Thursday, December 29, 2011

Houston We Have HD

It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico - Philosophicus, 6.44

It isn't that the Oracle of Ottawa is a total Luddite. But I can get stubbornly attached to traditional devices. Such was the case with my Toshiba 31" picture tube flat screen type television. Cable box? Hell no! I'll just run the damn cable right into the back of the TV and I got near 100 channels. Who needs more than that? You can only watch one at a time. Mean while the wife, was, and I mean constantly, nagging me to get a flat screen HD television with the Blue Ray DVD player and that damn HD box. I kept putting her off, by saying I would seriously consider her desire when the Toshiba gave up the ghost. A previous Toshiba lasted over 15 years. The one I presently had was about 5 years old. I thought I had a lot of time...  

It is worth the money....

Well God must have been on the wifes side. That damn Toshiba died last Monday, five years to the date of purchase! Son of a bitch! Was I pissed! All excuses just evaporated. The last two televisions I bought at Sears. As per earlier posts, Sears is not the place it used to be. I decided this time I would get served properly. Delivery, set-up and removal just like in the olden days, which Sears now simply refuses to do! I choose Bleeker's which is a very long lived quality operation that has been in Ottawa for as long as I can remember. So bright and early, on Tuesday morning, we paid them a visit. The first question I had for him was on the service issue. And the answer was; "We always do all that!" Most excellent...

This time we were determined to get quality. Sony Bravia and a 40" model, so my living room won't look like an arcade. We were in luck. They had a very handsome EX620 series in 40" on sale. Sold! Also took the "good" cables, the Sony Blueray DVD player and I bought that damn Cisco HD box, with installation, delivery and removal of the old set. Well it cost more than it would have at Sears no doubt, but the important thing is I got served! The delivery occurred on time and went really fast and smooth. Worth every freaking extra (?) cent!!

Now the wife is very happy and I am just amazed at the picture quality, and all those commercial free radio stations around channel 700. The traditional country music station is most excellent. And the Baroque station is also most excellent. I find that the on board sound system is quite enough for me. It is all going to take a while to adjust to, but I am now truly enjoying what I have been paying for. The first movie we watched was The Quick and the Dead starring Russell Crowe, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, and that Leonardo DiCaprio guy. I see it as a very important movie, in that the old hands are handing off to the new hands. It is to me a cult classic that has many messages on many levels. And the wife and I enjoy it every time. But it is especially riveting on a proper wide screen. And the color and contrast... Worth every freaking cent....


And the design looks good in a traditional home in the 40" size...

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Searching For Schopenhauer

Money is human happiness in abstracto, consequently he who is no longer capable of happiness in concreto sets his whole heart on money.
Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms, On Psychology, No. 9

Arthur Schopenhauer lived from 1788 to 1860. Karl Marx lived from 1818 to 1883. Yet as far as my research has gone, these two men did not even know of the others existence. My introduction to Arthur happened in a book store in Ottawa, where I came across a stray volume II of The World as Will and Representation, while on the search for unabridged texts on philosophy for my ongoing Thinking About Thinking Project. Not only was Arthur a legend of a philosopher, but he could write like hell. The man knew totally how to turn a word.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Now the big idea of Schopenhauer was the Will To Power, and how it was futile to even try to satisfy all your piggish Babylonian fantasies! You simply can't drink all the booze, smoke all the dope, have all the money, and fuck all the ladies! The Oracle of Ottawa quite regrets not having discovered Schopenhauer sooner. But better late than never! We live, love and hopefully learn. And if I had discovered Schopenhauer at 17, instead of 54 I probably wouldn't have half the wicked and riotous memories that I now still very much enjoy! There is quiet a lot to be said for late blooming.

Karl Marx

As you have probably deduced, for some strange reason, the Oracle of Ottawa is quite familiar with Karl Marx. This guy has fascinated me most all my life. Now his big idea was the dialectic of class struggle. Or more simply put; us getting fucked over by them until we all have had enough and start stringing them up on lamp posts and lining them up against a wall, to clear the way to start again. Got that? But the really important part is the dialectic bit. If you are an old white guy like me, the method of dialectical thinking is why you have the leisure to read this. The Asian guys, that are driven by Confuscist thought are still too busy working...Loyalty to the Family (nepotism), and letting yourself get drilled up the ass by the state (corruption) is simply not axiomatic to a lot of free time! Remember that Grasshopper!!

Then I had a real brainer. It was like a mercury vapor lamp going off in my head. What would happen if you used The World as Will and Representation as the thesis, and Capital as the antithesis? Could the resulting synthesis be a guide book for the 21st century?


Arthur Schopenhauer was quiet the lad! Pay attention!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Get Well Soon Philip Edinburgh

If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed. 
Prince Philip, Interview with British students in China, 1986

The Oracle of Ottawa has always had a deep and abiding respect for old Phill. Just look at any of the footage of his Royal duties with Queen Elizabeth. There is never, ever one sign of him trying to upstage her. No ego, no power trips, not one sign of it ever. He created an heir and two spares, and a daughter to round every thing out for the balance in the official family portraits. Not one scandal that the press could run with. He has back stopped his woman all the way. The Oracle of Ottawa has high standards and for the life of me I can find no fault.

HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

After you have lived for over half a century Christmas is no longer a time of wonder. It soon becomes a time of worrying about which disaster will happen next! You know, that sister in law that you hope will not show up at the formal family dinner. You are bracing for not a great time, but rather just for the luck of survival! Then there are the parents that get stuck in the hospital for the holidays. And it is not that you are in any way put out, but is trying to keep them in their bed as they hate missing anything more then you do!

The Oracle of Ottawa has lived a very "interesting" life. Not even my significant other has a real idea of it all. And I keep it all pretty quiet. But when I was in "service" I heard many tales of what great company Old Phill really was and no doubt still is. It seems that he was an Honourary something or other in one or more Canadian Regiments, and was a guest at many Mess dinners. I have been informed that there is no greater company or more memorable evening, then one that had Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh in attendance. Much awed comment at the utter amount of spirit that he could consume and the enjoyment of the company of the lads was reverently relayed in hushed respect and memory. The conclusion was always Old Phill was a real Stand Up Guy. 

When the news flashed out on the BBC, which the Oracle always has on, I was really worried for the grand old man. Thanks to his security detail and the excellent household staff, he made it to the hospital with a lot of time to spare. The procedure of stenting an artery is all pretty common knowledge to the Oracle of Ottawa. What really surprised me, was to learn that he did over 300 public engagements this year! Geez! I thought they had labour laws in the United Kingdom! If there is any one that deserves to have his feet up and to slow down it has to be Old Phill! I really wish this grand old man a speedy and uncomplicated recovery. And all the best in his future light duty endeavours. 



Can you possibly imagine how boring it would all be without him?

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Supreme Court 2 - 'Harper Government' 0

How can despotism abide with honor?
Montesquieu, The Spirit Of The Laws, Book III, Section 8

I first heard the news when I turned to BNN to check the open, which I usually try to remember to do every trading day. Then came the banner announcement that the Supreme Court of Canada had struck down the proposed securities regulation legislation. Again it was unanimous against! (9-0) Even the recently salted Tory appointments to the court couldn't get the lipstick to stick on this pig. Now this is the second time this has happened! The first was of course the decision regarding safe injection sights in Vancouver.

The Supreme Court - Holding back the Darkness....

This is proof of the government that you tend to get when you can't even track down the high schools that ministers went to! Can you name them? This is the government that you get when you run a conservative dummy in a riding that contains a majority of voters dumber then the conservative candidate! And we all know that the 'Harper Government' comes mostly from the farthest back boonies. Of course you could hear the immediate grumbling about those damn courts and all that pesky judicial interference, and then it carries on to the old argument of who does the legislating in Canada? The Parliament or the damn courts? Well it seems until the 'Harper Government' can learn to read and listen to the help, it will continue to be the courts. And thank God and Pierre Trudeau for that!

Just as the Oracle of Ottawa was sitting down to the labour this latest blog entry, the headline for the CBC National news cast has just informed the merry blogger that Helena Guergis has just filed suite on the 'Harper Government' for defamation! And let this blogger be the first to inform you dear reader, that this is but the first of many such law suites that are going to spring up, and all along roughly the same lines. The dirty tricks squad
as I predicted will hit the wall at over 100 m.p.h.and the splatter is going to be fine and wide. The 'Harper Government' is going to get a ton of practice dealing with the courts, it would appear. How many do you figure they will settle like rats running across the tundra?

In closing it has come to the attention of the Oracle of Ottawa that coal is no longer being used by Santa Claus as a gift to those who been naughty in the year past. This is due to the simple fact that the Chinese have bought up all the known supplies! But don't even begin to think that naughty behavior is now not going to bring no punishment! The new gift for being on the naughty list is now much worse! In lieu of coal, all naughty persons will now receive one liter of the finest Alberta oil sand settling pond sludge! Yes, just a heads up, the two headed Tory members of Parliament will be turning up in the next 20 to 25 years... 




This brilliant Canadian is looking more brilliant each and every day! Lord he tried. Lord knows he tried....

Monday, December 19, 2011

Evolution, Physics And the Death of Hockey

A man cannot become a child again, or he becomes childish.
Karl Marx, Grundrisse, p. 31
 
It is a truly great day when a big union pension fund puts the nuts to the corporate overlords. And this indeed was the case of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan selling or rather dumping there interest in Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment. Yes Rogers and Bell got a hell of a deal for a mere 1.32 billion dollars! At first I didn't get it either. But upon some relaxed thinking about it, it all dawned on in a flash.

Hockey-Greece 500 B.C. Not a Canadian game at all!!

You no doubt have heard in the old style vulgar media of all the hazards of playing hockey today. Concussive brain injury, causing fatal life shortening brain degeneration. The guys at OTPP are just brilliant. They quietly realized after some thinking about thinking that the game of hockey is done for. The equipment has advanced incredibly quickly, the conditioning of the players is just insane and the speed of the game and the average size of the players has increased much faster than the ability of the actual human being to catch up! Hockey has reached the end of the road. Or it will shortly. Some very smart people saw the writing on the Zamboni and pushed the sell button. Just brilliant. The same thing goes for the basketball team. The average player height is now approaching seven freaking feet tall. In another few short years the average height of the players will no doubt be hitting eight feet. What will happen to the game of basket ball then? The scores will be like 300 points a side average and the guy could shoot down to score. The slam dunk will be from the midget era! Well maybe Bell and Rogers will get a risk free rate of return from the real estate. It all won't be a total loss.

The OTPP has done a lot of very smart stuff. Why they have more money than the 'Harper Government'! And they have true "market power", that is they have killed deals and made unlikely ones more than possible. Just imagine if they teamed up with CALPERS and OMERS. Why they could do what the 'Harper Government' couldn't even begin to dream to do.... Create a virtual workers state....


That asset value is now  107.5 billion! Someone knows what they are doing.....

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Symbolism Of Diane Finley

Conservatives insist that government should be " run more like a business." One might wonder how that could be possible, since government does not market goods and services for the purpose of capital accumulation. 
Michael Parenti, Democracy For The Few, (Sixth Edition),  p. 267

Another 'Harper Government' minister that really creeps the Oracle of Ottawa out is the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development! Yes, Diane "The Fly" Finley. She makes Dogbert the evil HR director look like a pussy cat. I have often wondered if she "wags" when she stands to her seat to answer a question in the House of Commons?  

Dogbert

For all of us that once earned a living in the real world, doesn't she just remind you of that idiot Human Resources type that thinks that there is no difference between government and business? To bad Karl Marx is not on the reading list at the Richard Ivey School of Business! I guess it is more important to get to the Hong Kong, China location to learn how to bow and kiss the ass's of the new masters of the universe... We really need an another upwardly wanna be that is going to "reinvent" government. MBA's have all but destroyed business in the Western world. It seems now that they are going to do all the governments! 

Remember! Don't use the air conditioner!!

It has been pretty entertaining watching the fly dodge angry questions in the House concerning the absolute meltdown of the Government of Canada service centers, that crumble to zero, the more she tries to make them more "efficient"! Why, when  she is done with them they will make a profit! (?) The Bilderberg Group certified management contractors are crafting together some excellent solutions! Yes sir! All provinces west of Manitoba will get connected lickity split to the call center in India and Pakistan, and all calls to Service Canada from provinces west of Ontario will be quickly served by the new Phillipines call center!!

And Diane Finley knows your time is money! Yes Sir! while you are waiting in the one hour minimum que, you will have a chance to get a real good deal on the 'Harper Government' Master of the Universe card! And when you sign up, you will get a $1,000 tax credit (non-refundable) to use on your tax return! Isn't that great?
And that is not including the introductory interest rate of 1.9% which after five minutes goes to 29.95%!! Yes the 'Harper Government' is going to guarantee to your "right to fail", every Conservatives dream and usual reality...

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Forty First Canadian Parliament - First Session - Summary

The method of rule of the tyrant and the oligarch is quite simply to clobber, coerce, or overawe all or most of these other groups in the interest of their own. 
Bernard Crick, In Defence Of Politics, p. 18

Well Dear Readers, it is all in and done. And the only thing the Oracle of Ottawa got wrong was the utter degree of the insane ideological intensity that the 'Harper Government' used to pursue the dismantling of the Canada that we have all have come to love. All the victories of our parents and grandparents are now under deconstruction. Do I sound hysterical now? Am I still an ungrounded "space cadet" now? Do you still feel that there is nothing to worry about? Still don't believe that there is no hidden agenda?

Anonymous? - Hell no! That's Justin Trudeau!!

If you check my very early posts that I posted before and just after the May election, you will discover that I even got the order of the destruction pretty much in exact sequence! And I am still severely pissed about the dismantling of the all Party subsidy, and the gutting of the Canadian Wheat Board. Never has so much been sold out so fast, by so few, of such low quality, for so little! The utter veracity of it all will be written about, and in not a forgiving fashion, for very many generations to come.

Even watching all the Question Periods, and I watched each and everyone, and the committees, which before I got really interested, I thought was just not humanly possible to do, and even though I watched from a far I could always sense that sulphur smell! And it was rich and acrid, from the deepest and lowest circle of hell...the basest level of the recesses of the mind of man... [[Editor: Damn! That was GREAT!!]]

But there was light. Even though the Opposition and the Third Party are in disarray and under interim leadership, the Oracle of Ottawa can only say they pulled together amazingly well and caused the 'Harper Government' to reach for the gun of Closure a record amount of times! If the 'Harper Government' policies were so perfect, just how come they couldn't convince a bunch of fluffy lefties? Yes indeed Bubba!

The blackest occasions the Oracle of Ottawa and the Canadian People will not soon forget or ever forgive. And the lowest low was the base attack of one of the greatest Canadian lawyers alive today; Irwin Cotler.It was poetry in jurisprudence to watch this little old man single handedly put the wrench and over 80 (?) amendments to the Omnibus Crime bill or as I call it, Patriot Act North. It was just brilliant watching this great mind close his eyes at committee and reel off the cases in the exact written order of the decision points! Damn!! That vision off brilliance will stay with the Oracle of Ottawa for ever. And the flushed angry faces of the Tory brain dead morons that with all the money and power on Earth, found that they could still not destroy the truth...


George Carlin on "The End Days"...

Peter Kent Really Is A Piece Of Shit!

Because they were virtuous, they were magnanimous; and because they were free, they had a contempt of power.
Montesquieu, The Spirit Of The Laws, Book VIII, Section 12 

It was in today's Question Period. About a quarter of the way way through...When the young and quickly rising Megan Leslie was performing her usual and always quite successful ping off of the hapless Peter Kent...of whom the Oracle of Ottawa had much to say about, why only just yesterday! The hapless Minister of the Environment was in his best and lowest form indeed, when he replied to a question from the young Ms. Leslie quipping it would have been nice had she been in Durban at the Climate conference! Well everyone knows that the reason Ms. Leslie was not in attendance was that the minister would not allow full representation, by refusing them seats on the empty government Airbus!

Justin Trudeau

The House exploded in cries of Shame! Shame! Save and except for the young Justin Trudeau, who was heard quite clearly on the tape to have exclaimed "OH, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" You to can check it out at CPAC yourself dear reader. The said bit of entertainment was not posted to You Tube at the time of this writing, alas... And it seemed to never have happened since it was not noticed by the young Speaker of the House, and if the Speaker didn't hear it, tape or no tape, it didn't happen...The sequence and identities were confirmed on the CBC National News cast at 10:00pm.

But it what is it that separates the likes of Peter Kent and Justin Trudeau? Well Dear Readers it is all quiet simple...Justin Trudeau can wet the panties, and Peter Kent never could...


In closing; can someone explain to me how this is "Value for Money?"

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

'Harper Government' - The Symbolism Of Alice Wong

Is the evil of changing constantly less than that of suffering?
Montesquieu, The Spirit Of The Laws, Book XXIX, Section 18

From the beginning of the 41st Parliament the Oracle of Ottawa has been conducting a little mental observational experiment. It is all part of my Thinking About Thinking Project. The major premise of this little sub experiment was to see if I could predict the outcome of various government departments and the effects of Canada's government policy simply by judging the capabilities of the Minister appointed to head the file. Well the first results are in and it all has pretty frightening implications...

Alice Wong - "You lazy seniors a gonna get it now!
No more pension, be a man, get job, like in China!!"

Upon hearing that the likes of Peter Kent, a grasping self serving whore of a talking head, was appointed as Minister of Environment, you could conclude that the environment was going to be of a very low priority in the 'Harper Government'. Upon the recent actions of the minister and Canada's exit from the Kyoto Protocol, it seems that my experimental way of thinking was a great success!

Well! Lets see if we can see more into the future using the same method? The Oracle of Ottawas attention has been caught by another unlikely cabinet posting that makes absolutely no sense to the Oracle of Ottawa, and I believe has dire predictive consequences to the people that are supposed to be served by the said minister. And that "agent" is one Alice Wong, who claims to have been born in Hong Kong and has only immigrated to Canada in 1980! (The great, rich rats leaving the sinking ship at any cost migration...remember?)  And now sits at the cabinet table at the highest level of power in the nation state of Canada! And has the file of Minister of State for Seniors? The "signaling" of the 'Harper Government' is simply breathtaking isn't it?

Now I don't know about you dear reader, but there is nothing a Chinaman can tell us in Canada about how to take care of Senior Citizens. As far as I know we have one of the best systems in the world for seasoned citizens. What makes me nervous is that the "minister" comes from a society that has practically no such safety net! I have provided a link to Hong Kong, and I could find no mention of social benefits for seniors? Where is the part on what the size of pensions a senior gets in Hong Kong? Is the 'Harper Government' trying to tell us something? And I believe that a lot of information exists in the ministers real life job, you could use that to possibly predict future directions and possible outcomes of the file that the said minister is now "running".
It appears in Ms. Wong's bio, that she has a Ph.D. in Instruction and Curriculum, from UBC and taught Entreprenwhoreship classes at Vancouver Community College otherwise known as Buffet 101. Is this a signal that to get your future Canada Old Age Pension checks, you will have to "be a man" and contribute to society as a Walmart greeter or bus boy at a Chinese buffet, until you drop dead? Just like in Hong Kong and China??   



What a DISGUSTING PEASANT SL*G!!!

Monday, December 12, 2011

'Harper Government' - Lost: One Invsible Hand

In anarchy there is no automatic harmony.
Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, The State, And War, p. 160

The Oracle of Ottawa first heard of Peter Kents announcement of pulling Canada out of Kyoto at 5:27 Eastern Standard Time, on the BBC World News Service. It was not mentioned on a Canadian News service as best as I could tell until the CBC National news cast at 10:00 p.m.! Now, Dear Reader, that is a perfect display of the 'Harper Government' use of the new political information control! If you check out Minister Kents biography on Wikipedia you will soon discover, much to your amazement, what an utter moron the government of Canada deemed fit to send to an international conference! The guy essentially is a talking head (whore?) for hire! If any one knows what high school Minister Kent attended and /or possibly graduated from please update his Wikipedia article! The Oracle of Ottawa is just curious of such things...

Papa Fantino after Question Period...

This whole information control thing of the 'Harper Government' PMO is just getting totally out of hand. Do you remember Canada's golden age of the Trudeau years? How come at that time that even the lowest back bencher never required clearance from the Prime Ministers Office to speak about the Just Society? But alas, they don't call it the golden age for nothing! Never was there so much depth in the benches! The cabinet consisted of Canada's wisest men then living, and in retrospect, some of the wisest men that ever lived. The only reason that Steve Harper has to use total information control is that his cabinet and benchers are the saddest lot of hicks that has ever sat in power in the history of Canada! Who wants to remembered as the Prime Minister that created Hickism? Did the Oracle of Ottawa just invent a new paradigm?

Question Period was an utter hoot today! And the Tory's are trying to get everyone to believe that Question Period is staged! Well, if you watched today, you would have been soon and completely disavowed of that howler of a notion! It was utter carnage. And the Tory's looked ever more like the hicks they truly are! Especially Papa Fantino, who on answering the Opposition questions on the train wreck F-35 started to resemble a pill hyped jack-in-the-box! But the real joy of the day is the apparent absence of  the "shits and giggles" demeanor of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Finance Minister wee Jimmy Flaherty. Especially on rising to his seat and answering the question of why the last tax revenue figures have not been released. Wee Jimmy just couldn't admit that the tax revenue stream has just crashed through the floor! People who have turtled and those that have been rudely terminated don't pay income taxes! And as he rose you see that he was experiencing a tightness in the chest and what seemed to be a constriction of the throat. Wee Jimmy found the Invisible Hand!


As a Canadian and a human being, doesn't this just make you proud?

Sunday, December 11, 2011

'Harper Government' - Office Of Religious Freedoms

There is no mercy in the Passing Lane, and no place to pull over and park.
Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, p. 230

It was Saturday morning last. And I woke up as I usually do, to the soothing voice(s) of the Canadian State Broadcaster, the good old CBC! And being Saturday and the time that the good Lord allowed me to wake up, the most excellent radio show The House was playing. I was still half asleep at the first hearing of the expression "The Office of Religious Freedoms" and I wrote it off to that extra pot sticker that I really shouldn't have eaten at my favorite Chinese buffet last night,or it could have been that I took too much crushed chili dipping sauce again, and I was paying the price with some light auditory delusions. "The Office of Religious Freedoms" there it was again! I really heard it that time! Goddamn! The 'Harper Government' is opening what!? "The Office of Religious Freedoms"!!?? Jesus on a Greek stick! I can't believe it!

You know who rests before assuming office..

This is right up there with the most insane thing that the brain dead wacked out Tory's have dropped yet! Opening an office such as this is just like saying to every rag headed sect, group and what ever passes for a religion today that the nation state of Canada has rolled over and has admitted total defeat on all fronts! The Lord himself knows that the Oracle of Ottawa is doomed to Hell for sure. Lord knows it is true. That wild drug induced binge of my youth, the most excellent live concerts of the devils music, the absolute sinful dive into debauch when I was in the Navy...But Lord, the Oracle of Ottawa was young and foolish! And Lord, I truly enjoyed them all! Even the ugly ones! And every cigarette and every drink...And God himself knows that I did not have a woman in every port! The Oracle of Ottawa did not get to every port! So there! 

Still not awake completely yet, the Oracle of Ottawa was still in a semi dream like state, then I was in this big hall, on all fours, with my head reaching forward and my arse perched high into the air, then this loud amplified sound " llllllaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh    akkk     Baa!" Then there was that smell of the cab drivers unwashed arse
that was parked an inch from my face, and then every body stood up!!! Noooooooo!! Hell is supposed to be the place you go to after you die!!  Then I woke up...
 

There are some very nasty rumors circulating in Ottawa on who is going to be the first director of "The Office of Religious Freedoms", The Oracle of Ottawa has not heard a thing, really...

Saturday, December 10, 2011

'Harper Government' - More Darkness...

The standard gets lower every year, but the scum keeps rising.
Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, p. 226

There were no high points in the House of Commons last week dear reader. So the Oracle of Ottawa for the sake of journalistic pride will revert to the Conservative Party of Canada mode, and report the lowest points of the week past. Granted, it is more depressing, but it is very much easier! The major low point of the week past is the train wreck of the Attwawapiskat First Nation. The member of parliament for the region, Charlie Angus, even went hat in hand to the Minister of Indian Affairs John "Jethro" Duncan to let him know that this was going to blow wide open, and that any and all help would be required as soon as possible.. well of course you guessed it, the shit for brains minister wanted Charlie to get on his knees and give him a rim job first! The Filthy Tory Bastards had their chance to keep this within range and control...

The wolf is howling and
the hog is out of the
tunnel..

It wasn't like Charlie Angus doesn't have any thing else to do! I mean he only has this real small riding up in Northern Ontario. If you check it out, his riding only covers 249,626 square kilometers! His riding is bigger than all of Great Britain! Or all of the old West Germany and over half of what was East Germany combined! Ponder that dear reader! And the roads only go to the bottom southeast corner of the riding. If you want to see the rest, you gotta have sturdy wings motherfucker!! But that is the challenge and the magic of Canada.

Charlies "other" car...

When Jean Chretien was Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, he just loved it! He called himself the Emperor of the North! He has stated many times that it was the most breathtaking job any modern man could possibly have. As you know Dear Reader, Jean went on to be Canada's 20th Prime Minister, and was a Three Termer! Being Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs can lead to great things. And John "Jethro" Duncan cashed his cheque forever in the first sitting...What a loser... But it all got worse as are all things that are tainted by anything Conservative...

Richard Nixon - The fact of the matter is...

Instead of copping; "its my first day at this big new job", Jethro Duncan decided to take out his embarrassment on the people of Attwapiskat by placing the community into third party receivership! That is when the government sends in an accountant to help a community get righted in times of trouble. But the Conservative brand of third party help is to send in somebody on "the(patronage?) list" at a rate of $300,000 a year! Or rather $1,300 a day! And to add insult to injury this will come out of the pockets of the people of Attwapiskat! That is the warm generous Conservative Party of Canada world.

"Steve" Harper - I am not a crook!

But it even gets sicker than that! The young associate Minister of Indian Affairs claimed that the Government of Canada was going to get value for money!!? Sounding like an American planter running a slave breeding plantation in the deep south! The Oracle of Ottawa damn near went into shock on that one. What is it that Western Canadians have against Aboriginal peoples? Every strain and sick variety of  Conservative has this absolute pathological hatred of these people and the duties of sticking to the costs and obligations of Treaties. We are going to lose many places in the next Human Development Index. As a matter of fact since the Conservative Government of Steve Harper we are on a slow and steady slide downward! In the Mulrooney and Chreitein years we were always in the top three spots, now for 2011, we are number six and dropping like a stone.

But there are worse things brewing for the 'Harper Government'. The Christmas retail sales figures are going to be a disaster. Wait for it! When you can find parking at every mall in Ottawa like it was late June in December, your retail ass is grass! Again frightened and pissed people do not buy things. And a very strange thing appeared on the local vulgar TV media on Friday afternoon. That nice solid psychophant police chief of Ottawa, Bubb'a Verne whats his name, a pal of the PMO, gave out a warning that we have quiet likely, in Ottawa, a serial killer or serial killers loose in Ottawa. But the good old boy wouldn't elaborate? But he did mention something about that the troubling events are so far traceable to 2006 and have been getting worse up till now. Now Dear Readers we all know that serial killing of women of lower social status in Canada is a Western thing, there is no argument on that from anyone! And who has been in  town since 2006 in ever increasing numbers? Correct! The Conservative Party of Canada! So all hookers and other pleasure givers now working Ottawa should always ask the prospective customer; "Who did you vote for in the last election?" It could save your life sweet heart!!


Charlie Angus blows it all wide open and schools John "Jethro"  Duncan!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Ottawa IKEA Monster Store Opening - Total Fail

The essence and composition of external bodies are so obscure, that we must necessarily, in our reasonings, or rather conjectures concerning them, involves ourselves in contradictions and absurdities.
David Hume, A Treatise Of Human Nature, Book II, Part II, Section VI, p. 366

The guys in marketing are scratching their heads in amazement and shock. They did everything right. They made sure that the new store was grossly over size and a definite blight on the neighborhood where it was built. They made sure that the color scheme was offensive to the locals. They threw their weight around with the City of Ottawa by strong arming in a monster digital bill board just to make sure that every one, even those that couldn't care less, knew that the big bad IKEA was in Ottawa.

Never got touched...

Then the lads at marketing really turned the screws and made sure that the opening of just another monster blight box store became "news" in all the local Ottawa media markets. You know the ploy. Planting advertising in local news casts as news instead of as advertising. With the present situation of the arrival of the 'Harper Government' and the attending horseman of the New World Order, the people in Ottawa totally rebelled and totally rejected the tactics. As they worry for the future and the fact that they may have to become skidmark IKEA shoppers themselves...

An underwhelmed OPP traffic cruiser at IKEA opening...
 It was in the local vulgar media, starting at lunchtime, firstly on the local CTV lunch time news cast. It was a laughably sheepish talking head, that for the life of her, could not find one good thing to say about the total fail. The expectations were for thousands and thousands of customers panting and foaming at the mouth to grab the least scummy third world produced detritus. The only people that slept out over night (!) for a good place in line seem to be the planted marketing types to get all the latest intelligence from the proles, that failed to show up! The Oracle of Ottawa just loved it! There were installed lines of pylons to marshal the rabble, that never showed up. Acres of empty parking. Valuable Police resources were on hand from the Ottawa Police Department and the Ontario Provincial Police standing by on the Highway 417 to control the access ramps that were surely to be backed up, standing around like vagrants ditched by the Conservative Party of Canada with their collective thumbs up their bum's! It was along lonely day...

A total doodle of a day, like it never happened!!

The train wreck continued on the all the local evening hour broadcasts. The thousands predicted became a modest five hundred people. The Oracle of Ottawa can reassure the good readers that this figure was totally wrong! The actual figure was more like 175 - 250, including all the called in employee families and spouses. The sound of the logo'd plastic clappers was slightly louder than one hand clapping.


OPP code 3 response to boredom in progress at Ottawa IKEA opening. Well actually, it was the Timmy's run of coffee and donuts for the lads so they wouldn't fall asleep from the non-event.....

Monday, December 5, 2011

Peter 'The Helo' MacKay

Virtually all ideologues, of any variety, are fearful and insecure, which is why they are drawn to ideologies that promise prefabricated answers for all circumstances.
Jane Jacobs, Dark Age Ahead, p. 115

If Peter MacKay had as much dick in his pants as he has stuck in the center of his face he really would be the cosmopolitan jet setting Liberal that he always dreamed he should be. You know, just like that avant garde stud about town, just like his hero of his heart of hearts, Pierre Elliot Trudeau!  But alas, the good minister comes from a Conservative political family dynasty, who at the merger with the dark force of the new Conservative Party of Canada , sold out all his future dreams of studdom! If he had been true to himself, why, he would still be doing "Belinda" or the love of his life "Condi"! Ah..Condi! But the good minister hails from Nova Scotia, and believe the Oracle of Ottawa, there are still severe"limits" in Nova Scotia.

Fuck it all Peter - It's never too late...

The only crime that Peter 'The Helo' really is guilty of is looking better than his boss Steve! And as the Oracle of Ottawa predicted just after the election, don't worry about a mere 11 seat majority! Why the holiday season has not even started yet and Peter Goldring has made the the great majority smaller by one. So now the majority is 10. With Peter MacKays resignation from caucus to sit as in independent, the majority will be down to 9! And the first session of the 41st Parliament is not nearly done yet! Well...

But the nut of the whole story is; who gave up Peter 'The Helo' MacKay? The Oracle of Ottawa has the answer. And you dear reader can check it out. Just go to CPAC and find the first Question Period video stream of when this said "scandal" broke. Look who is sitting to the right of Peter as the first bombshell question blew the whole thing open. Did you catch that power hard on smirk? Jesus, it makes the Oracle of Ottawa's skin crawl just to think of it, let alone watch it again... Who was that guy? Why it was old "Steve"! Goddamn it, the Afganistan mission is over and I don't need this pretty jerk off showing me up any more!!



[[Classified: Your Eyes Only!! cockpit transcription, Somewhere in deepest Newfoundland.]]

Pilot: Sweet thunder'in Jesus which shack is he in? Goddamn it, there at least five camps that I can see from here!
Co-Pilot: Why don't we turn on the FLIR (Forward Looking Infra Red) and home in on that cock on his face that he calls a nose? (laughter...)
Pilot: Fuck it! It's worth a try. Sar Tech! Flash up the FLIR! (more laughter...)
Sar Tech: Hot contact Sir! Five degrees to Port. About a mile and a half... (uncontrolled laughter...)
Pilot: Son of bitch! There he is!
Co-Pilot: Sar Tech! Prepare the gimp basket! And you are going down with it!
Sar Tech: Gee whiz Sir! Can't he ride the rope like a man?
Pilot: Stop your killing me... Make sure you tuck him in proper...(hysterical laughter...unintelligible...)

[[The transcription breaks off ...]]]

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Death Of The Washington Consensus

A small object makes a great one appear still greater. A great object makes a little one appear less.
David Hume, A Treatise Of Human Nature, Book II, Section VIII, p. 375

Did you enjoy that little market rally on Wednesday last? What was the up on the day in Toronto? About 400 points, thereabouts? Did you see that little low key explanation of why that little rally happened? It was the concerted announcement and move by six central banks, USA, Canada, Japan, And The EU Central Bank, to name a few, to facilitate interbank credit. It is clear that they are breaking a little unwritten rule that they said only recently that was not going to be done. The Oracle of Ottawa could not help but notice the gravity of this low key event. It seems to this humble blogger that the powers that be, have broken the first rule of the Washington Consensus . And that rule concerns fiscal policy discipline.

Washington Consensus - Funeral Arrangements
To Be Annouced...

But alas dear readers, it is too little too late. Although the Oracle of Ottawa is hoping he is wrong, the economies of the free world are so utterly and hopelessly fucked and weakened by decades of the Washington Consensus, that there is no hope for us now. Although the right wing master plan has been a total success, there are so many people broken and busted and the ones that were not broken and busted have gone to ground. Every one is too afraid too spend on just about everything. Frightened people don't spend money. They preserve it for the uncertain future ahead. And the future ahead is very uncertain indeed.

Some people in some countries are not going to play by the rules at any time. As a matter of fact, they haven't been playing by the rules at all, and they, I am sure are ready to pop this fact onto the world sometime in the near future. It will be a very rude awakening indeed! But hey, like the right wingers say, they have the right to fail. And the rest of us are just going to be collateral damage. The Washington Consensus was a huge success when you reflect upon it. To bad there is isn't going to be anything left to fight over...


On the verge of the last great train wreck, wait for it...

Saturday, December 3, 2011

International Bank Fraud: A Crime Against Humanity?

A society is a cooperative venture for the mutual advantage of its members.
Nicholas Barr, Economics Of The Welfare State, p. 42

What is the difference between a black man in Africa in a uniform, carrying a gun, that devastates his society, and a white guy in a suit, with a briefcase in the West, that devastates his society with "free and open markets" and toxic derivative financial instruments? A Crime Against Humanity is defined as a:  " particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings." Now we all know that millions of Americans are now living somewhere else, that once lived in seeming detached home luxury. Some, a very large percentage, some say, that will never escape "The Whole Year Inn" in this lifetime.

International Criminal Court

What about all the members of the European Union countries that have been devastated by credit agencies a continent away that are full of operatives from the Bilderberg Group and the many other secret and nefarious secret societies? Have you realized that all countries that have a social society more advanced than in the United States of America, seemed all of a sudden to be, overnight, a poor credit risk? Funny that...

ICC - The Hague

What about elected governments in a democracy that have been discovered to favor secret corporate friends to the detriment to the people that elected them? Could this not also be construed to be a crime against humanity? If the International Criminal Court existed in the 1930's, would the world be a different place today? With the advent of stateless and literally homeless vagabond Multinational Corporations that operate all over the world with , at present, absolute impunity, perhaps it is time to broaden the mandate of the International Criminal Court? Perhaps any bank or government that operates in a country that supports the International Criminal Court should automatically be under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. In short order any country that did not sign the Treaty, is in reality, a failed state waiting to happen.


Something to look into??

Friday, December 2, 2011

Trashing George Stroumboulopoulos's Talk

By which he Reigns: next to him high Arbiter
Chance governs all.
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, Lines 909-910

George

When you are a media "personality" and have an article, that looks for the all world, that it was placed by your employer in Canada's national newspaper complaining about your ratings, you know that cancellation is only a season or two away. The main reason that the Oracle of Ottawa does not watch Strombo in the Red Chair on the CBC at 11:00 p.m. is that it is the same time that Charlie Rose is on at PBS! Even though some people say that the Charlie Rose Show is the media outlet of the Bilderberg Group, and that the Oracle of Ottawa is not a Bilderberg Group fan, he still watches. Because Charlie Rose is awesome at what he does. He is one of the best interviewers alive today. His interviews will be watched for decades well into the future. What can I say, George sucks.


What a jerk!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

'Harper Government' - High Tech Attawapiskat Genocide?

Virtually all ideologues, of any variety, are fearful and insecure, which is why they are drawn to ideologies that promise prefabricated answers for all circumstances. 
Jane Jacobs, Dark Age Ahead, p. 115

Well! Bet you didn't see this coming! Why, it was only yesterday, that I predicted that the 'Harper Government' had already peaked. Even I am scaring myself. (?) And didn't this outrageous scandal make for awesome Question Period? Since the Oracle of Ottawa has watched every Question period of this parliament, I can safely tell you Dear Reader that today was simply the best so far. The Oracle of Ottawa was sure that Bob Rae was going to pop a blood vessel! When "Premier Bob" is really pissed, there is no orator alive today, that can even hope to catch him when he gets to full flight. He was literally and physically vibrating! And Charlie Angus laid down the supporting covering fire, in and with his usual aplomb. He is so good at the outrage with restraint, it is just poetry to watch.  The Oracle of Ottawa was awed and proud to be a Canadian.

Attawapiskat Luxury Inn - Enjoy your stay!
 As you might expect, on a day such as this, that there were some people on the government side of the House who were wishing with all their being, that they could be just anywhere else!  One of them was John Baird, and as the Oracle of Ottawa predicted, he has realized today that he is in way over his head. He knew way more then any of  his peers on his side, how bad this was going to be and that it is now playing out all over the world. And that this is another terminal deadly screw up that is going to follow him around for longer than he cares to contemplate. The fall out from this will stream on for the rest of the mandate... Especially for that secret "ark" plan for a certain small Middle East state... That doesn't get along too well with its neighbours... And at the present rate it is going could be in the Med at any moment, I just can't remember the name, brain freeze!


Another thought,  Diane Finley has a big bill coming that will change all the charity rules in Canada forever. It contains a lot of that insane neo-con crap about Private Public Partnerships, which today is all but a smoking pile of wreckage! The Conservatives will constantly be reminded of that PPP between the Attawapiskat First Nation and that one very well known international diamond company. Totally cooked and doomed. All hat and no cattle indeed!

What?! - Wrong picture?

But there is one Hail Mary way out for the Conservatives to save the day. Here it goes. It is radical, but it has been done before and recently. If the PMO  wants to upgrade the Attwapiskat First Nation in record time, all they have to do is clear about 50 million dollars in slush money from some other government department, put Tony Clement on a Challenger jet with the instructions that there is going to be a G8 summit in Attawapiskat in 90 days! Just like magic there will be a college campus, (that would probably get used...), luxury condos, apartment buildings, gazebos all over the god damned place, and for good measure, the mandatory "fake lake". Not to mention a Mounty behind every rock and tree. (No extra charge...) 


Go Charlie Go!!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Canadian Labour And The Three Tired Regimes

Forget the shrimp Honey I'm coming home with the crabs
Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, p. 94

The one thing that really eats the Oracle of Ottawa is the deal that today's youngsters are getting in the work place. When I think of the deal that my nieces and nephews have today compared with what the Oracle of Ottawa once enjoyed, well, a man could get weary. Although union labour is still strong in Canada, it just isn't what it once was. Recently I have been pondering much on the problem. When and where did it start to go off the rails? It has been a long and slow process, but the answer came to me just recently. Labour power, in Canada and America especially, started declining on July 30th, 1975. The day that Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.

Winnipeg General Strike - June 21, 1919

At first hearing it all sounds a bit much over the top. But like all profound revelations, it improves with each and every additional pass. What are the foundations of the whole worker thing? What is it all based on? How is that labour got so far behind the eight ball? Well the Oracle of Ottawa actually rounded up some material on the subject recently. The reason there is not much good information on the subject is that the works are so incredibly expensive! It seems to be a conspiracy of some nefarious powers of billable hour powered interests. But already I have learned that the basis of labour law is based on three (tired) regimes. And I will try to share with you what I have gleaned so far.

The first regime is the common law of employment. "Which treats employers and employees as free and equal contracting parties in the buying and selling of labour." Don't you just get a real laugh out of that howler? This is essentially the same common law that Adam Smith and Karl Marx bitched about in their major works over a hundred years ago. And what is even more depressing is that their arguments are still as relevant today as the centuries of the past that they first recorded them! You as a worker, essentially have no power what so ever under the common law. We had better hope that the other two regimes left have something better to offer.

Jimmy Hoffa - Left - Where Labour Leaders Come From...

The second regime is collective bargaining. " It is based on the realization that the usually inferior economic position of the employees vis-a-vis the employer keeps the individual employment contract from being a satisfactory mechanism." No shit! Once labour was totally on top of this and really ran successfully with it for many many years. Then somehow, during the recent right wing wave that has circled the earth, this most powerful tool has been slowly and very successfully undermined. The one weird thing about all this to the Oracle of Ottawa is that the corporate overlords have no problem forming as a block against the workers of the world, through such "unions" as the Bilderberg Group, and all the other various secret societies! And yet they will not seem to allow and are never at all happy when we try to do the same thing for our own protection! Are you starting to see the problem here? 

The third regime is statutory regulation. This is the employment standards legislation of you province or state, that you happen to reside and / or work in. You don't need the Oracle of Ottawa to tell you that, depending where you live, this regime is now, it seems, constantly under attack. The Oracle of Ottawa is just in shock when he watches the incredible decline of American workers rights, especially as of late. It seems that the corporate blue suited whores will use any trick method, or naked power to even accelerate this dismantling. The old days of hearing the knees knock on the other side of the table is long gone it seems to me. What is to be done?


We need another Golden Age. And perhaps a Global Master Freight Agreement??

Monday, November 28, 2011

Globalization Free Trade Fail

The fox has been in the henhouse for many years, but now the coon is coming.
Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, p. 88

God! What a haul it was! Finally finished reading George Ritzers monster book on globalization, entitled Globalization - A Basic Text. Yes, dear reader,  the Oracle of Ottawa read it so you wouldn't have to. Drier than all the sand dunes in Libya. But in conjunction with the Oracle of Ottawa's Thinking About Thinking Project, I think I have made several breakthroughs! You don't need the Oracle of Ottawa to tell you that there is really something fishy with this globalization crap. When you hear the knuckle dragging social Darwinist's of the Conservative Party of Canada going on about its wonders you know you have to be worried. And when you are sitting at home in, say, Southern Ontario, waiting for your first unemployment check, that you are not going to get, because your workplace just left for Mexico or China without you, then you will know that globalization is a crock of crap. How did it all come to this?

Milton Friedman - Fooled ya!

It is all a very convoluted and twisted tale. The two names you will hear the most often are Adam Smith and David Ricardo. The right wing Chicago School economist will go on endlessly about the benefits of the Invisible Hand as first written about by Adam Smith, then this will lead invariably to a long dissertation on the brilliance of Comparative Advantage. Now the Chicago School is big and unquestioned ever since Milton Friedman did his big thing in Chile, you know that miracle story? But when you really look at the whole thing closely today, you see it was all an engineered set up. It seemed to be old Milty's big rush to get into the Ivy League. Never happened, alas. Now you will hear about the miracle of the Chicago Boys, but did you hear about the bits about the Ford Foundation and the United States State Department? Geez, you soon come to realize that once with the full unimpeded power of the United States of America you could make darkness happen at noon! Let us just say that the playing field was altered somewhat before the said great experiment even started! And of course that coup thing had nothing to do with the "successful" outcome...

We will get it all back Comrade....

Well, the Oracle of Ottawa has discovered two new logical fallacies that allow this crap to be continued to be sold. The first fallacy I call Era Displacement. For example comparing the workings of comparative advantage in the time of David Ricardo to the modern world of today! Workers at the time of Ricardo who were engaged in so called foreign trade were not much better off in respect to one another, more or less. In todays modern world, there are great differences between the workers of the first world and the third world! And when you allow the capitalist corporate pigs to carry off our factories to third world countries, you are essentially allowing them to export unpaid for surplus labour back to the originating country, got it? Talk about adding insult to injury! Ponder that for a moment! And soon your first world country will be transformed ever so slowly to a third world country! Don't believe me? Just ask anyone that lives in say Windsor, Ontario...

Working through another problem....

The second fallacy is very similar to the first, but very subtle, I call it the fallacy of Proportion Displacement. Free trade between similar countries of social development will more or less work pretty well. But so called free trade between a first world country and a third world country is a total rip off for the citizens of the first world country, and the citizens of the third world country. The only ones that really laugh all the way to the bank coming and going are the right wing economists and the global corporate whores, of no fixed address.
Now the Oracle of Ottawa has a solution to these two newly discovered fallacies. See my blog post entitled "A Gold Standard For the Rest Of Us". (Not a neo-con rant...) Totally solved it didn't I? And by the way, it was not Karl Marx who first coined the concept of surplus labour, it was Adam Smith! Can you find the exact reference in The Wealth of Nations?  No? Some economist you are!
        

Now watch this carefully and then read the above text again...