The Spigot: The circumcision decision in Germany, private jails in Canada

Male circumcision: is it a cruel and painful form of grievous bodily harm visited upon helpless children, or a beautiful ritual rooted in tradition and lovingly practised for millennia (on helpless children)?

The debate is on: after a recent ruling in Cologne making circumcision of newborns illegal except in the case of medical emergencies, Angela Merkel has stepped up to assure outraged community leaders that her government will find a way to restore the rights of Jewish and Muslim families who want to remove the prepuce from an infant in tribute to a fearsome and sadistic God who obviously hates kids.

Not to editorialize or anything.

Anyway, we’re eager to know your thoughts on this, dear reader.

Moving on: remember when all those tinfoil-hat types were running around claiming that the omnibus crime bill was some sort of sneaky Harperite effort to get the wheels rolling on the privatization of Canada’s prison services? Ha ha, those stoners. Anyway, it looks like the wheels are now rolling on the privatization of Canada’s prison services.

A report on Bloomberg.com on Monday reveals that a memo prepared for public safety minister Vic Toews in May stated that Correctional Service Canada “'may consider’ partnerships with private firms to provide ‘basic institutional services such as cleaning and food preparation.’"

With C-10 lengthening mandatory sentences at the same time that CSC’s budget is reduced, it’s no surprise that an organization like the GEO Group—which operates private correctional facilities in the States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa—would lobby the ministry as the bill moved forward. GEO Group already carries out cleaning and maintenance at a youth correctional centre in New Brunswick.

Speaking for Toews, Julie Carmichael stated: “We have no appetite to pursue fully privatised prisons,” but we think she’s just being coy since an American-modelled prison-industrial complex is precisely the kind of thing that makes our prime minster harder than the thought of a quick and dirty slick-leg during yard-out.

The GEO Group, meanwhile, was formerly known as Wackenhut, a private security firm long associated with highly sensitive spook operations including Area 51 and the “suicide” of journalist Danny Casolaro—but we’re not going there. It’s even scarier than an argument about circumcision.

You can follow Adrian Mack's contribution to the lobotomizing techno-nightmare known as Twitter at @AdrianMacked.