Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s Christmas & New Year’s did not go as planned. The trip to the National Christmas Tree did go wonderfully. We had a Suburban full of kids and had a great time going to DC to see the tree. Then the illnesses hit. Luckily, your Maximum Leader’s immediate family was spared. But his extended family was not. His Christmas dinner for 17 turned into dinner for 7. (That has meant that your Maximum Leader has been finding new and exciting ways to re-heat roast beef for a week.)

Then the post-Christmas quiet contemplation your Maximum Leader had hoped for evaporated quickly. Apparently, your Maximum Leader’s offspring decided to bicker and argue pretty much constantly for days.

It wasn’t the best.

Then, Mrs Villain declared that since January is shaping up to be a busy one for us… All the Christmas decorations had to come down. Once the decree had gone out, it had to be accomplished. So the Villainschloss is completely de-Christmas-ed. That makes your Maximum Leader a little sad; because he likes to keep the house festooned until at least the Feast of the Epiphany…

Anyhoo…

Yesterday, New Year’s Day (Rabbit by the way), was quiet enough. Most everyone in the Villainschloss stayed in their rooms and interacted very little. Your Maximum Leader watched a number of “Sherlock” episodes on Amazon Prime. Your Maximum Leader isn’t a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes “re-boots” that have come out. The 1st Robert Downey Jr. film was enjoyable as a “buddy film” but wasn’t Sherlock Holmes. Your Maximum Leader has also seen “Elementary” on CBS. While your Maximum Leader is happy to look at Lucy Liu for an hour in almost any circumstance, that show isn’t all that. But Stephen Moffat’s “Sherlock” is a different beast all together. It is great. If you haven’t had a chance to see the six episodes (all done before Benedict Cumberbatch had to go off and make the new Star Trek film and then Martin Freeman had to go and make the Hobbit films) you should watch them.

Your Maximum Leader wishes you all a happy and prosperous 2013.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is alive and well. His family is alive and well. His property is undamaged by Hurricane Sandy. For all of that his is thankful. His heart goes out to those in New Jersey and New York who are suffering so much right now.

Your Maximum Leader spend the weekend before the storm getting the Villainschloss ready for the storm. We cleared up the leaves. Cleaned gutters. Secured loose items in the yard. Verified the backup generator was working and that we had spare fuel. All the stuff you do. The only real concern we had was for the many trees around the house. You can never tell when one is going to decide to give up the ghost and fall on your home or auto.

Providentially, nothing bad happened. We didn’t even lose power. It flickered once or twice, but remained on. Your Maximum Leader believes that the derecho storms of this past June helped us out. Those storms, which left your Maximum Leader without power for nearly three days, probably culled out lots of the trees that would have fallen otherwise during Sandy.

Your Maximum Leader is, again, thankful that he doesn’t have anything interesting to report.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been thinking about this for a while now…

Dear Skippy.

We hope that you know that among all the bloggers of the world, you are among our most favored. Your political insights and commentary so often mirror what we are thinking that often we don’t see the point of writing on a subject after you have discoursed on it. This election year (in the US) has not been different than past election years in that respect. We, like you, have thought from early on that Romney will be the nominee. We have also believed, as you have that President Obama will win re-election. This is not due to his deserving to be re-elected; but due to Romney and the Republicans being so pathetic.

We have read and taken to heart your many exhortations (including the latest one) that we should vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson for President of the United States. After much consideration, we have decided that we could, in good conscience, cast our vote for Governor Johnson. He is a sensible Libertarian, and although we don’t agree with him on all the issues - as if we have ever agreed with every candidate on all the issues, he does have a reasonable plan for addressing the most pressing problems facing the United States today.

This is a big step for us. We normally don’t believe in voting for 3rd party candidates in national elections. We believe that voting for the 3rd party candidate is not a “protest” vote in a meaningful sense but more “throwing one’s vote away.” This year though, the two major party candidates just aren’t doing it for us. So we have thought long and hard about voting for Governor Johnson.

But then a crazy thing happened to our home state of Virginia four years ago. For the first time in our life, Virginia went for a Democrat in a Presidential election. Virginia awarded her electoral votes to Barack Obama in 2008. Now, in 2012 it looks like Virginia is a “swing state.”

We wouldn’t need to see a talking head on some cable news program to tell us we are living in a swing state. We’ve lived it for nearly a year now. You can’t turn on the TV or radio (or often the interwebs) without being bombarded with political ads.

You know, for years we’ve wanted to see all the attack ads and know what it is like to be a contested marketplace. Now we’re wishing we could go back to the days when the only time you saw a political ad was when it was highlighted on the news or when you went looking for it on the interwebs. It has been hell. The ads are maddening in their omnipresence. It is enough to drive a man to drink (much more than he normally does).

So, Virginia is a swing state. For the first time in our lifetime, our vote actually does mean something (Presidentially speaking). Now we find we are faced with a major problem. Do we cast our vote for a deserving man (Gary Johnson) who has no chance of winning or cast our vote for Romney or Obama in hopes that our vote does affect the outcome of the national election.

We know that the press are reporting that (alternately) Virginia is very close or the President is slightly ahead. According to information we’re getting from people who have access to internal polling from the various campaigns, everything is within the margin of error of any poll.

If we thought that Virginia was going solidly for either Romney or Obama, we’d vote for Gary Johnson. But this year it seems to be a more prudent course to use the lesser of the evils approach to casting our vote. Although we don’t think it will help him in the broader Electoral picture, we will likely vote for Romney. He is not our first (or second or probably third - okay he is our second choice actually) choice; but he is a better choice than voting to re-elect President Obama. And just so you know, even using the lesser of two evils approach the choice between Romney and Obama is an unpleasant one. Neither man has a serious plan for directly addressing the most serious problems facing the US. But one man has had nearly four years to work on those problems and has pretty much fucked it up at every opportunity. So, perhaps change is the best course.

We’re actually quite disappointed that it has come to this. But there it is. We’re pretty much screwed no matter how we vote; but it is wiser to do it this way than any other.

Cordially,

Your Maximum Leader

PS - if you are ever down our way, you have an open invitation at the Villainschloss.

So there you have it.

Sad.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was asked by one of his buddies if this blog was dead. He replied it wasn’t dead, but apparently was quite moribund.

mor·i·bund/ˈmôrəˌbənd/
Adjective:
(of a person) At the point of death.
(of a thing) In terminal decline; lacking vitality or vigor.
Synonyms: dying

Your Maximum Leader hopes that it is just lacking in vitality and vigor and not into the final death spiral; but time shall tell on that.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is a shitty blogger. If by shitty one means “infrequent.”

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader sees on Twitter some interesting graffiti from Pompeii. “hic ego cum veni futui, deinde redei domi.” Apparently this translates as “I came here, had sex, and went home.” It tickled your Maximum Leader so he added it to the random tag lines to this site…

The month of June is nearly half spend, and this is the first post… Crazy how that works. Let’s review some of what your Maximum Leader has done recently…

He saw Prometheus Wednesday night. Your Maximum Leader’s review? Meh. Your Maximum Leader thought the pacing of the movie was fine. He says this because a frequent critique of the film he reads is that it was boring. Your Maximum Leader wasn’t bored. He thought the speed (pacing) of the film was fine (as he just wrote); but it seemed edited for time. Perhaps this is becoming a Ridley Scott thing… He makes a film. He releases the film in the cinema. Then he started amending and remaking the film until it is closer to the film he wanted to release in the first place. Your Maximum Leader could see that this would be a problem back in the 1980s (he is thinking Blade Runner specifically) but can’t imagine that Scott would be “forced” by “studio suits” to release a movie before it was (at least pretty close to being) ready. Prometheus feels like it was: 1) either rushed to meet a release deadline or 2) released with every intention of Scott working on it for another 20 years and periodically releasing new “director’s cuts” until he (one day) gets what he wants.

All in all, your Maximum Leader doesn’t think he could recommend Prometheus to you. The story was interesting, yet it felt incomplete. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t require that a film raise questions and then answer them; but he does feel as though questions that arise from the narrative be addressed in some way. Prometheus doesn’t do that.

Re-reading that last paragraph makes your Maximum Leader feel as though he should go into more detail. He doesn’t want to give out too many spoilers - in case you’ve not seen the film and plan on doing so… That said, the big open ended question of the film is “what was on the ‘engineer’s’ mind?” The ‘engineers’ are the alien race that apparently created life on Earth, and according to character exposition during the film are trying to destroy it with xenomorph creatures they are manufacturing on LV-226 (the planet begin visited by the Prometheus). Now, some other sites have speculated that the answer to the big question was given in the film by the android character, David (played magnificently by Michael Fassbender). In the film David asks why he was created by man and receives the answer “because we could” then David replies that it would be disappointing for man to travel across the galaxy to speak to their creators and receive the same answer. It is entirely plausible that the ‘engineers’ created humanity because they could; and that they would like to destroy humanity for the same reason. While that answer to the question actually amuses your Maximum Leader more than anything else, it is a weak bit of storytelling.

In other news… Your Maximum Leader is going on a cruise next week. Baltimore to Bermuda. It will be his first time on a cruise ship. He is looking forward to the trip. He expects some quiet and time to read.

Speaking of reading, your Maximum Leader broke down and bought a Kindle Fire. For a few years now a number of people have told him that he should get an e-reader. He’s resisted, until now. He opted for the Kindle Fire for the overall entertainment possibilities offered by that device. Books, movies, TV and internet. So far he is very impressed. He’s found he’s been watching some Amazon Prime streaming movies and TV shows that have entertained him very much. He’s also downloaded about 100 books that are in the public domain (some Edgar Rice Burroughs, Raphael Sabatini, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexander Pope, Thomas Hardy, Plato and Shakespeare among others) to read. While he doesn’t believe that he’ll ever get away from real books on paper, the Kindle is a good device that serves the purpose for which it was bought.

(NB to readers: Your Maximum Leader still believes that the basic iPod Classic is the greatest piece of personal electronics in recent times.)

How about politics…

Your Maximum Leader voted in the Virginia Primaries this week. He had to vote for a Republican to take on Tim Kaine (Democrat former Governor) to see who will replace Jim Webb (D-VA) in the US Senate. Your Maximum Leader voted for George Allen. Mostly on the basis of the other choices being a Tea Partiers and likely (or possibly actually) insane. Your Maximum Leader will vote for Allen in the fall against Kaine. He hopes that the Republicans will take the US Senate. He also hopes that the Republicans will retain the US House. He further believes that President Obama will be re-elected. So we’ll get at least 2 more years of divided government. Divided government, at this point, serves no purpose other than to moderate the unchecked idiocy of the left and right. Sadly, no one is actually doing anything to address the actual issues that are most in need of solving. No party or person seems to be looking to step up and say what needs to be said either. Your Maximum Leader did read something about Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) repudiating his “no tax increase” pledge. That is a good start. Since both parties seem pathologically incapable of serious action on the debt, spending, and revenue. When Americans start to realize that our economic situation must be addressed with a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases then we might start to get politicians who will act.

Of course, getting voters to vote against their self-interests is a silly hope to hold out… Your Maximum Leader wasn’t sure what he was thinking there…

Basically we’re screwed…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader will be going on a cruise…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was thinking of his blog and remembered a nice turn of phrase. He spent some time looking for it. Then he found it on the Outer Life blog. To paraphrase, writing about not writing is tedious to read.

Your Maximum Leader has been very tedious for a long time.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thought he’d give you all a quick update on the blog.

Let us see how the past few weeks have gone…

They started with your Maximum Leader being in a car accident that totaled the Villainmobile. He should now remark that it is the late Villainmobile. Sadly his 2003 Mercury Marauder is no more. It was shattered on the Falmouth Bridge in icy conditions Halloween weekend. Your Maximum Leader is fine; but he is a little sad to see that great American made behemouth with its 400 horsepower engine leave his garage. Your Maximum Leader has a new Villainmobile. It is a 2012 Volkswagen Passat. Better mileage, sufficent space, 4 doors, German engineering. It is a wonderful change. So, there is that.

Also… The computer situation at the Villainschloss as improved - somewhat. Mrs Villain has a netbook computer she is using now (Thanks Kevin! I still owe you for this.) She is pleased with it. Villainette #2 saved up money from odd jobs and such and bought herself an HP laptop. So she is set with computing. Now Villainette #1 has also saved up money and decided to get a very nice HP laptop as well. It is a refurb from Woot in fact. Your Maximum Leader was a little weary about getting a refurb computer, but his experience (through his daughter) has been a positive one. So your Maximum Leader has been left to deal with his aging desktop. The desktop he built (with the help of a friend) back in 2003… It has served a long and distinguished life, but it is slow and beginning to be persnickedy. (The most aggrevating thing is the boot time - which has now topped 9 minutes.)

Your Maximum Leader contemplated buying new guts for the desktop and having it solider on, but in the end he’s decided to go with a laptop. So, he broke down and went the way of his elder daughter and bought a refurb off of Woot yesterday. It is a Samsung with an i7 processor, LED display, blu-ray, 750GB storage, a very high end NVIDIA graphics card and 6GB of RAM. And it was only $600. (He configured a similar laptop at Dell, Samsung, Sony, HP and Alienware and found the prices ranged from $1200-$1500 for new.) Your Maximum Leader figures he got a deal. He’ll find out when it gets to him.

Of course, all this laptop computing around the house leads your Maximum Leader to think that he needs to upgrade his 5 yrs old wireless router to something with a higher capacity…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader has been following teh politics recently. He was pleased to see Rick Perry falter. Your Maximum Leader will vote for a no-chance 3rd party odd-ball before he votes for Rick Perry for anything. If you need to know why… 3 words. Cameron Todd Willingham. As far as your Maximum Leader is concerned, Governor Perry cannot retreat to Texas fast enough and from there proceed to obscurity.

Your Maximum Leader was a little disappointed to learn of Herman Cain’s troubles. Cain was entertaining and engaging, even if your Maximum Leader had no intention of ever voting for him. Your Maximum Leader was disappointed because of Cain’s handling of the sexual harassment situation. He’d hoped that Cain might just put everything out there and move ahead. You see, your Maximum Leader had a pet theory that in the post-Bill Clinton age old sex scandals weren’t going to derail a candidate. It appears as though Cain will not be the test case for this theory. To test the theory the candidate would have to fess up to everything and then say it was “all in the past” and that he’s learned and grown since then and then see if the mess blows over.

Of course it is possible that this theory might only be true for Democrats - who don’t seem to have problems with sex scandals by other Democrats any more.

Your Maximum Leader was taken aback by the sudden surge of Newt Gingrich in the polling. Great jeezy chreezy! Is every one of the candidates going to get a moment in the sun? Is Rick Santorum next? (By your Maximum Leader’s count the leaders have been: Romney, Bachmann, Paul, Romney, Perry, Cain, Gingrich. It would seem to be Santorum’s turn.)

The most crazy thing about all these changes in the polls is that they just reinforce the weakness of the field. One of the weaknesses of the field to your Maximum Leader (but he doubts it is a weakness to the great majority of poll-ees in the Republican party) is that none of the candidates seems to be terribly serious about anything except beating Obama. All in all they are not particuarly innovative thinkers in any sort of policy way. They don’t seem to have clear messages on any particular subject. And they don’t seem particularly presidential.

Of course the primaries don’t engender a “presidential atmosphere.” They do promote the articulation of a plan and sound positions. They do promote the hectic and harried pace at which someone might have to actually be President. So, in a way, they simulate the job - without really giving you the trappings of the job. (The trappings of office which give you some respectability and decorum - two elements lacking in primaries.)

Your Maximum Leader believes that the Republicans will likely default to Romney (it is his turn afterall) and that it will be a close election. If the economy does not improve by next fall - it will be perilously close for Obama. All things being equal, it is hard to unseat a sitting president - and that is the only thing one can be certain of for next year.

Your Maximum Leader never did sum up his thoughts on the baseball season past… Since it is already well into hockey season he will give the short version. Congrats to the Cardinals! There is a lot to like about the Washington Nationals for next year and the upcoming years. Your Maximum Leader was worried that Davey Johnson’s day had past - but it apparently has not. Your Maximum Leader thinks the Nats could be a .500 team next year (or even a little better than .500).

Also, thank goodness that Wilson Ramos was rescued from his kidnappers.

That is about it for now… Your Maximum Leader is ruminating over a few other posts… So you might see more in this space in a little bit.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has not forsaken this blog. Well… You wouldn’t know it from looking at how rapidly he’s been updating it recently. He keeps thinking of a good post here and there, but doesn’t get around to writing. He knows he’s been playing this tune for over a year… But it is the tune of the moment so it will keep playing.

Your Maximum Leader sees that FLG is now on Twitter… Huzzah. Follow him here.

Are you following your Maximum Leader on Twitter? You can get him @maximumleader.

Your Maximum Leader has had three urges lately. The first is to watch Dr. Zhivago. The second is to go to Venice for Christmas. (You are all getting pretty sick of hearing that one and wondering when your Maximum Leader will just go already…) The third was to cure some bacon.

That third urge was a little more difficult than he suspected. Normally, your Maximum Leader goes to his local butcher and grabs some pork bellies and gets to curing. Sadly, the butcher has been running out of pork bellies of late. Apparently, lots to people are buying pork bellies for various uses. It is crazy but now your Maximum Leader is on a waiting list to get some when it comes in. (He could have had some on Wednesday, but didn’t feel like paying an extra $2.50/pound to get it special ordered.)

Your Maximum Leader’s church is beginning to roll out some of the changes to the Mass. Today we got the new Gloria, Memorial Acclamation and Great Amen. In a few weeks they will be remembered. The big problem for your Maximum Leader will be the new translation of the Nicene Creed. That will be a toughie.

Speaking (a little) about religion… Rick Perry ought to get some of his more religious followers to shut the hell up. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure there is a polite way of saying that Mormonism is a cult. And if you can’t be polite about it, you might as well just shut the hell up about it.

Of course, your Maximum Leader doesn’t much care that Rick Perry is faltering in the polls. If your Maximum Leader may be frank (and it is his blog so he will be frank), there is not a circumstance under which your Maximum Leader would ever (EVER!) vote for Rick Perry to hold any office of public trust at any level. Your Maximum Leader would no sooner vote for Rick Perry for dog catcher than he would for President of the United States. If (in the seemingly more and more unlikely event) Rick Perry gets the Republican nomination for the Presidency your Maximum Leader would throw his vote away on a third party candidate - or even write someone in on the ballot. Your Maximum Leader knows that the great Commonwealth of Virginia might be close next year. Even that knowledge would not lead him to change his mind.

You see, your Maximum Leader believes Rick Perry is unfit to hold any public office after his involvement in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. If you haven’t read or do not know about Cameron Todd Willingham, you would do well to start with this article from the New Yorker magazine. You might also check out the Innocence Project’s page on Cameron Todd Willingham for more information on this heinous miscarriage of justice.

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham horrifies your Maximum Leader so much that he is continually rethinking his support of the death penalty. For the record your Maximum Leader has long supported the death penalty. He knows that it is quite possible that people have been executed for crimes they did not commit. But often those executed had long track records of hideous criminal behavior and while perhaps not guilty of the crime for which they were executed; they likely had it coming. (Which your Maximum Leader knows is no justification for being “satisfied” with an execution. This is nothing more than a salve for his conscience.) But as best your Maximum Leader can tell Cameron Todd Willingham was executed having committed no capital crime whatsoever. (NB: Willingham did have a criminal record including theft and other petty crimes. Not anything that would rise to the level of a capital offense.) Rick Perry is at least partially responsible for Willingham’s death, and as such he is not qualified to be President.

While your Maximum Leader is going on about those who are not qualified to be President… He is glad that Sarah Palin is not going to run. But he is saddened by the fact that she still has a soapbox from which to speak to the masses. While your Maximum Leader can’t imagine voting for Sarah Palin for President, he would consider he for other political positions. County Council or City Council leap to mind. She might also be an effective mayor of a small to medium sized town. She would even be okay in Congress; but your Maximum Leader couldn’t imagine casting a vote for her to any federal office. Regrettably, plenty of news outlets continue to give her time/coverage and we have to listen to her…

Your Maximum Leader was listening to APM’s Marketplace recently. On Marketplace, David Frum has been a longtime commentator who spoke “on behalf of the right.” Your Maximum Leader wrote “spoke” there because Frum has left Marketplace. The reason? He no longer feels as though he speaks on behalf of the majority of the right. Your Maximum Leader knows how he feels. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t really feel at home in the current iteration of the Republican party; and feels marginalized on the political right.

Your Maximum Leader is not a Tea Party type of fellow. He doesn’t think President Obama is a full-out Socialist. He doesn’t deny evolution. He is an old fashioned conservative. He would likely be labeled a RINO by many. Or a “Rockefeller Republican.” Or even a “Moderate.” Your Maximum Leader doesn’t think that he is any of those three things… But he is thinking that more and more he is becoming the old man yelling for the kids to get off his yard. Only in this case he is yelling at the kids that he is a true conservative and they are something else…

Your Maximum Leader believes in small government. But there is a role for government in society and it is possible for government to be too small. (Ours is too big now, by the way.) Your Maximum Leader believes that taxes are a price we pay for civilization. But he doesn’t see that tax cuts now will help our economic situation. (Neither will a tax increase by the way. Uncertainty - about all things economic is at the heart of our current crisis.) Your Maximum Leader is in favor of a strong national defense. And currently the US is overextended around the world and in need of a rethink of priorities. Your Maximum Leader is pro-life. But the best outcome a pro-lifer can hope for in the nation today are some restrictions of some types of abortion. Your Maximum Leader is a pretty traditional guy and does believe that permissiveness in many areas of civil society is damaging to that society in the long run. But he also believes that government is not the agent of social change many think it is and should be. Your Maximum Leader appreciates science and learning and is put off by those who seem to flaunt their ignorance.

So what is he to think? Your Maximum Leader likes to think he is a rational right-leaning fellow. That said he certainly doesn’t think that he is in the mainstream of the political right. Neither is he off to the far right. He thinks that the right have moved further right and he is looking to be more of a centre-right type of guy.

Of course, this is all from his perspective… To many it would look like your Maximum Leader has moved left and become a squishy centrist…

Ah well…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been meaning to blog for about a week now. He was asked some political questions by his best buddy Kevin. Your Maximum Leader has thought about many of the questions and has formulated an answer in his brain… Sadly, his brain and his PC are two different media. Your Maximum Leader thought this weekend would provide some good blogging time… It did not. When your Maximum Leader sat down to blog, he was preempted at the computer by Villainette #1 or by Mrs Villain (who somehow now needs 2 computers running simultaneously in order to complete her work).

So sadly you will all have to live with this modest update…

First off, your Maximum Leader’s beloved Washington Nationals have already won more than the 76 games he predicted they would wind. This is a great milestone. With yesterday’s win over the slumping Braves, the Nationals have now won 78 games. It is theoretically possible that the Nationals could post a winning record (or even .500 record) with a good showing this week in Florida against the Marlins. Your Maximum Leader will be watching closely and rooting for his team.

Speaking of his team… Your Maximum Leader was at the Villainschloss doing some housework and watching the Nationals/Braves game on the TV when his cell phone rang. The caller ID showed an unfamiliar “202″ area code number. Your Maximum Leader let it go to voicemail. Then about 20 minutes later the same number called back. He picked up this time. It was a young man named Carl. He identified himself as an employee of the Washington Nationals. He asked if your Maximum Leader was at the park watching the game. Your Maximum Leader said he was at home watching the game. Carl then announced that your Maximum Leader was one of 30 “Jersey off their backs” winners. You see, a few weeks (months?) ago your Maximum Leader bought some raffle tickets from the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation. The prize being offered was the jersey off a Nationals player’s back at the end of the last home game. Well, it was the last home game, and Carl was trying to find out if your Maximum Leader was at the Park so that he could escort your Maximum Leader to the President’s Club seats with the other winners and determine who was getting which player’s jersey. Since your Maximum Leader wasn’t in attendance (and couldn’t make it to the park in time) he will get whomever’s jersey he won in the lottery… Apparently all the winners in attendance were polled as to which player they wanted. If a player had multiple winners - names were chosen by lot. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know who’s jersey will be delivered to the Villainschloss, but he was assured it would be here by the end of the week.

Your Maximum Leader will post photos when the jersey arrives. He is giddy with excitement.

In other news…

Rick Perry seems to be melting down. He can’t speak clearly at debates and seems to not be doing well in a useless straw poll. This is a minor speed bump for him. If one is going to stumble while seeking the highest office in the land, it is best to do it early. Perry will regroup and rise back up to the top eschalon of contenders.

Your Maximum Leader mentioned earlier that Kevin had asked some political questions in the comments to another post… Your Maximum Leader will quickly address some of them here. The first one was asking if President Obama’s base is really threatening to abandon him. Well… Your Maximum Leader knows a number of strong liberal democrats and they are all upset to varying degrees with the President. The President is in some trouble with his base, in your Maximum Leader’s opinion. These highly motivated and dedicated supporters are upset that the President isn’t being an effective leader. In that they pretty much agree with just about anyone of any political persuasion. Of course, is this a problem for the President? Without a primary challenge it is not a serious long-term problem. And no one is going to challenge the President in the Democratic primaries. Certainly not Hillary Clinton. As Clinton said herself recently, the further away from the mudslinging you are the better you look. She is far from the political battles that are in the forefront of our national discussion, so she is the least affected by them. She wouldn’t look nearly as good if she were, say, Secretary of the Treasury…

Lookit, President Obama will have to start talking a good game and making some changes in his administration to show he is “serious” about winning a second term. Then, eventually, the base will come back. Mainly because they have three choices come next November. Those choices are support the President, support someone else (an unrealistic choice to make), or stay home. In the end the base (all in all) turns out (that is what makes them “the base”).

The President’s political problems are going to be with himself. If “independent” voters and “marginal” Democrats feel he’s not “doing enough” to solve our economic problems; then the Republican challenger (provided the Republican isn’t insane) will have a fighting chance of winning. There is still a long time between now and November…. So anything is possible…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader meant to post yesterday. As you can tell by the unaltered timestamp on this post, he did not. August 2011 was not a particularly good month for your Maximum Leader. But September should turn things around.

Since your Maximum Leader seems to be suffering from a short attention span, lets give some Twitter-esque commentary here on ye olde blogge.

By the way, you can follow your Maximum Leader on Twitter at: @maximumleader.

Your Maximum Leader didn’t think it was possible for a President to screw up getting to speak in front of a joint session of Congress. Our incumbent President apparently has.

Your Maximum Leader’s favorite primate is the orangutan. (Your Maximum Leader was always a fan of Dr Zaius.)

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how he feels about the CIA CTC killing terrorists. To be more specific, he worries about accountablility. (He doesn’t really mind killing bad guys.)

It is getting hard to remember who the Prime Minister of Japan is at any given moment. They are on their 6th PM in 5 years.

Your Maximum Leader must agree with both Dr. Krauthammer and Robbo. Those Washington Natnals are going places. FYI - Your Maximum Leader often sees Krauthammer next to the Dippin Dots near Section 128. (Your Maximum Leader often mooches tix from a friend in Section 127. At a recent game in addition to Krauthammer, your Maximum Leader enjoyed a game in the company of George Will and Ben Bernake.)

Your Maximum Leader loved this little interplay between counter-agent and customer over at Ellison’s.

Your Maximum Leader wishes there was a person running for the office of President of the United States that could elicit more of a reaction than “hummmm” paired with a heavy exasperated sigh.

You know, if all you read was the Washington Post and NY Times you wouldn’t get much of a feeling of outrage at the recent debacle over at BATF known as “Fast & Furious.” This long piece from the WaPo is about as outraged as you would get.

Has your Maximum Leader mentioned how much he loves Doctor Who now? He does. He didn’t like it as much when he was younger (in the 1970s and 1980s). But now it is very cool. Very cool indeed.

Oh…

And… One day late…

Rabbit!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader gets piles of enjoyment from reading FLG when his dander is up about Plato or Alexander.

Like this post for example.

Enjoy.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been blogging for 8 years now.

Admittedly he blogged more in years 1 - 6 than he has in 7-8. But he is still at it.

Your Maximum Leader thinks his output would increase if he got more computer time… Which is to say another computer for the ole Villainschloss… He has to chase his older progeny off the computer every time he wants to use it…

Anyway… It’s been eight years…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that you’ll care about this, but he gets a kick out of mentioning it.

Your Maximum Leader added five new random tag lines to the old database of random tag lines. (They are right over there! Just to the right of these words… At the very top of the right side nav bar… Yep… Over there…)

One of the added taglines was the phrase “Crazy sexy super time fun!” He saw that line on a t-shirt yesterday. As the person wearing the t-shirt was a college student your Maximum Leader wasn’t sure if it was some sort of meta-joke that he wasn’t in on. Alternately, it reminded him of t-shirts he’s seen produced in Asian countries. The shirts string together English words in all sorts of ungrammatical ways. Anyway… Your Maximum Leader thought that “Crazy sexy super time fun!” might become one of his unoffical mottos.

Another of your Maximum Leader’s unoffical mottos is: “fortuna amissa impotens mentula magna.” (Thanks Arethusa! You’re the greatest for helping render that!)

Your Maximum Leader needs to put both those mottos on t-shirts…

He also needs a young hottie to be his t-shirt babe… (NB to young hotties who might be reading this blog: if you are interested in becoming your Maximum Leader’s t-shirt babe send him an email. The job doesn’t pay much, but does get you a free t-shirt or two… And a thong… So you’ve got that going for you…)

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will do something he’s not done in a while… A link dump to bits he’s liked on other blogs…

Did you play D&D as a kid? Your Maximum Leader did. How about testing your knowledge of Pole-arms with this quiz? Your Maximum Leader scored 10 of 22. He was pleased. Bejeweled mylan cap doff to Professor Mondo.

Did your Maximum Leader mention how much he laughed at this post from Mrs P? No? Well he did. Obama & Sheen.

You know if it wasn’t for our good friend Skippy, your Maximum Leader wouldn’t have known that it is (again) election time in Canada. Your Maximum Leader isn’t picking a winner. He doesn’t know enough to pick sensibly. He does know that he likes reading Skippy’s commentaries on the elections… Check some out here and here. (NB to Skippy… You can keep Bree Olson & Diet Pepsi. I’ll take Sofia Vergara.)

Val Kilmer could play your Maximum Leader in a movie financed by your Maximum Leader on his Visa card…

You should also check out your Maximum Leader’s buddy Kevin’s web site. He is beginning the planning stages of a walk across America.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader apologizes (again) for the dearth of material here. He seems to be more and more caught up in life away from blogging and finds he’s not making the effort to blog he feels he both ought to make and should make for himself.

Anyhoo…

What might spur your Maximum Leader to get to the keyboard? Skippy. That is what - or who as the case may be.

Today is a special day for Skippy. It is his birthday. Your Maximum Leader is terrible in remembering birthdays. He forgets his own half the time. But last year your Maximum Leader must have written himself a reminder to make note of Skippy’s special day. If your Maximum Leader had the resources he’d throw a party (which he’d call “Sinfest”) in Skippy’s honour today. It would be fabulous. And while Charlie Sheen wouldn’t be invited, if Skippy wanted “the Goddesses” to be there they would be.

Skippy writes a great blog. Your Maximum Leader often finds himself reading something Skippy has written on politics and decided to himself that there is no point in even mentally composing a post for himself as what Skippy has written is more insightful and entertaining that he could write. Often your Maximum Leader doesn’t agree with Skippy, but on many political issues there is more agreement than disagreement. This is true of US politics mostly as your Maximum Leader gets most of his Canadian political updates from Skippy.

Your Maximum Leader had the good fortune, now going on 4 years ago, to have met Skippy in person. He was as engaging and fun in person as he is on his blog. Your Maximum Leader is saddened that he doesn’t have more cause to go to Toronto so that he could meet with Skippy from time to time.

If you haven’t recently, and if you are not prudish, you should check out Skippy’s blog.

Your Maximum Leader doffs his bejeweled mylan cap in Skippy’s general direction.

Carry on.