Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is now happily returned to the Villainschloss. He is sure you were all dying to know that… Let us catch up shall we?
Well… When last we left your Maximum Leader he was rife with pestilence and feeling miserable. Well… Actually… That was June 30th. On that day your Maximum Leader crawled out of bed and posted about Bush and Winston Churchill… On July 1 he went to the beach with his family. Upon arriving at the beach he discovered two things… He still had a hacking cough that was not sexy at all, and his interwebs connectivity at the beach was quite poor.
Monday, July 2 found your Maximum Leader sitting next to the pool reading “Flashman at the Charge.” It was about 75 degrees out and the water was frigid so he never got in the pool or ocean.
Tuesday July 3 found your Maximum Leader sitting next to the pool listens to Beverly Sills recordings on iPod mourning the great singer’s passing and reading “Flashman at the Charge” and the Washington Post. He was trying to determine if Bush’s commuting of Scooter Libby’s prison term offended him or not. The determination was that it did not. Your Maximum Leader continues to believe that the Special Prosecutor overreached and brought charges against Libby because he had to convict someone of something lest he be called a failure. Skippy’s post on this matter not withstanding, your Maximum Leader believes that what Scooter Libby was convicted of was (more or less) disagreeing with Tim Russert on matters relating to a time line. You can call your Maximum Leader a conservative mouthbreather (as Skippy did indirectly - and the Smallholder did directly recently) if you like. Honestly, your Maximum Leader didn’t care if Scooter Libby went to jail or not. And frankly, George W Bush is so unpopular now that any action he took (or yet chooses to take) on Scooter Libby can’t hurt him politically. Bush is beyond these “little” things hurting him now. And, truth be told, your Maximum Leader is more than a little pissed that Bush has done such a half-assed job of using his pardon powers. If you are going to take an action that will be so politcally charged that your enemies will be demanding your head on a pike; and your friends are not going to make any attempt to give you cover - well then you might as well just commit yourself to your choice. What Bush has done here is take a half-step that does nothing but keep the wound open just deep enough to keep from closing. And since Bush has left open the possibility that a full pardon may yet be in the works… This isn’t over yet. Bush should have either done nothing and let Libby hang - or he should have just given Libby the full pardon. But Bush isn’t good at thinking these things through…
Wednesday July 4th found your Maximum Leader sitting by the pool reading “Pompeii” by Robert Harris. Then, when he learned that the local fireworks were cancelled (due to high winds), he watched the film “The Illusionist.” The film was clever and quite entertaining. About half-way through, your Maximum Leader wondered how it was all going to come together. He didn’t figure out how it all came together, and was amused by the whole premise. He also liked how the writers wove their fictional story into an interesting historical context (Vienna before WWI.) Your Maximum Leader has since been told that “The Prestige” is a better film. Perhaps in a few weeks he’ll see it. (Excurus: You know something… Christian Bale - star of “The Prestige,” “Batman Begins,” “American Psycho,” and “Empire of the Sun” is a fine actor and a very handsome man. If your Maximum Leader played for “the other team” so to speak, he might have a man-crush on Christian Bale.)
Thursday, July 5th found your Maximum Leader reading “Pompeii” by the pool (which he never entered, nor did he enter the ocean). That afternoon, he took the Villainettes and the Wee Villain to see Ratatouille. He enjoyed it very much. It is possible that he enjoyed the film more than his children did in fact. He highly commends the picture to you.
Friday, July 6th found your Maximum Leader packing for, then making, the trek back to the Villainschloss. Upon arriving at the Villainschloss, your Maximum Leader went and slept.
Saturday, July 7th found your Maximum Leader packing for, them making, the trek to the Smallholder’s farm. There he met, obviously, the Smallholder and his family. Also there, not so obviously, were the erstwhile Minister of Propaganda (a sometimes contributor to this fine site) and Polymath (a sometimes commenter to this fine site, and virtual proprietor of his own fine site). There was much drinking and roasting of pork - great bonding activities… Also on July 7th, Skippy posts a fine piece on Richard Russell. Skippy’s piece makes your Maximum Leader feel both badly about not writing a blog post for a few days and relieved that he will not unfavorably compare his own crap post to Skippy’s lucid political discourse.
Sunday, July 8th found your Maximum Leader and the Smallholder having their son’s baptized. To this blessed event, your Maximum Leader wore his new seersucker suit. (He’ll have to post photos later…) Thereafter, there was much drinking and eating of roasted pork. Sadly, your Maximum Leader had to leave the festivities too soon for his own tastes and returned to the Villainschloss again.
Today… Your Maximum Leader caught up on a whole bunch of blog reading that he didn’t do last week. He also must advise his friend Skippy that while he has never wanted to know Katie Couric carnally (unlike Skippy), he can say that she (Couric that is) is quite attractive in real life. Your Maximum Leader has met her twice (both times we were waiting in the lounge for the DC to NYC shuttle at National Airport - most recently about 3 years ago).
Well… There you have it… The full update on what your Maximum Leader has been doing… More than you likely wanted to know, but there it is anyway… Oh… By the way… This site turned four last week. Like the Big Hominid, your Maximum Leader didn’t remember until after the fact… So… Happy Birthday to me - so to speak.
If there are any of you out there still reading this… Your Maximum Leader hopes to have some pithy content in this space soon.
Carry on.
