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...)
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.
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??
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...
Men of wit always turn the discourse on subjects that are entertaining to the imagination ; and poets never present any objects but such as are of the same nature. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book II, Part II, Section V, p. 358
What a difference a week makes! Or, who would have figured that the 'Harper Government' would have peaked over the hump so soon! It is all down hill from here Bubba! It is also amazing what you can glean from the Globe and Mail Friday edition. Why if you are very preceptive, and able to think critically in a sane and somewhat linear manner, you can figure out pretty much what is going to happen next week! Take for example the nice compact piece by Dean Beeby, entitled Truce called in CBC dispute...
It seems that the Tory members of the Access to Information and Ethics Committee have agreed to return the Pandoras Box of sealed CBC documents. I guess the thought of future endless feature programs analyzing the Tory Man Love Triangles from every possible angle (sic) has somewhat taken the inquisitive edge from the stark raving nuts Tory Bund. The Oracle of Ottawa has received confirmation already that one Mad Hatter press baron in Quebec is just livid. It seems that all the money in the world and a strong Conservative majority is no match to having your hind grinding exposed on the "State Broadcaster" after all! Sort of like, Let's Make It Better, but not right now. I wonder if the Mad Hatter of Qu#b#c#r has figured it all out yet? What month of the day is it?
Mad Hatter & Counsel try to get Aljazeera
back into the Tea Pot....
But if one peruses the want ads at the back of the Report on Business one can see a real ground shaker coming down the road. Why, it seems that ALJAZEERA is coming to Canada! They are posting 15 positions, and a dozen of them are for many multiple candidates! All you poor bastards that have been suffering in abandoned industrial buildings in seedy industrial parks under the guise of Sun Media newsrooms, your Moses (Allah?) just entered town! Brian Dunstan is going to go over the top after all! You can be a prick, you can have "the power", you can be a jerk that everyone is afraid of, you can pay as little as you can get away with, but only for a while. Even God couldn't run the Sun News empire by himself! Perhaps for the speculative types, a large short sale is in order, along with the purchase and sale of a raft of near options....There will be blood and gold for the brave.
Even the dumbest Sun news "intern" serf can figure out who will pay more. Sun News Quebec, or ALJAZEERA of Doha, Qatar! It seems that ALJAZEERA is on a mission from God. Money is no object. Many "media" outlets of all persuasions are soon to be picked clean. It will be sheer heaven to watch one certain stock tank to utter oblivion... What insane actions will this cause? Will the police have to be called? Allo Police??
One day you are on top of the world, all powerful, the next day your toast! Will the Harper Government intervene in straight up good old fashioned capitalist competition? Any thing is better than Sun News...
You would think that the Oracle of Ottawa would have got a heads up from his many sources. But I was as shocked as you dear reader at today's Libya mission accomplished celebrations held on the Hill and in the Senate Chamber, which was converted for the day into a drill hall for the air types and the choir? Sort of Gilbert and Sullivan on drugs. The shit started to hit the fan right away in all of the vulgar media. When I saw the images on the local CBC evening news I just couldn't believe it. And when they brought up the fact that no such imperial display was done for the lads who have been slogging it out in Afganistan, well this is all a dark day in Canadian history.
Where is this guys fly past?
A lot of places in history were forever abdicated today. Two examples come to mind. Peter MacKay and David Johnston especially David Johnston. He started out as a hick from Sudbury and after being involved in this fiasco, Sudbury will be about the only place he will be able to retreat to when his gig is over. He should have realized that this screw-up couldn't have happened if he refused to show up. One can just imagine the effect this will have when everyone with a spine of their own starts to refuse to attend his Levy's and other events at Rideau Hall. But the worst thing is to go down into the history books as the most hapless Governor General of all time. The one who willingly aided and abetted the descension of the Great Darkness.
Money, like toilet paper, is printed on rolls, and to be really useful and enjoyable like toilet paper, you have to let it roll. Frightened people don't buy things. When you attack long standing institutions, not for any good logical reason, but rather for nefarious political and ideological reasons, people will fear for the future. They will withdraw from society nearly completely. Once they start, they are amazed at how little they really need to wait for the next election. They will have time to reflect, they will discover what Canada really needs.
Milton Friedman - You actually
bought my shit?
Over sixty per cent of Canadians did not vote for the 'Harper Government'. And the Conservatives and their minions are already hitting the ideological wall of rejection. They have played to the right wing neo-con Bildererg Group playbook exactly. Yet the deficit figures increase, due to the the rich enough upper middle class dropping out of Canadian society. With this drop in tax revenue, the unemployment numbers will continue to increase. Christmas retail sales will be horrendous. The majority of Canadian people have nothing to celebrate.
The right wing Chicago School rhetoric is met now, more than ever, by deaf ears. The proof of this is the repeated times the wee little financial leprechaun starts spouting it to the Canadian Press while the Markets are trading. Every time he does this the markets actually drop and tank for the whole day. Investors and stakeholders seem to have lost their confidence in Milton Friedman and his wee cheer leader Jimmy Flaherty.
The Central Bank of Canada has followed the Friedman k-percent rule with the fervor of a Western Canadian seeking the source of baby fat candles, worn Old Testaments, and Ayn Rand first editions. Yet it all continues to tank. We haven't seen anything yet!
The 'Harper Government' will continue with its insane game plan. The logic and reason of the Royal Opposition will soon be irrefutable, even to the thickest Tory gorilla of the farthest back benches. Then, at the just right time, Parliament will be prorogued, for the duration of the mandate. The Prime Ministers Office and the inner cabinet will rule by decree and the soft sweet light of baby wax candles...
One true fact about Kevin O'Leary is that he is a good little employee. He never misses a chance for even more and further media exposure. He has become so good at it that the Oracle of Ottawa has given up watching business news on CBC altogether! The main show that the great Mr. O'Leary does is called The Lang O'Leary Report. Now the Oracle of Ottawa holds Amanda Lang in the highest regard. She is truly Canadian Establishment royalty. She is very well educated and you don't have to read her (true) Wikipedia bio to find this out, all you have to do his listen when she talks. But when I see her on television with the likes of Kevin O'Leary it reminds me of a dangerous violent personal relationship that some good women will find themselves in, that I am sure dear reader, you have seen in your lifetime at least one time before. You know, the good hearted high class woman stuck with a skidmark wanta'be who in his darkest heart of hearts truly resents and hates her guts. If I was Amanda Lang's husband I would put my foot down on this and hard. Mark my words dear readers! The Oracle of Ottawa always feels she is in mortal danger around this "actor."
Kevin O'Leary - Really?
Now it just so happened that I heard of Mr. O'Learys new upcoming show "Redemption" which is based on the most bullshit premise that I have heard of to date! The greasy Kevin O'Leary is going to front an ex-con in some small business and be the poor suckers "mentor"! Then, let me guess, he will arrange for the ex-con to appear on the Dragon's Den to steel his business from him for chump "venture capital"! Like Mr. O'Leary always says; "It's all about the money..." But I digress. I just wanted to find out the true dirt on this greasy little shit. And of course, there is the article about him on Wikipedia.
Imagine my surprise, at the time of this writing, that Mr O'Leary is claiming a net worth of 6 billion dollars! And that is US Dollars, thank you very much! Why that would mean that he is one of the richest people in Canada! But alas, this is something that is all very carefully tracked. All you have to do to confirm this is check out the Wikipedia article entitled List of Canadians by net worth. This article, is properly sourced, and can be considered very reliable. It seems that Mr. O'Leary is absent at the 6 billion dollar level (Canadian) and well, much to my surprise, he is absent from the list altogether! Now the wording, like the actor, is all rather greasy. And of course it could all be an accident, an overzealous fan. But go down to the bottom of the article and hit the link O'Leary Funds Inc. Now when you get to the page hit the About Us tab and click on the Company link.
"Prior to his work in media, Kevin O’Leary built SoftKey into The Learning Company and a valuation of $4.2 billion".
It "implies" that there is a link between Kevin O'Leary and $4.2 billion. Now we have two mistakes, of course... The only conclusion one can come to is more than clear. And it is grounds for dismissal with cause from the CBC.
I have been listening to Rex Murphy for years. On Sundays when I am going up to the Ottawa Valley to visit my dear old Dad I always have the radio on to the CBC to catch Cross Country Checkup. Last Sunday November 20, 2011 was no exception. But I was immediately troubled by the subject and the guest, one Terry Glavin.You failed to inform your public that your "guest" is a signatory of the Euston Manifesto ! Or in plain English that you were hosting a right wing total wack ball that before the election of the 'Harper Government' you would not have anything to do with!
Rex Murphy; is dead to me...
I immediately remembered then and there, so to speak, a recent appearance that you did on Strombo. You remember, right after the election of the 'Harper Government' where you utterly shocked me by stating that all that bunk about the 'Harper Government' secret agenda was a load of rubbish and then continued on to diss one of the greatest Canadian writers that has ever lived! If you have forgotten that you can watch it here and now.
Did you say this of your own free will? Were you forced to say that by the CBC? Or was it the PMO and a close connection that someone failed to report to the Oracle of Ottawa? Or did you do it for money? Now let us cut back to Sunday last, to about eight minutes into the show. Where your illustrious guest stated that the biggest business in Afganistan was the collection of human bones by the locals (in Afganistan) to render into cooking oil for export to Pakistan!! So you stood by as your "guest" called people from Pakistan cannibals? This dear readers was the most base propaganda I have ever heard on the CBC!! The CBC Ombudsman should look into this!
This is quite simply a re-spin of the Corpse Factory Story that was employed by the British in World War I!It is discussed at length in the most informative book "Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion" by Randal Marlin, a philosopher who presently teaches about propaganda at Carleton University! The whole saga of this vicious ruse starts on p. 71 of Mr. Marlins text! You appeared, in gasping shock, to have bought this utter load of crap without a question! The actual reality is the story is utter and absolute bullshit!! The rendering of a human body to oil (not cooking oil...) is possible with a process called TDP or rather thermal depolymerization , a very high tech process, that you can rest assured is not running or has ever run in the shit hole back alley's of stinking Afganistan! Since it is still under patent. And to provide even more detail, so you don't look like an idiot again, you can get way more oil from plastic bottles than the same weight of a human being! All this is, is a most base attempt to sell the other Afganistan mission to the Canadian public!
You have really let me and all Canadians down Rex. If you are being forced to be a "tool" of the Prime Ministers Office of the 'Harper Government' you should do the right thing and retire, and cop a job at some Sun News paper. I mean who is next weeks guest Ezra Levant and his book Ethical Oil??
Wack balls of a feather stick together, Ezra Levant, Terry Glavin and poor Liz May....
In society the values of freedom and democracy are accepted as the norm. In contrast, the relationship between employers and employees is based on the subordination of the employee, and this is the source of conflict.
Larry Suffield, Labour Relations, Second Edition, 2008, p. 9
If the buses stop rolling, Gentleman Jim's political career is over. If you don't believe that last statement is true, just call up Larry O'Brien and ask him! So when the Oracle of Ottawa got the first word that the Mayor of
Ottawa called the interested parties to lunch to hammer out the recent kinks at OC Transpo, the Oracle of Ottawa figured that His Worship would come to his senses and employ some of the perquisites that comes with his office. And let the Oracle of Ottawa tell you dear reader the mayor of Ottawa has a very nice office! I can say that, because quite simply, I have seen it! Ensuite shower, lots of room(s), and there are several very nice conference rooms nearby that would provide a most congenial setting for the breaking of bread in a most collegial atmosphere. Considering what was at stake, if the Oracle of Ottawa was holding this event, it would have been somewhat understated epicurean! I mean considering the money at stake, what is the pocket change for the services of a decent executive caterer?
Some management styles don't work very well...
But alas no, the squeaking little man opted out for burgers at Wendy's? The party included His Worship, Diane Deans, present transit chairwoman, union boss Gary Queale and aide, and that vertically challenged acting mangler of OC Transpo, one Alain Mercier. Later in the day the press conference appeared on the local vulgar media. The Oracle of Ottawa caught the CBC local version. One can learn a lot from not only listening but from watching. The real leader in the group is Gary Queale, when he stepped up and took over the mayors lectern with both hands, (!) all the players watching now knew who was really wearing the pants, so to speak. The shocked look on the Mayors face was priceless. It was brilliant proof that Mr. Queale was not from CUPE 503! Then came that little insect manager, who realizing he is hanging by a thread, was doing the French bullshit hand ballet...the Oracle of Ottawa immediately concluded that he is toast. That guy looked like some one from history, I just can't place who, but it is really creepy...
This is the same manager that was caught dead to rights texting / talking and driving a short while back. End result nothing! Catch a union card carrying bus driver on video talking on a cell phone dead heading an empty bus and you would think the guy was Adolf Eichmann! The person hurt the most by all this is Diane Deans. There will be no more approaches by any political party for anything. All the hands at the City know that many many longer serving people have been ditched "under the bus" so to speak for so much less than what some of these pathetic alleged "managers" get away with...Credibility once lost at that level is all but unrecoverable.
One ponders the mystery of the destruction of once promising careers by the unfounded faith in a little pathetic skid mark that is more suited to running a wall mart in Mexico... I will leave that to you the readers and the hapless taxpayers...
We used to have every reason in the world to be proud of our bus system, is this string of events a neo-liberal case of starve, kill and privatize?
It is late Saturday night. And for some strange reason the Oracle of Ottawa feels utterly compelled to share with his legions of faithful readers his impressions of the goings on in the House of Commons especially during Question Period of the week last. Let me start with the general impressions of the parties as a whole. First we must start with the government in power. Protocol demands we do these things properly! The Conservatives look to the Oracle of Ottawa as if they have been in majority power for twenty years already! All fat, slow and corpulent and it is not even half way through the first year of the heavenly mandate! Like the Oracle of Ottawa has already said in this blog, if the Conservatives used there Parliamentary Library cards as much as their Parliamentary cafeteria cards, Canada would be in a Golden Age that would rival Ancient Greece! But alas the lights are already starting to dim in the walmart cabinet... Now to the poor Liberals, that section of the House appears very much like, save and except for a few firebrand pillars, the Day Room of a very posh old age home! All the commitment is there, but the time seems to be gone forever. Meanwhile to the Liberals left, sits the NDP, with all the piss and vinegar of wanton and reckless youth. It makes the Oracle of Ottawa feel twenty years younger just watching them go! And they must be getting it right, with every Conservative mentioning at every opportunity, that they are not fit to rule? Is there information in that whistle past the graveyard pronouncement?
Seen on the Hill....
Sick Parade:
Now the Oracle of Ottawa has noticed that some Conservatives are already starting to falter, power is such an exertion and all don't you know! It appears that each time the vertically challenged Kellie Leitch stands to her seat she is clutching to the left of her stomach. Whats wrong honey? Guts giving out already? The Oracle of Ottawa loves watching these 40 under 40 types hit the wall at 100 miles per hour! The Oracle of Ottawa has also noticed the dimming of the voice of one Human Resources Minister Diane Finley! Life has been one success after another, so far... But now the our little over achiever is learning the hardest way that government is not a business and cannot be run like one. She just can't understand it. But the worst is yet to come, the Oracle of Ottawa predicts that soon her voice will fail her each time she stands to her seat, completely. Proving that yes, there really is a God and he is a member of the NDP! And then there is that old Julian Fantino the Oracle of Ottawa wonders how many more times he can possibly stand to his seat in one Question Period as he defends the ongoing train wreck of the doomed F-35. It reminds one of a prairie gopher that is having all his holes attacked at once! There is even a pool you can buy into picking the closest time to his expiration in the House from all the exertion. A senior citizen like him should be somewhere else with is feet up.
Now the Oracle of Ottawa must present this weeks prizes of Statesman of the Week, and the Hog of the Week, with honourable mentions of course!
Statesman Of The Week:
This week the prize goes to: (envelope please...) Megan Leslie! For her incredible feat of destroying several years of lobbyist and Conservative Party of Canada's well laid plans for the Keystone Pipeline! You go girl! By taking the initiative and going down to the USA, she "keystoned" the Tory's dead! The part where Shelly Glover just about broke out in tears of rage was the high lite of this bloggers week! All Canadians revelled in the Tory hissy fits!
Honourable Mention:
Pat Martin: For releasing his inner voice on Twitter! You would have won big guy if you would have said all that in the House! But good work all in nevertheless!
Charlie Angus: For over all above and beyond performance in Question Period. And just adding some class to the place by being there.
Hog Of The Week:
Dean del Mastro: For displaying incredible ignorance about the "separation of powers" with regards to that committee screw up regarding the CBC something or other. Lesson of the week? You ain't in Italy now sucker!
Honourable Mention:
Eve Adams: For dating the hands, and soiling the party nest, not to mention missing committee due to that silicon lip blow-out. You should always keep a patch kit in your purse sweetheart....
Kerry-Lynne D.(umb) Findlay: For screwing up during Question Period, I mean how hard can it be to read a scripted answer? By the way does Vic Teows know you are active in that criminal loving Canadian Bar Association?
James Moore: For balloning like a blimp and not answering to your true inclinations. If you need a set of balls, see Megan Leslie. Everyone knows she has more than one set!
Well that is it for this week folks. The Oracle of Ottawa is watching, he is every where....
Megan Leslie is way smarter than Peter Kent, and even better looking!!
Any change that makes at least one individual better off and none worse off is an improvement in social welfare. A change that makes none better off and some worse off is a worsening of social welfare. Kelvin Lancaster, Introduction To Modern Microeconomics, Second Edition, p, 299
After watching the 'Harper Government' in majority action in the House of Commons since the beginning of this Parliament, we have seen blind, raging, insane ideology in action. But to be fair the Oracle of Ottawa went to the original sources to identify and define this evil, so you don't have to. The best short definition with the source of the word is found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). I have included the definitions below.
Can't happen in Canada?
1. The science of ideas; that department of philosophy or psychology which deals with the origin and nature of ideas.
2. Ideal or abstract speculation; in a depreciatory sense, unpractical or visionary theorizing or speculation.
The word is of French origin. It first appeared in print in 1796 -1797. And the names associated with its origin are Destutt de Tracy and Condillac.
Wait for it...
Now the expression Pareto Optimal originates with Vilfredo Pareto a philosopher and economist of the late 19th and early 20th century. A real interesting guy, but his original works are very scarce on the ground, so I used what I had on hand for this blog post epigraph. Now all the major legislation that the 'Harper Government' has introduced has one common characteristic; they all have reverse Pareto Optimality!
The elimination of the Per Vote Subsidy, the Omnibus Crime Bill, the killing of the Canadian Wheat Board and well, all the other legislation are things that make nobody better off and will actually leave many people much worse off. This is of course a worsening of social welfare. And years down the road as well as today this is a dark and ominous sign that Canada is changing into some other country...
Pass the Long Gun Registry records! The first "book burning" of the 21st century?
...The Edge...There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others - the living - are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to chose between Now or Later. Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels, p. 271
Tim Horton was a legend as large as the life he lived. Twenty four seasons in the NHL, a fist full of Stanley Cup rings and an appearance on six NHL All Star Teams. And just to show he wasn't another jock, he also became a legend in the business world. Tim, it appears, was big on the spaghetti algorithm of investing. If you have a lot of spaghetti you just keep throwing it against the wall, eventually something will stick. He was one of those rare people who accepted that we are all dealt a hand of cards in life. The key to greatness is to get your cards to the right game, and play out your hand to the max.
There selling WHAT??
Long before Tim Horton passed away, the Tim Hortons doughnut shops were a multi-million dollar operation. The factor that made the business such a success was the high quality and the common touch. Going to a Tim Hortons is a lot like going to church or Las Vegas. All social and class distinctions are left at the door. If your a cop or the mayor or even the goddamned Prime Minister of Canada you get in line and wait your turn to be called to the counter. Why in Ottawa you could even sit in beside a cabinet ministers riding association meeting. The Oracle of Ottawa was not making that up! A quick glance about could save you a lot of trouble, it is all in the seat selection...
That flimsy foreign stuff will fuck you up every time!!
If you are a road warrior for a utility or any municipality in Canada, The local Tim Hortons is your defacto office, cafeteria, restroom, and in emergencies the place you go to lay low. The reason for the popularity is that the menu is basic and of high quality. Basic, simple items all ready to go, sell very quickly, so when things are busy you are usually in and out like a flash. The key is the quality, simplicity, value and speed. Canadians are busy people. If you want to pose and flaunt your high social standing while trolling for a trot you go to Starbucks and order whatever the wally's and trot's drink at Starbucks!
Now that was brand!!
The Oracle of Ottawa has been informed, by those that know about such things, that having a Starbucks close to your secure bunker is a very good sign to secure and higher future shelter value. And wouldn't you know it? There is a Starbucks very very near to the Oracle of Ottawas secure bunker! Well actually, truth be told it is too close. I have yet to set foot into the place. If I want a shot of American Imperialism I'll stay home and watch CNN or Fox News that is on my cable package!
Don't mind that whirring sound, it's just Tim
spinning in his grave...
Every time I walk past that Starbucks, the Oracle of Ottawa shudders. Could you even imagine Hunter S. Thompson sitting in a Starbucks, sucking on a double skim milk, gluten free Latte, with a chocolate happy face sitting on top of the foam? Right, I think not. But I have no problem seeing the great Doctor at a very busy Tim Hortons in a working class or lower neighborhood. Late in the middle of the night, especially ten to fifteen years ago, when they had ashtrays, and the stools at the counter! There would be the Doctor with his favorite newspapers, four large double-doubles and one doughnut of every kind in a pile like an Inuit Igloo! Yes, today's weirdness is tomorrows reason why...
He call'd so loud, that all the hollow Deep Of Hell resounded. John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 314-315
Dear Charlie:
Only in Canada; one day your rocking and then the next day your talking, in the House of Commons! The Oracle of Ottawa thought he lead an "interesting" life, but I got nothing on you Charlie. I hoped you got some time to relax on the mid fall break.Ya, I know, fat chance on that...
The real reason I'm writing, is about that committee meeting I watched on CPAC. Wherein a certain big, bad, Canadian press lord want'a be graced you with his presence. Between you and me Charlie I have never seen anything so utterly crazy in recent times. And the way you and the young lads dismantled him was wonderous to behold. That part where you reminded him that he received an amount not un-adjacent to 600 million dollars of subsidy from the Canadian tax payer was really funny. But you missed the fact that could have really rocked the whole appearance even more!
Contemporary Canadian Press Lord
confers with counsel...
And that was the little known fact of the two tier share structure. You see if you look up the stock symbol of the said press lords company as publicly traded, you will discover that there is the .A stock and then there is the .B stock. Now usually the A stock contains all the votes or voting power. The B stock is essentially for the "chumps" i.e. the Caissse de Depot. Who do yo think owns the A stock? You guys in the NDP have got to start learning about this sneaky stuff. You should bring in some disaffected young corporate security lawyers to help you out. But there will be another day to bring this up I am sure. And it is a great comfort to the Oracle of Ottawa that you will be there to look out for the best interests of all Canadians.
Newspapers did not create news; news created newspapers.
Edwin Emery & Michael Emery, The Press And America, 5th Edition, p. 6
For all virtual actuarii we attempt at each post to improve. Even though most of us are blessed (or cursed) with a compulsion to push on no matter what, some solid background provides much comfort and density. The major problem today is that an in depth and readable history of mass media is very rare on the ground. But the Oracle of Ottawa was very fortunate Friday last, while on yet another book crawl, to come across utter and absolute gold! It was the book I dreamed about and very nearly sure that there was no such thing to be had at any price. Thank God I was wrong yet again...
I found my very own copy of The Press And America - An Interpretive History Of The Mass Media, FIFTH EDITION! In hardcover no less. It was a very good day indeed. I was in rapture immediately. It starts with the Acta Diurna that was posted regularly in the Roman Forum from 59 B.C. to 222 A.D.and ends with the New Journalism to 1984 A.D. And the writing throughout is very readable, like that of a very old experienced hand.. Now long gone, buried and muzzled by the corporate whores who now rule the universe of type... It is also very tastefully illustrated throughout. And most important to me is that it contains an index entry for my "mentor" and over all inspiration Hunter S. Thompson, the great Doctor.
Wooden hand press, circa 1750
The major reason that this book is so important is that it relates the history of the "Press" in very great detail and explains all the bumps and victories along the way. And you soon realize that if you are posting to a blog regularly, you are part of this very long and important history. What you are doing even if you do not realize it, is that you are carrying on and are part of a very great and responsible duty that a free and stable society simply cannot do without. It all sort of gives purpose and reason to carry on no matter what, doesn't it?
We sort have let things slide a bit, haven't we? Did you know that Russia Today (RT) is closing in on the BBC!?
The Oracle of Ottawa is not using the above epigraph in jest, I really cannot stand the great majority of people that I come across. The Oracle of Ottawa does not do "lunch", or Facebook, and would never be caught dead "networking"! The Oracle of Ottawa does carry a cell phone, but it is always turned off, I don't want to speak to you or anybody else. If you wanted to be my "mentor" I would quickly tell you to kiss my fucking ass! I would rather drop dead then suck up to anybody for favor or any kind of information. To the Oracle of Ottawa cultivation is something that happens on a farm or in a garden.
Hell really is other people...
This blog is now way over two hundred posts, and it has been very weird, all the posts that I thought would get a ton of hits and comments barely ever got a view! Imagine my chagrin. All the people pieces that I have done, I have done out of rage and utter offense, mere throw-aways, to make me feel better, and then to be forgotten. I never in my wildest dreams thought that those posts would make up my top ten posts! Now that is really ignorant! What does one do now? Re-evaluate his position and sell out for the adsense money? The Oracle of Ottawa does not see that happening any time in the near or distant future. I am rather starting to build a defense that it is all a random process beyond my control.
This whole writing thing has been very enlightening. Like Hunter S. Thompson always said in many of his letters; "If you want to really understand something, just start writing about it"! Hey! Come to think about it, the great Doctor spent a very great amount of his life avoiding most people...
Alas, there will be no breaking open of the big old pork barrel on the White House Lawn on Inauguration Day in 2012 after all. No background music of the Texas Five-string Banjo Orchestra. The members of the Great Southern Cotton Growers Association have already struck off the date in their respective day crashers, and have substituted in flights to re-shell the family nut situated in various Island States. Any hope of the reborn come again South has all but been put to bed for at least the next thirteen years. By the time the GOP has another shot there will exist an America that they will never be able to even find a hand hold, let alone a toe-hold!
Present state of the GOP?
If the Oracle of Ottawa's little mind is still working somewhat better then Rick's it has been decades since there has been a campaign melt down such as this. I can't think of a recent example of such a flame out save and except Nixon saying "I am not a crook!". It is all but official now, President Obama is assured his second term, for certain. Assuming that the GOP totally collapses in splits between the various levels of insanity, Obama's second term will be the rebirth of America. Control in the Senate and the House, the reassembly of the broken pieces of power, reassembled in to the virtual Klieg light of the 21st Century.
When you think of that Mayan calendar date, due in December 2012, maybe those guys were right! Maybe it is the start of the next New Deal! Now I am not saying that President Obama walks on water, but it seems he can remember where all the stepping stones are.
Quite a lot of people are very pissed at the latest GOP fail...
Dismantling a great liberal country is a lot like cutting down a very large tree. First you have to get in the base cut and then insert the wedges. The 'Harper Government' did all this in the "hanging by a hair" minority governments. Now that they somehow sucked Canadians in for the majority, they are bringing out the chain saws. Their first action that was destined to make Canada a better place was to kill the per vote subsidy.You could see the ideology taking hold. In actual reality it didn't make any sense, but it is not destined for the world the Tory's believe should exist. Logic and sense have nothing to do with it.
Timber?
Then came the draconian attack on organized labour, with the disgraceful interference in the Canada Post dispute that had not even got started! Then the rigged "arbitration" in the Air Canada strike. What in hell are the Tory's going to do when they have a real labour dispute? Call out the Army? The end result of this is that the average worker is soon going to deduce that crime is a better career path then honest toil. History is littered with examples of class war. I will leave it to the reader as an exercise to list all the past examples.
The pace will pick up...
But this of course was covered by the strategists. Hence the introduction and quick passage of the insane "omnibus crime bill". Debate was cut off not because of the urgency of the bill, but rather there was no one intelligent enough to answer the increasingly tough questions that the Opposition were starting to ask! But there is a real play included in this bill. The costs of which are going to be downloaded to the provinces. This will cause a fight with the provinces that will allow the Tory's under the guise of national security to replace all those expensive pesky unionized peace and prison guards with corporate minimum wage mall cops! Mark the Oracle of Ottawas words... Wait for it...
Great Canadian governments of the past saw further because they stood on the shoulders of giants. As we now approach the Tory's favorite time of the year Remembrance Day, which they just love, since it is the freest and easiest ride that they enjoy all year, they will try to see farther by standing on the ideological mound of the fallen. A sombre tear will be shed at the ceremony, but not until the "state broadcaster" gets the correct good side shot. Then back to the House on Monday to cut the Veteran Affairs budget some more! The winged sycophants of Satan's minions circle high above the Peace Tower in full wing.
A reporter known to the Oracle of Ottawa has called in with the following story, over heard on the Herman Cain campaign bus. It details a communication to Mr. Cain from the campaign spin doctor.....
Uncle Herman Cain...
You have been found out to be, essentially, a lying Uncle Tom house nigga, thick as a post.
Don't blame the media. Don't blame the Democrats. Don't blame the white women.
If you don't have the ability to tell the truth, if you don't have a clue about the world beyond the extent of the range of your own eyesight, if you don't have the intelligence of a potted plant....
BLAME YOURSELF!!
Every wally, trot, skidmark and prep in the City of Ottawa with a camera phone thinks he and / or she or "it" is freaking Cecil B. DeMille! But this story has nothing to do with that. This story is about one of the most blatant and basest "labour consultant" hatchet jobs that the Oracle of Ottawa has ever had the pleasure to witness. The said video of the incident has been attached below. Take a moment now to peruse it. All you can see is some pathetic skanky geek whispering into the "alleged" bus drivers ear. You hear a voice of a very annoyed person, sight unseen, giving the said pretty geek the verbal lashing of a lifetime, no doubt from this viewers position, very well deserved. Another day in the big city. You got a problem with that?
Now just another shit job...
You can see the blatant foreign American consultant influence in the said video. It is all engineered to help the pathetic come to a easy, snap, confident decision of smug guilt of the "alleged" bus driver. This came about no doubt from the recent utter trashing the City took at the bargaining table recently. Did you see Jim "Alcibiades" Watson in the local vulgar media announcing the contract? The Oracle of Ottawa watched very closely. One has to admire Gentleman Jim's greatest talent as a small market politician; that of being able to speak coherently while grinding his teeth! I started to count the days before the face saving incident would come to light. The Oracle of Ottawa was not to be disappointed.
An OC Transpo driver familiar with the "alleged victim" told the Oracle of Ottawa by phone, that the said driver in the video, that was unseen in the video, was constantly being harassed by the pretty "alleged victim" attempting to get the said "alleged" driver to provide the main musical instrument for a skin flute concerto that the young pretty thing was dying to perform for the pleasure of all involved. It appears that the "alleged" driver did not have the said and desired instrument available, clearly and in no uncertain terms. Good man!!
Alcibiades and"friend"...
According to the brilliance of the Oracle of Ottawa the only "crime" here is that of the pretty "alleged victim" harassing the operator of a commercial vehicle. See the Highway Traffic Act!! The driver was protecting the safety of his vehicle and his passenger. So? Do you have a problem with that? Didn't think so...
What I am really disappointed about is the reaction of the Mayor of Ottawa. It appeared to the Oracle of Ottawa that the said "alleged" mayor came to a very fast and certain decision of guilt in his twitter message. Perhaps someone in the "alleged" mayors office should gently persuade the said "alleged" mayor that people as intelligent as he is should not "twitter". Only twits twitter. Lets face it people. The present "alleged" mayor of Ottawa has been a dismal fail. The only good thing to come out of this is that there is not recall legislation on the books! The Oracle of Ottawa is now going to make it official. Gentle Jim is but a one termer or less.
And the Oracle of Ottawa will tell you who could possibly be the next Mayor of Ottawa. Ottawa needs some royalty, from Ottawa, not some altar boy hick from the boonies! Someone from a legendary Ottawa family, yet someone that has grown out and alone from his famous fathers shadow. The Oracle of Ottawa really likes the thought of Ryan Keon as the mayor of Ottawa. The Oracle of Ottawa like many citizens of this once fine City is tired of being embarrassed by out of town hay seed hicks.
A great set up job! One of the best I have ever seen....
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire, Yet unconsum'd. John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, Lines 647-648
The Oracle of Ottawa has come to Paradise Lost late in life. There have been other attempts earlier to get through it. But something else always got in the way. One soon gets bogged down in the Classical references which were pretty common knowledge to any well read man that lived in Miltons time, but to a "modern" man it all seems as dry as straw. You soon start to wonder what all the fuss is about regarding the work. But when you realize that it took Milton over ten years to write the work and once you have rudimentary understanding of the time and place that he lived it all comes alive as the greatest Epic possibly ever written.
John Milton
The secret to starting and sticking with it is a good annotated text. A real boring one that has that wicked long introduction by the editor, the one that goes into the details of the social and economic environment that Milton found himself in. A detailed once over reading of the chronology of his life and times will also help immeasurably. John Milton was not a nine to five suburbanite! And being born into a well off family didn't mean that he had no problems, he just had different ones and a lot of them! A rudimentary understanding of his time is crucial to coming to grips with the driving force of what he was about. Think of Paradise Lost as the seventeenth century version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson!
Paradise Lost Plate by William Blake
The text that grabbed and held the Oracle of Ottawas nose to the page is that of Roy Flannagan from 1993, published by Prentice Hall. (Note to Prentice Hall: use the good glue, like Norton and Wiley do...) You simply must have a detailed annotated text. And that edited by Roy Flannagan is the best that this humble reader has ever seen. Strangely enough the text reads much faster and becomes very enjoyable when you read all the foot notes. The Oracle of Ottawa loves the detail and the explanations and references to the classical and mythological references. The details of the errors of the printing and compositing are just fascinating and contain the subject matter of several yet to be written tomes. Which I am pretty sure will not be written by the Oracle of Ottawa!
Once you are clued into the meaning of the bearers of Miltons symbolism the whole work takes on a majesty that is impossible to describe. The conjuring of the imperial scope with the continued use of twenty four symbols (more or less..) arranged in a multitude of different ways soon leads you to the discovery of what literary power really is, and that it will never be exhausted...
