Ok that’s perl:

#while (<>) {if(!/^\S+: |^[% \n]|^\*./) {print;}}

I think it does run faster than python:

hendry@scrooge-15:/tmp/acronym$ time perl vera.pl < vera.1 > /dev/null

real    0m0.023s

user    0m0.019s

sys     0m0.002s

hendry@scrooge-15:/tmp/acronym$ time perl vera.pl < vera.1 > /dev/null

real    0m0.022s

user    0m0.020s

sys     0m0.001s

hendry@scrooge-15:/tmp/acronym$ time perl vera.pl < vera.1 > /dev/null

real    0m0.022s

user    0m0.020s

sys     0m0.001s

hendry@scrooge-15:/tmp/acronym$ time python vera.py < vera.1 > /dev/null

real    0m0.051s

user    0m0.039s

sys     0m0.011s

hendry@scrooge-15:/tmp/acronym$ time python vera.py < vera.1 > /dev/null

real    0m0.051s

user    0m0.040s

sys     0m0.009s

hendry@scrooge-15:/tmp/acronym$ time python vera.py < vera.1 > /dev/null

real    0m0.050s

user    0m0.036s

sys     0m0.013s

Here is the python version:

import sys

import re

if 0:
 for line in sys.stdin.readlines():
     if not re.search('^\S+: |^[% \n]|^\*.', line):
         sys.stdout.write(line)

OK a one liner then:

[sys.stdout.write(line) for line in sys.stdin.readlines() if not re.search('^\S+: |^[% \n]|^\*.', line)]

It’s much easier to read than perl IMHO.