Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wanted to take a moment to comment on the occasion of this Armistice Day. Your Maximum Leader still prefers to call it Armistice Day over Veterans Day for three reasons. First is that growing up, all of your Maximum Leader’s grandparents called it Armistice Day. Second, your Maximum Leader is an unrepentant Anglophile. Third, your Maximum Leader believes that buy calling it Armistice Day he might prompt some people to think back to The Great War and how horrifying it was. Your Maximum Leader cries when he thinks of the carnage of the great battles of the Great War. The Somme. Ypres. Verdun. They all make him weep.

You know, with all of the contreversy surrounding showing “Saving Private Ryan” tonight on ABC; your Maximum Leader would like to remind Americans that we WON the Normandy invasion. Yes it took the lives of many GI’s to do it. But we won. We beat back the Germans. We liberated France. We liberated Europe.

Now think about the Battle of the Somme. What was won there? Nothing. It is much harder to deal with the losses for no purpose.

Anyway.

Your Maximum Leader, not wanting to be too graphic, decided he would pass along the following link. At 106, French veteran remembers life in World War I trenches. There aren’t many WWI vets left. Your Maximum Leader hopes some historian is interviewing those remaining and getting their stories.

We can’t afford to lose them.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader realizes that today has been a day where death has been in the news quite a bit. We mourn the loss of our glorious dead for the Veterans Day celebrations; as well as laud the living veterans. We are talking about the death of terrorist-turned-Nobel-Laureate, Yassir Arafat too.

But another death has truly saddened and angered your Maximum Leader. He reads that Iris Chang, the author of the superb book, “The Rape of Nanking,” has killed herself. She was 36.

This is sad because she wrote an excellent work of history. Excellent in many ways. It highlighted a nearly forgotten (in the West at any rate) atrocity of WWII. It also was accessible to the great masses of history readers. (Many works of history are very boorrriinnnggg.) But “The Rape of Nanking” was a viseral book. You felt the suffering of the Chinese as you read it. At least your Maximum Leader did. He read the book once and is sure that he will remember the feeling in his gut as he read it. It is sad that such a young woman with such a bright future will not write again.

But her suicide angers your Maximum Leader as well. He supposes that one of the vestages of his Catholic upbringing is a complete repulsion to suicide. He supposes that it shows some sort of weakness or character flaw when a person kills themselves. He believes it also shows a blatant disregard for those left behind. Perhaps suicide offends your Maximum Leader because it is the ultimate statement of selfishness. Now your Maximum Leader understands that Chang was hospitalized for depression earlier this year. But somehow that doesn’t mitigate the circumstance for him. It is a complicated feeling.

Iris Chang, requiscat in pace.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader just saw another in a seemingly inexhaustable stream of headlines about Yassir Arafat. This one read: Clinton Says Arafat Missed the Chance for Peace.

Well Mr. President, your Maximum Leader has got to tell you. Arafat didn’t miss the chance for peace. Arafat never wanted peace and thus never saw a chance to miss.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader just read Jeff’s latest over at Beautiful Atrocities. The post entitled: Soviet Socialist Republic of Belgium.

Did you go and read it? The word that comes to your Maximum Leader’s mind is “Damn.” Is it really that bad in Belgium? Perhaps the Foreign Minister - who is living in Germany - could comment on what he is hearing from the Belgians over there.

It appears as though the Belgian government has just given up on real freedom in favour of touchy-feely cultural relativism and political correctness. How long can such a nation endure?

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, like so many other bloggers, is always on the lookout for the latest from Christopher Hitchens. Hitch is a great writer, and a great persona for television. While your Maximum Leader is sure that most of his loyal minions have already read Hitch’s latest, in case you haven’t here is a link: Bush’s Secularist Triumph - The left apologizes for religious fanatics. The president fights them. By Christopher Hitchens

Carry on.

Granted, things could get worse, but this guy has done nothing but undermine peace, and disempower the Palestinian people for the past 40 years. It’s Arafat’s legacy that Palestinians are reduced to suicide bombings, and living in poverty with little hope for anything else. The unfortunate thing is he’ll be remembered as a hero.

Of course, there hasn’t been peace in the middle east in 8000+ years. What makes us think it’s a possibility now?

Say it with me now….. Ewwwwwww

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader realizes that some of you may be wondering exactly what the good Minister of Agriculture is talking about in this recent post.

As your Maximum Leader read it, he knew all the background behind the stories the Smallholder was trying to relate in his sleep deprived state. But your Maximum Leader realized that others, not having lived those experiences, wouldn’t have the foggiest idea of what he was writting. So, if you are interested in the background read on. If not, feel free to click here to read a meaningful post on another quality blog.

Where to begin my minions?

Let your Maximum Leader begin with the “Denver Girl” that the Smallholder mentions. The “Denver Girl” is a friend of your Maximum Leader and Smallholder from college. She is quite cute, lots of fun, and recently single. Your Maximum Leader did try to play yentl for Kilgore and the “Denver Girl.” But this never really came off. Your Maximum Leader felt a little awkward trying to set these two people up. He wanted to do it in a way that allowed the two to meet over the internet and then decide if things looked right for a safe cup of coffee in a well-lit public place. This is Kilgore afterall; and he is “dangerous.”

So, your Maximum Leader called “Denver Girl” and broached the possibility of a meeting. “Denver Girl” informed your Maximum Leader that she had a Match.com profile and that your Maximum Leader was free to give it to Kilgore.

Well it turned out that the Match.com profile “Denver Girl” gave to your Maximum Leader was not active or some such nonsense. Because your Maximum Leader thought he would look at it before sending it on to Kilgore. Try as he might, he couldn’t find the “Denver Girl’s” profile.

Your Maximum Leader called “Denver Girl” a number of times to try and see if there was some issue or miscommunication. Allow your Maximum Leader to say that “Denver Girl” is hard to get a hold of. She’s never at home. (She does work a lot.) She rarely checks e-mail. And your Maximum Leader believes she must never turn on her cell. Anyway… By the time that your Maximum Leader finally got through “Denver Girl” didn’t seem as interested.

Since the Smallholder brings it up, he might inquire of both Kilgore and “Denver Girl” if they would like to try again…

Next… Speaking of virtual “groping” as the Smallholder did… Your Maximum Leader is hoping to be virtually groped by the sexy and spirited Sadie Mirth for an upcoming “Blogger Interview.” Stay tuned.

At this point many of you may not be interested in reading on. Your Maximum Leader understands. Nakedvillainy is not, and wasn’t really ever intended to be, a “personal blog” per se. So rather than subject those of you who are disinterested in this topic to more you will just have to scroll through, your Maximum Leader will end this post here. But if you are interested in reading about your Maximum Leader’s college days you should click here.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader suspects a great many of his minions have not been paying attention to the ongoing dispute across the pond concerning the consolidation of various Scottish Regiments in the British Army.

To bring you all up to speed, allow your Maximum Leader to summarize. As a cost savings measure, the British Ministry of Defence has proposed merging together various (historic) Scottish Regiments. For example, one proposal called for the Kings Own Scots Borderers to be merged into the Royal Scots Regiment. Your Maximum Leader forgets which regiment was going to be merged into the Black Watch Regiment. And your Maximum Leader’s favourite, the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders were going to be subsumed by some other highland regiment.

This got the Scots knickers in a knot. Well… They would have had their knickers in a knot if the Scots (at least the men) wore knickers…

Anyway… It seems as though the Labour Government is backng down at the moment. This makes your Maximum Leader happy.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader just read on Dr. Rusty’s site that a group fashioning itself the Islamic Army in Iraq is claiming to have shot down a US Warplane.

While your Maximum Leader will wait for confirmation from the Pentagon about this claim’s veracity; he will comment that if the photo in the story was the unmanned drone they are claiming to have shot down… We have slightly less to fear than previously imagined.

Of course that “model” of Boeing drone is probably costing US taxpayers about $4,000,000.00.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader saw something on the news wire today that made him laugh. It seem that the $14.6 billion dollar “Big Dig” project in Boston is full of leaks.

Now let your Maximum Leader go on the record and say that he knows the suffering of the good people of Boston (and all of New England frankly) during the decades of building the Big Dig. He’s been through the “Big Dig.” Mrs. Villain (and by extension your Maximum Leader) have relatives who drive through the “Big Dig” every day.

But knowing that the “Big Dig” is full of leaks that could take up to 10 years to fix just makes your Maximum Leader laugh. He laughs because last year as your Maximum Leader and his esteemed Brother-in-law were driving through the “Big Dig” we commented that this project can’t afford to end. Too many contractors would go out of business. We both speculated that once the “Big Dig” was completed it would need scores of workers for regular maintenance and leak-plugging.

And so it comes to pass… All has gone according to plan…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is pleased to read that President Bush wants to revive legislation and possibly push a Constitutional Amendment for a line-item veto power for the President. Oh! Here is the link: Bush Wants Line-Item Veto to Be Revived.

This is the first Constitutional Amendment proposed in your Maximum Leader’s lifetime that he has supported. (Depending, as one can imagine, on the wording of such an Amendment.) Your Maximum Leader remembers helping take down names on a petition to give to his then-Congressman Stan Parris urging him to support giving President Reagan a line-item veto power.

For those of you who do not know, the line-item veto is the power of an executive to veto a specific line of an appropriations bill. And in case you don’t know, the federal budget contains millions upon millions of lines. A line series of lines might look like this:

Line 12345 Funding for NIS Study proving that Monkey’s clench their jaws when they are shot at with M-16 - $2,000,000.00
Line 12346 Funding for Body Armour for troops serving in combat in Iraq - $10,000,000.00
Line 12347 Funding for construction of 8 lane highway connecting Shit Hollow, West Virginia to Bumphuque, West Virginia - $3,000,000,000.00

While these are not actual lines from a budget, your Maximum Leader is sure that his exceptionally bright minions get the idea.

As it stands, the President of the US must accept appropriations bills as they are, or veto the whole lot. Your Maximum Leader has always been in favour of extending to the President the powers that most of our state governors have (and say they can’t live without).

And the fact that Robert Byrd opposes the line-item veto makes your Maximum Leader want to give the President the power even more.

BTW, the Reuters article to which your Maxmum Leader linked called Senator Byrd “a staunch defender of the rights of the legislative branch.” ACK! Those words make your Maximum Leader want to vomit. Robert Byrd is a staunch defender of the legislative branch abrogating their responsibilities to legislate. We never hear about him complain when budget bills aren’t passed in time. We never hear him complain about unprecedented use of “Senatorial” privledge to block any and all actions of that august body. Robert Byrd should go back to West Virginia and allow our Republic to exist without his input.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader grew tired of hearing about the Peterson murder trial about a year ago. He has intentionally ignored all the goings-on and media attention given to the case. Why? He just doesn’t really care much.

Of course, it turns out that his ignorance of what has been going on in the trial might backfire on him. Why would it backfire do you ask? Well, your Maximum Leader reads that the judge has removed yet another juror from the deliberations. At the rate they are burning through jurors they may have to call your Maximum Leader across the country to serve as a jury of one. This is not a problem for your Maximum Leader. He is well acquianted with being judge and jury already.

Just worry when your Maximum Leader starts to bellow, “In all my years of judging I have never seen before someone more deserving the full penalty of law. The way you made them suffer, your exquisite wife and mother, fills me with an urge to deficate!”

At that point the Smallholder would cry out from the bailiffs room, “Go Judge. Shit on ‘em.”

Carry on.

Post Post Excursus: That last little bit just made your Maximum Leader chuckle to himself. Heh.