The Angry Exile: Bansturbation.

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

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Bansturbation.

I was going to blog on the latest recreational drug to be involved in a couple of deaths and attract the attention of the bansturbators but since it's already been covered nicely over at the LPUK blog I'll just quote a bit and integrate it into a future post on drugs in general.

Two lads took contaminated MCAT. Not MCAT. Contaminated MCAT. Does one ban all milk because people in China died drinking contaminated milk? No.

Do you reduce or increase the chances of contaminated products by making it illegal to make, sell or consume? Answer: Increase.

Do you reduce the availability of a drug by making it illegal? Answer: No.

Do you raise the price of a drug by making it illegal? Answer: Yes

Do drug dealers stand to gain ever greater profits from making a drug illegal? Answer: Yes

Is there a greater incentive to push a drug when the profit margins grow significanty? Answer: Yes.

Does it criminalise people both due to their actions and by dint of forcing them to consort with other criminals? Answer: Yes

Worth going and reading the whole thing, especially as another excellent point made is that the UK is likely, because of the tabloid stories and the wailing of the grief stricken and the paternalist bastards who want to run everyone's lives for them, to ban it and miss a golden opportunity to deal with a recreational drug rationally for a change. The term 'legalise' was used at the LPUK blog, which I think is probably not the right word since this stuff is legal right now, but I take the point. There could have been some sensible regulation of this stuff that recognised that if someone is so determined to get stoned that they're prepared to consume fucking fertiliser then we all might as well accept that it's their choice and let them get on with it with the minimum of interference.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: Brasso on the rocks anyone ?; 18 March 2010 at 02:51
Angry Exile said...: Not for me, thanks. I'm TT and non-smoking, let alone fertiliser sandwiches and speedballs. But you go for it if you want to.; 18 March 2010 at 02:55
just say no said...: Their relatives were on tv saying it was terrible that it wasn't banned as it made the kids think it was ok to take and that the government should be ashamed etc etc
Excuse me. There are lots of things you shouldn't take that aren't banned that might kill you. Turpentine, paraquat, beta blockers etc
And some weasel said it's all Prof Nutts fault aswell as he resigned and it held up the inquiry into this new drug.
Sadly two people are dead because they're stupid. And that's it.
Take any shit you like but suffer the consequences. Make all drugs legal as far as I'm concerned.
If you're stupid enough to take drugs then don't complain when they damage you.; 18 March 2010 at 02:56
Angry Exile said...: just say no, that's pretty much where I stand. As long as drug users aren't stealing from me or anyone else to buy their stuff, and in the absence of black market prices being further increased by governments destroying as much as they can I doubt they'd have to as often as now, it's their lookout. Sad when one of them carks it, but it's sad when someone dies as a result of doing anything they personally enjoy.; 18 March 2010 at 03:06
JuliaM said...: Does anyone ever stop and think that maybe by banning this substance, you'll force people into snorting/swallowing/smoking even odder things in a quest for legal thrills, and they might even be more dangerous?

No, you're right, rhetorical question...; 18 March 2010 at 19:16