News 6/18/10

(This image of the late Donald Goerke - who was not executed by firing squad - is property of the Campbell Soup Company and originally appeared in the NYT here.)

Guns don't kill people, bullets kill people. Murderer executed by firing squad to demonstrate that killing people is always wrong. Unless you're a murderer and the State wants to kill you...

Violence in Kyrgyzstan imperils as many as 1,000,000 people according to the UN.

Hillary Clinton speaks out against Arizona's new law against brown people who don't talk good English.

Ew, just... ew. Massive SpaghettiO's recall brings hope to weary populace.

Keep the cork on the fork, Ruprecht. Towleroad informs us that Tulsa, Oklahoma approves non-discrimination protection for LGBTQs.

Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma!

• Thanks to all of you who have already voted! Go vote again for The Flaming Chef (Jason Zenobia) over at Freedom to Marry's blog contest. Not once, not twice, but once every 24 hours until and including the 25th. (I've set my phone to ring at 5:00pm every day to remind me.)

Afternoon News 4/27/10

Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma! legislators pass stupid, intrusive abortion law. Why don't you pass a law forcing women to purchase cute little shoes for the fetus while you're at it?

Alice Miller dies at 87. The original book title "The Drama of the Spoiled Little Narcissist," was nixed by editors.

New York's war on salt continues. Won't somebody please think of the children?

(The picture above is of four different kinds of cake I made for my cooking show "The Pleasure of Food." Lemon cake, butter cake with chocolate frosting, chocolate cake with mocha frosting and (up on a pedestal where it belongs) bittersweet chocolate cake with vanilla mousseline butter cream. With special thanks to Filmy Residue Productions.)

In honor of the latest infamous and annoying news about chocolate, here's my recipe for bittersweet chocolate cake. Adapted from "The Joy of Cooking."

Below the fold:

Morning News 3/30/10

The Earth is round, the pope is catholic and Ricky Martin is gay. I'm not even going to link to it because you can find it yourself if you feel the need to yawn.

General John "Jackass" Sheehan apologizes to the Dutch for his jackassery.

Yes Ruprecht, we're going to Oklahoma! Bill designed to ignore LGBT inclusive hate crimes law accidentally ignores protections for race and religion. (Keep the cork on the fork guys.)

Here's y'all's Passover hootenanny (with a hat tip to Vipies):

(From cornerstone music's youtube channel)

The Flaming Chef didn't post the evening news last night because he was busy baking a batch of bittersweet chocolate brownies for Dr. Snickerdoodle to take to work for his peeps. The house smelled like hot chocolate and it was the perfect antidote to a cold, gray and windy day.

(Screen capture detail of Steve Martin as Ruprecht from Orion Pictures 1988 film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Directed by Frank Oz and Costarring one of my very favorite actors on the planet: Michael Caine. It is a great film, full of wonderful performances. I'm sure you can spot Barbara Harris, but can you spot Emperor Palpatine?)

Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma!

The state of Oklahoma wants to opt out of the new hate crimes law. Great stuff over at Pam's House Blend.