Arriba! Arriba!

So, off the the gym last night where, in the spirit of “Oh God I might have a beach holiday in 6 weeks time and I look like a blancmange”, I stepped up my regime to include some 200m running. In the process I was astonished to discover that I can do the 200m within 5 or 6 seconds of the world record time.
Now this isn’t quite as impressive as it may sound, 5 seconds being quite a big percentage of the 20-ish second world record, but it’s pleasing to know that I’m only 25% slower than the best athletes in the world.
It also brings home quite quickly just steep the fitness and training curve must be to shave that extra hundredth or thousandth of a second of these times; people dedicate their lives not to shave 2 or three seconds off their time, but to shave 2 or thousands of a second off. That’s why I’ll never be a world class athlete; I don’t think it’d be that difficult to get another 2 seconds off my time, but to get close to even competitive standard would require complete and utter Colin-Jackson levels of dedication that I’ll never give. The curve of ability and training gets to a point that is so steep that only true obsessives will ever climb it.

Upon arriving home, I discover that the delightful young ragamuffins from the council estate up the round were amusing themselves by stuffing foam rubber down the roadside drains, pouring petrol after it, and then lighting it. The fire brigade showed up a short while later, but the little darlings had scampered by that point.
I swear that if a mainstream party ever suggested a return to the birch and hanging, they’d have my vote like a shot.

Moral quandary?

No correct answers, I'm just curious as to how you lot think.


Whilst out walking one day, I came to a bridge that lead to the land of the goblins. I crossed the bridge, and found on the other side a gallows, a cage with a man in it, and three goblins dressed as judges.
"Halt!" cried one of the goblins. "We judge those who enter this land. If you tell us truthfully why you have come here, you may enter freely and unharmed. If you lie, then we will hang you!"
I told the Goblins I had visited from curiousity, and they accepted the truth and let me into the kingdom.
Then I spoke to them about the man in the cage.
"He is a challenging case." They said. "He came to us and told us that he had come here for us to hang him. If he speaks the truth, the law says we must let him go unharmed, and if he lies we must hang him. He said we would hang him, but we cannot, because if we do, he will have been telling the truth, and we should let him go free. If we let him go, he would have been lying, and so we should have hung him instead. We are keeping him in the cage until we decide what to do. Can you make any suggestions?"

I thought for a while, and made a suggestion, and told the Goblins my reasoning. The agreed with me, and the justice was served.

What would you suggest the goblins do with their prisoner, and what is your reasoning for your suggestion?