The meek may inherit the earth, but you better not try to lift their donation box:

BARNSTABLE, Mass. - Police in Massachusetts say churchgoers in a Cape Cod town tackled a would-be robber who tried to steal a collection box during a service.

Investigators say Clyde Bridges showed up Sunday at the Hyannis Foursquare Portuguese Church wearing a mask and carrying a cigarette lighter shaped like a gun.

Officers arrived to find the 45-year-old being held on the ground by parishioners who had tackled him and ripped off the mask.

Their reaction is more reasonable when you read the Foursquare Portuguese Translation of Luke 6: "If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt. But if they take your money, tackle them and keep in a headlock until the cops arrive."

Chengdu is a sister city of Phoenix, and Food for the Hungry's been there for a couple of years now. Three of our workers were interviewed yesterday for AzCentral, and while they and their families are ok, the devastion is unimaginable.

Please pray for and consider giving to help the people of Chengdu.

The news from China goes from bad to worse.

DUJIANGYAN, China - The toll of the dead and missing soared as rescue workers dug through flattened schools and homes on Tuesday in a desperate attempt to find survivors of China's worst earthquake in three decades.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of Monday's massive, 7.9-magnitude quake.

The Sichuan Daily newspaper reported on its Web site that more than 26,000 people were injured in Mianyang.

Numbers this staggering are hard to grasp. Let's bring the figures closer to home.

In Arizona terms, the earthquake killed every man, woman and child in Payson. Half the residents of Prescott are still buried. The entire city of Buckeye is injured.

The AP story ends on this sober note:

The numbers of casualties was expected to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.

As with the rest of nature, the human soul abhors a vacuum. When you replace religion with politics, naturally the leader becomes your god.

"Yes. Sign me up. I’ve been kidding people for years: The hours are better, the wages are just as good — whoever heard of a vice president getting shot at? — and it’s a great opportunity to travel. And actually since time has gone by, the job is robust … So sure. Anybody here would, if they’re going to be honest. The chances are slim to none. But I promise you, I would deliver all three of Delaware’s electoral votes."

- Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) on the idea of being Vice President

icon: n An image or symbolic representation often with sacred significance.

  

After blogging a while at RedBlueAmerica, our friends at Infinite Monkeys have been tearing it up lately on the home front. If you haven't visited their blog in a while, be sure to drop by.

Please tell me this is a joke.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and defeated contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is currently at the top of John McCain's short list for a running mate. At least that's the word from a top McCain fundraiser and longtime Republican moneyman who has spoken to McCain's inner circle. The fundraiser is less than thrilled with the idea of Huckabee as the vice presidential nominee, and many economic conservatives—turned off by the populist tone of Huckabee's campaign and his tax record as governor—are likely to share that marked lack of enthusiasm.

No, no, NO. Huck is theoretically supposed to help shore up McCain with the GOP base. True, he might bring in a few evangelicals who vote based on identity politics, but that isn't a huge group. Oddly, Huck would turn off many evangelicals who vote based on their conservative values (like me).

He seems to be less a Christian conservative and more of a Christian Democrat of the European Socialist mode. This ideology holds a social gospel outlook in which the power of the State is used to bring God's Kingdom to Earth. While well-meaning, the problems with this philosophy are legion.

First, government is woefully ineffective at social engineering. Second, expanding governmental power means a reduction in individual liberty. Third, an expanded state will be expanded even further by the next, more liberal executive to enforce a more anti-Christian social policy in the near future.

If McCain chooses Huck, he will vastly expand his deep problems with the GOP base. Don't do it, Senator.

Here was my Top Ten veep list created back in February. At this stage, I would probably switch Rudy and Mitt, but the analysis holds up pretty well, imho.

I've been a fan of The Sundays since their first album, so naturally I'd fall for this L.A. jazz-inspired group.

Some Web site concepts are simple and entertaining. Some are compelling, if not disturbing, while others are stupid and pointless. And many are just awesome. For honorable achievement of all the above, I present, Manbabies.

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

Clint Eastwood returns to familiar territory with this 1985 re-imaging of High Plains Drifter, proving you don't need romantic notions of the Old West to make a great movie.

Or more accurately, watching your dog poop.

• Derby City Council, Bolton, Gateshead, and Hartlepool used surveillance to investigate dog fouling.
• Bolton Council also used the act to investigate littering.
• The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea conducted surveillance on the misuse of a disabled parking pass.
• Liverpool City Council used Ripa to identify a false claim for damages.
• Conwy Council used the law to spy on a person who was working while off sick.

And does it work against terrorism or serious crime? Oh, heck no!


Here's hoping this experiment in social monitoring will be replaced with something logical and effective, like reversing the recent attacks against Britons right to self-defense. Maybe, just maybe, Britain will once again be a nation were every man's home is truly his castle.

Did you know Beyonce has her own clothing line? Me neither.

Apparently Dereon, a company she formed with her mom, has been out for a couple of years now. They decided to release clothes for little girls:



I thought Jon Benet's parents were creepy. And that Bratz dolls were a sign of the Apocalypse. Now Ms. Bootylicious is dressing up six-year-olds in red pumps?

Repent! The end is near!

(Via Pop Gumbo)

As I've proven time and time again, I'm a sucker for the shoegaze. Film School is a San Francisco "newgaze" band helping bring back this sound forged in the early '90s. This track is from their latest album, Hideout.

(Caution: don't watch this video if you have epilepsy, are prone to acid flashbacks, or want your eyes to function properly for the rest of the day. Just put on welding goggles and listen to the music.)

"We may now understand why Barack does not wear a flag lapel pin. He's afraid that Bill Ayers will stomp on him."
   — Lefty moonbat Larry C. Johnson, gets off a brilliant line at Obama's expense over at HuffPo.

ExLg was honored to contribute to John Hawkins' latest list, The 25 Most Influential People On The Right According To Conservative Bloggers.

Here was the list of 12 that I submitted, along with the ranking they received on Right Wing News' final list:

• Antonin Scalia (#19)
• Glenn Beck (#14)
• Bill Kristol (#13)
• Charles Krauthammer (#10)
• Karl Rove (#9)
• Jonah Goldberg (#8)
• Mark Steyn (#3)
• Newt Gingrich (#5)
• Michelle Malkin (#2)
• Rush Limbaugh (#1)
• Michael Barone (unranked)
• Jim Geraghty (unranked)

Thanks for letting us help out, John!

Some serious 70's wakajawakja guitar work going on here.



Man, I loved that show.

... who needs enemies?

Please tell me this is a joke, a la "It's Raining McCain".

Please.

It's not?

Oh my. This won't help things. Caution: Craptacular hiphop video ahead.

The Obamessiah claims that McCain was "losing his bearings" when McCain pointed out that Hamas would love an Obama Presidency.

Hamas will have to wait in line. There's plenty of terrorists on Obama's side, and this could go on for quite a while...

McCain: "Hamas supports you!" 
Obama: "You've lost your bearings!"

McCain: "F.A.R.C supports you!"
Obama: "Isn't time for your shuffleboard game, old man?"

McCain: "The Weathermen support you!"
Obama: "I can no more disown them than I can disown my own grandmother. My old, very old grandmother who is still younger than you!"

McCain: "Hugo Chavez supports you!"
Obama: "Look, can we talk about something else, please, like hope or change?"

McCain: "Nigerian terrorists support you!"
Obama: "Hope! Change! Chope! Hange!"

McCain: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supports you!"
Obama: "Look, I'm sure there are some terrorists out there that don't support me. Pretty certain of it, in fact. Like, say, the Methodists. They're mostly terrorists, right? At least, that's what my pastor told me, although I don't remember him saying so and I'd disown him if he did. Yep, the Methodists are terrorists, they cling to guns and religion, after all. And if they're not, then the Presbyterians are."

The Iraqi Defense Ministry is claiming that the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, has been arrested. Let's hope this early report pans out.

U.S. officials said al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Qaida's No.2 official in 1982. He joined al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and trained as a car bombing expert before traveling to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Few details are known about him, but he is believed to have been born in 1969 in Egypt's Nile Delta province of El-Sharqiya. He reportedly left school in the early 1980s to join Islamic Jihad, a group that opposed Egypt's pro-American government and linked to the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

According to associates in Afghanistan, al-Masri has been involved in Islamic extremist movements since 1982, when he joined Islamic Jihad, a terror group led by Ayman al-Zawahri, who became bin Laden's chief deputy.

Hey, I thought Al-Qaeda wasn't in Iraq! Oh who cares; the war is obviously a distraction from Change and Hope and The Future and stuff.

But just look at this loser. I've seen manlier facial hair on 9th graders. Dude, try shaving for a while to see if it grows back fuller. At least use that Rogaine shampoo for a while.

You know, the more I look at that photo, the more familiar it looks. No, not the headgear and robe, just the face. Let me check something in Photoshop...



Hey, that's Trevor — the 20-year-old dude who hung out in my high school parking lot with his El Camino!

Man, it'll be an awkward class reunion this year.