Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been on a little mental health break. He’s been trying to relax and get his wits and mental batteries recharged. Thus… He’s not been blogging. He’s not been reading blogs. He’s not been surfing the internet. He’s not been watching the news. For the sake of full disclosure he will say that he has checked his e-mail periodically, but only to read messages from certain people (so if you’ve e-mailed and not heard back… now you know why).

While it was not planned to coincide with the release of the latest Harry Potter book, your Maximum Leader’s little mental health break did turn out to coincide (more or less) with the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Your Maximum Leader’s copy of that book arrived at the Villainschloss last Saturday - as your Maximum Leader was leaving to go to the Washington Nationals v. Colorado Rockies game. (Nats won!!!!) Upon his return from the game, he was tired (and frankly under the affects of a few beers) and went directly to bed. Around mid-day Sunday he picked up “Deathly Hallows” and started to read. He finished about 50 pages.

Monday, your Maximum Leader went to visit the Smallholder. There was much browsing of used book stores and eating of cheap chinese food. Then, when your Maximum Leader returned Monday night to the Villainschloss - it was back to Harry Potter. He read up to about page 350.

Yesterday, your Maximum Leader and Mrs Villain went to the National Gallery of Art to see an exhibit of Florentine Renaissance sculpture by Desidero da Settignano. Then we persued some of the other galleries before lunch. (During this browsing your Maximum Leader was reminded that Mrs Villain probably likes the Dutch masters more than she thinks, and she doesn’t like El Greco - although your Maximum Leader really does like El Greco.) After our viewing of the art, we had a late lunch at Legal Seafood. (Where your Maximum Leader got a lobster roll… And frankly he could eat another right now…) Upon arriving back at the Villainschloss, it was back to Potter.

Well… Around 2:30am, your Maximum Leader finished the book. He really enjoyed it. Because he doesn’t want to spoil it for anyone, he will not make lots of comments here about the book. Your Maximum Leader will say that Rowling did an excellent job of pulling together all of the different hanging elements she had out there. Some characters survived that your Maximum Leader thought would die. And some died who he thought would live.

Now that he has finished Potter, it is safe to peruse the interwebs and see what is going on out there.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader must admit he was wrong about something. He may yet prove to be right, but it seems less and less likely as we move ahead…

Your Maximum Leader is sure that you have probably read about the case of Jessie Davis. She was the 9 months pregnant Ohio woman who’s body - and that of her unborn child - were discovered over the weekend. Davis’ boyfriend, Bobby Cutts, Jr, has been arrested, charged, and is being held for the murder.

Excursus: Isn’t it quaint that the AP referres to the unborn child as a fetus and explains how in Ohio someone can be charged with murder if they kill a fetus? Very quaint.

Your Maximum Leader must admit that he was wrong when he speculated last week to Mrs Villain that he thought Cutts wasn’t the killer.

Normally, your Maximum Leader would immediately suspect the boyfriend/lover/spouse in a case like this. But he didn’t in this case. Why? At first your Maximum Leader thought it might be because Cutts was a police officer. Now, before you start thinking that your Maximum Leader is willing to ascribe a lofty status to law officers; please know that your Maximum Leader is often willing to believe pretty horrible things that police are accused of. Of the police officers that your Maximum Leader has known, there has sometimes been a streak of believing that because they are an authority unto themselves. (Not unlike your Maximum Leader…) Your Maximum Leader is sure that in some (perhaps many) cases, police to exceed their authority. But not in this case.

In the case of Cutts, your Maximum Leader thought that the knowledge of procedures and the fact that he would immediately be the primary suspect might have kept Cutts from committing a crime. Of course, Cutts has only been accused at this point. That means he is innocent until the state proves otherwise. It may be that he didn’t commit the crime of which he’s been accused. Time, and the judicial system, will tell.

There is something else that might have influenced your Maximum Leader’s thoughts unconsciously. Perhaps your Maximum Leader was willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to Cutts because he is black. Perhaps there was some subconscious process that wanted to avoid a racial sterotype? Afterall, doesn’t society tell us that it is always the black man who is the killer? What racial overtones are there when the accused is black and the victim is white? Could your Maximum Leader have been trying to make himself feel like he wasn’t entertaining racist thoughts by giving the black man the benefit of the doubt? Your Maximum Leader is sure that any thinking along these lines was definately unconscious…

If we discover that Cutts did the crime, he ought to be fast-tracked for execution.

Humm… Was that last line laden with subconscious racism? Your Maximum Leader doesn’t think so. Frankly, we should execute more people. Regardless of their race, socio-economic status, or sex. But not everyone agrees with your Maximum Leader on that count.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was perusing various blogs today and found a startling story over at Outside the Beltway. James Joyner finds that Scotland is toying with licensing sporrans. The original BBC article that Joyner cites states that the license will be required to show that sporrans produced after 1994 out of the hides of “endangered” animals were humanely harvested. Specifically the piece reads:

The laws are designed to protect endangered species like badgers and otters, whose fur used to be favoured by sporran makers.

The legislation applies to animals killed after 1994.

Applicants must prove that the animal was killed lawfully before they will be able to get a licence.

The conservation regulations were designed to close a number of loopholes and bring Scotland into line with other EU members.

They also apply to other vulnerable animals like deer, wildcats, hedgehogs, bats, lynx, moles, seals, whales, dolphins and porpoises.

The regulations require anyone who owns any part of a protected animal to obtain a licence.

The maximum penalties for breaking the law are a fine of £5,000 and six months in prison.

Oy! £5,000 and six months in prison is a bit much for the unlawful taking of an otter or badger. Of course, it isn’t all that bad if you think that a few hundred years ago you could be killed for hunting in the King’s forest… Well… That would be a King’s forest in England, not in Scotland. And they rarely ever did put anyone to death for it… Walter Scott and countless showings of Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood not withstanding.

Frankly this story, like so many many others, is just another sign of what is wrong in Europe. This law is being promulgated to bring Scotland in line with other EU countries. Is there anything good coming out of the EU Congress in Brussels? Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure of any.

By the way… How the hell would you find out that a sporran was pre or post 1994? Your Maximum Leader has a sporran for his kilt. He bought it in 1985. (It is leather - so presumably a license is not required.) But what is to keep a Scot from claiming that the sporran was pre-1994? Why make it retroactive? It seems senseless. If you are going to be “better stewards” of the wee beasties in the forest why not just start your licensing at a specific future date? It makes a heck of a lot more sense.

This makes your Maximum Leader want to run out and get a badger/otter/deer/lynx/wildcat/mole/dolphin/seal/whale/bat sporran… Just to have one.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is busy entertaining the Big Hominid at the Villainschloss now, and is neglecting blogging. But this article could not pass without note…

Naked couple die from S.C. rooftop fall.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths.

The bodies were found on the road by a passing cabdriver around 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex. Their identities were not released.

“It’s too early to rule out anything,” Columbia police Sgt. Florence McCants said, but McCants said a preliminary investigation didn’t show any sign of foul play.

What a way to go.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader must thank the many readers who commented on the Vermont Secession posts. Your Maximum Leader had no idea that there were so many hotbeds of secession around the nation. Although, to be honest, most of these movements are people wanting to create their own new state out of a portion of their old state (the Ole West Virginia/Virginia situation). Very few, including some secessionists in Texas and the aforementioned Vermont, actually seem to want out of the United States.

Well… Your Maximum Leader, as he’s stated before, will not let Vermont go peacefully. He’ll fight to keep Vermont in the Union. He’ll fight to maintain the Northeast Dairy Compact. Heck, we might need those Vermont dairy farmers to help keep the price of milk down (provided we could let market forces work outside of the Northeast Dairy Compact). Have you noticed food prices recently? Your Maximum Leader has. He spend $1.99 on a gallon of milk about three months ago. Today, he had to buy a gallon of milk (1% in case you care) and it was $2.95. Insanity!

The people at the Christian Science Monitor (and Yahoo News) have also noticed this price spike in food. In case you are too lazy to clicky on the linky:

The reason people are smarting: Inflation in grocery aisles is up by more in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2006. That means food costs are on track for the biggest annual percentage hike since 1980, according to the Labor Department. The anticipated 7.5 percent increase would readily outflank the 2.6 percent core inflation rate to date, which excludes food and energy. It’s across every grocery aisle, too, from burgers to bagels, from duck to dumpling.

Added to sticker shock at the gas pump, high food prices, especially for meat, are forcing consumers to scrimp, coupon-clip, and ponder the possibilities of a deep freeze to take advantage of discounts, says Boyd Brady, an extension agent at Auburn University in Alabama.

“There’s a … combination of higher demand, natural disasters, higher energy prices – just a myriad of factors driving what price increases we’re seeing across the food sector,” says Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development in Ames, Iowa.

The chief culprit is corn, namely No. 2 feed corn, the staple of the breadbasket. In answer to President Bush’s call for greater oil independence, the amount of feed corn distilled into ethanol is expected to double in the next five to six years. Distillation is already sucking up 18 percent of the total crop. The ethanol gambit, in turn, is sending corn prices to historic levels – topping $4 per bushel earlier this year, and remaining high. All of this trickles down to the boards at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, affecting the price of everything from sirloin to eggs (which are up, by the way, 18.6 percent across the nation).

In a welcome response, US farmers told the government in April they plan a record-breaking 93-million-acre corn crop, though its true size won’t be known until the end of June. But corn alone does not explain the number of products that have become more expensive of late.

Facing higher costs at the farm and shareholder pressure to maintain profits, companies such as Tyson Chicken and Coca-Cola are raising prices. The fact that fuel prices remain relatively high hasn’t helped either, allowing no break in the cost of transporting perishable goods.

For fruit and vegetable growers, labor shortages are also a factor. A $2 cantaloupe sold for $3 at the South Carolina Farmer’s Market in Greenville recently, largely because of labor woes, says Thompson Smith of the South Carolina Farm Bureau. Winter cold snaps and hard freezes in California and the Southeast have made peaches, apples, and oranges pricier.

In the heartland, low yields on winter wheat mean cookies and baguettes are more expensive. Meat costs are up by 15 percent in some regions, in part because of drought that, as in Alabama, caused a cattle sell-off. Milk prices are up in part because of a global shortage, with milk exporters such as New Zealand unable to add capacity and Australia enduring a debilitating drought, even as demand rises in Europe, China, and India.

Damn those people in Europe and China and India. Drinkin’ our friggin milk! Don’t they have clean drinking water over there? Oh… Yeah…

Anyho…

Although your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how a $2 cantaloupe is actually a $3 dollar cantaloupe (did some important information get edited out of that line?), he does see the price increases with frightening regularity. One wonders if we are going to see record price increases on victuals this year does that mean that farm subsidies will be lower? After all, some of these record prices must get to a farmer’s pocketbook…

Your Maximum Leader was joking there… He knows that subsidies aren’t changing… (Thanks Congress!)

Anyho… Moving back to the first point of this post… With record dairy prices coming and demand growing, we must keep Vermont in the Union. Damn those Vermalcontents, Your Maximum Leader will go up there and secure those dairy farms and keep the milk and cheese flowing. He’ll make sure that those cows are fed and milked at gunpoint if need be.

By the way… For those of you wondering what your Maximum Leader’s Colonel-in-Chief outfits might look like… We have a few styles to choose from… Here we go:

Your Maximum Leader in the style of the Virginia Militia (Colonial Era):

Your Maximum Leader in the style of British Colonial officer:

And your Maximum Leader in the style of a 1930s dictator (a la Ian McKellan’s Richard III):

You can take your choice as to which one you like best… Your Maximum Leader will make sure to take them all with him on campaign…

Watch out Vermoonbats! Your Maximum Leader’s got your number!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader must admit that he doesn’t read Michael Yon as much as he would like. It is hard to keep up with all the things out there that one might want to read. Information overload is really a problem of the “information age” afterall…

Anyhoo…

If you haven’t read Michael Yon’s latest about his travels with the Queen’s Royal Lancers in Iraq, you ought to. It is excellent. Indeed, the link above takes you to the first published part of his work. This is part 1 of 4.

Excerpt:

The Queen’s Royal Lancers have been living out in the desert for about six months, like nomads moving from place to place, sleeping under the stars, getting much of their resupply of food and water by nighttime parachute drop as they patrol the Iran-Iraq border. They were living out there, as some officers had told me, in true Lawrence of Arabia style, wearing shamals, sometimes taking camel rides when Bedouins would wonder through their camps with great herds of camels. Some soldiers would go for weeks without bathing, while others would wash-down with a bottle or two of water. Water is strictly rationed.

LTC Nixon-Eckersall would say that their job was to melt away into the desert, providing the eyes and ears that monitor the border. They’d apparently done their job well. I had been on many patrols with American forces along the Iranian border, but had no idea that Brits were out on desert safari. Although there had been some fighting, the Queen’s Royal Lancers had not lost a single soldier to combat during this tour.

Read the rest.

And one more thing… God bless the all the soliders in Iraq.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t visited Vermont in years. It is probably a decade or more in fact. The last time he went to Vermont it was, explicitly, to go to the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory and gorge himself. (That mission was accomplished, by the way.)

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t pay too close attention to what is going on in Vermont, to be honest. So imagine his surprise when he reads that 13% of Vermonters (Vermonsters?) are in favor of seceding from the Union. Really now… Your Maximum Leader had no idea that 13% of Vermonters are certifiably insane. He knows that Vermont is the home of some people that he might charitably describe as “liberal wackos” (a term your Maximum Leader employs only sparingly); but frankly what state doesn’t have its share of wackos (liberal or otherwise).

Of all the questions posed throughout history, or at least the history of our great republic, your Maximum Leader would have thought that the question of secession was about as moot as you could get. There was a war faught (and in the minds of some still being faught) on the whole secession issue. As your Maximum Leader recalls, it didn’t turn out too well for those who thought that the United States of America was a voluntary association.

So… It seems as though the Vermont secession movement is organized and has manifestos… According to the article:

Supporters have published a “Green Mountain Manifesto” subtitled “Why and How Tiny Vermont Might Help Save America From Itself by Seceding from the Union.”

In 2005, about 300 people turned out for a secession convention in the Statehouse, and plans for a second one are in the works. A poll this year by the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies found that 13 percent of those surveyed support secession, up from 8 percent a year before.

“The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable — it’s too big, it’s too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens,” said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

“We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war,” Williams said. “If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what’s left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire.”

If you were sitting near your Maximum Leader now you would hear him crying out “cukkoo!” Sweet mother! What the hell is going on up in the Green Mountain State? Honestly now, are the people favoring secession going to reconstitute the Green Mountain Boys (and Gyrlz) and take up arms to defend themeselves against the fraud-loving, corporately-corrupt, militarists who until recently were their countrymen? Your Maximum Leader would like to see that. Hell, your Maximum Leader would raise a group of Virginia Volunteers (he would be Colonel-in-Chief) and march on up and retake Vermont on behalf of the United States. He would be happy to liberate the Ben and Jerry’s plant…

If he couldn’t liberate the Ben and Jerry’s plant, he would be happy to secure the grave of Calvin Coolidge for the US… Sherman had his march to the sea. Your Maximum Leader would have his march to Plymouth, Vermont. Be warned! It would be just as bloody…

Watch out Vermont… We’re not gonna let you go peacefully.

Carry on.

There are two stories in today’s Washington Post about some Individual Ready Reserve Marines who are in trouble for taking part in anti-war protests while wearing a uniform.

For the non-vets out there, IRR is a status where you can be recalled to service, but do not have to do anything other than call personnel command if you move and keep your uniform in the closet.

The reservists argue that being in IRR means they are civilians and the military may not censor their speech or political activity.

Setting aside the political activity they are engaged in, I find this argument disingenuous.  The military has very clear rules about not wearing the uniform to political events.   A fully discharged veteran can wear his uniform - the UCMJ no longer has any jursidiction.  But being in the IRR means you are not yet fully a civilian.

That said,  I’m not sure if it is in the military’s interest to go after these guys.  The normal response would be to tell them to stop it and it would end there.  One wonders if in Kokesh’s case the military is holding a hearing because he was rude to an officer via e-mail.  Kokesh may be dishonorably discharged from the IRR, which would mean that he would have to repay $10,800 in G.I. Bill benefits.   While this punishment will have a punitive impact on Kokesh, it will draw additional media attention and simply serve to call attention to the fact that there are veterans out there who say the war is wrong.   How can that help the military?

 I’m interested to hear what other folks think, especially fellow graduates of IRR, the Director and Polymath.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been accused by some of his fellow parents in the area of being something of a spoilsport. You see, your Maximum Leader steadfastly refuses to sign a permission slip requested by his children’s elementary school that gives permission for his children’s photos to be posted on the school web site, or in a newspaper that might republish the photo on their web site. Basically, your Maximum Leader categorically refuses to give his permission for his children’s photos to be republished on the web (although they can be printed in a yearbook or the school newsletter). This has meant that on one occasion some photos of Villainette #1’s class - a year or two back - were not used to support a newspaper article published about the school. The photos couldn’t be used because Villainette #1 appeared promenently in them. (They eventually used photos of another class.)

Your Maximum Leader just doesn’t want photos of his kids floating around the interwebs right now. There may come a time where his children post photos of themselves out there, but that time is a long time off. People have sometimes asked why he doesn’t want his kids photos on the web.

Well… Ask Allison Stokke why she doesn’t want her photo on the interwebs… There was a lengthy Washington Post piece about Miss Stokke’s photo yesterday. From the article:

In her high school track and field career, Stokke had won a 2004 California state pole vaulting title, broken five national records and earned a scholarship to the University of California, yet only track devotees had noticed. Then, in early May, she received e-mails from friends who warned that a year-old picture of Stokke idly adjusting her hair at a track meet in New York had been plastered across the Internet. She had more than 1,000 new messages on her MySpace page. A three-minute video of Stokke standing against a wall and analyzing her performance at another meet had been posted on YouTube and viewed 150,000 times.

“I just want to find some way to get this all under control,” Stokke told her coach.

Three weeks later, Stokke has decided that control is essentially beyond her grasp. Instead, she said, she has learned a distressing lesson in the unruly momentum of the Internet. A fan on a Cal football message board posted a picture of the attractive, athletic pole vaulter. A popular sports blogger in New York found the picture and posted it on his site. Dozens of other bloggers picked up the same image and spread it. Within days, hundreds of thousands of Internet users had searched for Stokke’s picture and leered.

The story gets worse from there.

Your Maximum Leader has no fear that his own photos (of which you will find there are blessedly few) will become the object of leering admiration by young horny women. But the thought of something happening to his children like what is happening to this poor girl in California is a bitter thing to contemplate.

So, that is why your Maximum Leader will not give permission for his children’s photos to be posted on the internet, nor does he post his children’s photos on the internet.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, keeping true to his monarchist tendencies, would like to wish Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain to the Commonwealth of Virginia. (As does our friend, the highly esteemed Mr. Cusack.)

Her Majesty should be arriving in Richmond shortly and beginning her whirlwind tour of the States. She will visit the newly renovated state Capitol building. She will visit Jamestown to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of that permanent colony in the new world. She will visit with President Bush in Washington and go to the Goddard Space Flight Center and Children’s Hospital. On Saturday, she will take in the Kentucky Derby.

All in all it is not a bad way to spend a long weekend.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader must admit that he doesn’t fully comprehend the newsworthiness of the whole Paul Wolfowitz’s girlfriend bruhaha going on at the World Bank right now.

As your Maximum Leader understands it, the head of the World Bank is always an American and is pretty much appointed by the President of the United States. President Bush appointed former Assistant Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz to be the World Bank President. It seems as though Mr. Wolfowitz was engaged in a romance with an employee of the World Bank, one Ms. Shaha Riza, at the time of his appointment. Apparently, Wolfowitz made this known and offered to recuse himself from any personnel decisions relating to Ms. Riza. It seems as though the World Bank’s Ethics Committee did not allow Mr. Wolfowitz to recuse himself from personnel decisions concerning Ms. Riza. Ms. Riza, according to all accounts, was transferred to a position outside the bank and wound up with a higher salary and some additional compensation as well.

Now, many are complaining that Wolfowitz used his position to set up Ms. Riza (with whom he presumably is still “going steady”). At least this seems to be what is being claimed in the Washington Post.

Frankly, if the facts are as they appear to be, then your Maximum Leader really can’t seem to figure out what the big fuss is all about. Now it is possible that there are “revalations” yet to come to light that would change the factual basis of his assumption. But for about a week now the story has seemed to be the same. Wolfowitz kept everyone in the loop. Wolfowitz tried to do the right thing. But, for some reason the right thing wasn’t done.

Now your Maximum Leader is waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop in this matter, but for right now he just doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.

Well… That isn’t quite true. Paul Wolfowitz is a friend of the President, a friend of the Vice-President, and a “neo-con” thinker. That of course makes him quite akin to a minion of the devil himself - at least to many.

For right now, it appears as though Wolfowitz’s only crime is who he is and who he hung out with before going to the World Bank.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees two things on the new wire.

The first is that Rosie O’Donnell is leaving “The View.” It is a pity she isn’t being swallowed up by a great gaping chasm in the earth never to be heard from again. Frankly, your Maximum Leader has never seen “The View.” But he does know that former “View Personality” Lisa Ling - now of National Geographic Channel fame - is quite attractive.

The second item off the wire is that “The Bishop” has been arrested.

Not this Bishop.

This Bishop. By the way… This mad criminal appears to be from Iowa, a manufacutring company employee, not really a Bishop, and - as far as your Maximum Leader can tell - not an Anglican.

Carry on.