The Angry Exile: Girls with guns.

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

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Girls with guns.

What's the problem? I'd have thought there's a whole DVD sub industry on the theme in the US. More seriously why waste time on periodic reviews of the issue because of EU diktats? The MoD should simply say that these are the physical and mental* criteria for each job in the armed forces and and absolutely anyone who meets the criteria, contents of underpants notwithstanding, can do that job. It's not a tricky decision. I know the feminazis will immediately get their ladycocks in a knot because the criteria will often discriminate against women. Yeah, true, but the criteria for being a beach lifeguard discriminates against me because I'm a shit swimmer, and you know what? I got over it. My wife can't get things of very high shelves as well as I can because I'm several inches taller, and you know what? She's over that too. Hardly a problem as she just gets me to do it or stands on a chair, but you get the picture - we all have physical and mental* differences that make us better at some things and worse at others. And in general men tend to be bigger and stronger than women, and to have more endurance to boot. There's a big overlap where women towards the bigger/stronger end of the scale are tougher than men at the smaller/weaker end of the scale. Also many women can no doubt train to a similar level of strength and endurance as many men, which will blur the differences even further. But for fuck's sake, the needs of the role are far more important than the abilities of some of the potential applicants, and it makes no sense to lower the bar so more of a certain sort of applicant can get in. If an Army tank mechanic has to pick up a certain weight quite often the criteria has to exclude everyone who can't, and unfortunately that will be more women than men.

It might perhaps help if the MoD changed the way it looked at applicants. Instead of recognizing two sexes, along with however many religions and ethnicities, perhaps they should begin by dividing all applicants into one of three categories: soldiers, sailors and air force. Whether a soldier, sailor or, for want of a gender neutral term, airman gets cranky for just a few days a month or most mornings is of far less importance than whether they aim a rifle accurately, drop bombs on target, know how the engine of a destroyer works, can fix a tank, fly a helicopter, set up a field kitchen, build a runway under fire, or do whatever it is that particular one of the thousands of different military jobs requires.

Of course I have no expertise and not a lot of knowledge here, and it could be that there are genuine reasons that I don't know about to rule women out from certain military jobs. Would they get reproductively fucked up by working closely on reactors in nuclear subs for example? I have absolutely no idea, but if it could be shown that medically there's an issue there I'd say sorry ladies but that's probably not for you, though even then if a woman really wanted to do it (and signed a waiver - probably a necessity in these litigious times) then what the hell. Up to her. So Defence Departments of the world, I have this to say. Don't change the job requirements for anything, but if the girls can do it then let them. I'm all for it personally as Mrs Exile looks goddamn sexy with a shotgun - the thought of her in an F/A18 .... ooo, I think I'm going to need a lie down.

* I emphasize "differences", not superiority/inferiority. According to a book on our shelf there are physical difference between male and female brains. The bottom line is that the sexes tend, and yes that does mean it's a generalization again, tend to have variations in what mental skills they're good at. Men, it is claimed, do not multi task as well as women, and looking at the way so many women seem able to effortlessly organize... well, practically anything, personally I believe it. On the other hand women tend not to be quite so hot at the 3 dimensional spatial awareness stuff, which is apparently why some turn maps around when navigating for their bemused partners. Probably this means that women should be the generals and decide what needs to get blown up, but leave throwing the actual hand grenades to men. Unless it involves dropping bombs since flying and fighting is multi tasking again. That might also mean that whoever we had a war with we'd be friends with again by the time their children's birthdays came around. Or something.