The Angry Exile: I wonder how this news is being taken.

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? [...] We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

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, 29 September 2010

I wonder how this news is being taken.

Warn? So we can do precisely what about it? Sell any shares in Kodak? Or are the researchers warning of the implications as regards the solar and planetary magnetic fields? Who knows, The Tellytubbygraph doesn't say beyond noting that it's a sign of less activity of the kind that causes solar flares and "sun sports" (sic), which sounds like disastrous news for cricket fans and men who appreciate beach volleyball for its athletic content, honest.

So how do we look at this article? You could, if your mind works a certain way, choose to view this as a reminder of the massive influence that the fat end of two thousand trillion trillion tonnes of fusing hydrogen parked, in astronomical terms, almost on our doorstep inevitably must have on the Earth. On the other hand you could, if your mind works in a different way, be sitting there wondering if there's a way you could plausibly blame this on global warming. That warble gloaming is even automatically associated with this by Google Ads means I'm sure it's crossing a few minds.

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Cobbett's Ghost · 756 weeks ago

If you weren't aware of it : http://www.thecloudmystery.com/The_Cloud_Mystery/...

I note that a reference to sun/earth weather effect dropped into Brian Cox's BBC popsci epic "Wonders of the Universe" - completely unreferenced - an Argentinian chap measuring the water levels at the Iguazu falls - http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/n...

All rather contrary to what's jammed down our throats....

On a separate but mildly related matter - I read somewhere recently that Aussies aren't happy about their swollen green utility bills and there's a big rise in people not paying - as in something of a revolt - is this true - can you put any flesh on them bones?

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Cobbett's Ghost · 756 weeks ago

Comments broken?

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

Something odd going on with comments ... lost two... re-typing

Anyway ... re: Sun vs. Earth Climate

If you're unaware then you might find The Cloud Mystery a worthy watch - it's currently the subject of a CERN project - not that the fuckwits in meeja and warmists take note - except to screech denier stuff.
http://www.thecloudmystery.com/The_Cloud_Mystery/...

It's curious that Brian Cox's BBC popsci epic mini series "Wonders of the Universe" has a sequence where the sun's influence on rainfall at the Iguazu falls in Brazil / Argentina is featured but the gits at Al Habibi-See see fit to not mention it on the series web site and some digging is required to find Pablo Mauas's Paraná river level work:
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/n...

An aside - I read somewhere that Aussies are sitting on (i.e. not paaying) their swollen green utility bills in alarming numbers (well, alarming for the leccy companies and the gummint) - is there any truth in this? If there is - care to put some flesh on dem rumour bones?

The meterologists in the Telegraph article .... The Finnish Mererological Institute - I can vouch from recent detail experience with their forecasts that the stupid gits don't ebven bother to look out the window. Maybe they've a bunch of UK Met Office twats on secondment?

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Angry_Exile 90p · 756 weeks ago

Not as far as I know.

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

Arghhh!!! three tries at comments ...

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 756 weeks ago

Three? Oh, bloody hell. I thought getting Debate In Tents was going to solve all my issues with comments. I'd better go look see if yours are in a moderation queue or something.

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

The effect of the nearest stear on Eath's climate in not something that sits well with the greenie gangs.

The Cloud Mystery Henrik Svenson http://www.thecloudmystery.com/The_Cloud_Mystery/...
- he published in 2006 and has been the butt of an awful lot of nasty warmist attacks ever since.

CERN however think there's something worth investigation and are on the case. http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/Research/CLOU...

Al Habibi-See are doing their usual bias by omission - poor old Brian Cox's popsci eyecandy epic "Wonders of the Universe" "Empire of the Sun" episode featured a chat with an Argenntinian guy (Pablo Mauas) who'se got a very nice correlation between solar activity and water levels on the Paraná river / Iguazu falls - not that it's attributed anywhere - no siree

Bit of digging turns this up though. http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/n...

An aside - I read recently that Aussies are mildly revolting over their swollen green utility bills and aren'y paying up and that the amount of unpaid bills is getting the leccy co's and the politicos worried - any truth in this? if there is care to put a bit of flesh on dem rumour bones?

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 756 weeks ago

Thanks for the link. I haven't seen the doco as it happens so I'll enjoy watching that, though I bought a copy of The Chilling Stars a few years ago so I was already aware of Svensmark's cosmic ray cloud seeding theory, the initial SKY experiment in the basement and the eventual CLOUD experiment at CERN.

Not aware of anything beyond grumbling about utility bills here in Oz, though in my tinfoil hat moments I'd be prepared to believe that vested interests woul want to avoid that becoming any kind of story in case it gains momentum. What I can tell you is that they are taking the piss a bit, all for green reasons, natch. We've got heaps of uranium they won't let us use for power and would rather we stopped exporting for money, but they're determined to punish the nation for burning coal instead. Meanwhile water bills here are going to double to pay for a desalination plant in Wonthaggi, the state government's solution to the drought which will come on line at the end of next year. Shame the fucking drought seems to have broken this year, which might make the desal plant an energy intensive $4 billion white elephant that needs to be paid for through everyone's water bills o.0 If you still have a link to where you read about revolts I'd be very interested.

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

Ha! drove me mildly battier than normal that - didn't save a copy... popped me a Blogger comment box with moderation tuened on at one point too. - ho-hum

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Angry_Exile 90p · 756 weeks ago

Okay, fixed it. Apologies to both Cobbett's Ghost and/or Tom. By default or by accident the Debate In Tents settings treat comments with two or more links as potential spam and automatically places them in a queue for moderation. Link laden comment spam has been a minor issue here recently and since the Blogger system provides little in the way of tools to tackle it I'm currently inclined to leave it like this, at least for the time being. But I will put something to that effect on a post comment message if there is such a thing or on the comment submission bit below.
Again, sorry to both of you. I do understand the feeling as exactly the same thing happened to me recently thanks to Blogger's new and user unfriendly anti-spam filter. If it becomes a pest I'll turn it off completely and look at other solutions.

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Tom · 756 weeks ago

The delinquent utility payments article was about four or five weeks back. Understandably / they'd / want it sat on pronto.

In a similar vein I've a very fond memory of a bit of Italian civil disobedience see at the end: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=81166900...

Australian Uranium ? I recall shuffling through ankle deep oxide on the dockside at Darwin - wondered why they don't use it domestically.

1 reply · active 756 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 756 weeks ago

Because nukophobia is rampant here. If I had a dollar for every time I've said I support nuclear energy and someone's said, 'Ah, but would you want to live near a nuclear reactor,' I'd have... well, probably only about twelve dollars but still. I tell them they've asked the wrong question and say that they should really ask if I'd want to live near a nuclear reactor again, before explaining that I've lived within a couple of hours drive of a dozen or so reactors and for some years within a few miles of one of 'em, and that I'm not dead, mutated or glowing in the dark. The follow up is usually, 'Ah, but what about Chernobyl?' to which I reply that colossal fuck up though it was it didn't kill me last time despite fallout reaching as far as the British Isles, that it killed almost nobody between where I lived and Prypiat, that wildlife is flourishing in the quarantine zone now, that contemporary Western reactors were and are better designed (e.g. have a containment building) and finally that if talking nuclear to a Brit one could as well say 'What about Windscale?' Almost always the response is a puzzled look and the question 'What the fuck's Windscale?' - not recognising the name of the world's second biggest nuclear cock up makes me suspect most of my anti-nuke friends' opinions are formed by breathlessly doom-mongering news reports.

There's one non power producing reactor near Sydney which is used for research and producing medical isotopes, and presumably they feed it good old dinkum Aussie uranium instead of that nasty foreign stuff ;-) Needless to say the Green party wants it shut down.

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JuliaM · 756 weeks ago

I've never seen the Northern Lights, and I've always wanted to. Such a pity.

Incidentally, there are Southern Lights too. Are they similarly affected?

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 756 weeks ago

Had to hijack your identity, Julia. For some reason your comments went into Blogger, which treated them as spam, rather than the new Debate In Tents system. Not sure why but I'll look into it.

Get yourself off on holiday to northern Canada or Scandinavia. Unless I'm mistaken it's always been pot luck as to whether they appear and how strongly but I expect if you wait long enough they'll turn up and put on some sort of show. Yes, there certainly are Southern Lights but I've never seen them. We're nowhere near far south enough and I doubt even the most southerly part of Tasmania would do. I saw the Northern Lights once from about 300-400km away from the Arctic Circle, so for the Southern Lights I'd guess you'd need to be on a ship in the Southern Ocean or on one of the remote islands in it. If any mainland is close enough I suppose it would have to be Tierra del Fuego or thereabouts, but I'm pretty certain that the same thing applies as with the Northern Lights and they're getting a bit shy as well.

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@AmbushPredator · 755 weeks ago

"Had to hijack your identity, Julia. For some reason your comments went into Blogger, which treated them as spam..."

No worries, mate! She'll be right... ;)
My recent post Serious Threats Are Not Tackled With Hysterical Overreaction…

1 reply · active 755 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 755 weeks ago

ʇxǝu uʍop ǝpısdn buıʇıɹʍ ǝq 11,noʎ :)

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