Quote of the day:
“In the name of democracy you kill our children!” ~Father of an injured 5 year old in Iraq

The Seattle Times headline today in huge bold type: Jubilation, disbelief
I don't think one could feel the former without the latter, though I'm sure we're in store for many manufactured reports of how delighted and thankful the Iraqis we haven't maimed or killed feel about their "liberation". Not that they aren't delighted and thankful that the removal of Saddam will mean an end to being bombed and sanctioned by the US, and the opportunity for a more benevolent, kinder, gentler dictatorship by US occupation forces. The choices for these people seem to me to range from dehumanizing to horrific.

The River Snake
India, Cecil Henry Bompas
Their sister said, "Go to the river and call him."
So they went to the river and called, and the snake came up out of the water and went to their house with them. Then they welcomed the snake and gave him great quantities of rice beer to drink. After drinking this the snake became sleepy and coiling himself in great coils went to sleep. Then the brothers who did not like a snake brother-in-law took their axes and cut off the head of the snake while he slept, and afterwards their sister lived in their house.

Who says 2 heads, are better than one? I can relate to this struggle...In some snake species the male rubs its chin against the female dorsum during courtship. As this particular snake has two heads, which may have different ideas about courting and mating, and two chins, it would be nice to find out how the two heads manage the deal and also to find out what the female's response is. They also have a great deal of difficulty deciding which direction to go.

A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
* * *
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.
* * *
He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough*
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.
~DH Lawrence