LONDON, Ky. (AP) — A woman who was bitten by a snake at a church that neighbors say practices serpent handling died of her wounds hours later, a newspaper reported.
Linda Long, 48, was bitten Sunday at East London Holiness Church, where neighbors said the reptiles are handled as part of religious services, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Tuesday.
Long died at University of Kentucky Medical Center about four hours after being bitten, authorities told the newspaper.
“She said she was bitten by a snake at her church,” said Lt. Ed Sizemore of the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office.
Handling reptiles as part of religious services is illegal in Kentucky. Snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50 to $100 fine.
Police said they had not received any reports of snake handling at the church.
Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible that says a sign of a true believer is the power to “take up serpents” without being harmed.
Church officials could not be
Rumsfeld Quits; Bush Taps Gates for Post
WASHINGTON (AP) — After years of defending his secretary of defense, President Bush on Wednesday announced Donald H. Rumsfeld’s resignation within hours of the Democrats’ triumph in congressional elections. Bush reached back to his father’s administration to tap a former CIA director to run the Pentagon.
The Iraq war was the central issue of Rumsfeld’s nearly six-year tenure, and unhappiness with the war was a major element of voter dissatisfaction Tuesday – and the main impetus for his departure. Even some GOP lawmakers became critical of the war’s management, and growing numbers of politicians were urging Bush to replace Rumsfeld.
TAKING UP SERPENTS
O! Your pungent veins refused to dream! They sent away the spirit
and deceived the supple skin. Your serpent swims coldly past
in the daylight of our minds revealing such a grandiose silhouette;
your murderous, clumsy tenure; goddamned metaphor of terror!
Finished, yet not soon forgotten, your ragged breath’s gone cold.
Barren and witless, you observe your own sightless prostration!
Is this the reality, that you should come to this; such venom
displayed in the rising tally of `no confidence’? What of truth?
Have you left it, not to a free people, but to evaporated sins,
to stepping down as mere warmonger bowed upon retirement?
O! Sir! It shall not be so happy an account that you’ve laid down,
Leaving so many in harms way, bloodied, writhing on the ground!
You stand now at the alter of your own twisted, external reality;
The fear ridden episodic drumbeating to aspirations of tyranny!
You leave a bent and broken man with expressions of gloom
Only befitting one who claimed deaths makeshift throne!
You’ve been bitten by the venomous truth swimming near you!
It swam not in you, but outside of you as ill-fated liar’s bait
Which you did greedily consume with worthless deception
Sacrificing charitable patriots instead of yourself!
March, sir! Stride past! Be done with it! You’ve wasted life!
You’re a leper! A scud felled silent! The sacrificial lamb
Laid down in the midst of discord; oils fraudulent folly,
And you shall not again this way come. Amen…
Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman
Can I just say I love your ‘tagline’: Don’t burn the flag wash it!! It’s a great blog you’ve got here.
http://islandphilosophy.blogspot.com/
OK, no eloquence from me today. I will be blunt. I wasn’t expecting that picture when I scrolled down and it scared the shit outta me. Yikes.
Me too, HCG. Zowie!
But fitting.
Nice hook between the two stories and just the right amount of disgust and wrath and then dismissal of old Rummy.
We accuse! If there is justice, we will yet bring him to justice.
Never forget.
from pieces of intelligence: the existential poetry of donald rumsfeld:
“how does it end?
it ends,
that’s all.”
KEvron
Good poetry! I like the photo, too. It works well with the writing:)
James,
Thank you. Come again.
HCG,
Blunts good and sorry for the “scare”… :>)
mirth,
I like big hooks and I cannot lie! …Wait. Oh! Sorry. I got a bit confused there. ;>)
I have no idea what the hay that even means… Please ignore the MC Hammer time.
Keveron,
I read that the other day. Rummy can sure spit the verse… He has plenty of time to hone his craft at this juncture.
OWL,
Thank you. I have a hard time competing with my associate Ben. Oh… Who am I kidding? It’s a matter of ART versus SLAPDASH COLLAGE…
It’s a no brainer!
“It’s the war/art stupid!” :>)
“And you shall not again this way come.” I like that line.
Today has been a good day, hasn’t it?
Today has been a good day
Sara,
That may well be the greatest understatement since “they’ll greet us as liberators”…
Peace.
They all need to be biten by the venomous truth! Great stuff Poetryman
Great! You sure captured the mood with this work. Rumsfeld is so very evil.
Impressive piece, my man. Love the picture with it. Perfect.
Hi Poetry Man, Another good one.
At least Rummy stoked the fires of anger. His arrogance fueled antiwar sentiment. Let us not forget that he was only the tip of the iceberg.
This is not the time to think things have changed. They will lay down the thickest smoke screen possible while they continue with business as usual.
graeme, pop, pt, helen and case…
Thank you!
Peace.
“And you shall not again this way come.”
I couldn’t have said it better. May that be for the whole administration!
Peace.
What a graphic!