The clock has sprung forward so it's time for some spring cleaning in the mental attic.

Ah, remember the good old days when it was garbage and unwanted sofas that were dumped on the side of Colebrook Road? There are too many cops hanging around Colebrook Road these days so I'll have to dump my thoughts here.

Speaking of cops, are we treading a dangerous line with the way courts administer justice with apparent leniency for those wearing police uniforms?

This question arises in the wake of charges being dropped against two law enforcement officers - a Surrey RCMP constable and a B.C. Transit Police constable - because the judge deemed their right to a speedy trial had been infringed upon by 22 months of court delays.

I guess 22 months is the new benchmark for unreasonable. With that in mind, what about the Stanley Cup rioters? Police laid 33 more charges this week for an event that happened in June 2011.

Many rioters who sobered up the following day turned themselves in to police and admitted their actions. It still took more than a year for the first charges to be laid and that just meant they joined the queue for a court date.

More sinister, do you think the latest dropped charges didn't catch the eye of the fine, upstanding young citizens currently in jail awaiting trial for the infamous Surrey Six massacre?

That crime took place in October 2007 and to date, a trial has yet to take place for any of the accused.

Our society holds police officials to a higher standard, but our justice system should not let that public goodwill translate into preferential treatment. Every person is supposedly equal when standing before a judge and that means equal regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic background, gender and, in this case, career choice.

Unfortunately, the optics in this case are, to paraphrase George Orwell, two legs good, yellow-striped pant legs better.

SCARIEST 'FOOD' NOT HORSE

? A horse is a horse of course, of course unless of course that horse is, well, the main course.

All of the hoopla that has arisen in recent weeks over horsemeat being found in assorted food products is somewhat amusing. Part of the fuss over the Seabiscuit demi-glase or Man-o-War meatballs is concern over chemicals in the meat.

Unfortunately, the chorus of tsktskers and harrumphers conveniently overlooks the steroids used to fatten up beef cattle and water injected into chicken meat to increase the yield. That's OK, but don't you dare do it to Pegasus.

It's almost ironic that horse, a word we can all pronounce, is left off the labels while all kinds of tongue twister chemicals make the cut. A sampling of canned soups, chilies and stews around the office offered up such savoury ingredients as textured vegetable protein, hydrolyzed soy protein, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrate and potassium chloride.

Mmmm, sodium erythorbate.

The sad fact is adding horsemeat to stretch the amount of "100 per cent pure beef" in your burger might be the kindest thing ever done for us by the meat industry.

If you need a reason to avoid turning into the drive-thru on the way home, just Google the phrase "pink slime" on the internet.

Bon appetite!

MILITARY IS ARMED AGAIN

- In case you missed it, the federal government beefed up Canada's military presence this week, and it did so in a very cost-effective manner.

While billion-dollar military purchases of helicopters and fighter jets remain tangled in red tape and our newest submarines are less seaworthy than the underwater joy rides at the West Edmonton Mall, the Harper government has made a bold move to show the world Canada means business when it comes to protecting our interests on the international stage.

Brace yourself, because the Tories made the gutsy move of reinserting the word "armed" into the title of our land-based military forces.

Apparently driving tanks, ducking from snipers, clearing landmines, expelling insurgents, searching for improvised roadside bombs and all the other nasty, thankless duties Canadian men and women perform in distant, dust-covered lands on behalf of all of us isn't enough to assert our presence with authority.

All that's changed now because, dang it, we're armed too.

Glad we cleared that one up.

Of course this move can only signal one thing to the military muckety-mucks and decision makers: Watch out, budget cuts are right around the corner.

Michael Booth can be reached at mbooth@ thenownewspaper.com