Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is under all sorts of pressure right now. The Wee Villain is not well. He has a nasty illness and we’ve now discovered that he is likely allergic to the medicine he’s been given. Not lots of fun. As you can imagine, your Maximum Leader has little time to blog today.

But before he goes…

Let him commend to you this post over at Irish Elk. Your Maximum Leader agrees with the sentiment. Sometimes a good fight is what you need in hockey to show that you can’t be pushed around. It is part of the game and should be. Your Maximum Leader happens to like the old “Canadian” style game a little better than the “International” game. Plus, your Maximum Leader would like to see more clips of Don Cherry narrating fights saying “Look here. Two guys mixing it up a little. Nothing wrong with that.”

Did you see the squid gigante that those fishermen caught the other day? Did ya? It is cool. Here is a linky link.

Also… Have you been following the breakdown of the Italian government? Your Maximum Leader has. You know, he ought to try and learn italian so that he can read the papers over there and find out more about what is going on. Until then, he’ll have to settle for the news wires. Frankly, your Maximum Leader hopes for the most unlikely outcome - which is new elections. It is more likely that Romano Prodi will form a new coalition government with mostly left-center parties. He might jettison some of his hard-left supports and tryand woo some right-center groups to join the coalition.

But elections would be cooler…

Your Maximum Leader will report, sadly, that the dreamy Jennifer Love Hewitt did not accept your Maximum Leader’s invitation to dinner yesterday to celebrate her birthday. It is probably just as well since the Wee Villain wasn’t up to snuff… But she was kind enough to do an interview with CNN in which she said she’d like to be a dork… Jennifer, Love, be sure your Maximum Leader likes you just the way you are.

And finally… One last call for bloggers/people in the greater DC area who might want to see the play Richard III with your Maximum Leader… Contact your Maximum Leader if you’re interested…

Carry on.

As I have been living overseas for the last….9 years, I have missed out on just about all of the “must see” TV in that time period.

I was able to watch the first season (taped) of 24 a few years ago, and a friend loaned me targate Atlantis (season one) last summer, but that has been about it.

On a couple of unrelated forums I stop by from time to time, I noticed that there was a buzz about a show that was briefly on the air in 2002 on Fox, but was canceled after about 10 episodes.

The show was Firefly (take a look http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)#Costume )

WoW!

I am interested in what the other Ministers think about this (Hey! Propaganda Minister… what was your take?) as I think it was one of the coolest shows ever on TV.

So if you haven’t seen it, you can get the entire show on DVD for around 15 bucks. It will probably be the best DVD investment you make in 2007.

Back to the trenches….

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been neglectful of you. He’sbeen thinking of himself and his well being, and not those of you, his loyal readers…

In all honesty, the past few days and last weekend were quite busy. And when they ceased to be busy… Your Maximum Leader found distractions. Well… One distraction actually…

You see… Your Maximum Leader planned on writing lots of good stuff on his blog on Saturday. But instead he bought an X-Box 360. Yup. He did.

He was of two minds about the purchase. On the one hand, it would be fun, fun, fun. On the other hand, they are a terrible distraction and can bring out the worst in small(er) children (and some adults). But he put aside his misgivings and made the purchase. Since then he’s been trying to perfect his slapshot at NHL 2007.

He’ll try and blog more this week…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has more frivolity for you…

Observation One:

Alexander the Great may have conquered the known world, but he never ate mashed potatoes covered in rich creamy melted butter.

Question One:

Does a single person working at Starbucks ask someone out for coffee? Because they work at a coffee house do they have to skip right to drinks and/or a meal when they date?

Just thoughts…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was wasting time last night on You Tube. While wasting time he learned a lot about Llamas.

Not these Llamas…

These Llamas:

Remember, if you see a Llama near a bunch of swimmers you’d better cry out, “Look out, there are Llamas!”

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t have a lot of time today. He is going to the Washington DC Auto Show today. Then heading out to dinner. Then going to the University of Maryland v. Georgia Tech basketball game.

Not much time to opine on the State of the Union Address or the Democratic response. Perhaps tomorrow…

In the meanwhile… Melt your pennies and make a buck.

If you melt enough pennies you may be able to afford a 77 square foot flat in Knightsbridge for a meagre $335,000 (US).

Of course, if you move to Knightsbridge, there will be no reason for you to celebrate that John Kerry has decided not to run for President in 2008. One supposes the field was a little too crowded for his taste.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is pleased to report that Mrs. Smallholder delivered an 8 pound 6 ounce, red-haired, little boy earlier today. Mother and son are doing well. Father is a wreck - but he is most of the time anyway.

Many congratulations. This is a welcome addition to the Smallholder’s wonderful family.

Carry on.

A reader who shall remain anonymous reminds me that not all Bones members are crypto-homosexuals. Some are not as interested in other men as they are in animals.

Who’s your hunny bunny?

In penance for being AWOL lo these many moons, I offer the Maximum Leader the following taglines for the rotating masthead from an office e-mail:

Chaos, panic and disorder - our work here is finally done.

We’ll try being nicer if you try being smarter.

Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.

Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.

Validating yout inherent mistrust of strangers you meet on the internet.

Yes, the Minister of Propaganda is an agent of Satan. But his duties are largely ceremonial

The Maximum Leader’s previous post is a good illustration of why cultural relativists should not be allowed to raise children. Mike’s permissivefeel-goodism has led his children to deny reality. “Her idea of toast” indeed.

The next thing you know, the little Villainette will prove that black is white and will be killed at the next zebra crossing.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is up to is eyeballs in stuff that is keeping him away from the blog. At some point here he needs to re-evaluate his self-imposed posting schedule. He continues to feel as though he should post (something) daily. But that is becoming harder and harder to do. He’ll use some time during the holidays to think about his bloging nature.

Hey! Did your Maximum Leader beat out Robbo by reminding readers that today is the anniversary of the Battle of Quiberon Bay? Did you Maximum Leader make a Royal Navy Geekery (tm - Llamabutchers) observation before Robbo? Woo hoo!

For more information about the Battle of Quiberon Bay (1759) you can clicky here to read up about it on Wiki.

Your Maximum Leader also owns the URL Quiberonbay.com. But he’s never done anything with it. Perhaps he should start a group blog dedicated to Royal Navy Geekery!

On the off chance that your Maximum Leader decides not to attempt to post again this week, he will wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and remind you that the first Thanksgiving was not in Plymouth, MA but at Berkeley’s Hundred in Virginia in 1619.

Your Maximum Leader will be travelling to see family over the holiday. He will leave on Wednesday and return on Sunday. While seeing family is nice and all, it will keep him away from his computer and the chance to play Medieval II: Total War, which he purchased last week. (Which he and the Smallholder played to the disappointment of our families.)

The indignities your Maximum Leader suffers… Socializing with family when he could be selfishly playing computer games…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is paid up on his blog hosting company through late March/April of 2007. But he is getting a bit angry now. Because of some “technical issues” with Movable Type (supposedly) your Maximum Leader’s hosting company has deactivated a number of modules to his blog. Among these modules are those relating to comments (no surprise there) and his archives.

Okay… Your Maximum Leader will fully admit that he’s not getting teary-eyed for not having comments. Although he loves hearing from any of you readers who might be around and lurking, he is equally happy just posting and imagining your praise… (Afterall, isn’t a blogger’s own perception of their writing at least as important - if not perhaps a little more important - as anyone else’s?)

But now that his archives are inaccessible your Maximum Leader is getting pretty much pissed off. Dead Sexy Sadie and her partner in crime the handsome Phin have suggested that your Maximum Leader move his site. He is moving in that direction. The question is how soon?

Not only are comments defunct and archives inaccessible… But your Maximum Leader tried to post some stuff that has apparently disappeared…

He’s going to look into all this and get more angry… Stay clear…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been trying to get on to post a thing or two all day. But he’s had the damnest time actually trying to do anything on Albert Gore’s interwebs today. He managed a comment or two at a few other blogs, but he’s had many connectivity problems today.

As a result, he doesn’t now feel like typing much.

So… He will leave you all with a few dumped links.

First off, he should make sure all his northeastern readers know that they might get a few extra days to file their Federal Taxes next year. Apparently in 2007 residents of Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington D.C get to file their taxes by April 17. Because April 15 is a Sunday and April 16 is a state holiday in Massachusetts - where the processing center for the IRS (that handles those states) is located. Happy day to you all. As your Maximum Leader pays his taxes to either the Philadelphia or Memphis processing facility he is pretty much screwed on this.

While your Maximum Leader is sure that many of his readers already have seen this link (it was on The Corner earlier this week), he will republish it here. Why post a link to American History quizzes for High School students? Mostly for the benefit of our friend the Smallholder - who doesn’t frequent The Corner and most likely missed the boat on this one.

Shocking headline of the day off the news wire! Man injured after launching fireworks from his arse. Positively shocking.

Its… Like… Y2K+6+1. NASA is worried about the impending flight of the space shuttle. The next mission of the space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to hae the orbiter aloft over the change from 2006 to 2007. This is a new event for the shuttle and engineers aren’t sure that the Discovery is ready for it. Frankly, there is some sort of pithy rocket scientist joke in this story. Your Maximum Leader is just above making one…

Have you ever wondered why you should “light a match?” Yahoo answers all.

Did you know every day is Sushi Day?

And finally… Congratulations to the dreamy Jennifer Love Hewitt for her People’s Choice Award nomination as a Favorite TV star. Your Maximum Leader will be rooting for you.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sitting at his mighty ubercomputer in the Villainschloss and blogging on a Saturday. What is next? Rivers of blood? Plagues of locusts?

Well… Probably none of those things. It is more likely that your Maximum Leader will just put up a few posts about things on his mind.

Of course your Maximum Leader could use his shock at seeing a post from his good friend the Foreign Minister appear on the blog as an excuse for not blogging for two days… But actually, life has been quite busy for your Maximum Leader. He just hasn’t had it in him to blog. This is not to say that he hasn’t had subjects on which he wanted to comment. He just hasn’t had the energy or time to put them down in a coherent way.

Not that the coherence or non-coherence of a particular post has been an issue for him in the past…

Expect some posting over the weekend from your Maximum Leader. Feel free to read the posting when ever - probably Monday… Since that is when you all will likely return to reading this site. Your Maximum Leader can imagine you all… Sitting at your comfy desks at your place of employment. Sipping your hot beverage. Gleefully reading Naked Villainy. And feeling like you are sticking it to “The Man” because you are visiting a web site with the word “naked” in the URL that isn’t a porn site…

Heh.

Carry on.