgotten, Jennifer Love Hewitt.

It seems that Miss Hewitt is going to be starring in an “Oh! Oxygen” orginial presentation entitled: “Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber.” (Click here to watch a trailer.) There is even a contest involved. (The grand prize appears to be tickets to the San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball. No mention of attending said ball with Miss Hewitt…)

Now… What should your Maximum Leader do? Should he actually tune into “Oh! Oxygen” and watch this movie? Should he try to enjoy it? Should he watch with the sound off and make up his own dialogue? It might be fun. After all it isn’t every day that your Maximum Leader could watch Miss Hewitt star as the enderingly despicable Katya Livingston.

Decisions, decisions…

Oh, Jennifer! Why do you tempt your Maximum Leader so!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees on the news wires that some women in New Zealand bared their breasts at Prince Charles in protest during his state visit. It seems they cried “Shame, shame” and “Get your Colonial shame off my breasts” and “I just want to feed my baby” at the Prince as he approached a Wellington art gallery.

This brings up some interesting questions. Were these women attractive? Were their breasts attractive? And what was on their minds when they chose to bare their breasts as a sign of protest? Did they think that Charles would (being a man) naturally be attracted to breasts and turn and walk over to them and listen to their protests, all the while being fixated on the protestor’s breasts?

It makes one wonder.

Just so that you all know. Just as wearing spandex in public will be a tightly regulated operation in the Mike World Order; so will exposing one’s breasts in protest of your pseudo-benevolent Autocrat. Frankly, your Maximum Leader does not want to have old, deformed, saggy, or otherwise imperfect breasts exposed in his presence as a means of protest. If, during the MWO, a female would like to expose her breasts in protest of some policy of your Maximum Leader she will have to appear in front of a FOM (Friend of Mike) and apply for a permit. Her breasts will need to be visually inspected in their natural form by the FOM before a permit will be issued. Women flashing their breasts in protest without a permit will be dragged off and shot.

Harsh? Such is life in an Autocracy my friend.

Carry on.

UPDATE: Although it is hard to judge from one (pretty much wor safe) photo, but this protester might have been issued a permit in the MWO. Your Maximum Leader would have preferred a broader panoramic photo… And as for this other bare breasted protester… That child is much too old to still need breast feeding.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leadr knows that you were all at home last night watching Iron Chef America. What? Even after he told you it was going to be a Morimoto Vs. Donna battle you still didn’t watch?

Losers.

Well, your Maximum Leader and Mrs. Villain watched. And was it interesting. The secret ingredient was scallops. They had a great variety of bay and sea scallops. The early part of the battle went well for both chefs. But around the half-way mark you could tell that Chef Donna was running out of time. Morimoto and his sous-chefs were working like a madmen. Donna and his sous-chefs didn’t appear to be hurried.

And that killed Donna.

He ran out of time.

Roberto Donna ran out of time. He didn’t complete but two (count ‘em 2) of the required 5 (count ‘em five) dishes! Morimoto got his five. But Donna just got two. It was very sad really. Very very sad. Your Maximum Leader could hardly believe it. It struck your Maximum Leader that Donna hadn’t practised in a timed setting. That one hour is a killer. When your Maximum Leader ate at Donna’s Labortorio, it was a slow process. Donna didn’t rush. He and his assistants prepared the food. Talked about the food. They didn’t hurry anything. That was the same Roberto Donna your Maximum Leader saw on Iron Chef last night.

So, while Morimoto came away with a victory, it wasn’t what your Maximum Leader had hoped. It was something of an empty victory. Your Maximum Leader hopes that Chef Donna will be invited back for either a rematch - or a new battle with a different chef. (Your Maximum Leader would love to see Donna duke it out against Bobby Flay. Damn, your Maximum Leader can’t stand Bobby Flay. Flay is a great cook - and your Maximum Leader has even learned a thing or two from him about grilling vegetables - but he is an annoying bastard mostly.)

Carry on.