August 14, 2007
It's Cooler Than You Think, It's Raining Cops, Harper Shuffles Nervously
NASA is embarrassed after a Toronto man found an error in their climate reporting. The new data mean that the warmest year on record in the US was 1934, not 1998, and skeptics have seized on the story as proof that the whole "global warming" thing is a hoax. Upon hearing the news, the newly navigable passage through the Arctic Ocean immediately refroze.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is shuffling his cabinet. The move will have exactly zero impact on the political direction of the country, but it gives the government something to do during the summer.
At the annual general meeting of the Police Association of Ontario, provincial NDP Leader Howard Hampton said that if elected in October, he'll upload Toronto's court security costs and free up enough municipal cash to hire 3000 new police officers. Not to be outdone, Conservative leader John Tory has promised that if he wins, he'll bring in another 200 officers for the OPP. Premier Dalton McGuinty won't have a chance to suck up to the group until Thursday, when he's expected to say how much he enjoyed the movie Beverly Hills Cop.
As of today, there will be no provincial sales tax applied to purchases of nicotine replacement products designed to help people quit smoking. The change will save the average quitter about a dollar on a pack of Nicorette gum, which can then be spent on other things, like cigarettes.
picture by Metric X from the Torontoist Flickr Group.
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Why do we need 3000 more police officers? Assuming they make $50k a year (and I'm sure it's more) that would cost $150mil a year!
If I recall correctly, with salary and benefits, a first year cop costs Toronto $100,000.
i'm a pharmacist. its laughable that the provincial government waived the PST on nicotine replacement therapies. Nicorette and Nicoderm are slightly more effective than cold turkey and the patch still costs close to $30/week.
I don't even carry many patches in my pharmacy (we had one patient who was on them) and i refuse to carry Nicorette. we lose money by carrying it and, in their infinite wisdom, the government doesn't pay a pharmacist to spend time with a patient to counsel them on how to quit smoking.
so, basically, the patient can grab an inferior product for $30/month, not spend time with a pharmacist, save $1 on taxes and, in the end, will likely end up smoking again!
We have such visionaries leading this province...
I know you are trying to be snappy, but you should mention that the error was in the temperature record and was a tiny change, and it only affected the united states.
I believe 2005 is still the hottest year on record globally.