US candy chain sells commemorative Barack Obama chocolates

(Pic via ace marketer/stand-up comedian Nathan Hartswick. Follow him on Twitter!)

CandyExpress claims these commemorative Barack Obama heads are available for a limited time only. Not limited enough, unfortunately.  Off the top of my head I would thought of three things Mr. Obama should not be used to advertise: Chocolate, fried chicken (as a German company did), watermelon (that’s a yet).  The Russians are clearly out-thinking me on this: I didn’t even consider someone would use President O for a tanning salon. They did.

The president is apparently quiet the commercial draw in Mother Russia. In addition to the tanning salon and he has also been featured in an ad forthe MeraDent chain of dental clinics with the slogan "Full Dental Democracy!"And of course for this wonderful ice cream treat.

In case you don’t read Russian the slogan says: "Everyone’s talking about it: dark inside white!" The bars have a chocolate-flavored center embedded in a layer of vanilla.

As Russia used home grown slaves instead of importing them as the US did people of African heritage are quite rare. Worth noting: Alexander Pushkin – the nation’s first great poet – was one of those few African-Russians.

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German churches hot about Chocolate Jesus

Germany’s churches criticized a businessman for selling thousands of Jesus chocolates. Frank Oynhausen set up his “Sweet Lord” chocolate Jesus-making business saying he wanted to restore some traditional religious values to Christmas in Germany.

So remember: Representations of The Savior in bread or wine form are OK, just don’t serve Him as dessert. However, is it OK to eat a cookie with a picture of Jesus on it? There’s a woman in the UK for whom this is not a theoretical question.

You really owe it to yourself to checkout the website for The Original Chocolate GoldJesus®. Best line: “No Santa Claus, especially no chocolate Santa Claus, could ever substitute for Jesus.” I know someone who’s getting coal this in his stocking!

Worth noting that chocolate crosses and such have long been sold in many places (even Wal Mart!). They seem to have started as a Hispanic tradition and spread from there.

“Credit Crunch” candy and other bright spots from the crisis

• When life hands you lemons dept.: A UK firm has started selling Credit Crunch candy.  Made up of something called Valrhona chocolate and pieces of honeycomb pieces — a bag sells for £3.99/$7/€5. At least until devaluation hits.
  
• Latvians can now try to offset inflation by betting on it. “Gamblers betting [inflation] will be between 14.4 to 14.9 percent can win 30 percent of their wager on the triobet.com betting portal. Inflation stood at 15.7 percent in August year-on-year, down from a 12-year high point of 17.9 percent in May. High-risk gamblers can more than triple their money, if they bet that inflation will slip below 14.4 percent. In the least likely case of the inflation rate climbing above 14.9 percent, gamblers could score a seven-fold return on their bet, according to triobet.com.” Is there anything similar for the Dow? Pick the Dow for two months from today and win your weigh in shares of Lehman Brothers. I’m in!
• Headline of the day: Fed Buys Commercial Paper, Complimenting its Suite of Imperiled Assets. Oh goody! A matched set! I hope we get a free monogram with that!
• Do you want fries with that economy? McDonald’s More Credit-Worthy Than USA
• “Painter and printmaker Laura Gilbert is passing out signed and numbered prints of the “Zero Dollar,” which looks like a dollar bill except it has zeros in place of ones.”

Germany protects children from chocolate egg threat

Despite being a massive hit with children and adults alike, German lawmakers want to ban Kinder surprise eggs on safety grounds. … Millions of the chocolate eggs with a toy inside are sold every year in Europe’s biggest economy, but according to a parliamentary health commission it is dangerous to combine food and toys in one product.

The toys aren’t edible? Man, that explains more about my digestive system than you really wanted to know.

Why are Easter chocolates Kosher?

Annette asks this key question in response to my post People for the Ethical Treatment of Candy Animals.

I noticed many of the easter chocolate (crosses! In chocolate!!!) have a kosher seal on them. Why?????????

Judging from her entertaining blog Fun With Play Dough, Ms. van de Kamp-Wright is Jewish and totally perplexed by this and other issues around Easter.

But Easter? How do Christians explain to their children about somebody who was murdered by being nailed to a cross, was buried in a cave, and came back as if he was the villain in a horror movie who just won’t die?

While I do not disagree with Ms. van de Kamp-Wright’s characterization of the holiday (indeed I thought the line about the horror movie villain was both insulting to Christians and hysterically funny), I do not agree with it either. I must say that I have yet to encounter any religion whose ideas and holidays are in any way, shape or form rational. Mormons? Christian Scientists? Zoroastrians? They worship a bowl of fire instead of somebody who was murdered by being nailed to a cross, was buried in a cave, and came back as if he was the villain in a horror movie who just won’t die? How odd.

Is this story really any more or less difficult to explain then God sending an angel to kill all the first born of Egypt? “Oh honey, G-d who has promised to send a messiah, decided to execute thousands of children just to give Moses a chance to get lost in the desert for four decades.”

Turning water into wine is neither more or less absurd than the Almighty communicating via a shrubbery that is set on fire. My own faith is neither Christian nor Jewish but essentially Deist. Although I am a sect of one, my beliefs are deeply heart-felt and I practice them (pardoned the phrase) religiously. Undoubtedly I have practices and tenets that others would think certifiably loony. That is, after all, the nature of faith. If it were based on reason, we wouldn’t be called believers. People who worship in glass churches/temples/groves, etc. should not throw stones.

None of which answers Annette’s wonderful question.