All Manner Of Bloggy Goodness. - Updated

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader figures he'll spend a little time today giving you all one big link-dump post to keep you going over the long weekend. (Long weekend at least for his American readers. Apologies to the Big Hominid and Col. Blimp.)

But before he does his link dumping, allow him to note that he will not be posting much or at all over the weekend (as is more or less normal). Lots of stuff going on over the weekend. He is going to see Tosca on Saturday. And he will see the Washington Nationals take on the Atlanta Braves on Monday.

Excursus to Opera Loving DC area minions: Your Maximum Leader might have one extra ticket to the matinee performance of Tosca tomorrow. Center Orchestra. Row "R." If you are interested write your Maximum Leader. Use e-mail on the left side nav bar.

The Nationals v. Braves contest will be a hard one for him. As mentioned before, your Maximum Leader is a baseball fan. And he has pulled for the Braves for a very very long time. But now, he feels there is some civic duty requiring him to root (root, root) for the home team. But he can't just give up on the Braves after so long. Baseball is playing the role of cruel mistress right now...

Anyway... If you are at the Nats/Braves game on Monday, you'll likely see your Maximum Leader in a Braves Cap and Hank Aaron jersey. He and Mrs. Villain and the Villainettes will be sitting about three rows off the field down the third base line.

Well, let us move along...

You ought to go over and read some of Brian's thoughts on his Grandfather and Father on Memorial Day. It is a fine post. Also very good is the post immediately preceeding the Memorial Day post. The one in which Brian comments on a recent report that UK doctors recommend removing sharp pointy knives from kitchens to reduce the number of stabbing deaths. Of course this would also make it difficult to prepare food, thereby requiring Britons to buy processed foods only. Processed foods are also a great boon for the nation. As they can more easily be reheated in a microwave there would be no need for Britons to own ovens. The removal of ovens from British households would reduce both the number of household burns suffered by Britons cooking AND suicides by inhaling gas. Your Maximum Leader can see where this is going...

Although it is a little late (considering the post is a few weeks old) you ought to go and read over the Demosophist's post about a recent NCTC report on terrorist activity around the globe. The post is much to serious and thought provoking to have your Maximum Leader give some sort of pithy comment here and move along. He hopes to give this item more thought and comment later.

You all should read Skippy's post on the outcome of the "Nuclear Option" non-event. It is, as is so often the case with Skippy's posts on politics, very well done. Although your Maximum Leader isn't too sure about House Republicans paying for supporting the President's economic policy. The economic forecast seems good. (And growing tax revenues are continuing to prove that we are likely to the right of the "T" point on the Laffer Curve.)

While talking about House Republicans... Your Maximum Leader commends to you a wonderful peice by Alan Abramowitz at Professor Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball site. The article describes how redistricting is not responsible, in Prof. Abramowitz's opinion, for uncompetitive House races. It was very enlightening.

Thanks to INDC Bill your Maximum Leader sees that Vladimir Putin is not yet privy to the vast conspiracy to keep the world ignorant of alien lifeforms being kept in a freezer by the US Air Force. Of course, it is also disturbing to learn that Vladimir doesn't partake of "strong drink." Really now, can you be a Russian and not have a shot or two of vodka every now and again? Your Maximum Leader certainly doesn't want a man with nuclear launch codes going around in a vodka induced stupor. But not touching the vodka seems very un-Russian. You gotta keep and eye on that Vladimir.

Your Maximum Leader hopes you all didn't miss the absolutely wonderful essay by Mr. P on Patum Peperium about Jane Austin and the Duke of Wellington. You really ought to go and read it. And while you are over there on Patum Peperium, check out this post from Lord Nelson about Britain he fought to defend 200 years after giving his life at Trafalgar.

Which makes your Maximum Leader wonder if the official celebration of the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar going to be that bad? Well yes it seems it will be THAT bad. Rest assured your Maximum Leader will not be all PC about it.

Did you catch Buckethead's post over at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy about the Freedom Tower kerfluffle? No? Well here it is. Your Maximum Leader would certainly like to see one of Frank Lloyd Wright's mega-buildings erected on the World Trade Center site. At first your Maximum Leader wasn't sure if he fell on the Geeklethal or Buckethead side of their comment thread discussion. Your Maximum Leader, upon reflection, is more in the "we must rebuild bigger and better than before, phallic subtexts be damned" side of the argument. And as an added benefit, we should build a 1 km tall Wright designed building. Assure it was the tallest freestanding structure in the world, then put the world on notice... We'll bomb out of existance any attempt to build something bigger... Okay. Perhaps that is a bit much... But we could do it...

Your Maximum Leader doesn't know why, but he really really liked (and even found some humour in) the Velociman's post on Sulfur.

Did you see the latest from the Beef Council? Your Maximum Leader can only agree with Gordon and nod approvingly. You just don't know what cooties you could catch from Paris. Probably some very nasty ones.

As always there is plenty of bloggy goodness over at Dr. Rusty's site. It was the first place where your Maximum Leader read that terrorists in Iraq are now using dogs as suicide bombers. Your Maximum Leader feels sorry for the dogs. He also thinks it probably does show that the number of volunteers for suicide bombings is declining. One hopes this is because of the recent moves by US and Iraqi forces throughout Iraq to crack down on terrorist activity.

Speaking of animals... Did you notice this post over at the Hatemonger's Quarterly? Your Maximum Leader is sure that the Smallholder will tune into British television with much more regularity now that "Animal Passions" is okay for broadcast.

Your Maximum Leader really liked this post of fiesty Christina's. One day your Maximum Leader needs to borrow his sainted parents' condo in New Orleans and go to visit the fiesty one.

Dearest Sadie... Your Maximum Leader's one unfulfilled wish at the moment involves Jennifer Love Hewitt, Giada De Laurentiis, garlic bread, mounds of pasta with alfredo sauce, and chocolate eclairs with custard filling. PS to Sadie - He sees you've put the M of P's quote on the masthead... Smallholder will be jealous.

That is about it for now. If your Maximum Leader gets a chance, he'll post his thoughts on "Revenge of the Sith" before too long.

Carry on.