Pubdate: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 Source: Guardian, The (CN PI) Copyright: 2014 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated Contact: http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174 Page: A12 WEEKEND THOUGHTS Can armageddon be far off, Prime Minister Stephen Harper must wonder today? The New York Times took the extraordinary position earlier this week of calling on the U.S. government to repeal the ban on marijuana. The Times said, "It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol. The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana." Federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, who has called for a similar change in Canada, has his chest puffed out just a little bit more today. Statistics Canada admits it made an error in its labour force survey for July last week, when it said the economy created just 200 new jobs while analysts were projecting 20,000. Stats Can blamed human error when the actual figure should have been a robust 42,000. Did no one think something was wrong before grossly erroneous figures were released? The absence of a '4' at the start, a 'comma' towards the middle and that extra 'zero' at the end should result in someone being fired. It's little wonder that low PISA test scores are a concern in Canada. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom