Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader would like to take a moment to thank loyal minions Bill Keezer of Bill’s Comments for taking some time out of his tremendously busy schedule to visit his (and your) Maximum Leader at the Villainschloss last night.

Your Maximum Leader (and the Smallholder) met Bill a number of years ago when Bill was on a previous trip to the area for business. It was great to see Bill again. We were able to go to out for a bite to eat for dinner and then return to the Villainschloss for a little more conversation. (NB to Bill: Thanks again for dinner. You shouldn’t have. It was greatly appreciated by all of us.)

Bill is as thoughtful, entertaining and engaging in person as he is on his blog. An evening with Bill is a real treat. Conversation will range from technology, science, religion, railroads, woodworking and politics. Conversation will also never lag. Your Maximum Leader’s only hope from the evening is that his “nickel driving tour of Fredericksburg” wasn’t too boring.

Thanks again Bill. Your Maximum Leader doffs his bejeweled floppy cap to you.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thinks very highly of his friend Skippy. Your Maximum Leader agrees with Skippy 96.8% of the time on political matters. And although your Maximum Leader is a generally buttoned-down type of guy, he has a libertine streak in him and enjoys Skippy’s non-political (read: sex) posts a lot.

Well… Your Maximum Leader was looking over the news wires this morning and saw a photo. The photo shows Presidents Obama and Sarkozy apparently checking out the rather fine posterior portion of a young woman walking past them at the G-8 Summit in Italy. Now… Your Maximum Leader’s stream of consciousness went something like this: Look at Sarko; always checking out a fine shape. Wow.. It looks like Barry is checking out the girl too… Nope… Barry is probably checking where he is stepping as he doesn’t want to pull a Jerry Ford… Do you think Carla will have to “punish” Sarko for being a “bad boy” at the summit? Damn… Silivo Berlusconi should always host these gatherings… You know… I wonder if Skippy has seen this photo?”

Well… Of course Skippy has… You can read his comments on it by clicking this linky…

Skippy, good job…

Carry on.

UPDATED: Carol at No Sheeples Here has a link that shows a second photo in which Barry and Sarko are obviously checking out a fine arse…

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader finds himself with a lot to blog about but little time or inclination to blog. As the school year is ending for his offspring (and wife - a teacher) there is a lot of stuff going on. Additionally, he has been rather emotional about the condition of his best buddy Kevin’s mom. Kevin’s family is just like my own and all that has happened since April has been difficult.

If you want great content day after day, check out our friend Fear and Loathing in Georgetown. FLG has the goods and is much more interesting than anything that I’ve been producing recently.

Of course you should also check out Robbo (and Robbo and LMC), Skippy, Ellison, Sir Basil, all those at Patum Peperium, Eric, Joan, R.S. McCain (I should note that Stacy McCain does appear to be the hardest working man in the blog business. As he himself notes, you can’t out-work the son of an Alabama dirt farmer. I sure couldn’t), the great V-man and of course Dead Sexy Sadie (aka Agent Bedhead).

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure what will be in store in this spot…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t much a Twitter person. Indeed, he isn’t a Twitter person at all. He only follows one Twitter feed… And he only follows it using a web browser and his computer.

What Twitter feed would that be? It would be the feed of his first blog-crush… The lovely Anna of Primal Purge. (NB: Is there ever a blog-crush like your first? Probably not…)

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader might decide to activate that whole “create-a-post-via-email” function and create some blog posts in the style of Twitter… Or as your Maximum Leader prefers to think of it… Sort of like a blog post like an compliation of aphorisms, sort of like this one.

Consider this a warning of that which is to come.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is done mourning for the Washington Capitals’ season. After bearing witness with his own eyes to the horrible debacle that was Game 7 of the Easter Conference Semi-finals he now believes he can blog again. Frankly, he now believes he can get back on living. If the Caps had lost a close game the net affect on your Maximum Leader would not have been as bad as the beating they took at the hands of the Penguins. The Penguins totally schooled (skool’d?) the Capitals last week. Your Maximum Leader was all ready to mentally purge all the demons surrounding the Penguins in the post-season…

Well… Those demons are still alive and camped out in the part of your Maximum Leader’s consciousness that relates to hockey…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader will do his best to comment on some of the goings-on in the world. He’s got lots of thoughts he feels the need to share. If you are still reading this site at all… You might have the need to read those thoughts…

Then again… You might just be here to stick pins in the body and see if you get a reaction. Well… Feel free to stick pins… Your Maximum Leader is back and will be more responsive to pins.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader finds himself somewhat overtaken by events. This is to say that he’s had lots to think about over the past few day - and lots to do. Family stuff has been rather busy (lots of sporting events, yard-work, and parenting to take care of). Additionally your Maximum Leader has been feeling rather funky. Part of this is due to the condition of Kevin’s mom. I’m nearly 40 years old and have known Kevin’s mom for nearly 34 of those 40 years. Her recent brain surgery, her upcoming treatment, and her long-term prognosis has been wearing on me emotionally.

I also discovered last week that a good friend of mine was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He was given about a month to live. I had planned on seeing him today. Sadly, he died on Saturday night. He was buried today. My friend, Irwin, lived a good long life (he was 78). He went like he lived - fast and without indecision. I would have liked to have a few words with him. But I don’t know that he or I would have anything substantive to say to one another. I don’t feel regret that I didn’t get a chance to speak with him. I am saddened however because it would have been nice to let him know that I was thinking about him.

Irwin was what I would classify as a non-observant Jew. There was a Jewish ceremony at the graveside. It was the first such ceremony I’d ever attended. At the end the family and friends were invited to deposit a small shovel of dirt into the grave. Although I’ve been to a number of funerals, this was the first time I’d ever encountered this act of participation. At most other graveside services the prayers and songs are sung and then people depart leaving the work of actual burial to the gravediggers. Today I felt something good in putting that small shovel of dirt into the grave. I can’t really describe it. It was both comforting and closing. As the Rabbi presiding mentioned, the act was the last thing we could do for our friend. It was also described as an act for which the Irwin was unable to thank us. Those words were particularly striking. I will remember them for a long time.

There is not much else to mention here. Your Maximum Leader hopes to get back to some regular posting soon. Sorry for letting old posts linger here for so long.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader apologizes for being dark here for a few days. Early last week a few different things came up that reduced your Maximum Leader’s blog time. (Namely Mrs Villain and the children were having spring break.) Then your Maximum Leader had trouble logging into into his control panel to blog when he did have time. Turns out some person who’s site is hosted on the same server as this one was doing bad things and screwing up this site and some others. Luckily as soon as your Maximum Leader figured out that the cause of his blogging problems had to be something outside of his control and notified the good people at Superb Internet had the problem fixed quickly. So that is good.

While your Maximum Leader was checking out his site he decided to visit his server stats page and look and see referral and traffic history. When your Maximum Leader first started blogging visitor information and traffic was much more important to him than it is today. He checks the information quarterly - mostly out of habit than anything else. Normally his direct referral traffic comes from the usual suspects. Kevin, Robbo, FLG and Mrs P. But since your Maximum Leader last checked he’s been linked by a few new blogs. He expected to get some traffic from our new blog-friend Robert Stacy McCain. Sure enough your Maximum Leader did get a bunch of traffic from The Other McCain. Indeed, your Maximum Leader received over 1000 new unique visitors from Stacy McCain’s site. But there was one site who provided more unique visitors than did The Other McCain.

Your Maximum Leader needs to give a big shout out to Suzanna Logan.

Yup. Your Maximum Leader got more traffic from Suzanna than he did from Stacy McCain. It was close, but Insert Clever S. Logan referred more people to this site than anyone else’s direct link over the past 30 days.

You know what makes that statistic more interesting… The link that Suzanna has kindly given your Maximum Leader is to a feed page that doesn’t even work right! (Which is something he’s going to be working on this week to resolve.) Yet the visitors still come!

So… Suzanna… Your Maximum Leader doffs his bejeweled floppy cap in your direction.

And while we are speaking about Suzanna lets do a little comparison shall we? Suzanna is a very attractive, socially aware, volunteer oriented and ideologically correct young woman. Your Maximum Leader is not. Suzanna is not a lesbian. Your Maximum Leader is not a lesbian either. Suzanna has been blogging for a few months and has been Instalanched. Your Maximum Leader has been blogging since 2003 and has never been Instalanched.

Basically, your Maximum Leader is a lucky guy to be able to get so much traffic while being so undeserving of it.

Thanks Suzanna. Your Maximum Leader should give you a T-shirt (or something - okay I’m pushing here aren’t I?) as a thank you gift.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is going to have to call out his friend Mr. FLG. Yes… Call Mr. FLG to task for what your Maximum Leader hopes is a momentary lapse of reason and judgement.

Did you happen to read this recent post from Mr. FLG? Go thee now and read.

Back? Great.

Now your Maximum Leader really doesn’t have a beef with that post until the end. FLG’s favorite holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patty’s Day, Halloween, and Cinco de Mayo.

WTF!!!!!!!

Where the hell is the FOURTH OF JULY!!!!! Cinco Friggin de Mayo makes the list and the FOURTH OF JULY doesn’t?

Allow your Maximum Leader to ennumerate the reasons why the FOURTH OF JULY is the greatest of all American holidays. Pay close attention and we may be able to avoid re-education camps down the road…

1. A time to celebrate the ideas behind the founding of our great republic.
2. Completely secular.
3. No gift-giving required (assuming that you don’t consider the beer you might bring to a party as being a “gift”).
4. Good weather.
5. Bikini-clad hotties.
6. Fireworks.
7. Cook-outs.
8. John Phillip Sousa marches.
9. Drinking.
10. Day off work regardless of when it falls in the week.

(Did your Maximum Leader mention Bikini-clad hotties, cook-outs and exploding shit? Well let him say it again… Bikini-clad hotties, cook-outs and fireworks.)

Your Maximum Leader hopes not to have cover this again with you FLG…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been quiet here. This is because he has been more or less cooped up in his water closet for the past few days. No fun being your Maximum Leader right now…

Anyhoo…

Just so that there is some content on this site to make you keep coming back…

What type of beer is your Maximum Leader? (As if he can drink beer now in his condidtion…)

Your result for The If You Were A Beer Test…

Bass

(100% dark & bitter, 33% working class, 100% genuine)

So the deal with this test is that each taker, based on his or her scores, is assigned a beer that fits their personality (Corona, Bud Select, and so on), and along with the personality description, there’s a poster or an ad for that beer. As you can imagine, most of the images feature booty models, sports cars, or, maybe even more depressing, retro kitsch.

It’s a testament to Bass Ale, and therefore to YOU, that when I went to look for ads for Bass, all I found was this. An ad from 1937. Bass is legit, and if your scores are true, so are you. I tip my glass to that.

Personality-wise, you have refined tastes (after all, Bass is kind of expensive), but you know how to savor what you get. Your personality isn’t exactly bubbly, but you’re well-liked by your close circle of friends. Your sense of humor is rather dark, but that’s just another way to say sophisticated, right? Cheers.

Take The If You Were A Beer Test at HelloQuizzy

So your Maximum Leader is Bass Ale. Not a bad choice. Your Maximum Leader loves Bass.

So… Up for another quiz?

I am a: Heckler and Koch, Model P7 in 9mm

What kind of handgun are YOU?

Sadly, your Maximum Leader doesn’t know much about the H&K pistols. He’s never fired one. Heck, he’s never held one. H&K isn’t a brand your Maximum Leader thinks about. He likes his Ruger Vaquero frankly.

Your Maximum Leader found both of these quizzes on our friend Brian’s site.

Your Maximum Leader wishes he’d been feeling better because he’d have tried to go to this function and meet up with the “Personal Lubricant of the Right Wing Blogosphere” - Robert Stacy McCain.

While lounging in the water closet (if you can call it lounging…), your Maximum Leader has been paying attention to the news. So what the hell is up with all these monster raving looneys calling for the head of every person who received a bonus from AIG? You know… While our Congress is considering passing some bills of attainder can your Maximum Leader go ahead and start up his own star chamber?

The whole reaction to AIG bonus business is driving your Maximum Leader completely nuts. This whole situation is proof positive that we need gridlock in Washington. When you have gridlock you don’t have crazy politicians going around attainting people. Of course, when you have gridlock you also have time for deliberative consideration of legislation. When you don’t deliberate or even read the legislation that is being approved you should only expect to get bad legislation. The AIG bailout was quickly and sloppily done. So was the Stimulus/Pork bill. So was the budget bill. Frankly, any piece of legislation passed in the past four months is likely crap and should be revisited and reworked…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has a question for you all.

At what age (approximately) does one stop “growing up” and start “growing old?”

Your Maximum Leader figures 30-35 is likely the time frame. But he isn’t sure.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader should note for those of you who might be new to the site that he does approve comments from new commenters. He doesn’t read the pending comments bin every day, so if they don’t appear right away it is likley because he hasn’t looked at them.

Of course, your Maxmium Leader reserves the right to delete any comments and ban any IP address for any whimsical reason that might pop into his mind. Blah… Blah… Blah… Blah…

Enjoy yourselves.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been reading the Daily Beast quite a bit lately. He has also been reading Culture 11 quite regularly.

Your Maximum Leader wonders if there isn’t some similarity between these two sites. There is some stylistic similarity. Style in terms of layout and presentation. The similarity isn’t the content. (Culture 11 as lots of great original content. There is a aggregator quality to the top of the Daily Beast.)

Is there something visually that is compelling about these sites? Your Maximum Leader can’t put his finger on it.

Sadly enough… This post seems to be petering out as your Maximum Leader is typing it…

Upon beginning the post your Maximum Leader thought that this post would wind up being some sort of erudite evaluation of the relative worth of the two sites. But as your Maximum Leader started to type he realized that if he went through with his writing he would be writing a trite miserable piece of shit that would cause him to have flashbacks.

Flashbacks to what you might ask yourself?

Flashbacks to his time as a graduate assistant having to grade 300 freshman World Civilization papers over a single weekend. The paper’s subject… “Compare and contrast the Beatitudes from the Gospel of Mark to the 8 Noble Truths of Buddha.” Great jeezey chreezey. Just typing that line caused your Maximum Leader to shake and shiver.

It might be time for a double scotch and a hockey game on tv…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, fearing that you will all begin to go through DTs if he doesn’t post something soon, is taking a page out of the FLG playbook.

Your Maximum Leader is listening to:

Marhsall Crenshaw singing - “Someday Someway.” Sadly that You Tube above is a acoustic version done earlier in 2008. Your Maximum Leader is listening to the definitive version from Marshall Crenshaw’s eponymous album released back in 1982. Damn that is a good song. The Villainettes love it too. They can both sing along when it pops up on the iPod.

(NB: For some odd reason while looking at the cover art for the Marshall Crenshaw album your Maximum Leader thought of Mr C.S. Perry of Rooked… Hummm…)

Frankly… In the time your Maximum Leader has spent looking (in vain) for a good video of “Someday Someway” a few other songs have come and gone… They include: “Mo Ghile Mear” by Sting and the Chieftains, “It’s all been done” by the Barenaked Ladies, “Tears dry on their own” by Amy Winehouse, “Mexico” by James Taylor, and “One” by the Cowboy Junkies…

So there…

Hey… It’s content…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maxmium Leader wants to thank Robbo, Buckethead, and Mr & Mrs FLG for a positively fantastic evening Friday last.

Your Maximum Leader believes a good time was had by all. Robbo’s account makes your Maximum Leader wonder if he should go ahead and buy a zombie apocolypse survival kit and send it to Chez Robbo. Your Maximum Leader doubts that Mrs Robbo would see the need for such a kit; but when Robbo is able to save her (and the kid’s) bacon when the inevitable attack comes she will see the light.

FLG and Mrs FLG were a delight. Mrs FLG is, as Robbo says, a special jewel. She is radiant, intelligent, and indulgent of FLG’s blogging habit. She also plays video games with her husband. A rare find indeed!

As for FLG himself… He is a very fine fellow as you can surely tell from his blog. His visage is strong and shows hints of his true pirate nature… This account of the meeting captures the spirit of the evening.

Your Maximum Leader had a great time. He should also thank Mrs P for getting the ball rolling. (NB to Mrs P: Your Maximum Leader would have called you from his cell while at dinner, but luckily for you there is no signal in the District Chophouse.)

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader just laughed aloud at a recent post from Robbo.

Local Exxon: Dollar Niyuntee Seven per gallon, baybee!

I poured a couple extra gallons out on the ground and set fire to them just by way of celebration.

That is funny right there…

BTW, local WAWA… Regular $1.59. Premium $1.99. (Villainmobile takes premium…)

Carry on.