The Angry Exile: Senator Conroy again.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Sunday 22 March 2009

Senator Conroy again.

Well done mate, very well done. Wikileaks is down, presumably because the ACMA blacklist (or something purporting to be it) is there and despite your threat of an $11,000 for anyone in Oz linking to it since most people know what search engines are for and how to use them so every bugger is trying to see what webshites are on the list.

Could you not see this coming? Your efforts to censor the net and keep what is being censored a secret is generating world wide interest. It's human fucking nature for Christ's sake. Tell people that this or that is not allowed and many will be curious and want to check it out to understand why it's not allowed. The supreme fucking irony is that many wouldn't have fucking bothered otherwise. How the fuck can't you be aware of this? Have you pricks in Canberra actually stopped to meet any real people or did your political careers not leave you the fucking time? Because normal people seem to have had enough contact with other normal people to be aware of it, or understand it instinctively.

I repeat, curiosity is part of our nature. Senator please try to grasp this simple point. It's part of what we are. Historically it's taken us up mountains, across oceans and into space. It's also one of the reasons why some people try dope - not because they want to get stoned or because they're warming up for heroin, it's because they're curious to see what's so bad about it that it had to be banned. Sometimes our curiosity does us harm but overall I'd argue that we've benefited from it so presumably it's a trait that's being maintained if not reinforced. This ridiculous attempt to legislate websites you're uncomfortable with, either because they don't fit with your morals (and probably not mine either to be honest, though that's not remotely the point) or because they might - might - breach Australian law, is just adding to the curiosity. What you're doing is like trying to put out last month's bushfires with petrol.

I know the footy season doesn't start till next weekend and this is a blatant rip off of Channel Ten's Before The Game show, but you have to be my vote for Tool Of The Week. And in this house it's only me and Mrs Angry who have a vote, so you're likely to be our Tool Of The Week for as long as your censorship lasts.

Edit: in case any Australians or people in Australia come along and read this, and I know a couple have, I've added a widget from GetUp!, a campaign against Australian web censorship. If you're unhappy with the idea of slower connections, higher costs, innocent websites being inaccessible through being censored in error and, worst of all, 'no holds barred' Government blocking of websites without scrutiny, then please add your name. If you're outside Australia I suggest you keep a real fucking close eye on what's going on here, and in the meantime pass it along to any Aussie's or Aussie residents you know. And if you're happy with censorship I have a movie recommendation for you - while it's still allowed. Maaaaahh!

UPDATE: I hate to say "they just don't get it", I really do. It usually sounds so weak, like someone can't be arsed to make a real argument for or against something. But since the arguments have been made I'm going to say it anyway - Senator Stephen Conroy just doesn't get it.

Conroy ridiculed suggestions that the trial is "the thin edge of the wedge" - the beginnings of a Government cracking down on political dissent.

Look fucknuts, I'm really not too concerned about you and what you want to ban. ~~You may be in Opus Dei and~~* your religious beliefs may well be influencing you on this, but all the same I'm not desperately worried about you, Rudd or the ALP. I'm quite sure it is not your intention to censor sites with political content that disagrees with the ALP's position. Okay? That's not the fucking problem. The fucking problems are firstly the precedent you may set for future governments, one of which may be lead by a world class bastard who does like the idea of stifling political dissent, and secondly that since the fucking blacklist and what's on it is being kept from us we wouldn't find out if a world class bastard is stifling political dissent until it's too fucking late. See? The intention of the government is not in itself scary - it's the fucking ability you're putting in place for future governments. Any fucking chance of that getting through to you?

Did I say Tool Of The Week? Tool Of The Fucking Century more like.

*UPDATE June 09 - Or not in Opus Dei. I can't remember where I saw it apart from Wikipedia, but it's not there now and I can't be bothered to look further. It's really not that important when it's known that Conroy is both strongly religious and Catholic, and that his Catholic values, which he's quite entitled to hold as an individual, might be being imposed on the rest of us.