No Jake's Joy over Kidnappers Suicide

Looking nice?

So Ariel Castro, the Cleveland kidnapper has been found hanged in his prison cell? The creep was was found about 9.20pm yesterday at Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, just one month into his 1,000 year prison term.

Look, don't get me wrong here, im Pro death penalty, so its no loss in my eyes but! I am also in conflict with myself because I believe he got off way too lightly. Have you seen photos of the cell (or similar cells) this guy was kept in? There is one above. His suffering is over, I would also prefer the stiff n' blue option against spending any amount of time in one of those. Then of course there is the fear thing. Castro would have been a marked man in gaol, spending every day, every hour of that day, watching his back, wary of a 'shiv' being plunged into his podgy flesh. Or an eye gouging (these inmates can be terrible with their jailhouse retribution.) He is free of that now too.
Also, because I do not believe in such a place as 'hell', and think we all (sinners included) go to a gentle paradise after we die, its even harder to take this news and I cannot see much to be happy about. It is pretty evident to me that to a lot of folk death is a mighty taboo, the hideous dark to end all darkness; but to me (and there others who feel the same) death is not so frightening, it doesn't posses that dreadful clout and therefore my jubilation at the news of Ariel Castros demise will not include shouts of "YES!" and "Burn in hell!" Because I truly believe he has cheated the 'hangman'.
Here in Great Britain, the vile Ian Brady is on his 47th year in captivity and guess what? He is begging for the right to end his pathetic life. The worm has been on hunger strike for years but the high security hospital he so deeply despises, keeps on force feeding him in order to deny him his freedom. Death is escape. Death is no more weakness of flesh. Death is becoming pure. Death is freedom.
Of course we all hold different beliefs, this is the beauty of Life and there will be thousands of merry people today, celebrating Castro's descent into hell or some other eternal damnation. Good luck to you, enjoy your day but brief it will be. Rather like this cretins sentence.

Hell is...Soggy Chips & Television

Being a poet/writer I occasionaly get asked if I believe in hell and damnation, (like I have been let in on some great secret only revealed to bards or philosophers) and often people are suprised by my answer because its so simple; no I don't believe in it. And furthermore I doubt the majority believe in it either. Hell is merely threat used by religious brigands to keep the congregation shaking in their pews.
Good thing too because if there was such a place, we'd all be heading there. Are we not all without sin? Also the infinite punishment of eternal damnation isn't exactly fair to be put upon earlthy sin. Is any crime committed in this world, worthy of such a punishment in the next?** And what type of loving God would impose it? Not a caring, forgiving one id wager.
If there is a hell, we are in it in this world. The wars, bloodshed, famines, this planet can seem like Vlad's 'forest of impalement' if looked from the right angle. Even lesser evils like soggy chips swimming in grease and reality television contribute to the endless woes suffered by humanity. (The thinking types among us).

** Jorge Luis Borges suggests in his essay La Duración del Infierno that no transgression can warrant an infinite punishment on the grounds that there is no such thing as an 'infinite transgression'.