Free Republic

FULL TITLE: Shocking moment a Kentucky snake-handling preacher is bitten and has to be carried from his church, four years after his pastor father was killed by a rattlesnake This is the startling moment a controversial American pastor, whose father was killed after being bitten by a snake, is himself attacked by a serpent. Cody Coots is the pastor at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus’ Name church in Middlesboro, Kentucky - one of America’s last remaining snake-handling churches. During his sermon, Pastor Coots can be seen handling a snake as he preaches to his congregation.

Interesting op-Ed by the snake handler from Kentucky who was finally killed by a rattlesnake bite. It is about the constitution and freedom of religion. His name was Jamie Coots. I'd never heard of him before, but he was apparently on a National Geographic TV show for a while.

A TV station in the East Texas town of Tyler reports that hundreds more dead birds have been discovered along the sides of a highway bridge. This news adds fresh fuel to a growing conundrum over the cause of hundreds of thousands of avian deaths in localities thousands of miles apart. The station, KLTV, acknowledges that around 200 birds were found dead this morning on state highway 155. The birds, identified as American coots or mud-hens, are the first of this species to be cited in the recent spate of deaths. As with previous cases, the cause of death is...

E.O. “Coots” Matthews, the famed oil well firefighter and founding partner of Houston-based Boots & Coots — a company legendary for putting out some of the world’s most spectacular fires — died at an advanced age on Wednesday of natural causes. Matthews, whose age was not immediately available, [86 by another article] was raised in Porter. He began his oil field career with Halliburton in 1947, after serving as a tail gunner on a B-17 during World War II in Europe. Later that year, he joined M.M. Kinley Co., where he met Asger “Boots” Hansen and Red Adair to...

Some of life’s turning points are obvious. Others come as a surprise, like being hit from behind by a truck. I had an obvious one last week. I became a coot. I applied for early retirement on Social Security. That means I have to buy a beige cardigan and wear it with the buttons mismatched. I have to belt my pants ten inches above my belly button. I’ll start losing hair from my head, which will reappear in my nose and ears. I’m officially an old coot. But that’s not what I came to talk about. I came to talk...