Camilla's Constitutional

Aunt Camilla

CAMILLA'S CONSTITUTIONAL

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A thin layer of broken glass
protects her feet from the soft asphalt.

And when she walks, it comes as no surprise
that blunders swoop and shout her name.

"Get out of the way, Camilla," they say.

Still, she kisses them every morning,
sheep's wool and wax in her ears,
touching here a shoulder, there, a cheek,
tenderly as a lover or favored aunt.

"Oh."

It's the evenings, when she balances on the tightrope
between day and night, that make for longer, quieter sighs.

And when she retires early, she compares everything she owns
to the sound of the boy who trills his greeting upward
to the window of the girl who waits, anxious for his pursed lips' call,
and the ice cream truck, which pauses at each corner
billowing incessant renditions of Turkey in the Straw four bars long.

A bass in monotone, beats a salsa to her own four-stroke engine,
that occasionally falters in the near dark, the heat so wide,
childrens' laughter cannot cross it, even with the hydrants open.

Gang Wars

Rainbow Covenant

In certain "injunction zones" of Los Angeles, gangs are prohibited from gathering in groups more than one, and from using pagers and cell phones.

Eddie Adams, photojournalist, dead at 71

Quotes of Interest

1) "The Senate...is planning to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration before breaking for the election."

2) The RNC thinks Democrats seek to ban the Bible, and said so in a pamphlet mailed to West Virginia and Arkansas Republicans. RNC spokesperson Christine Iverson said, "When the Massachusetts Supreme Court sanctioned same-sex marriage and people in other states realized they could be compelled to recognize those laws, same-sex marriage became an issue. These same activist judges also want to remove the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance." Guess it's true.

Republicans emphasize that anti-homosexual speech quoted from the Bible could be construed and prosecuted as hate crimes.

3) Doublespeak Department

Defense of Marriage Act = War on Homosexuals

4) Seven Florida Supreme Court justices ruled unanimously, writing that "Terri's Law," passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature last fall, was "an unconstitutional encroachment on the power that has been reserved for the independent judiciary." Terri Schavio's feeding tube remains in place at least until the 10 days for appeal have passed. Terri's been on a feeding tube since 1990.

5) Halliburton's KBR division - responsible for gas and war-related activities in Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Brazil - is in bankruptcy and may go on the block. At least 45 of Halliburton's employees and contractors have died in Iraq in the last year.

6) "The Pentagon image-mongers had learned from Vietnam that all great war photography is essentially antiwar photography." - Pete Hamill, musing on the death of photographer Eddie Adams.

Bentgrass

According to the New York Times, "Monsanto and Scotts have developed a strain of creeping bentgrass for use on golf courses that is resistant to the widely used herbicide Roundup. The altered plants would allow groundskeepers to spray the herbicide on their greens and fairways to kill weeds while leaving the grass unscathed.

". . . .In the new study, scientists with the Environmental Protection Agency found that the genetically engineered bentgrass pollinated test plants of the same species as far away as they measured -about 13 miles downwind from a test farm in Oregon. Natural growths of wild grass of a different species were pollinated by the gene-modified grass nearly nine miles away."

I'm just saying.

Furthermore, the Diocese of Tuscon has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson wrote that bankruptcy was, "the best opportunity for healing and for the just and fair compensation of those who suffered sexual abuse by workers for the church in our diocese."

The RCC is going down. Here's hoping they do it with dignity.

Antidepressants & Stars

Let me begin this morning with a short prayer: thank you, Lord, for actors who write 12-hour turnarounds into their contracts.

And continue with a question: if antidepressants have been proven sufficient risk to children in increasing likelihood of suicide to have the FDA require a black box warning, then why not the same warning for adults?

Pollution and Poverty

As reported in today's New York Times, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Michael O. Leavitt, said,

"There is no environmental progress without economic prosperity. Once our competitiveness erodes, our capacity to make environmental gains is gone. There is nothing that promotes pollution like poverty."

The poor live and breathe pollution more than anyone. They should know. The Chinese know.

The poor are easy targets.

Fear and desperation make good workers and criminals.

We solve that problem of crime by declaring war on it. Prisons are a growth industry.

Under certain models, the strong hold dominion over the weak with the blessing of God.

That's the way it always has been.

Watched Lars Van Triers' "Dogville". You should too.

Nothing promotes poverty more than greed.

In other news, watch Berkeley CA as it votes in November on Proposition Q that would decriminalize prostitution.

Legally-Free Music On Line

The Dogs

'Dog' is often employed as a derogatory term, but not today.

Stream contemporary classical music, free, from Epitonic.

Listen to Ingram Marshall.

Thinking 'movie music'.

Living 'movie music'.

Being 'movie music'.