"Now Growler, if you dispute this point of mine you damn well come with come with some fact to back up your contentions. I don't think that you will because the weight of fact lies behind my arguement.

My word, the pomposity of Teribus is something to behold. The same Teribus who asserted, as casually as you like, that executioners have always been masked. Was he talking about executions in the short-lived history of Iraq, or executions wherever he lives? Or perhaps executions in 16th century England? He is surely aware that British executioners of the 20th century, such as Syd Dernley and Albert Pierrepoint, did not hide behind masks?

Chris B wonderfully captured the sordidness of the whole affair: a schoolteacher executed by a gang of taxi-drivers. Saddam died bravely, with dignity, at the hands of an anfantile rabble. Nothing whatsoever to do with Pontius Pilate Bush, of course, whose agents merely handed over the living Saddam to that rabble, and called back later for the dead one.