A prominent protester of The Da Vinci Code resorts to prayer:

The head of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei says he prays every day for author Dan Brown and the people behind the film of his novel "The Da Vinci Code," which portrays his movement as secretive and murderous.

Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez said in an interview published on Wednesday that he had not read the best-selling novel and believed its success showed modern society needed proper spiritual and religious education.

The film, which has angered Christian groups with its story that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her, had a cool reception from critics at a press screening on Tuesday evening before opening the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

A key figure in the story is an Opus Dei member, the murderous and masochistic albino monk Silas. In real life, the group has no monks.

"I pray every day for the writer and also for those people who made the film, because they may not realize that what they say could hurt people and that they are blaspheming," Echevarria told the Catholic newspaper La Croix.

Today--although I knew this would be a fruitless endeavor--I actually went inside a convenience store and asked if they had any lighter fluid.  A young male (I'm pretty sure it was a male, anyway), with corn-rowed hair and hip spectacles, said, "What?"

"Lighter fluid."

"What's that?"

"You know, like for a Zippo."

"What's a Zippo?"

I had to purchase a disposable bastard gas butane lighter so I could light my drive-home-pipe.

What's a Zippo.  I am still aghast.

Bradenton, Florida:

A woman has shot an alligator that came into her home and attacked her dog.

The alligator was only 3 feet long, but Candy Frey wasn't taking any chances. When the reptile came into the lanai of her home east of Bradenton Saturday and attacked her golden retriever, Frey went and got her gun.

After Frey and her daughter managed to push the gator out of the lanai through the dog door, she blasted away at it four times.

[...]

The deputy gave Frey a warning citation for hunting without a license.

What a crock.

P.S. Deputy Dumbass:  Just because it wasn't bleeding much didn't mean it wasn't badly wounded.  This animal should have been checked out by a qualified vet or euthanized.

UPDATE:  Also check out this post at The War on Guns regarding a different report about the same incident.

I must remark that, although I would not want to find one inside my house, encountering such a beast on my own property would be very interesting.  No one would think twice about hearing a few gun shots, and I've never skinned a gator before.  It would be a good learning experience.