Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for September 26, 2019

I don’t think Germany’s defense budget has ever been a big concern. What about their offense budget??

Are birds insensitive to chili pepper burns because they don’t have lips?

How does that exorcist find time to sleep?

“Ils sont fous ces Italiens” – Obélix

The drawing of that woman creeps me out W-A-Y more than Momo.

Seeing how Americans provide most of the defense, I’m not surprised. Could probably say the same about Japan.

Does that mean when a parrot eats a habanero, it doesn’t burn coming out the other end either? Doesn’t seem fair.

Here’s a better one, the amount of money Americans borrow for medical expenses exceeds Germany’s defense budget. Last year Americans borrowed $88 BILLION and the defense budget is $49 BILLION.

So either we are spending too much on pets or Germany is spending too little on defense!

Not only are birds immune to the effects of capsaicin, they all seem to love the flavor of hot peppers (at least one would think so by the way they raid my pepper plants).

Side note: Since most other animals are affected by capsaicin, IF you have bird feeders in your yard and they are getting raided by squirrels, just mix some cayenne powder into the seed mix and the pests will leave it alone

500 million Americans visited an exorcist in 2016-but it didn’t do any good.

It isn’t going to help, Italians. Give your women razors.

That Italian exorcist is getting a LOT of exercise!

And Germany still isn’t meeting it’s agreed upon share of defense spending to be a part of NATO. One German said, “Why should we spend our money on defense? We’ll let the Americans protect us!”

Everyone in the (free) world depends on the USA for their defense. No need to spend money on something Uncle Sam pays for.

No wonder Italians are thin – they get a lot of exorcise.

Twist: It’s always the same 500,000.

Now that’s what I call a firebird.

The exorcist comment seems doubtful. How could one exorcist see that many people in only one year? And what is his name? I may need him when he has a free appointment time.

Lets put this to rest, Five hundred thousand visit an exorcist, not the same exorcist.

The EU just waits for the US to save their butts.

Red pepper is how I used to keep squirrels out of the bird feeds (I’ve since moved.) The squirrels, after one miserable taste, avoided the feeders like the plague!

Squirrels experience the heat just like humans. Start out with a lot of ground red pepper mixed with the seeds for about a week, then gradually cut back. They’ll pair the scent with the burn. Every once in awhile do a random high dose. The birds don’t care one bit. Although I could swear the black capped chickadees liked the flavor because more of them came to the feeders after I started the pepper thing, then they tapered off as I reduced the pepper!

And they haven’t gotten rid of Mussolini’s spirit yet…