You want to spank me?

Fire up your broadband pipes.

This video has got to be seen to be believed. It's an episode of CNN's Crossfire from 1986 featuring Frank Zappa as pundit. He dukes it out with, among others, Robert Novak. The subject is censorship of rock music and videos and the raucous exchanges that ensue make The O'Reilly Factor look like The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Here's a nice taste:

Zappa: You want to spank me?

John Lofton, Washington Times: No, I’m not into spanking.

Mr. Zappa, extraordinarily prescient and well spoken (and well-tailored), makes the observation that "the biggest threat to America today is not communism; it's moving America towards a fascist theocracy and everything that has happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe." To which Mr. Novak replies:

Novak: Mr. Zappa, do you really think, I mean, all kidding aside, in this country, with the permissiveness, that we are moving toward a fascist theocracy?

Zappa: You bet we are, buddy.

There are dozens of nuggets like this, including a hilarious discussion of the video for Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher." Mucho hosannahs to Crooks and Liars, which got this from iFilm. The video is quite long, so sit tight while it loads.

PS> Why don't you visit the Frank Zappa website?