Friday morning roundup

Turkey's stealth authoritarian turn.

It just goes to show that there's comedy even in tragedy: China's initial typhoon-relief pledge to the Philippines was $100,000. Didn't take the region long to fill the void.

Also not exactly stepping up: Imelda Marcos and her family, even though she is from Tacloban.

The DC City Council is pretty useless, but maybe even they can bring themselves to improve the Sexual Assault Victims Rights Amendment Act. Did you know--and yes, we're talking about DC, not India--that sexual assault that involves penetration is merely a misdemeanor, rather than a felony?

Coca Cola is trying to make it harder for you to drink tap water.

I've been railing about this for years and now the Times is on it: pumpkin-themed foods have little or nothing to do with pumpkin. Even when pumpkin is an ingredient, the spices overwhelm the delicate pumpkin flavor.