Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maixmum Leader, as is his habit on this day, will sit back tonight and feast on roast beef, yorkshire pudding, Bass ale and trifle all the while celebrating the most decisive and glorious naval battle in the history of man.

Today marks the 205th anniversary of the British naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Lord Nelson’s final masterpiece of naval war was a crushing loss for the forces of Napoleon and likely saved Britain from invasion. The battle also ushered in nearly 100 years of unquestioned British supremacy on the oceans. (That supremacy allowed the British Navy to do fun things like stamp out the global slave trade.)

Sadly, due to family affairs your Maximum Leader wasn’t able to write a post worthy of the event. But lucky for you our good friend Mr P was able to do so. So go over to Mr (& Mrs) P’s place and take in his post.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been following stories concerning the efforts to restore the American Chestnut tree. He thought that he’d blogged about this subject more frequently than it turns out he actually has. (He first blogged about American Chestnuts in 2005 - in the context of an oak blight.)

Your Maximum Leader has contacted researchers at Virginia Tech and offered to plant a hybrid Chestnut tree in his yard. Sadly he was denied by researchers at Tech because he has too many other trees on his property that it isn’t a good location at this point. Regardless of that setback, your Maximum Leader has been following the work of so many to bring back the Chestnut.

He was heartened to read this peice in the Washington Post this morning: The mighty American chestnut tree, poised for a comeback. Here is the opening:

Its sweeping canopy inspired poets, and its strong, straight timber shaped the stories of life in rural Appalachia, until the tree itself became the stuff of fiction. It is now more than a century since the American chestnut tree - once 4 billion strong and an icon of East Coast forests - fell victim to a foreign blight. By 1950, it had virtually disappeared.

Yet people haven’t given up on the towering hardwood or slowed efforts to restore it to great swaths of woodland from Maine to Georgia and in the Ohio Valley, where it once reigned through the canopy. Despite the failure of earlier scientific efforts to bring it back, thousands of chestnut aficionados - many based in the Washington area - have new reason for optimism.

By interbreeding the American with its Chinese cousin, tree lovers have created an American chestnut with some resistance to Asian blight and have developed a virus that can be injected into affected trees to combat the fungus. It’s a project that shows every sign of promise - with about 25,000 of the new chestnuts planted under the guidance of trained scientists and chestnut devotees.

If the hybrid plantings thrive, some envision huge tracts of strip-mined Appalachia one day being restored with lovely chestnut forests.

“We know we’re interbreeding resistance. Now we have to figure out, does it have enough resistance?” said Bryan Burhans, president of the American Chestnut Foundation, which has led the revival efforts.

He said it will take 75 to 100 years to know whether the tree can be reestablished as a mainstay of Eastern forests. But he said he’s “very optimistic” about the American chestnut’s future.

Some might be intimidated by the prospect of a century-long recovery effort - more than a person’s life span, if not a tree’s. But as Robert Mangold, who directs forest protection for the Forest Service, put it, “it’s a long-term commitment.”

Your Maximum Leader is hopeful that his kids and grandchildren will be able to wander through Chestnut groves in the mountains of the eastern US.

If you would like to help in the efforts to restore the American Chestnut, you should try and contact the American Chestnut Foundation.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s early childhood was musically scored by great opera. He still recognizes specific recordings that his mother owned on record and were played with great frequency at home. He remembers Pavarotti. Sherrill Milnes, a young Placido Domingo, Maria Callas, Leontine Price and Joan Sutherland all singing in his home over the ole hi-fi stereo.

Well… Dame Joan Sutherland has died, aged 83, in Switzerland. The Washington Post obituary reads in part:

Born in Australia, she first trained with her mother; a vocal scholarship then brought her to London, where she reencountered Richard Bonynge, a compatriot who was then working a vocal coach at the Royal Opera House. Bonynge helped unlock and develop the upper register and rock-solid technical ability. He remained her constant artistic partner throughout her career, conducting most of her appearances and her legacy of recordings: “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Norma,” “I Puritani,” “La sonnambula.”

Bonynge also helped guide her away from the Wagnerian track that might have seemed to be a natural for someone of her vocal endowments, and into the realm of the coloratura soprano. Sutherland’s first roles included the Forest Bird in Wagner’s “Siegfried” and Clothilde, a bit part, to Maria Callas’s Norma in Bellini’s opera of the same name. Her breakthrough came with a 1959 “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Covent Garden, directed by Zeffirelli; her success put her on the map. She reprised the role for her Metropolitan Opera and La Scala debuts in 1961 — it was for this that the Italian press dubbed her “La Stupenda” — and never really looked back.

Your Maximum Leader has some excerpts of Sutherland singing in Wagner’s Ring on his iPod. He’s listening to them now.

The world of opera has lost one of its finest practionners. Lucky for us her recordings remain as a testament of her talents.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader (again) finds himself in agreement with his friend Skippy. All he can say about this post is “ditto.”

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t been paying very close attention to the race for Congress in his district (VA 1). That may seem a little out of character, but it isn’t really. The First District of Virginia is a safe district. Rob Wittman, your Maximum Leader’s Congressman, is in little danger of being outsted by his Democratic challenger, Krystal Ball. (Yeah, the name is sorta sounds like she should be endorsed by gypsies everywhere.)

Other than seeing a few ads on the interwebs (from the Ball campaign in which she accuses Wittman of being wooden), he hasn’t heard much about the race. It really isn’t making news. At one point, someone in the Wittman campaign made a crack about Ball being cute. That caused a stir. Apparently, Ball was once voted one of the sexiest staffers on Capitol Hill. In spite of that, we can’t comment on her physical appearance. That’s sexist you know. (NB: In your Maximum Leader’s opinion, Krystal Ball is sort of cute. The photo she has of herself on billboards and stuff around is very unflattering.)

Well Krystal Ball got a little more sexy… Apparently Gawker has photos (originally posted to Facebook) of Krystal Ball sucking a dildo off a man’s nose. That man was (apparently at the time) her husband. (NB: Nice Christmas party by the way… Your Maximum Leader never gets invited to the sexy Christmas parties.)

Now, if your Maximum Leader were a little more like his friend Skippy, this would be a game changer. Really, how often do photos of your prospective Congressman/woman turn up showing them performing oral sex on a dildo? Not often is your Maximum Leader’s answer. Not often enough would surely be Skippy’s answer. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t ever considered skill at fellatio a criteria for voting for (or against) anyone for Congress. Hasn’t crossed his mind, until now that is.

Your Maximum Leader is confident that these photos will not change his vote, but the race did get a bunch more interesting. Interesting if you like to know how well your candidate gives blow jobs. Just saying…

Thanks to FLG for pointing this out to your Maximum Leader.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader predicted back in April that his beloved Washington Nationals Baseball Club could win at least 70 games and perhaps as many as 80 games. Well… The bloom wore off that rose in mid June. The Nats started off well, but then lost their way not quite half-way through the season.

The Nationals have finished the season 69-93.

Sure that is an improvement over last season. But your Maximum Leader is a little disappointed. Through the beginning of August he’d hoped that the Nats could win 70-75 games. Frankly, if the Nationals had played the Florida Marlins like they play the rest of the NL East then they would have crested 70 wins. Playing a little better on the road against any opponent (and here your Maximum Leader is looking directly at the pathetic Baltimore Orioles) then they would have perhaps crested 75 wins.

Of course, the Nationals have shown that they are on a track that is moving them (at a glaciers pace) upward. Your Maximum Leader hopes that the Nats will do the smart thing and sign Adam Dunn now that the season is over. Dunn, while something of a defensive liability, is a big bat in a lineup that needs offense. Dunn’s presence in the lineup makes Zimmerman, Willingham, and all the others better hitters. Nats management needs to show that they are willing to pony up a little money to give us some wins now. The Nats played pretty good at home over the season. Without Dunn and the offense he brings, the Nats might start to get boring at home. When the home town fans start to go it is hard to win them back (and you have to resort to inviting Philly fans down to fill seats). Please sign Dunn now.

So, your Maximum Leader is finding himself without a team to root for in the post season. He’ll likely pull for Texas in the AL just to pull for some team out there. In the end he’s an NL man and will root for any NL team over the AL team in the World Series, but for the moment it will be Texas…

In other sporting news… Hockey season starts this week… The Washington Capitals must play hard and make the playoffs (and avoid an embarassing first round exit). Not like there is any pressure there to win…

Carry on.

The Buick in front of John Harding was going 15 mph under the limit in the left lane.

John saw a break and passed on the right. As he pulled back into the left lane he noticed the hole in the grill of the Buick. Old lady driving probably ran into a trailer hitch.

In the Buick, Babette Rodger’s blood boiled. She didn’t have the decomposing head of the last driver to piss her off stuck behind the grill for nothing. She yelled out, “It’s on muthafuckah!” and put in her mouthpiece.

Oh yes. It was on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thinks that this is his favorite John Prine song ever.

Your Maximum Leader prefers the album version to the performance above.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is doing his best to stay dry today. The rains are not staying mainly on the plain, but are in fact falling everywhere.

So… Did you see? Warner Picutres and DC Comics have apparently licenced a company to make (and sell) Adam West/Burt Ward era Batmobiles. Oh… If your Maximum Leader had $150,000 lying about with no better application he’d run out to Fiberglass Freaks and get himself one. That would be one cool ride to have. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure it would be a chick magnet. In fact, if it would attract anything it would be middle-aged men, small boys, and geeks of all ages. Owning a Batmobile would likely always get you invited to drive in local parades… That’s not too shabby…

Anyhoo… We wants…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has seen the various reports and links to the recent Pew quiz on religion. As it turns out, many Americans don’t know much about religion. Unless you are an Atheist, Jew or Mormon in which case you know more than the average American. Not like we all didn’t really know that already.

Your Maximum Leader took the quiz and got 15 of 15. If you want the quiz you can clicky here. Your Maximum Leader was excited that he scored 1 better than his good buddy Kevin. Of course, he figures that the only reason he was able to score better is that he knew the 3 history/politics questions.

Your Maximum Leader imagines that his readership would likely score better than most Americans. Of course you all read this blog. And we all know that reading this blog makes you smarter and better looking than the average American…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sat down last night and had planned on writing a little piece about liberal fascination with China. Specifically, your Maximum Leader has been perplexed by how often “liberal” commentators praise China’s ability to get things done. Your Maximum Leader wonders if these commentators (Paul Krugman leaps to mind) ever consider that the reason China can get things done is because they are an authoritarian state? Sure there is a lot of economic freedom in China, but there isn’t any political freedom. Do these commentators see that connection? Your Maximum Leader wonders if they do.

Of course, since you don’t see a post on China on the site you can safely assume your Maximum Leader didn’t write the post. He didn’t write it because he needed to cook dinner for the family. He whipped together a basic ragout (ragu?). Pork, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, tomato paste, chicken broth, red wine, you know a ragout. It would have been better if it had simmered for a few hours. (Since it didn’t would it really qualify as a ragout? Interesting questions.) But it was tasty.

After dinner your Maximum Leader decided to watch to TV on the DVR. He watched an episode of “The Late Late Show w/Craig Ferguson” and “Chelsea Lately” both guilty pleasures. Then he was going to watch “Castle” with his daughter. But then Mrs Villain and his daughters hijacked the TV and your Maximum Leader went to his office to get on the computer.

He had planned to blog on the computer. But then he decided to play an old game he has. Medieval Total War II. He started a campaign as the Spanish. His goal is to recreate the Spanish/Hapsburg Empire in Europe at the time of Charles V. So far your Maximum Leader has most of Iberia under his control. He hasn’t kicked the Moors out yet, but it is early. He did snag Corsica and Sardinia (which would have been part of the Kingdom of Naples). He also, by chance, took over Rhodes. (He was going on Crusade to take Jerusalem, but the French took Jersusalem first. Since he had an army in the area… Look! Rhodes is nearby!) So he played his game for a while.

Not like that is terribly interesting.

Not like China… That would be interesting…

Perhaps later…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader attened the Fredericksburg Forum last night. The guest was renown writer/traveler/chef Anthony Bourdain. Allow your Maximum Leader to tell you something. Your Maximum Leader was giddy as a schoolgirl in anticipation for this event. He’s been looking forward to it for weeks now.

For a few years now the Fredericksburg Forum has had a number of great guests, but they have tended to the political. Your Maximum Leader had grown weary of all the political figures and had stopped patronizing the event. Well… When he heard that Bourdain was coming he knew he had to repatronize the event and make sure he was there. And so he was…

Your Maximum Leader spoke to some of his friends in town who he knew would attend and made a wager on how long it would take before Bourdain said “fuck” in his remarks. (Over under by your Maximum Leader was under 2min. Indeed Bourdain dropped the ole f-bomb about 1.5 mins into his remarks. FYI, many patrons thought that he would refrain from cursing during his talk. Your Maximum Leader believed he’d have been disappointed if Bourdain didn’t curse. It is part of his charm.)

Your Maximum Leader will not recount everything that was said but will hit a few of the high points. These points are familiar to anyone who has read any of Bourdain’s books or watched “No Reservations” (on Travel Channel Monday nights at 10pm). The best part of the talk was when Bourdain talked about the importance of being a good ambassador for your country when travelling. He encouraged us to actually get away from tourist areas and actually meet people and see the “real” country you are visiting. If you meet interesting people and they offer you food, eat it. These are tenets to which your Maximum Leader tries to adhere when he travels. Bourdain expressed amazement that someone like Gwenyth Paltrow could travel through Spain and never try ham. (NB: Your Maximum Leader believes it is a sin against God and nature to visit Spain and not have ham. Indeed people who go to Spain and don’t at least try some ham should be beaten within an inch of their lives.) Bourdain expressed some sympathy for Bobby Flay having to do that awful Throwdown show. Frankly your Maximum Leader enjoys seeing Flay getting his butt kicked when he watches the show (which isn’t often). Flay seems to be an insufferable prick. That said, it seems as though Flay is getting beat up on a bit too much on that show.

The quote of the night was actually the last thing that Bourdain said during the question and answer session. He was asked about his opinion of Andrew Zimmern. Bourdain said that other than the unfortunate name of Zimmern’s show (Bizzare Foods) that Zimmern is a good guy. They have lots in common. One thing they don’t have in common is that Zimmern doesn’t drink anymore. Then Bourdain pulled this out: “When you’ve eaten a dinner of dick and you know you’re having a big helping of nutsack for breakfast, alcohol helps.” Were truer words ever spoken? Your Maximum Leader doubts it.

After the speech there was a “patron reception” for people who shelled out the big bucks to be there. Your Maximum Leader managed to get up to Bourdain before the huge crush of other patrons arrived. He shook hand and said how much he enjoyed the show and books. Then your Maximum Leader asked him “If you could go anywhere in the world to have a meal, where would you go?” Your Maximum Leader speculated before asking the question that the answer might likely be Arzak in Catalonia Spain. Bourdain thought for a moment and said that if you were going to travel anywhere in the world for a meal you’d likely have time for a couple meals. He said that you should go to the San Sebastian region of Catalonia and eat at Arzak, Mugaritz and Extebarri. If you caught the “No Reservations” show on Spain back in 2008 you’d know which three restaurants these were.

Sadly, your Maximum Leader would have liked a little more time to speak with him, but the crush of other patrons was incredible. Your Maximum Leader felt a little sorry for him, as he was surrounded by fanboys (and girls) and hardly had a chance to relax at all.

Anyhooo…

It was a great night. Your Maximum Leader had a great time (as did his lovely wife Mrs Villain). Now your Maximum Leader is off to Wegmans to get himself some Spanish ham for lunch.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader tweeted the other day “Does liking the music of Khachaturian make me a Communist?” This was brought about by an early morning errand.

You see…

Your Maximum Leader was in the Villainmobile running around town early on Saturday morning. He had a lot of stuff to do starting at 9am; so he was out early to get some cash and a few sundries that would make the day better. While driving he heard a piece of music on the radio (Classical WETA in our Nation’s Capital). The piece was instantly familiar. But at the same time your Maximum Leader couldn’t place where he’d heard it before. The announcer kindly added that the piece was the Adagio of Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian. Your Maximum Leader pulled over, texted the title to his wife and then made a follow-up call to make sure she didn’t delete the text.

All day your Maximum Leader heard the tune in his head. He hummed it. He whistled it. And all the while he couldn’t place where he’d ever heard the peice before. He is not a huge Khachaturian fan. He is not a fan of ballet. (Indeed your Maximum Leader finds that the loves lots of the music of ballet, but finds the actual dancing to be technically amazing and unable to hold his attention.) He couldn’t place the piece. In case you are wondering about the piece here it is:

Your Maximum Leader embedded the ballet rather than another clip that only showed Aram Khachaturian’s face for the whole 9 minutes. He did this for those of you who like ballet. And also ole Aram isn’t all that handsome a fellow…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader found the peice on iTunes and bought it. He’s listened to it 15 times since Saturday. (Thanks iTunes play count!) All the while he’s not been able to place where he’s heard it before.

About 20 minutes ago your Maximum Leader suddenly remembered, he lives in the age of the interwebs. Surely the Google must know something about this piece. And as certainly as night follows day, and May flowers follow April showers the Google was a help. It turns out that this piece has been in many movies. The one that your Maximum Leader immediately recognized was “The Hudsucker Proxy.” (NB: your Maximum Leader loves the Hudsucker Proxy.) Now his mind is no longer agitated by not knowing where he’s heard this little ditty before.

Of course, none of this answers the question of are you a Communist if you like Khachaturian?

Probably not… But one should wonder…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was reading the Wall Street Journal’s daily wrap-up of news and blogs the other day. In that wrap-up the editors of the WSJ introduced your Maximum Leader to the plight of Molly Norris.

Now in all honesty, your Maximum Leader allowed himself to be overtaken by events and he didn’t immediately write about how he felt and what he thought about Molly Norris. Thankfully, your Maxmium Leader was over reading Professor Mondo’s blog and it all came back to him.

Rather than just blather on himself, how about we check out what the good Professor had to say:

“Islamophobia” is a term that gets bandied about these days, with the ever-popular rhetorical effort to define disagreement with the multicult as mental illness. However, Molly Norris isn’t being stalked by rogue Episcopalians or offended Baha’i. The fact is that she’s been forced to go to ground by deranged Muslims. Meanwhile, saying that we have to be careful not to offend the deranged is a cowardly way out — and it simply makes all of us hostage to whoever we perceive as being least rational.

Well put sir! Well put. You should click through to see the Professor’s site and you should click on the links he provided.

Your Maximum Leader grows weary of trying to avoid the delicate sensibilities of Muslims around the world. If every Muslim in the world thinks that when your Maximum Leader speaks out against “Muslim terrorists” he is actually saying that “every Muslim in the world is a terrorist”; then most Muslims in the world need to lighten up and catch a clue. We all know that just being a Muslim doesn’t mean you are or are sympathetic to terrorists. Conversely, not every Christian is a Koran-burning Christian. Don’t you find it odd that the President of the United States and just about every Christian religious leader in the United States has to apologize to the entire Muslim world for the (threatened) actions of about 50 Christians at a Florida church who thought burning the Koran would be fun?

You know something. If 50 Muslims somewhere in rural Wahziristan decided to burn Bibles, wrapped in American Flags while throwing apple pies off a cliff; your Maximum Leader would hardly think it was newsworthy. Furthermore he would not assume that those 50 Muslims were speaking on behalf of a billion Muslims around the world. Call him crazy (He’s crazy!) but he doesn’t think that way. Apparently many Muslims do think exactly that way.

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader is upset (very upset) about what is happening to Molly Norris. She doesn’t deserve to have to go into hiding and make a new identity. Frankly, she shouldn’t have to pay for it too. Isn’t this another battle in the War on Terror? Can’t we find a few grand to help Molly out in the Defence budget? Or the Stimulus bill?

We should all be appalled by what is happening to Molly Norris. We should all demand that the President request that the Muslim leaders apologize to Molly Norris. Or, heaven forfend, perhaps the President could put a bounty on the head of Anwar al-Awlaki and see how he likes it.

Oh! The President apparently has done so.

Sadly your Maximum Leader doubts that the President is encouraging the CIA (or other entities) to actually kill the people on this “hit list.” Perhaps we should go the route of Letters of Marque & Reprisal.

By the way… Professor Mondo is now on the blogroll - over there on the left side. You should go over an take a read.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minons. Your Maxmium Leader figured he’d share with you all a few random thoughts that he’s “tweeted” about earlier this week. If you are a Twitter type, your Maximum Leader can be found (and followed) at: Twitter.com/maximumleader

Resolved, Alton Brown not withstanding, cooking is an art & baking is a science. Discuss.

Great jeezey chreezey! I just learned that the[y] changed Cookie Monster on Sesame St. into Carrot Monster. I feel violated.

If your Maximum Leader may paraphrase the great Elisson, Twitter is blogging for people with ADD. Perhaps your Maximum Leader has ADD and just didn’t realize it until now. Or perhaps Twitter is more aptly described by Dustin Rowles over at Pajiba (in his excellent review of Easy A):“If you look at Twitter on any given day, you’ll find millions of people essentially having conversations with themselves, and they’re not looking for engagement so much as they are seeking validation for their own opinions about themselves.”

At any rate, your Maximum Leader is on Twitter.

Carry on.