The South Carolina governor's karate belt is honorary. The wood, however, is presumably real.

Right this very minute, you can navigate to a website and place a bid for a chance to own an authentic old jumprope or dirty pair of sneakers or even a punching bag, punched by the actual fists of Bruce Lee.

When his son informed him early yesterday morning that a female neighbor was being attacked, Kent Hendrix, a Mormon bishop from Utah who moonlights as a martial arts instructor, immediately reached for his weapon of choice: A 29-inch high carbon steel Samurai sword.

In the wake of the recent high profile assaults of hotel maids, hotels are handing out panic buttons to their employees in an effort to keep them safe from maniac members of the public. Now, The Pierre is taking it one step further, by training its maids in self-defense. But are they being lulled into a false sense of security? Let's examine, via the NY Post report on the self-defense class:

Comedian Judah Friedlander proclaimed his fighting skills as matchless on today's Good Day NY. Judging by his book, we agree! That is, unless he's up against NY's Gubernatorial Candidate/Karate Expert Jimmy McMillan of "the Rent Is Too Damn High Party."

[A South Korean policeman breaks stone plates with his head during a demonstration for a successful G20 Seoul Summit. The G20 summit will be held in Seoul from November 11 to 12. Pic via AP.]

Three would-be muggers attempting to rob a German exchange student in Sydney were foiled by, uh, ninjas. You know. Like the turtles. The lesson, obviously, is "Don't mug people outside a goddamn ninja school." [Sydney Morning Herald]

Doing business in Russia can get really nasty, really fast. New York real estate developer Janna Bullock is finding out how bad as she fights a smear campaign being waged by a Russian judo instructor turned corporate raider.

Nat Geo has a fine television show called Taboo, which last night explored the American obesity epidemic. It included a segment on the 'Miss Plus America' pageant. One contestant's skill was karate. Here, a clip of that skill. Taboo: destroyed.

Mr. Miyagi wold be so ashamed.

You can say Steven Seagal is a bad cop. You can say he's fat. You can even say he's boring. But DO NOT say he isn't a totally badass martial artist. Because he SO is.

A Stupid Teenage Ninja Wannabe decided to show off with a pair of nunchucks, a stunt which resulted — predictably — in some serious testicular pain. Cowabunga, dude.

How many kicks to the groin would it take for this girl to start wailing on your sad, crumpled body before you begged her to stop? (Hint: 1)