Just a little prick, you won't feel a thing

I was going to blog last week about the story with the BBC getting an "exclusive" about the guy who supplies a prison in the USA with the drugs they use for executions; you probably saw that one, the company being some plate-on-a-wall job at a driving school in Acton and Vince "twat" Cable getting his knickers in a bunch and doing that standard "I'm a liberal but I'm going to ban this" act.

To be honest I was sat here on my green scaly tail going "what the fuck is the story here"? A pharmacy company has supplied legal drugs to an organisation that has the appropriate licences to hold and use them; OK it's a prison and they are going to use them to execute someone but that the laws they have there and presumably the people of Arizona voted for and continue to support the death penalty*

I mean if they ordered a load of nails, a coil of rope and a bunch of 2x4's from Jewsons and then used them to build a gallows instead of a neat tree-house for the governor's kids would Twathead Vince still be throwing his toys out of the pram and calling for the export of nails to be banned? And if we're getting all squeamish about exporting the "Tools of Death"** then how come Vincey-boy is quite happy for EADS, British Aerospace and every other manufacturer or military hardware to sell their wares on the open market? I suspect maybe because of the millions of pounds those sales and the subsequent taxes on company profits brings into the treasury every year - a quick and lazy Google shows between 2000 and 2004 (on Labour's watch) that we flogged £631 million worth of sundry death-dealing kit to Africa alone - well all those duck houses and diversity outreach counsellors don't buy themselves.

But in an interesting twist this weekend some nutjob with a gun decides that he really didn't like America coming off the gold standard and not having Roosevelt around any more decides to take his disagreement with fiscal policy out on the local governor and ends up killing a couple of random bystanders including a kid (who, unfortunately for him when it comes to trial, has a cute school photo). Now this happened in, well by a big coincidence, Arizona so I'll lay odds that this guy is a shoo-in for a death sentence. And I'll also bet that more than a few politicians on this side of the pond would be quite happy with that, seeing at he attacked one of them.

But someone got to supply the drugs guys?




* Just for the record I don't; not because some utter scumbags don't deserve it just that I'm uncomfortable with the state having powers to kill its citizens

** Good name for a comedy heavy metal band that