Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader received a tweet today from Professor Larry Sabato. The tweet read: Be afraid. Be very afraid. It’s the Ides of March. Think you have no enemies lying in wait? That’s what Julius Caesar thought 2,054 yrs ago.

Now here is the crazy bit…

Your Maximum Leader, upon reading that, thought to himself, “It couldn’t have been that long ago? Could it?”

Your Maximum Leader can see you all rolling your eyes, sighing, and exclaiming “Oh. My. Gawd. Is my Maximum Leader really that out of it?” Well the answer to that is no he is not.

Here is the deal. When you hear of Caesar being assassinated you think 44 BC. You think of an actual year. 44 BC is one of the few dates of which almost anyone educated in the western tradition has at least heard. When it comes up (if it comes up) in conversation one normally mentions the year, 44 BC. Very rarely does anyone say, “Two thousand fifty four years ago, Julius Caesar was murdered in the Theatre of Pompey.” Precisely articulating the span of time from the murder to today emphasizes the distance between ourselves and the events of the Ides of March. Saying something happened in 44 BC doesn’t cause one to start to do the math backwards from the present to the past.

When your Maximum Leader thinks of Caesar’s murder he actually sees the murder. Well, he sees it in the cinema of his mind. He sees Ciaran Hinds being done in at the end of the 1st season of “ROME” on HBO. (NB: Sometimes he sees Rex Harrison being done in from “Cleopatra” or sometimes it is Louis Calhern from “Julius Caesar” or any one of a number of interpretations from the long history of film.)

Because your Maximum Leader is able to “see” the murder in his mind it is almost like the event is more recent than actually being 2,054 years ago. It is like the movies have created a type of memory in his mind. A type of memory that is similar enough to memories formed during your Maximum Leader’s lifetime that it feels more actual than distant.

Of course, this could just be proof that your Maximum Leader is going crazy…

Carry on.

UPDATED: Many thanks to my Bro Kevin for pointing out the misspelling of Caesar’s name throughout this post. That could be corrected now. For as long as I can remember I’ve misspelled the name. I know this about myself and normally check it. But I can say in my defence that Professor Sabato misspelled it in his tweet… So I am in good company.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader would apologize for going so long without posting. But then he thought that this is his own damned blog and he don’t owe you nuthin’…

So there…

Sorta…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader had an action packed weekend from Friday through Sunday. On Friday - Saturday your Maximum Leader went out with some friends so celebrate a “bachelor party” of a very good friend who is getting married at the end of the month. The party consisted of going out for a wonderful dinner at Chima in Tyson’s Corner. (Your Maximum Leader nearly ate enough meat to get the “meat sweats.” Then we retired to a private suite at the Ritz where we consumed fine liquors and played poker through the wee hours of the morning. Lest you think there was anything more going on allow your Maximum Leader to go on the record and say that there is a distinct difference between a bachelor party where the attendees (and honoree) are in their 20s and a bachelor party where the attendees (and honoree) are in their 40s. We had the more civilized type… The 40-something one…

Then on Saturday your Maximum Leader spent some quality time with the Wee Villain and the Wee Villain’s friend, Thomas, who came by the Villainschloss to play.

On Sunday your Maximum Leader and his family went to Falls Church, VA to stand as Godparents to your Maximum Leader’s lovely little niece. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t mean to sound like he is complaining… But… The Mass at your Maximum Leader’s sister’s church was a bit long. This is not to say that your Maximum Leader objects to the long-form of the Mass; he does not. What he does have a little problem with however is a long rambling homilies that don’t have any apparent point other than to relate some disjointed experiences in the priest’s life to various readings of the day. Sadly, your Maximum Leader didn’t get anything out of the homily, except that the priest has tried to minister to lots of stray souls who didn’t seem to get the message. After the Mass, there was a rather long delay before another service for the baptism of the three young girls. That was a little long too, but it seemed to go much faster (as he was participating). Your Maximum Leader marveled at how well behaved the Wee Villain was as he is not used to sitting quietly (in any environment not just church) for nearly 2 and a half hours.

So… That is what your Maximum Leader did over the weekend…

In other news…

Some Swedes have discovered a whole bunch of new shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea while surveying the bottom along the path of a gas pipeline. Some of the wrecks are over 1000 years old according to the piece. You know what that means… That means they are Viking ships… Could there be some type of “Mary Rose“-esque Viking ship waiting to be brought up from the bottom? Perhaps a great example of the style (like the Gokstad ship) is ready to be salvaged and displayed… That would be cool… Perhaps they will find the ship of Urferd Forkbeard.

In news of the art world… Through use of ultraviolet rays art restorers have found the details of Giotto’s work in the Peruzzi Chapel in Santa Croce in Florence. Your Maximum Leader wants to go to Florence almost as much as he does Venice. (In fact, in decending order the cities he wants to visit in Italy are: Venice, Florence, Rome, Ravenna, Pompeii, and Naples.) Our friend Mark, who blogs over at WitNit, actually was kind enough to take some photos of the tomb (& monuments) of Machiavelli in Santa Croce while he was on vacation in Florence a few years back. (NB to Mark: You still rock! Thanks for those photos again.)

Apparently the restorers in the Peruzzi Chapel have done their ultraviolet scans and are leaving the paintings as they are for future restorations. Here is the salient part of the piece:

Even though they are often referred to as frescoes, the Peruzzi scenes were actually painted “a secco,” or on dry plaster, unlike his famous frescos in the Bardi Chapel, which is also in Santa Croce, or his works in St Francis in Assisi.

He painted the Peruzzi Chapel toward the end of his life and some experts believe he was striving for a different effect than he achieved with the fresco technique, in which the painting is done while the plaster is still wet.

“It allowed him to obtain something more rich in terms of colors, of decorations,” Frosinini said. “But over time, dry painting is very fragile,” she said.

Even after the 1958 restoration removed the “non-Giotto” parts added by 19th century “restorers,” the paintings were left faint and anemic, like a patient who had never fully healed.

But they come to life under ultra-violet light.

In the scene where God is accepting John the Evangelist into heaven, the wrinkles in John’s forehead, the threads of his beard, the whites of his eyes and God’s welcoming gaze appear like fleeting but powerful visions.

Unfortunately, they will remain fleeting forever.

The lush details are only visible when they are bathed in ultra-violet light and subjecting them to such constant bombardment would be not only impractical but harmful.

Your Maximum Leader hopes that the ultraviolet images can somehow be distributed digitally so that those of us who are interested in seeing the full scope of Giotto’s work are able to do so.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader needs a favor from any reader who knows his/her latin.

One of your Maximum Leader’s most favorite old sayings is “When your luck has run out it doesn’t matter how big your dick is.”

This little line was told to your Maximum Leader once by a college professor who told him that it was a line from Ovid. Your Maximum Leader’s never found the line (or a close approximation of it) in Ovid. But he did find it (in English) in a book about sex in history (where the line was purported scrawled on the wall of a bath in Pompeii.

Your Maximum Leader’s request is that if you have expert knowledge of Latin, how would you render that expression. Your Maximum Leader would like to put it on a t-shirt or something… (He has it on a t-shirt in Chinese… Buy one here…)

If you can help, please let me know.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader loves the Badass of the Week website. He visits… Uh… Weekly… To see who the newest badass is.

This week’s badass is one of whom your Maximum Leader had never heard: Leo Major. An excerpt:

One quiet night in 1945 Major and his buddy were sent out to do some recon in the Nazi-occupied town of Zwolle, report back on enemy numbers, and maybe establish contact with the Dutch resistance. Sadly, not long into the mission, Willy the Lumberjack [Major’s best friend] was cheap-shotted and killed by a German machine gun. This set off one of the most epic blood rages ever recorded.

Needless to say, the ensuing bloodrage was quite bloodrageous…

If you aren’t into the Amazing Ben’s recounting of the exploits of Leo Major (and your Maximum Leader can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be into Ben’s version), you can find a more subdued version at Wikipedia.

Your Maximum Leader would like to have a Canadian Lumberjack buddy…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know what is up with Wordpress. He just noticed today that he’s had a bunch o’ comments waiting moderation. He’d either missed them completely, or they didn’t show up on the dashboard. He approved three comments just now (he spammed three and deleted one - the one was a repeat).

One of the comments awaiting moderation was from our good buddy Smallholder who posted a link to a list of the sexiest Presidents for President’s Day. All in all your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how to rate presidential sexiness. He does know this however… Warren Harding was a huge ladies man and should be a lot higher up on this list than he is. Your Maximum Leader seems to recall some story of the Secret Service restraining Mrs Harding outside a room in the White House while President Harding was engaing in a little throwdown with a secretary or something…

This reminds your Maximum Leader of another little Warren Harding story. Your Maximum Leader’s good friend, the late Richard Couture once gave him a call and asked what a letter from Warren Harding might be worth. Your Maximum Leader wasn’t sure, but was sure of where one could find a number of presidential autograph/memoribilia appraisers who could get the answer for us. Richard sent this letter to your Maximum Leader (via Registered Mail). It was a standard “Thanks-for-your-comments” letter that politicians often send out to constituents who have written them. This one had some personal information thanking the recipient for kind hospitality many years before when Harding apparently dined with her. At the bottom of the letter was a beautiful clear signature reading “Warren G. Harding.” Your Maximum Leader compared the signature to a reproduction of a Harding signature he had in a book on the Presidents. It looked pretty close actually… So your Maximum Leader wondered if he was actually dealing with the proverbial real McCoy on the letter.

Your Maximum Leader made an appointment with a well-known and highly regarded expert on presidential autographs in Georgetown and took the letter up. While the appraiser was looking over the letter he explained to your Maximum Leader that there are basically three types of Harding signatures that come in to his shop. There are the actual Harding signatures (worth about a few hundred bucks); the signatures done by Harding’s secretarial pool (only worth something if the letter itself might be interesting); and then signatures done by one of Harding’s mistresses (which were worth up to $1000 depending on the letter condidtion and subject). Apparently ole Warren was happy to have is mistresses do a little letter-writing for him while he was concentrating on getting his freak on. It seems as though one mistress might have actually signed important documents (like officer’s commissions or ambassadorial letters) while she and Warren were getting jiggy with it. Sadly, the letter your Maximum Leader brought was just one from the secretarial pool and not worth anything really.

Anyhooo… Warren Harding… Probably more sexy than Nerve magazine gives him credit for…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is often amazed by the things the learns from the front page of Wikipedia.

Today, for example, he learned about Hetoimasia.

He also was informed that on this day in 1801 the House of Representatives resolved the outcome of the Election of 1800 in favor of Thomas Jefferson. Now your Maximum Leader knew that the House resolved the outcome of the Election of 1800. But he didn’t know the date. He assumed it was some time in March actually (since back then Inaugrations were in April).

Strangely, the Capitol Historical Society decided to mention that Alice Roosevelt married Nicholas Longworth on this day in 1906. The Election of 1800 seems like more interesting stuff…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was thinking about past presidents this President’s Day. Is it “Presidents’ Day” or “President’s Day.” In a way, every day you have a presdient is “President’s Day.” But there is something collective about “Presidents’ Day.” In your Maximum Leader’s heart this day is always Washington’s Birthday. He doesn’t mind the adding of Lincoln to the mix, but he does feel a little churlish considering James Buchanan and Millard Filmore on this day.

So, in what might become an annual exercise, your Maximum Leader throws up for your consideration his list of the Greatest Presidents of the United States, in ranked order:

1. George Washington. The first president, and the overriding shaper of the office. He set down many of the precedents that still function today. He established the cabinet system, and gave shape to the executive branch. He set down the major goals of US foreign policy (shunning entangling alliances) which held until (arguably) the Second World War. He also flexed (for the first time) federal supremacy over the states by putting down rebellions in Pennsylvania.

2. Abraham Lincoln. He saved the Union.

3. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Obviously your Maximum Leader doesn’t have to like the man’s politics for them to make the list. Created the modern presidency (characterized by a strong executive). He also created the modern federal government (characterized by not only supreme federal authority but by an all-intrusive federal government).

4. James K. Polk. Your Maximum Leader has always believed in the greatness of James K. Polk. Polk promised four things would be accomplished during his presidency. 1 - the Indian question in the south would be resolved; 2 - Texas would enter the Union; 3 - California would become part of the US; 4- a northern border with Canada west of the great lakes would be fixed. Polk said if these four things were not done in his four years, he would not seek another term. During his term he: sent the army in to round up and move the Indians in the south, he faught a war with Mexico and acquired Texas, California, and other western lands. He was (thanks to British/Canadian intransigence) unable to negotiate a northern border with Canada. He refused to run for a second term, and retired. (Your Maximum Leader will also add that he died shortly after leaving office - which your Maximum Leader also thinks is a generally good thing for ex-presidents to do.)

5. Theodore Roosevelt. He started moving the nation towards global superpower status. Started necessary progressive changes and sensible regulation of the American economy.

6. Andrew Jackson. The first populist president. First to utilize the presidential veto and thereby create the modern system by which laws are made in the US. Not fond of his actions towards the Bank of the United States.

7. Harry Truman. Had a tough act to follow, but did very well at it. Used the Bomb to end the war. Nationalized the Coal industry to break an illegal strike. Suddenly woke up and smelled the coffee concerning Soviet aggression and started defending US interests against communists. Without Harry Truman we would have no Israel.

8. Dwight Eisenhower. Balanced budgets, built interstate highways, kept the Soviets at bay, lowered his handicap while in office.

9. Ronald Reagan. He redefined the role of the modern federal government. (If you don’t think so, look at the administration of Bill Clinton and guess again.) And he won the Cold War.

10. Thomas Jefferson. Overall he doesn’t score lots of points with your Maximum Leader for his presidency. But you have to give credit to him for the Louisiana Purchase.

Here is the 2009 edition, and here is the 2006 edition. Your Maximum Leader just realized that three men to serve as president in sucession are on this list this year. FDR, Truman & Ike. Hummm… Amazing stretch when you consider it. Perhaps those three will be the American version of the “Five Good Emperors.”

Your Maximum Leader, for your edification, will add to this list of greatness his list of Presidential Flops. Here is the list (in no particular order): Millard Filmore, James Buchanan, Warren Harding, U.S. Grant, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, and Nixon. Your Maximum Leader always feels badly putting Nixon on that list. Nixon really has the bipolar presidency. Greatness in so many areas and abject failure in others. It is sad. Your Maximum Leader knows that many conservatives would like to add LBJ and Bill Clinton to this list. Honestly, your Maximum Leader doesn’t believe that either man belongs on this list of bad presidents. Using the conventional method judging presidential greatness LBJ and Bill Clinton don’t belong on this list. If your Maximum Leader were going solely on his political persuasion the worst presidents in US history would be FDR, Woodrow Wilson and LBJ.

Anyhoo… Judge them for yourself if you like…

Carry on.

UPDATE: From our friend Skippy… The Daily Beast’s list of the best-read presidents.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has in the past expounded on the architectural/sculputral style he likes to call “Totalitarian Gothic.” He first introduced this term to you all in this post in Sept 2006. For those of you who have visited Washington DC, you will see quite a bit of “Totalitarian Gothic” sculpture and building. Afterall, the Federal City as we know it was built in large part in the 1930s, when Totalitarian Gothic was pretty chic.

Now, you may have gathered that your Maximum Leader is a fan of Totalitarian Gothic. Well… He is and he isn’t. In some circumstances it is fine. But in others it is not.

Which brings him to the object of this post…

The impending memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the Mall in Washington. Not exactly on the Mall but pretty close, near the Tidal Basin across from the Jefferson Memorial actually…

According to the Washington Post, the monument to MKL is ready for pickup in China.

If you have no idea what this monument looks like you can see a graphic by clicking here.

Now… Before anyone goes berserk over these comments… Your Maximum Leader is not a racist bastard who doesn’t think Martin Luther King Jr. should have a monument on the Mall in Washington. A monument or other memorial is just fine. Your Maximum Leader just really doesn’t like this one.

So… Where to begin… Let us start back in the 1980s when the Congress of the United States decided to put a statue of MLK up in the Capitol Building along with other great Americans . The bust that was put in the Capitol is here. Now let us look at some of MLK’s company in the Rotunda of the Capitol. Here are: Jackson (in bronze), Garfield (in marble), Reagan (in bronze), and Washington (a bronze replica of the much greater marble which resides in the Virginia State Capitol and which the Federal Government has tried to appropriate from time to time with no success). At the time your Maximum Leader thought that the MLK bust in the Capitol was ugly and not in keeping with the style of monumental statuary in the Capitol building. Now he finds himself harping on the exact same issue, only this time the problem is writ large.

Writ 30 feet large to be exact.

The MLK monument near the tidal basin has a lot of problems in your Maximum Leader’s opinion. The first one is scale. If you clicked onto that graphic you would see that the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial is 19 feet tall. The MLK monument is 30 feet tall. That is just too big for a statue on the mall. Way too big.

Now you may be saying, “Hold on there, the Lincoln Memorial building is much taller than 30 feet. Shouldn’t you compare apples to apples?” Fair point. If you want to consider the whole MLK monument as a you would a building, then you are faced with a classical temple versus a large rock with a man coming out of it.

The scale of the large rock with a man coming out of it is just too great. It will dwarf many of the trees (cherry trees in many cases) in the area. Also, in terms of human scale it is not approachable. One of the many things that works with the Lincoln (or Jefferson) Memorial is that you are faced with an impressive ediface, but then the statue is scaled down proportionally and you can “feel” closer to it. The MLK carving is just huge. It will be five times taller than a tall man. Five times taller! Not only that, MLK will just be staring off into the distance above the visitor. The strength of the Lincoln statue is that he looks down to the visitor. Your Maximum Leader just can’t think of a way in which the MLK monument works on the National Mall. Not a one. It is too big, too impersonal, and too out-of-place.

When your Maximum Leader first saw the MLK monument the first thought that popped into his head was, “Dear God. It looks like something Kim Jong-il would have built in honor of his father, Kim Il-sung.” It does. The impersonal face. The crossed arms. The imperious look. It does seem like a monument more akin to a communist dictatorship than a democratic republic. (Indeed, in the MWO expect to see many similarly scaled monuments to your Maximum Leader. They will be omnipresent.)

Our National Mall is a communal space for the Nation. The monuments that adorn it should reflect, in scale, in material, and in composition our democratic ideals. The Lincoln Memorial harkens back to classical Athens. The Jefferson Memorial harkens back to Republican Rome. The WWII Memorial is a bit of a stretch with its monumental arches, but it fits closely enough to be passable. The Washington Monument is a bit out of place, but it is the distinctive mark (along with the Capitol Dome) on the city skyline. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t see how an artificial mountain with a man coming out of it will work in this communal space.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t like it. No he doesn’t. Not one bit.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been arguing with the Wee Villain over the past few days. It is the age old argument: gloves v. mittens.

In the snow, the Wee Villain has been complaining about his cold hands when he wears gloves. Your Maximum Leader has suggested that he try a pair of mittens instead. The Wee Villain doesn’t like mittens. Your Maximum Leader happens to like them in general, although he doesn’t wear them as much as he should.

Perhaps your Maximum Leader should read to the Wee Villain this peice he found on Prettier than Napoleon: Finland saved by mittens. From the piece:

Simo Häyhä is often revered as the deadliest sniper in history. Using nothing more than a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle with stock iron sights, Häyhä is credited with felling 542 Soviet soldiers during the Finnish Winter War (with as many as 150 more kills by SMG). Nicknamed “The White Death”, Häyhä spent weeks in snow-covered forests, enduring sub-zero temperatures while sniping Russian officers, weapons crews and snipers.

Clicky on the linky and read on about Häyhä and his mittens.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is preparing for the State of the Union address tonight. For the first time in many years he will watch the address live. He hasn’t watched a State of the Union since the one in January 2002. He didn’t watch Bush’s speeches because he couldn’t stand to listen to Bush’s delivery. He always read Bush speeches. Your Maximum Leader has generally avoided President Obama’s speeches because they are lofty and sound magnificent, but are essentially lots of sound and fury signifying nothing. That said, your Maximum Leader is interested to hear what the President will say tonight…

Speaking of Congress (sort of)… Did you know that on this date in 1791 Congress passed the Excise Whiskey Tax. Passage of the act lead to the Whiskey Rebellion. Your Maximum Leader will have to thank a tweet from the Capitol Historical Society for that little tidbit…

Did you catch the post over on the Volokh Conspiracy about the changing Kibbutzim of Israel? No? You should. Your Maximum Leader was, in a debate on socialism, always willing to concede the point that the Kibbutzim of Israel appeared to be a successful implementation of the socialist idea. While he would quibble with anyone as to how the model would work on a wider scale, he was always willing to say that they seemed to work. (Lucky for your Maximum Leader, none of the socialists he knew - or knows - seem to care much for Kibbutzim and the subject rarely came up in a wider context of socalism.) Apparently now your Maximum Leader will no longer have to concede the point of a successful socialist experiment.

Speaking of Kibbutzim, your Maximum Leader’s mother had a good friend who’s sister married a Kibbutznik and was loving her life there. This friend’s sister came to visit in the US and brought along one of here friends from the Kibbutz. The friend was single and looking for a man. She was also up there on the list of the hottest babes your Maximum Leader has ever spent time with. If your Maximum Leader had been slightly older (he was about 17 at the time - she was about 22) and Jewish he might have tried to pitch a little woo in her direction. He would have failed of course, but he would have probably tried.

Your Maximum Leader, although he doesn’t have the money for it, was shopping around for a laptop computer for himself. The computing needs of the Villainous offspring are increasing and he would like to get a nice laptop for himself. He has been looking at a Mac. But he keeps coming back to an Alienware machine. Yesterday he was sorely tempted to make a purchase he couldn’t afford. Yesterday there was a one day sale on select Alienware machines. They had a M15X that was pretty hopped up for $360 off regular price (total cost $1500). He didn’t bite, but feels like it was a good deal. He’ll likely wait until the M11X comes out and sees how that compares in price to other models.

Apparently much hay is being made about this fellow O’Keefe. You may have heard of him a few months ago when he posed as a pimp and went to various ACORN offices and got advise from the friendly ACORN people on how to avoid taxes and such on his prostitution ring. Well now he has been (rightfully) arrested for attempting to bug a phone in an office of Senator Mary Landrieu. Talk about stupid. One would have hoped that after gaining so much acclaim he might have gotten himself an advisor who might have told him that bugging a phone is a bad idea. An illegal idea in fact. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t have much sympathy for people being stupid. James O’Keefe appears to be stupid.

That is about it…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sure this will be the last post of 2009. He plans on trying to relax some this afternoon and then getting to be early. He will travel to New York tomorrow to visit Kevin’s mom. Sadly, it will be a day trip. Up early, on the train, visit, then back on the train and home.

Your Maximum Leader has been in a funky mood of late. There are likely many contributing factors to this funk. General pessimism may be the leading contributor. Pessimissm about the economy, the course of politics, the general outlook for things if idiots continue to be elected and behave (surprise!) like idiots. Your Maximum Leader has never really played the role of Cassandra here on this blog, but he supposes he could if he could get more motivated. Since he is not motivated he’ll leave you with some interesting posts from others.

First off, you should take a moment to read Daniel Henninger’s latest on the WSJ. “A Rodney Dangerfield America?” Henninger’s piece is good, and optimistic. It is worth your time.

Then you should read the recent prodigious output by our friend Skippy. He has been on a tear recently writing good thoughtful stuff that often closely mirrors what your Maximum Leader has been thinking. You could read about Vladimir Putin, or the rule of law, or Iran or injustice.

FLG commends a piece by Jim Manzi. You can read FLG’s excerpt here or the whole piece here.

If you are just looking for some interesting things to read here are some suggestions:

Is there a new Da Vinci painting out there? And by out there we mean Boston.

You can check out Jesus’ neighbor’s pad. It comes with a place to hide from Romans.

Will Russians star in the real-life Armageddon? Your Maximum Leader was still hoping for Bruce Willis and Liv Tyler…

Check out some words or phrases that some thing should be banished from our daily dialouge.

Of course… You could just close your browser and spend some time with family and friends and enjoy yourself.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wants to point out that today is the anniversary of the great naval battle of Noryang.

What? Never heard of the battle of Noryang?

Well… It was the great battle in 1598 that was the last major engagement of the Japanese invasions of Korea during the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the Taiko).

Here is the Wiki page on the battle.

The major figure in this engagement was Admiral Yi Sun-Sin, the Korean commander. Admiral Yi has been described as the Nelson of the East. (Although given the time difference, perhaps it would be better to describe Nelson as the Yi of the West.)

Now you may be saying to yourself, “My, my. My Maximum Leader is such a learned man that he can spout off famous naval battles of the East as well as the West…” Well, let your Maximum Leader set you a little straight. While he is mostly self-taught in what he knows of Korean, Japanese and Chinese history, this is a special case. (NB: your Maximum Leader did take a year long course on Chinese history in college. It was a great class, but as with all survey classes you wind up missing a lot of good stuff in the name of getting everything in…)

Why is the battle of Noryang and Admiral Yi a special case you may be wondering? Well let your Maximum Leader tell you.

Your Maximum Leader’s best bud Kevin is part Korean as you may know. At Kevin’s house was (and still may be) a model of a turtle ship. Admiral Yi used turtle ships against the Japanese. They were his fast assault ships. Now, your Maximum Leader has always had a love for things naval, and a fairly large model of a turtle ship in his friends house was pretty damned cool. Many years later Kevin gave your Maximum Leader a carved statue of a pretty kick-ass looking warrior as a gift. At first your Maximum Leader thought the statue was just your run-of-the-mill Korean warrior. Indeed, your Maximum Leader thought it was a Korean “samurai.” Your Maximum Leader was sorely mistaken. The carved statue was in fact a replica of a famous statue of Admiral Yi. (If you click through on Yi’s link above you will see the statue in question. You will also see that Admiral Yi looks like a veritable badass. Indeed, your Maximum Leader should suggest Admiral Yi to Ben Thompson of Badass of the Week.) So, for many years your Maximum Leader has had a statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin in his office/room/home. His children have asked who the “samurai” was in the past and he’s had to set them straight. Just a little while ago the Wee Villain asked if he could borrow the statue of Admiral Yi. When asked why the Wee Villain responded that he couldn’t find his Darth Vader action figure and he wanted a big guy with a sword to use “against the Barbies.”

Your Maximum Leader let the Wee Villain play with the statue for a while… Seeing as his motives were pure…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was just reading the lastest Badass of the Week entry. It is on the Kraken. Sadly, the Kraken didn’t quite do it for your Maximum Leader. But being in a badass frame of mind he provides you with this eternal question:

Ninjas vs Pirates? Which is more badass?

Well… Ben, the chronicler of all things badass, answers the question here.

Your Maximum Leader has pondered the question and agrees with Ben’s rationale.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maxmium Leader took a brief moment to celebrate his Scottish heritage yesterday. Yesterday, in addition to being the anniversary of the birth of the Great Man Himself, was St. Andrew’s Day. St. Andrew’s Day is a bank holiday (as your Maximum Leader understands it) in Scotland. And while it is not Burns Day by any stretch, it is a day of some note in Scotland (and to Scots and those of Scottish ancestry) as St. Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland. Your Maximum Leader celebrated the day by making himself a Scotch Egg for lunch. Longtime readers may wonder if your Maximum Leader imbibed in a little of the Scotch Whisky as well… Sadly he did not. He needed to remain true to his 4th of July pledge to only drink domestic for the balance of the year. (Rest assured he will imbibe a bit of the good stuff at a few seconds after midnight on January 1.)

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader was going on about St. Andrew’s Day…

You know your Maximum Leader doesn’t read Andrew Sullivan’s blog on a regular basis anymore. He is less thought-provoking and more shrill nowadays. But from time to time a series of links lead your Maximum Leader back to ole Mr. Sullivan. Today that link started with a Charles Krauthammer smackdown of ole Sully. (If your Maximum Leader may… One wonders if Sully liked it, the smackdown that is…)

Well, having read the Krauthammer smackdown your Maximum Leader felt as though he ought to read the offending passage by Sully. So he clicked through and read it. (He also found, clicked through, and read Sully’s apology.)

Well… Since your Maximum Leader was on Sullivan’s blog he decided to poke around and see if anything struck his fancy. Lo and behold, something did. That something was this piece on Scottish Independence.

Before moving on to the point, your Maximum Leader tips his bejewelled cap to Sully for choosing such a fine Caravaggio to put into the post…

So… Sully linked a piece in The Guardian on how the Scottish Independence movement stands currently within Scotland; and England. The focus of the Guardian piece is that there are a number of options available to the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Tories when the subject of a referendum on Scottish independence comes up (presumably after the next national elections for the Westminster Parliament). The first choice for Scots is maintain the status quo. The second is for complete independence. The third is tweaking the existing devolution of power to the Scottish Parliament. The fourth is the “devo-max” option. The “devo-max” option is described thus:

The fourth option is the most interesting. The SNP leader calls it “devo-max”, and his opponents call it “independence-lite”. (The Scottish propensity to name political initiatives after fizzy drinks presumably being a backhanded reference to the nation’s notorious sugar habits.) Whatever you call it, though, it basically means the Edinburgh parliament and government getting control over everything except defence, foreign policy and macroeconomics. It would keep the pound, the British army and the Queen.

When your Maximum Leader read that bit he thougth to himself “Wow. That would be just like the arrangement between the Federal and State governments of the United States circa 1790.” He was intrigued.

Sullivan noted, almost in passing, that the removal of Scottish MPs from the Westminster Parliament would cripple the Labour Party in England - as a substantial portion of their majority comes from Labour members from Scotland. This point was, in your Maximum Leader’s opinion, the main thrust of Jackie Ashley’s piece in The Guardian. The political ramifications of either Scotland’s independence or a “devo-max” situation would mean that England would, as your Maximum Leader interprets Ashley’s comments, devolve into a center-right nation. That “devolution” to being center-right and governed by Tories might make Ashley a little queasy; but it sounds just fine to your Maximum Leader.

Of course, your Maximum Leader needs to go back to Sullivan for a moment. You see, Sullivan got a note from a reader that he published and commented upon. The reader points out that Sullivan (and one presumes by extention the Guardian) presented the whole situation from the English perspective. Basically the writer stated that the English seem to like to blame the Scots for all that is wrong in the nation and think it would be better for them to all bugger off. The writer then proceeds to describe the problems as he sees them. (His thoughts are well-put and are commended to you.) He makes a fine suggestion (which your Maximum Leader will touch upon in a moment); and then ends with a bang. That ending for your edification:

And in truth it would probably only do Scotland good to be cast off [from England - ML]. If nothing else, it would force some clear choices about taxation, the size and scope of the public sector, industrial and education and policy, and so on. I’d like to believe that my long-left-behind countrymen-and-women could recreate themselves to be a Tartan Denmark, but I suspect that old political habits would die hard and there’d be a rush to get money from the EU. Still, we’ve already got the chilly disdain of Eurocrats, being shot of the English might not be the worst thing ever. It would be typical if after more than 30 years of talking about finding a new landlord or maybe even buying their own place, Scotland was evicted.

Your Maximum Leader wonders if the nation of his ancestors could, in his view, recover and become a thriving vibrant state without a reliance on social-democratic entitlement programs that seem to sap so much life out of the societies they propose to help. He agrees with Sullivan’s reader in thinking that if Scotland became independent that they would go crawling to the EU for cash. They’d go somewhere. Sadly.

Well… Back to this “devo-max” idea. Your Maximum Leader does think it has merit. Your Maximum Leader thinks that the two nations should maintain a narrowly defined and mutually beneficial Union. That Union should take care of the “macro” issues like defence, foreign policy and macroeconomic policy. As with so many proposals, the devil is in the details. But a carefully crafted Union could work out well for both nations. Sullivan’s reader suggests that rather than having two parliaments after a “devo-max” event that there be three parliaments (or two parliaments and a national assembly of some sort). A parliament for England (sans Scots) one for Scotland (sans English) and one that will handle the narrowly defined issues of “Union” (and contain both Scots and English). Frankly, your Maximum Leader doesn’t see why one would need a full parliament for the “Union” issues. It could be some sort of governance committee with so many members from the Westminster and Edinburgh Parliaments. It likely wouldn’t have to be in session very long each year either…

Your Maximum Leader is intrigued by the whole idea of keeping the Union and re-establishing the autonomy of the component Kingdoms. It worked for the US (a federal system that is) for a while. He wonders if it could work in reverse for the Brits.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is a big fan of the Badass of the Week website. This week he nearly choked from laughing so hard at the Caterina Sforza bio. Caterina, by the way, is the Badass of the Week this week. You should check it out.

Carry on.