The Angry Exile: Pots and kettles

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

Monday, 28 November 2011

Pots and kettles

Half inched from Zerohedge.

From the Mail:

Countries will be forced to submit their budgets for EU approval before they go to national parliaments, will have to sign up to strict new rules on the size of debts and deficits and will be sued for any breach in the European Court of Justice.

Mrs Exile comments, wondering if this would be the same EU that hasn't had its books signed off by the auditors for 17 years in a row. Damn good question. But in the absence of any sane answer I'd say that countries all over Europe can look forward to seeing headlines like the Irish did a couple of weeks ago.

Unless the whole bloody Euro train wreck finally comes off the rails first, of course. Who knows, that might even have happened by the time this post goes up.

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John Galt · 695 weeks ago

My biggest concern here would be that Ireland has a bit of history of certain groups defending their right to exist and the liberty of Ireland in rather grim and desperate terms - specifically, the IRA.

If the EU continues in this way, such that Ireland becomes little more than a protectorate of the EU, how long will it take until the historical road to freedom ends up with a mortar bomb or a Semtex loaded lorry detonating at the Berlaymont in Brussels.

4 replies · active 695 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 695 weeks ago

Hell's bells, that hadn't occurred to me. :o

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John Galt · 695 weeks ago

You're shitting me right?

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Angry_Exile 90p · 695 weeks ago

Sorry, no. :$ In hindsight it seems such an obvious concern that I can't believe I missed it. I suppose because they've been relatively quiet lately in comparison to our current Emmanuel Goldsteins over in the 'Stans I'd forgotten the Irish republicans. I suppose also the same could be said of ETA, and who knows if unwanted federalisation wouldn't prompt more such groups to spring up. Apart from the Scots - as we all know the Scottish Nationals want both independence from England and greater integration with Europe, which seems like fighting for independence so you can give it away to someone else. Still, hopefully the whole project will fall apart before then... as long as everyone's braced for the next round.

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John Galt · 695 weeks ago

I was over with family in Innishannon, Cork a few weeks back on one of the locals brought it up in the pub, so the meme is in the wild. There's a lot of anger across the country at the moment, which is barely being held in check. The fact that the budget had been sent to the Berlaymont before it had even been shown to the Dáil has got people up in arms saying that the Dáil have become the EU's glove puppets.

This is dangerous stuff, because that's exactly what they say about the NI Assembly with respect to the UK Government. It's a bloody powderkeg.

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John Galt · 695 weeks ago

The UK government has made the necessary precautions for dealing with terrorists having had the problem for more than a century. However, it seems to me that If terrorists were to prepare a truck bomb on the outskirts of the EU, they could drive it up to the Berlaymont and detonate it with some measure of ease.

It wouldn't even need to be when the commission was in session (where perimeter security is at it's tightest), as a symbolic attack at 04:00 hrs Sunday would be as psycologically damaging without the backlash of massive civilian casualties.

I don't want this to happen, I'd much rather the EU just withered on the vine after the death of the Euro, but I fear that if we continue to go down this route, then this is the inevitable outcome.

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