Story Archive

Stone Age Government Systems

A woman in Perth, Ont., Canada, tried to trade in her van at a dealership, but couldn’t since it had a lien filed against it by “Fred and Pebbles Flintstone” — fictional characters from the TV show The Flintstones (1960–1966). The woman, identified only as Maureen, 75, asked her Member of the Provincial Parliament for help. “The answer that we got back from everybody was that Maureen had to go to court, had to engage the services of a lawyer, to fix up what is so obviously, and so clearly, a total muck-up,” said Ontario MPP Randy Hillier. An investigation shows the Flintstones have liens on other cars, too, and the agent recorded in the system is “PPSR Test Data1”, indicating Service Canada’s Personal Property Security Registration system employees were behind it, putting test liens against real cars. “Maybe Fred and Barney were working at the Ontario government that day,” Hillier suggests. “This is just Looney Tunes.” (RC/CTV) ...See, that’s why everything is so screwed up: The Flintstones was produced by Hanna-Barbera, and it’s the bureaucrats who are Looney Tunes.