Free parking for stolen shopping carts

‘The Major’ is irked by a ridiculous Victoria city council ruling:

... I opened my beloved Times Colonist to read that city hall will build parking spots for shopping carts used by the homeless to prevent cluttering up the avenues ...

... To sum up: The only free parking spots in Victoria will be for stolen shopping carts due to the large number of them ... er, stolen.

... A dear friend of mine owns several up-scale markets carrying such items as the rare outflow mushroom or organic-bunny key chains.

He, at great cost, had special shopping carts built that allowed for giant cups of coffee to be held safely, with a small passenger seat for the heir apparent to swaddle in.

To walk with him through the streets is to hear the sound of castanets as his teeth begin to chatter at the sight of one of his carts being pushed through traffic by someone whose eyes are spinning like a fruit machine whilst carrying a small but equally perturbed friend.

Each cart cost $400 and much to his chagrin, his insurance company has long stopped taking his calls.

Victoria city council and the media spend more time worrying about and enabling the bad behaviour of the city’s dysfunctional underclass, than anything else. Parking for stolen shopping carts is one of the loonier examples. Then there’s free crack pipes, needle exchanges and camping in the city’s parks.

Politically correct cowardice and treachery

I always enjoy reading Major (retired) Nigel Smythe-Brown’s weekly columns in which he uses a hilarious anecdote to frame a more serious point. This week’s column involves his "current wife of 40 years", her two cats and the maid in getting to the ‘point’:

... the politically correct come with many preconceived points of view that cannot be changed even in the face of the facts.

On the BC government’s vandalism of historical art in the legislature:

I was appalled along with many others by the cringing politicians weak-kneed cover up of the those masterful tableaux down at the provincial legislature. To dismiss historically and culturally beautiful paintings because at this particular time they are not as correct as at others is cowardice and treachery to those who went before us.

We have been passed the torch of history to keep it bright and strong, not to douse it at the first sign of censure. If the pictures had not been painted on the walls themselves they would have been destroyed.

On the Indian residential schools:

It is the same with the Indian schools where it is alleged and now taken as fact that every teacher was a monster and that the sole purpose of the schools was to make every child miserable and afraid of assault. We now form five-year committees where the judgment is in before they start as if we were South Africa making up for apartheid.

Just as I was almost hung for what the cat Pericles got up to, many others will be made to hang their heads over an artificial shame that was history and consisted of many people trying to do the best they could with what they knew at the time.

I am reminded of my fifth form Latin master at boarding school - now there was a monster. I shall sit quietly at the club for the foreseeable future and sadly contemplate those people who are always right.

I couldn’t agree more.