Quebec is one of those places that loves to put on its environmental Gaia hat enamored with green initiatives. For example, by encouraging people take their bikes on bicycle paths. Bike paths filled with, just saying, hipster lumbersexuals and metrosexuals. It's a freak show. Not to mention idiot cyclists who don't keep right posing a danger to themselves as well as others while others weave in and out of lanes at high speeds as if they're on the UCI pro-tour. The shit I see on bike paths is astounding.
As I've railed and ranted about in the past, we remain an impolite civil society. Maybe I'm a tight wad but to me it seems like a contradiction this wanting to be Scandinavian green and Quebecois red (as in impatient).
Where am I going with this?
Every morning I walk my kid to school and as we approach we have to cross a street to get to that marvel of public education. At the cross walk there's a school brigadier stopping traffic to make sure drivers don't go through - because stop signs are not enough here. Yet, on back to back days I've seen people ignore the brigadier.
It's outrageous as it is surreal.
One was a mother who sailed right through having just bunny-hopped the stop sign. The other was, and this is a new habit I'm noticing among drivers, a man inching slowly coasting and sailing through the stop as he approaches the pedestrians. So what you get, to paint a picture in your mind, is a car bumper practically up your ass.
These assholes don't seem to understand the concept of COMPLETE STOP AT A SCHOOL CROSSWALK.
It's amazing really.
Quebec can try and be all green it wants, but if its civil politesse remains impatient and immature, it's all an illusion if you ask me.
****
Yesterday on my way to school I observed my neighbor's garbage bin had a loose diaper on top of it. It must have been on the street and someone - perhaps performing a civic duty - placed it there. Or maybe it was my neighbour which wouldn't surprise me given his aloof and bizarre concept of what constitutes maintaining a neat home and yard. I say it may have been a passer by since my neighbor's kids (which one of them constantly cuts across my front yard to get home) are in their mid-teens and probably don't use diapers anymore.
Just a guess on my part.
Either way who fucken cares, all I know is there was a diaper on the bin.
Fast forward (FF as we say in the industry) to this morning. The bin is gone but the diaper remains on the ground laying there betwixt his driveway and the street on the sidewalk.
I thought to myself the guy can't even be bothered to pick up a lousy diaper. He probably thinks it's the city's problem.
Naturally.
Civic responsibility? What's that?
Meanwhile, me, my neighbor to my left, front and diagonal right are constantly and vigilantly keeping watch in front of our properties. No one tops the guy diagonal to my house. I've never quite saw a man so dedicated to his home. He sweeps street in front of his house.
Bah.
Curious to see what happens to the diaper.
From comments:
In mid-October, the Seattle Parks department notified the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden that we would have to dismantle a much-loved play area, citing “extreme dangers” and “hazardous conditions”. These so-called liabilities consisted of a four-foot rope ladder, secured at its top and base, a simple tree swing suspended from a large cedar tree, and a unique nest made of thick rope and bicycle tires.
These simple play features may seem ordinary, but to our campers they are anything but. Here children with cerebral palsy, autism and developmental delays are encouraged and assisted as needed to climb and swing alongside their typically developing peers. The joy is palpable.
We complied with the order, but it has left a bitter taste in our mouths. Our kids have been robbed of the simple pleasure of climbing and swinging under a beautiful tree.
A private non-profit in in south central Seattle, the Seattle Children's PlayGarden is dedicated to providing children of all ages and abilities a safe, accessible and adventurous place to play away from therapy, doctor’s offices, tutoring and school. Thousands of children have played here over the last nine years under the supervision of PlayGarden staff or a parent’s watchful eye. There might even be a few lucky children who have played here free from any hovering adult.
None of them have been significantly injured — not a sprain nor a fracture nor a serious wound among them.
From comments:
"Good grief, then your group should offer to get insurance and take on the liability from the City. If that costs too much, or isn't possible, then maybe that should tell you something.
How about working with the city to find a safe alternative that works instead of criticizing the Parks department from doing their jobs just because it inconveniences your program? Haven't we seen plenty of the OPPOSITE view of this article, where City officials get criticized because they don't address these issues? Look at the current hysteria by parents claiming that Parks let their children be exposed to radiation in Magnuson Park."
Good grief indeed. Not to go Godwin or anything but Nazis were 'just doing their jobs' too. This strikes me of excessive, unjustified over reach.
It's people like this that make me want to vomit in their faces.
What part of there were no injuries in the 10 years it was up doesn't this statist-apologist asshole get?
Think things to their logical end idiot. If they can do this using such lame and specious excuses they can justify anything.
Other than that. It's the same crap in my business. An inspector can come on the premise and find "dangers" in anything without proof. It's the way it is. They know better and we just need to keep in line. Of course, they know absolutely jack shit.
Stop voting for Democrat or Liberal or NDP busy bodies. That is, if you value independence and liberty. These parties are infested with this kind of 'do something' mentality even where it's not warranted. Not suggesting conservatives or Republicans don't do this but it happens far less with them mostly because lefties have controlled and have been in power for most of the time in North America.