The Hanging Tree

Ever since I have moved, I have a different view from my back deck. It took me a while to come to terms with this unintended consequence but I pride myself on my ability to adapt. That being said, I have in my back yard what can only be described as a hanging tree. It is a fifty foot tall oak with a large horizontal branch about fifteen feet up. Often times, late in the afternoon, I will sit on my deck, sipping the major export of Scotland while enjoying a fine Dominican cigar. I like to contemplate how people in different parts of the world are toiling away at their tedious little lives so that I can while away a pleasant summer evening. I also, on occasion, think about the hanging tree.

I can picture a cowboy, on horseback, throwing a noosed rope over the branch and tying the other end off to a nearby tree. I can see three more horses moving through the cornfield, slowly approaching the tree. As I hold this mental image I lean back in my deck chair and I hear it creak slightly under my weight...


... the worn leather creaked slightly as I involuntarily leaned back in my saddle, away from the dangling noose. "You boys aren't serious about this, are you?" I tried to keep my voice steady.

"Serious as blisters, Johnny."

As Jubal moved his horse closer to me, he reached for the dangling noose and my horse skittered sideways, away from the sudden movement. I saw this as probably my only chance to do anything before they got that rope around my neck. Since my hands were tied behind my back, I reared back, grabbing onto the back edge of my saddle for better balance and brought my leg up to try to kick Jubal from his mount.

But Doc was behind me, grabbing a bunch of my shirt at the nape of my neck and jammed the barrel of his .44 under my jawline. "This ain't our first rodeo. Now settle down." he whispered in my ear. My horse was jumpy but was boxed in by the others and calmed down. As if obeying Doc's command.

Jubal snatched my hat from my head, tossing it to Lucas. "Luke, you need a hat?"

The hat hit Lucas' shoulder and fell to the ground. His eyes were hidden in shadow beneath the brim of his range hat. His mouth was an angry slash across the bottom half of his face. Sitting motionless in his saddle, he let his eyes roam the treeline, looking for intruders. "Get on with it." he finally responded, ignoring my hat on the ground.

With a quick movement, Jubal looped the noose over my bare head and his gloved hands tightened the knot, cinching the rough hemp against my throat. "Now if this here were a proper hangin'," he explained, "with a gallows and all, you would drop down and your weight would snap your neck and it would all be over real quick like." Jubal always did like the sound of his own voice. "But... we don't have no fancy gallows. All we got is this here hangin' tree. So when we whack your pony here, he's going to ride off without you and you're just going to dangle like and then you're going to slowly strangle and you're feet'll kick and you'll try'in use your arms but they'll be tied behind yer back and for a little bit you'll look like yer dancin' on air. Then the fight'll go outta you. But you still won't be dead. You're face'll turn red and then it'll turn purple. Yer eyes'll bug out and yer lungs'll feel like they're gonna bust. But still you won't be dead. You'll just be hanging there all still like but yer brain'll still be workin'."

He reached up and tilted his hat back with his thumb and grinned his tobacco stained teeth at me. "Hell, if'n I keep the noose loose enough, you might swing fer half an hour before you die." He looked around to Doc and Lucas. "Ain't that right, boys?"

Lucas scratch a match on his britches and slowly lit a cheroot. Then he growled again, "Get on with it!"

I wanted to reason with them. But the noose was so tight I could only manage an inarticulate croak. Now I began to desperately scan the treeline. Hoping for help... for someone to stop this insanity. Hoping for anything to give me more time. The day was cool for this time of year but my shirt was soaked with my own sweat. I twisted to the left to look at Jubal and to the right to see what Doc was doing. Lucas' horse huffed and I twisted that direction.

This couldn't be happening! What the hell had I done that was so wrong, anyway? Jubal moved away to sit next to Lucas. I twisted desperately around to see what Doc was doing. While I was distracted, Lucas drew his pistol and fired into the air, spooking my horse. He reared up and for just a moment I teetered on the edge of eternity, my weight still in the saddle, my booted feet trying to grip the metal stirrups through the leather soles, my toes curling in vain. Then the horse was galloping off through the cornfield as I looked on in surprise and shock...


"What are you thinking about?" she asked from the other side of the table.

"Huh?" I asked, coming back to reality.

"What are you thinking about? You had a funny look on your face."

"Oh... nothing really. I was just wondering how old that tree was."

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Saddam Hussein Was Hanged at Dawn

Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn for his crimes against humanity. Imagine living in a country that is run by a total dictator. A place with a federal police force that can abuse and kill anyone they want. A place where the village or town in which you were born is reason enough to have you killed. A place of forced poverty and ignorance while the privileged few live in palaces and ride around in limos.

Imagine a country willing to invade its neighbors (Kuwait) because it has something it wants. A country that has been at war with other neighboring countries (Iran) for decades. A country willing to use chemical weapons on its own citizens. A country that is bragging and posturing about having weapons greater than it really possesses (WMD's).

This was the world created by Saddam Hussein. These were the people that were saved from an uncertain future under a brutal regime. This is the country that benefited from a U.S. led coalition of world forces intervening on their behalf. These are the people who now have an opportunity to dump this dictator upon the garbage heap of history and use their resources to build a better, brighter future for all of its citizens.

These are also the people who are squandering this rare opportunity on internal bickering and are allowing a few lawless and godless radicals to snatch it all away. From my perspective, Iraq is showing themselves to be unappreciative, ignorant assholes who didn't deserve our help in the first place and will be under someone else's dictatorial rule within the decade.

Saddam Hussein is dead. But in the long run . . . so what?

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Saddam Hussein to be Hung

Saddam Hussein and two others have been sentenced to death. He was convicted and sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town. Those people were executed because they were SUSPECTED in an assassination ATTEMPT against Hussein.

So, because he thought that maybe someone tried to kill him, just to be on the safe side, he ordered them ALL killed. This is called Ruling Through Fear (theirs and his). His lawyer must have thought that was a fair way of dealing with the situation because when addressing the court, he reiterated the reasons for the killings and kept shouting, "Where is the crime?" "Where is the crime?"

Noted American liberal asshole Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson, has been acting as a defense attorney for Saddam Hussein during his trial. Prior to the reading of the verdict on Sunday, Ramsey was ejected from the trial after he handed the judge a note calling the trial a travesty. Of course, you can't fault Ramsey for his reaction, since most liberals think justice is a travesty and that only their perversions of what is right and wrong should be the accepted norm. He was just proving to the world, once again, what assholes most liberals are.

Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister said, after the verdict, "The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime does not represent a verdict for any one person. It is a verdict on a whole dark era that was unmatched in Iraq's history."

I disagree. This trial may be putting an end to a dark period in Iraq's history but for justice to be done, and in order for others to learn the lessons of that history, this verdict must be viewed as being specific to the individuals who committed the crimes. Hussein spent his life trying to put himself above or outside the law. Wasn't that the point of the trial? To demonstrate that he was subject to the same rule of law as everyone else? The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime MUST represent a verdict for each individual. Otherwise their convictions will be considered symbolic and these men become martyrs.

In a final note, Saddam, speaking through his lawyer, told the Iraqi people to "pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people" (wink, wink) and to "unify in the face of sectarian strife" (nudge, nudge. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?)

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