
Socialism thwarts freedom of speech by arbitrarily redefining words and phrases under the specious guise of helping the downtrodden.

Fascism makes freedom of speech a crime punishable by incarceration.





They’re hella bigger than I realized.
An RQ-4 Global Hawk was lost off the coast of southern Spain in June of this year, and the wreckage was recovered only recently. That’s a loss of about $123 million, and the cause of the crash has not been released to date.

[Source]

That one is 14-feet long. Giant squid can grow to over three times that size.

[Found here.]
Regardless of his politics, some of which I’ve disagreed with, John McCain forever earned my respect for his conduct during his 5+ years incarceration as a POW in North Vietnam.
[Related post here.]

THIS is amazing.
Remembering Triggly Puff.
Stuff I never knew about petticoats.
Cats during an earthquake in Japan [via].
The Dancing Plague of 1518 killed hundreds of peasants in Strasbourg Germany.
The Laughing Epidemic of 1962 affected hundreds of people in Tanganyika (now Tanzania).
Got a critter trapped under the kitchen counter? It might not be what you think it is.
In the past six years (2002-2018) there have been three recorded deaths in the US from snake bites during religious services. Pastor Cody Coots survived a bite to the face. Jamie Coots, Cody’s father was bit on the hand and died in 2014. (Pinkard and Bowden addressed this practice in 1984.)
About Hollerin’. Wanna hear some? Leonard Emanuel was one of the best.
Petticoat Junction trivia – Edgar Buchanan (aka Uncle Joe Carson) was a dentist in real life. He’s pictured above with Irene Ryan (aka Daisy Mae “Granny” Moses) on the set of The Beverly Hillbillies, 1968.
Cyriak outdoes himself creepy-wise, with “Indigestion.” [Found here.]
Frank Zappa‘s final live performance (with backup by Pražský výběr) 1991, Prague, Czechoslovakia, shortly after the collapse of the USSR. Long intro, but worth the listen.
Traffic, 1971. We played their albums in college so often that if you held the vinyl to a light you could see through the grooves.
A great cultural icon passed on this week. She possessed one of the greatest voices in the business, singing and performing gospel, blues, R&B, jazz, soul and pop. Multiple generations grew up listening to her recordings, myself included.
What a natural. Only 22 years old in 1964, and she was already amazing. Respect indeed.
R.I.P. Aretha Franklin (1942-2018).
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow.



Ruth Norman (1900-1993) was the gilded leader of “Unarius,” a UFO cult founded with her husband Ernest in 1954. Ruth was not only a figurehead for “interdimensional understanding” but a master at putting together looks fit for an intergalactic space queen.
[Photos & modified caption found here and, yes, there’s more.]