I’ve heard it uttered in many different situations and in a similar amount of variations, so I finally hunted out (googled) the origins of the actual phrase. According to Bartleby.com the actual quote is as follows… ‘Vasectomy is a simple routine procedure. The surgeon makes a small incision in the scrotal sac, through which he severs the cock eggs from their clacker strings. All this is carried out under a local anaesthetic.’ (Family Planning Leaflet, The Marie Stopes Foundation).

Only joking, that’s a Viz comic piece. I hit ‘paste’ and that’s what came up. I actually refer to the quote ‘The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.’ allegedly by Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, who I only know from the hit series, The Office.

Now, that man lived in a different time, and though many quotes have a sentiment that transcends the generations, I believe this statement is not an all encompassing truth. At least not in the UK.

Prisoners in the UK get some of the best treatment of any detainees anywhere in the world. The daily rations are exactly the same as the armed forces, but their day is much less tasking. Instead of front line operations in arid hot desert carrying a half hundred weight of kit, prisoners instead lounge around smoking fags and chortling about their favourite famous (for super injunctions) football players, that they’re commanding via a Sony dualshock controller.

Now of course, not all criminals are severe or career criminals… some are rogues and rapscallions and we wish them the best of luck. But to treat child murderers with the same kindness and reward seems about as far from just as the entirety of any decrepit despotic regime.

In this instance I refer to Levi Bellfield but I could be speaking of Ian Huntley, Jon Venables or any other child killer really.
Here is a man who hates women, cannot stand rejection and brutally murdered 2 women, a 13 year old girl and attempted to murder another woman. He has 11 children (youngest 3) to five women, and is now behind bars for the rest of his natural life.

My first instinct is to question, well… if he’s going to be behind bars for the rest of his life, how long should we really prolong that process? Even the most liberal of people, deep in their hearts (however cold) must accede to the plain fact that this man cannot be cured, and even if he could, he’s in jail. So why should he be kept alive, and cost the taxpayer, at all? The kids need a father? I agree. A father that has a picture on the wall of his house of Levi Bellfield and who everyday tells the kids what a psychopathic nightmare he was and how a fair and right justice system flushed him.

I spend my whole life wanting to love, to love the beautiful things in life, and wanting to remove the ugly, fungal reek. Child murder cannot be an acceptable form of behaviour in society, nor should the perpetrator cost honest upstanding citizens a penny.

As for pleading not guilty and dragging the parents through 9 years of the nightmare of receiving e-mails from mentally ill people claiming the whole thing was a cover up, receiving phone calls claiming to be Milly, her mother receiving letters threatening to kill her and from a man claiming to have killed Milly and not least of all the murder of their darling daughter. Levi also attempted to defame the murdered girl’s character by claiming she was a depressed girl who had an unhappy home life. This man is no longer a capable member of society.

I’ve thought about it many times, recent history has given plenty of opportunity, and if any of my kin ever suffered like this poor family, I’d make it my life’s aspiration to seek out the perpetrator and kill them. I would no longer have any respect for the justice system.

I judge this society inversely on how it treats its child killers. If Levi Bellfield went to bed in a pine suit I’d say we live in a just and fair place. Make me king for a day, I tell ya.

For a very well written, less militant but equally right view, check out Deborah Orr’s article in the guardian… http://tinyurl.com/67rho2e

If you don’t agree with this, please don’t chisel in your bullshit leftist stance with some wishy washy reasons as to why I’m wrong. I’d appreciate an alternative solution, but keeping Bellfield alive isn’t it.

Junior Johnson

http://www.reverbnation.com/juniorjohnson

Irish troubadour Junior Johnson brews his own blend of moonshine combining Americana , Folk and the Blues. Junior subtly draws his influences from the greats (with hints of George Thorogood and Willie Nelson) 

Aiming high for 2010, and following his very well received EP ‘Stoned, Ripped, Twisted. Good People’ Junior is focusing on recording new material and gigging flat out. So far this year has brought Junior his own weekly show on Feile FM promoting indie music.

Having just returned from a tour of the New England area of the USA in late 2009 with a bucketful of experiences and songs, Junior, and the raw, ready and effortlessly smooth band that support him, are chomping to be heard, and judging by the recent stint of gigs they’ve dusted, with great reason.

Junior has shared the stage with the likes of Shane MacGowan (The Pogues), Frankie Miller’s Full House Band and has graced the Eagle’s Rock Tent at Glasgowbury for three consecutive years, gigging extensively all over in between.

In 2006, Junior was honoured with the title of L.A. Music Awards Folk Artist of the year for his song, The Fireside, an honest detailing of the life that a once unfortunate friend now leads. This highly coveted acknowledgment was an achievement to further echo Junior’s raw talent as a solo artist.

Since he was first played on BBC Radio in July 2005, Junior has received continued support from both regional and international stations and you can hear his music on anything from BBC Radio Ulster shows, the world’s largest webcast, Fame Games, to some college radio stations inRhode Island, USA and Vancouver, Canada.

‘I write songs that I believe in. I hope that the lyrics reflect some sort of honesty from my own experience in life. I’m not trying to fool anyone. Except myself; maybe.’ – Junior Johnson

‘I couldn’t do a best of 2009 without including the stunning Ballad of Glasgowbury, what an absolutely staggering song it is.’ – Stephen McCauley, Electric Mainline BBC