The Angry Exile: Not that I want to be all tinfoil hatty, but...

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

Friday, 11 February 2011

Not that I want to be all tinfoil hatty, but...

... what the fuck!?

Click for linky

Christ, there's a good argument against monopoly currency in one nation. One currency for the whole world? The answer's no. Go fuck yourself in the eye.

Comments (7)

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Groompy Tom · 737 weeks ago

So he's calling for a one-world currency is he. We should be calling for his fucking head on a shit-smeared stake.
My recent post Does The EU Have A Legal Fiction

3 replies · active 737 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 737 weeks ago

On the bright side I can't see how it can possibly work. You'll never stop people from just coming to an agreement between themselves, which means the barter economy is always a possible alternative.

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Groompy Tom · 737 weeks ago

Very good point, AE. But I bet he's covered that angle with harsh punishments for those who try and beat the system. I don't think we should rule out the stake option.
My recent post Does The EU Have A Legal Fiction

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Angry_Exile 90p · 737 weeks ago

No doubt it's occurred to him but you can make a law to say whatever you want and have no effect if your ability to police and enforce it hovers around zero. For example, I'm sure that there are laws saying that in certain cases payment in kind must be costed for tax purposes, but bearing in mind that it's hard enough to deal with tradesmen doing off book work cash in hand how could they possibly tackle, say, a plumber who fixes a leaky tap for a baker in return for a few free loaves per week for the next couple of months?

Still doesn't rule out the stake option ;)

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C777 · 737 weeks ago

So Zimbabwe- poorest per capita nation on earth,has the same currency as Luxembourg - richest per capita nation on earth, hasn't that unfeasable situation already occured in the EURO zone ?
Never learn do they ?
Just shows what a dumb fuck that man is .

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 737 weeks ago

There's that too, of course. Can't believe I didn't think of it when I posted. I must have been too busy saying he could get to fuck.

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nisakiman · 737 weeks ago

Words (almost) fail me. So let's see, the most recent attempt at imposing a single currency on a bunch of economically and culturally disparate nations has been a complete and unmitigated disaster, so the director of the IMF wants to repeat this total fuck-up on a global scale...yes, that'll sort the world's economic woes out, for sure.

Ye Gods, where do they find these people..

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