…they just keep coming in. Here are just some of the latest for your dubious pleasure.

Of course there’s the near-obligatory weed reference, this one on a t-shirt, via herspiral: “Here’s something we found online…yikes…”

…and another bit of faux-dharmic financial marketing, via reader Michael D:

“I love your site, and so I have a ‘Dharma-Burger’ I just found for you. Their cringe-worthy commercial came on TV yesterday, and so I looked up their site– pretty interesting way to market this!”

Other readers also sent in word of Zendough’s existence. Arielle K, for her part, describes Zendough as:

…More Dharma Burger in one place than I have ever seen:

“By offering you insight and wisdom about your credit reports and score, debt standing, and identity theft risk, the path to achieve your goals and master your finances will be smoother…  gain wisdom and confidence and proactively manage your finances… zendough.com can …help you achieve financial peace of mind. …Learn more about taking the first steps down the path to financial enlightenment at www.achievezendough.com“

Reader Jim B wrote of Zendough: “I actually had to look twice to make sure it wasn’t a parody — sadly, I think it’s real.”

…But reader Guttorm G writes with some darker stuff:

“Thanks for your wonderful site. Of course I’ve heard of socially engaged Buddhism, but it’s normally on the activists’ side. The Copenhagen police, known for their brutality, used this uniform when imprisoning activists during the climate cop15.”

[Though clearly not Buddhist, the emblem here does resemble the Wheel of Dharma.]

Guttorm goes on to write: “I was [recently] studying in Kyoto and I went to one of the 5 main Rinzai Zen temples (as well as a world heritage site), Tenryu-Ji. I’m attaching a picture of what I saw. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry, but its certainly not what i expected”:

Laugh or cry? I don’t know. But if, somehow, Tenryu-Ji is seeing at least a little bit of money from this, that would help. …Nescafe ads at Zen temples — a sign of something terrible, or just a sign of the times?

More to come, and thanks.

Via a press release:

Steve Madden, a leading designer and marketer of fashion footwear and accessories for women, men and children, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of privately held Big Buddha, Inc., a designer and marketer of fashion-forward handbags. Founded by Jeremy Bassan in 2003, Big Buddha sells its trend-right handbags to specialty retailers, better department stores and online retailers. Big Buddha had net sales in 2009 of approximately $13 million (unaudited).

That’s one expensive Dharma-Burger.

From the Star of Mysore:

“If only the Management gurus like Peter Drucker had known of Ashoka and his inscriptions, they would have unhesitatingly called Ashoka as the Father of Advertisements.”

Really. More here.

Have you seen it? It takes place in a sort of stand-in for the Potala Palace, completing the scene with prayer wheel, devotees and a levitating semi-Dalai Lamaesque figure. Meditation, it seems, is not necessary when you have Red Bull.

I can’t find the video online yet, but will post here when I do. You can see a screenshot, thankfully, thanks to good ol’ Many Flakes, One Bowl.

(BTW, “Many Flakes, One Bowl” has to be the best Buddhist blog name, no?)

This 30-second spot was initially created as part of the Lancia auto brand’s sponsorship of the 10th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Berlin Nov. 10-11, 2009, for which the theme was “Knocking down new walls and building bridges for a world without violence.” How nice to see Chrysler, a major US automaker, joining in.

As stated many times here, a Dharma-Burger is not necessarily a bad thing. But sometimes it is.

That being said…

Props to AdFreak.

Again with the “Zen President” thing. This via Scott Whitlock of NewsBusters:

Good Morning America co-host Diane Sawyer on Tuesday helped promote an upcoming HBO documentary on Barack Obama and allowed producer Ed Norton to gush over the “zen” presidential campaign of the Democratic candidate. Sawyer breathlessly teased the program as “the Obamas behind closed doors. The grandmother who raised him and the man you’ve never seen.”

[...] Norton was impressed with the “calm,” “no-drama Obama.” The actor continued, “And in a weird way, when you look behind the curtain with that team, they are really zen. It’s amazing how zen they are.”

The always-mighty Konchog Norbu sends on this “interesting-looking trailer for a film called ‘Oh My God’,” noting that it uses “a ton of Tibetan Buddhist imagery.”

EMBED-Oh My God Trailer – Watch more free videos

Thanks as ever, Konchog.

And while we’re talking Tibetan Buddhism on video, I have to give props to my “alma mater” at Wisdom Publications, who are sponsoring PBS’s showings of Vajra Sky Over Tibet, and even have a nifty little “ad” that will run with it:

Well done!

For listings of when Vajra Sky Over Tibet will be playing, visit the Wisdom blog. It’s playing on Boston’s WGBH this Sunday at 5:30. My calendar is marked.

CNN.com has just posted a story called “Prison inmates go Zen to deal with life behind bars.” See? When dharma seeps into the mainstream, good things can happen!

From Kung Fu to Kill Bill and even those cheesy Yellow Book ads he did… the man was a living Dharma-Burger — and that’s no insult (though that ad actually was insulting; you’ll find the Horse’s report on it from a couple of years ago here). How many other people have singlehandledly had such an effect on pop-culture, tempting us to at least begin to explore the worlds of Dharma and martial arts?

He’ll be missed.