Writing - The Million Page View Paradox

I hope that the essay will be useful for some, while harmful to none, and that my openness will be to everyone's liking.
Rene Descartes - Discourse on The Method, p. 4

It happened some time last Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The Oracle of Ottawa's page view counts on his Google + and his 'umble blog added up to over 1,000,000 views. It was another goal that I thought I had set impossibly high and would never be achieved. But yet again I over achieved without even really trying. Now I have to think of some other impossible thing to go for.

The Oracle of Ottawa hones up another one...

The Oracle of Ottawa has taken the summer off. Due to the ongoing implosion of the Canadian right wing revolution and the soon to end 'Harper Government' the Oracle of Ottawa felt that his work was done. And has taken great pleasure in the fact that his words have helped to put another nail into the coffin of the 'Harper Government'. The polling numbers are relentless and unchanging. The young Justin Trudeau will be the next Prime Minister of Canada, and it will be very well before the next set election date in 2015.

Yes indeed Dear Reader, the budget will indeed take care of itself, especially when you are going to legalize pot across Canada! The 'Harper Government' just can't even begin to deal with it. It is a joy to see the wingers twist. There are also very many other issues, too many to mention, that the conservatives are on the wrong side of history on. Rather then try to deal with it in rational manner, old Steve Harper is back up in northern Canada still hoping to find Franklin. You can't make this stuff up. The Oracle of Ottawa is pretty sure that Franklin and his company have been dead for very many years now. And besides they were not Canadians. If the Brits want look for him, well they should go ahead and knock themselves out. But so far in the last decade or two it has been a no show. Do you think there is information in that Dear Reader?

Now about that million page paradox. It was with great chagrin that the Oracle of Ottawa has slowly learned that one chippy comment on Google + would on average get ten times more hits then one of my highly crafted blog essays! How ignorant is that? You know Dear Reader how the Oracle of Ottawa feels about twitter and literature in 140 character batches. Yet I must come to the conclusion that the Oracle of Ottawa is just a total natural at it or that people are dumber than I thought in my wildest dreams.

Homer - The Equal Feast

Nor did their hearts lack for anything in the equal feast.
Homer, The Iliad, Book 1.456, Barry B. Powell translation

The ancient Greek poet Homer is a lot like baseball, there is just no logical way that these two things should have survived into the twenty first century. The works of Homer cover events that happened over three thousand years ago. There are three schools of thought on Homer. The first is that he was actually present at the campaign of Troy. The second is that he is merely a mythical name applied to a very long distillation of assorted myths and stories, compiled around 750 B.C. The third is that the actor never really lived at all and that it is all hogwash.

The Walls of Troy VII

Before actually finally getting down to read the whole text of  The Iliad, the Oracle of Ottawa would have sided with the third school. After reading the excellent Barry B. Powell translation, the Oracle of Ottawa is most certainly now a believer of the first school. Homer lived, and he was at Troy, on the beach, sort of like a state designated war artist of the assembled Argives. What better way to make sure the singer-poets got the deeds right than to have one of them imbedded with the invading force!

After completing my first read through of the Iliad, the Oracle of Ottawa realized that there was enough on the lines and especially between the lines that would provide enough material to blog on forever. The Iliad is not just some story of a military campaign, it is a guide book for Western Civilization. The concepts that are touched on and alluded to are just mind boggling. But there is one that jumped out at the Oracle of Ottawa immediately. And that is the concept of the equal feast. I have included the opening quote where it is first mentioned in the Iliad. It continues to occur many times through out the entire work. 

The greatest number of references to it occur by the Greeks, the Argives. There are very many less mentions of it in use by the Trojans. The equal feast is exactly what it implies. No mans honour was ever slighted in the enjoyment of the portions. Meanwhile the Trojans secure in their high and polished walls in the stronghold of Troy were not so big on the equal feast, measured by the number of times that it is mentioned in the text as occurring on each side. Of course most any person alive today in the modern Western world can tell you how it all worked for the Trojans. It is mentioned in the Iliad that the gods themselves built the high walls of Troy and then Priam tried to stiff the gods by not paying them the agreed price!

The take away of this story is that the society that provides the richest and most secure equal feast will rule, and will continue to rule forever, with many singers singing of their deeds into the countless days of forever more.

Barry B. Powell - Homer For The Rest Of Us!

No one sings about glorious deeds performed in an imaginary war.
Barry B. Powell, Homer, The Iliad, p.25

For a very long time the Oracle of Ottawa has wanted to read the great works of Homer. At the time of this writing the Oracle of Ottawa has four different English translations of The Iliad; the Chapman, the Fitzgerald, the Lattimore and the Barry B. Powell. I know, how sick is that? The Oracle has made many attempts in his misspent youth at attacking the great work. But each time the Oracle was put off by the place names, the character names, and the nagging level of missing basic information of the setting of the great story. The Oracle of Ottawa came to the conclusion that to get through the Ilaid, and actually understand the times and all, you had to have at least an Honours Degree in Classical Studies.

Barry B. Powell at the Walls of Troy - Bona Fide!!!

 Another problem was that the Oracle always insisted on the best and most pure translation. Research at an actual old fashioned public library informed the Oracle of Ottawa that the works of Homer were always in something called dactylic hexameter. The works were sung by singers, until someone invented writing. Now from watching the movies, the Oracle of Ottawa roughly knows what Homeric Greek actually sounds like. But alas, the Oracle of Ottawa found none of the same music in the big three English translations.

Troy - Not just a 'story'...

 It was just after Christmas when the Oracle of Ottawa was out hunting for something awesome to read with his new Christmas book money, when he happened to spot a never before seen new translation of the Iliad by some guy called Barry B. Powell. The Oracle of Ottawa picked up the new hardcover book, without much hope, and marveled at the perfect cover illustration and design. The Oracle's interest was further peaked when he noticed that the book was published by Oxford University Press. Surely the Oxford University Press would not publish just any new translation of Homer.  

Thetis picks up new armor for Achilles...

 The Oracle of Ottawa cracked the book open and was floored at the perfect sparse double opening title page in perfect good taste, that actually matched the contents of the included work. The Oracle of Ottawa marveled at the detailed, but yet accessible, introduction by Barry B. Powell, that alone is worth the price of the hardcover. The Oracles little literary heart quickened. This is the stuff that the Oracle of Ottawa has always longed for. The maps, diagrams, and pictures. Especially that picture of the translator at the walls of Troy! How bona fide is that Dear Reader? And the fact that the translator had the same goal in translating the masterpiece that the Oracle of Ottawa has always dreamed of, to make the English translation take on the music of the ancient Homeric Greek.

The ultimate test Dear Reader is of course in the reading. The Oracle of Ottawa turned to Book I, and read the first line. The rage sing, O goddess, of Achilles, the son of Peleus... and no word of a lie, tears come to the Oracles eyes! This translation is the Bomb! This is the one. All the weird bits were very well noted at the bottom of the page and that doesn't bother the Oracle in the least. And yes, I read every damn one of them notes and was very grateful to the translator and his publisher at giving him the freedom to include them all.    

The book cost a little over thirty dollars in Canada, a mere pittance for something of such awesome quality. Again Dear Reader this was the one. The Oracle has finally put The Iliad under his belt, so to speak, but this is only the beginning. This was the translation that reached out and in and had the Oracle completely enthralled. Even reading carefully and slowly, not wanting it all to end, the Oracle had the great work wacked in less than seven days, with his copy full of underlines and notes. Something has gone off in the Oracle of Ottawa. This translation is a masterpiece. It captures the flavor of the music of the words of the Homeric Greek into our English. This is a great, great, feat.    

Rene Girard - Who IS This Guy?

Yet for all that the table continues to be that common everyday thing, wood. But, so soon as it steps forth as a commodity it is changed into something transcendent.
Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I, p. 82

Rene Girard at the time of this writing is nearly ninety years old. He is the greatest philosopher and Christian alive today that you probably never heard of. The Oracle of Ottawa discovered him on You Tube, quiet by accident while doing up the Richard D. Wolff piece on the best introductory lectures on Marxian thought. Once I heard the famous theory of mimetic desire spelled out, the Oracle of Ottawa was completely hooked. It basically states that all our desires are borrowed from other people. All conflict arises from mimetic desire, and this of course leads to the eventual sure as Sunday scapegoat mechanism.

Rene Girard - Immortal (richly deserved...)

As the "thinking about thinking project" has been progressing, the Oracle of Ottawa kept coming to the same realization over and over; I am missing something really elementary here but I can't put my finger on it. Well Dear Reader, after you become familiar with the basic ideas of Rene Girard, you will soon realize that you have finally discovered the missing and key piece to damn near every thing.  Religion, language, politics, economics and history in the big.

The Oracle of Ottawa quickly realized that this guy must be really dangerous, since it is damn near impossible to find his books or any anyone who has even heard of him. When you happen onto a an actor under these circumstances, you know that you are probably on to something powerful and very valuable. The clincher was when it provided the final and complete piece to my common stock algorithm, which I have deemed the Midas Algorithm For a Portfolio of Common Stocks. Weird how useful and universal a basic idea can be, isn't it?

Among the many advantages of the theory of mimetic desire is that it provides the center idea to understanding many weird books that you know are important but just can't seem to get into. The Oracle of Ottawa will list a few:

1. The Bible - any version...

2. John Milton - Paradise Lost

3. Karl Marx - Capital and most all of his other works.

4. Julian Jaynes - The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

5. Arnold J. Toynbee - A Study of History...

6. James George Frazer - The Golden Bough

Once you have even an elementary grasp of mimetic desire you will be able to plow through the above mentioned works with ease and greatly enjoy them at the same time, much unlike the usual crop of ordinary undergraduates...

Now Rene Girard should have won the Nobel Prize by now, but alas he hasn't. He has won something even better than a Nobel, he is an Immortal in the Academy of France! From what the Oracle of Ottawa can find out about this gig it is way better than a Nobel any day. The French People are pretty smart to have something like this, that elevates the best and the brightest, always keeping the spiral in an upward direction, they should all be very proud of this. In Canada and the United States at the present time we are on a downward  Wall - Mart spiral of spend less, live better, which all in only teaches you one thing; You only get what you pay for...

The Vampire Of Stats

The norms applying to persons who are players in a game depend upon the rules of the game.
John Rawls, A Theory Of Justice, p. 349

Well Dear Sheeple it has been a hell of a week hasn't it? Your government is your friend. Your government respects your privacy and civil and human rights. The government would never let the corporate over whores use intelligence institutions that you pay for to do their spying would they? So how is all this New World Order compromise stuff working out for ya?

CSEC HQ - The next Canada Portrait Gallery?

The Oracle of Ottawa must be getting it all quiet right as of late. He has noticed several 'bots' that are pumping up his blog stats like somebody actually found writing that they really like. To the Oracle of Ottawa a hit is a hit. But upon trying to find out more about these avid blog readers, the Oracle of Ottawa was quiet surprised that there exists no real plausible explanation anywhere, especially on Google, about the true origins and details of the respective sites actual business models. (i.e. vampirestat, adsensewatchdog, etc..)

You have nothing to worry about! Really!

But the Oracle of Ottawa has applied some logic and the simple process of some elementary critical thinking and has quickly deduced the true purpose and origin of these avid blog bots. You have had it drilled into you Dear Reader that your government is obsessed with terrorism, well the Oracle of Ottawa can assure you that your government is obsessed with something much more dangerous then some rag assed terrorist, they are scarred to death of YOU Dear Reader! Just YOU...

We all now know that all corporations of any size have been totally subverted by the Patriot Act, and in Canada by the various omnibus crime and security bills. All that is happening when these blog bots appear is that you have included a word, phrase or stream of thought that the over whores of the New World Order deem some what dangerous should the general public actually cotton on and start thinking on their own, as you are obviously doing right now. 

But you can relax, all that is happening is that these blog bots (sub contractors of the "Five Eyes"...) have direct access to your blogs word cloud, which the government as of late has decided to feed into Prism and Echelon. It is all just meta data, they don't care about you (yet?), they just want to know if the sheeple as a mass are about to catch on to what is really going on. Of course if you say; " Someone should kill that cocksucker, and you than provide a rather important name, than you are no longer metadata but rather a suspect of interest, that could be subject to extraordinary rendition to be water boarded until an unknown and unspecified date.

So all in just relax, nothing at all to fear. Keep on writing that blog, and stay strong, speak truth to power. The Oracle of Ottawa knows from personal experience that it is quiet nice in Hungary in the fall....

Alice Munro - Nobel Prize SHOCKER!!

Each person's willingness to contribute is contingent upon the contributions of the others.
John Rawls, A Theory Of Justice, p. 270

No matter how bad things seem to get, you just can't give up hope. While Canada is presently in the depths of the throes of the fascist 'Harper Government' and you can literally feel the Just Society of Canada being dismantled by the corporate over whores, things could change on a dime and give you a nickel in change. It pays to get up out of bed and seize the day. Today was one of those days.

Alice Munro - undisputed Queen of Canlit...

It was while watching the local lunch time news of the old vulgar CTV corporate television that the Oracle of Ottawa first heard the shocking, unbelievable news that Alice Munro, a university drop out from Wingham, Ontario won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature! (and the 1.2 million dollars that goes with it...) The Oracle of Ottawa can't describe the initial feeling as he heard the words. How could this have possibly happened? Alice Munro is certainly not New World Order approved. The Oracle of Ottawa has never seen a 250 book mountain display of an Alice Munro book at his local Chapters store. As far as the Oracle of Ottawa knows Alice Munro has never been a Heather Reisman pick. And the Oracle of Ottawa is pretty certain that the Bilderberg Group would never approve of Alice Munro's dangerous writings, that smack of the desire to at least attempt a dangerous social experiment or two.

Nobel Prize medal...

Adding to the Oracle of Ottawas shock is that he was convinced that this years winner was going to be Margaret Atwood, the unquestioned Queen of Canlit. Why only last night she appeared on Charlie Rose! She was a very close friend of all the Greats, especially Northrop Frye! She had just released Madd Adam the third book of some trilogy that the Oracle of Ottawa read about recently. (just in time for Christmas shopping....)  She was certainly New World Order approved, since the Oracle could not but help notice the multiple 250 copy book mountains that are presently at the entrance of all the Chapters outlets at the time of this writing. The media blitzt that Maggy has sustained in recent weeks truly impressed the Oracle of Ottawa. Surely it was all to coincide with her winning the 2013 Nobel. Surely it was all in the bag? 

 The great message of Alice Munro winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, is that no matter where you are in the world, no matter your social and or economic origin, no matter if you write in long hand on a pad on the dining room table while the kids are at school and your spouse is at work, you could, maybe, just maybe, just like Alice Munro, win the Nobel Prize in Literature! It sure as hell has given the Oracle of Ottawa a much required lift, and the memory of an unforgettable day. It will serve as an inspiration forever.

Big Ass Booty - Whats The Big Deal?

In the division of this "booty" an exceptionally large part goes to countries which do not always stand at the top of the list in the rapidity of the development of their productive forces.
Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, The Lenin Anthology, p.250

It has come as great shock, and all in, a bit of a downer, that one of the leading search words and phrases to my highly literate blog is that of Big Ass Booty. This was all accidentally caused by the creation of the blog post entitled Big Booty in Muskoka, which was about certain political goings on here in Canada. And due to that one stock image, it has become one of the Oracle of Ottawas top ten pieces. The Oracle of Ottawa had no idea that there was and exists such a world wide shortage of Big Ass Booty. Especially it seems in the Islamic World at the time of this writing. What is up with that?

Venus of Willendorf

One of the second close search phrases to this blog is Big Ass Chinese Booty. But the Oracle of Ottawa reflecting on his long past experience knows that there is no such thing. China is a no booty empire, every straight man in the Western World knows that, don't they? But as a public service, the Oracle of Ottawa has done some easy and elementary research into the origins of big ass booty. The results of course are most interesting and educational.

China -The no booty empire...

The Mother of all big ass booty is the Venus of Willendorf. It was found in the village of Willendorf around 1908, which is in Austria and now resides in a natural history museum in Austria. It is of no surprise to the Oracle of Ottawa that all German speaking peoples love their big ass booty. This preoccupation with big ass booty has been going on for the longest time. It is estimated that the age of the Venus of Willendorf is between 22,000 to 24,000 years old! Yes indeed, the white Aryan peoples have had a very long obsession with their booty. And it seems that in the modern world of today that all the other peoples are desperately attempting to catch up with us. No doubt having discovered via the internet of the satanic empires just what the hell they have been missing.

Of course the origin of this attraction is of course the psychoanalytic concept of the Mother Goddess which represents motherhood, fertility, creation (i.e. yours..) and the endless bounty of the earth, especially those peoples that live in the north and western parts of it. Ironically this was all discovered and was deeply researched and written up by another German speaking dude by the name of Carl Jung. He identified big ass booty as one of the most important archetypes known to all reasonable fun loving men. Das gut...

In closing the Oracle of Ottawa must admit that after a long and most fun search there is no such thing as big ass Chinese booty. In Asia if you want big ass booty you must go to Japan (ironic isn't it?) or the Philippines.
And that footage is easy as hell to find. The Oracle of Ottawa has included a clip that he somewhat enjoyed in passing. And when you finally get it out of your system for a little while you might want to explore my other blog posts. But be careful, you might learn something....

Andrew Feinstein - The Shadow World

The arms industry and its powerful political friends have forged a parallel political universe that largely insulates itself against the influence or judgement of others by invoking national security. This is the shadow world.
Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World, p. xxvii

The Oracle of Ottawa has some good news and some bad news. First, the good news; the world that we now live in is not so bad, the bad news is that it is all so much worse than you could possibly imagine. Andrew Feinstein was once an elected MP in the new South Africa, until he ran into the full force of  the shadow world. The Oracle of Ottawa was very fortunate to capture a hard cover first American edition out of a remainder bin for a very good price at his local Chapters store in Ottawa.

The currency of the Shadow World...

The book is very attractively designed, and printed to the highest standards, as is to be expected by Farrar, Straus And Giroux out of New York. It is of a very comfortable octavo size, with the posh, bright clay paper, that gives it that comforting weight in hand . The typographic design is the highest contemporary example of what remains of American craftsmanship.

What immediately engaged the Oracle of Ottawa was not so much all the details of the arms deals, but rather all the dirt and detail on how it is all brought off. How everyone in the decision chain is tracked, filed, cataloged and ultimately corrupted. The Oracle of Ottawa found this very interesting indeed. The Shadow World is a lot like a bag of Frito Lay potato chips, bet you can't read just one page! And that fact that Andrew Feinstein can write like Tom Clancy, and yet relate an even better story that is all true, cited and referenced is to the Oracle of Ottawa one hell of a feat.

Once the Oracle of Ottawa got right into it, a cold realization came upon him. This is not just a book about the shadow world arms trade, it is really an unofficial New World Order playbook! The Oracle of Ottawa was shocked and very appalled  at all the names of the great and good that popped up over and over in the text. Not to give anything away the Oracle will relate a few things that were found most interesting.

page xxviii - how the bank of American Presidents in Washington D.C. was used to send the 9/11 bombers their monthly allowance from a princess in the Royal Saudi family. (9/11 truthers will love this book...)

page 53 - how the Roman Catholic Church through the auspices of the Vatican Bank, accepted cash money, hand delivered by a Saudi Prince to throw an election in Italy.

page 205 - the name of a once very important Canadian MP and figure skater who is up to his neck in the shadow world.

page 223 - why Olaf Palme was really murdered.

page 264 - a most interesting story about Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands otherwise known as the co-founder of the Bilderberg Group! Yes Dear Reader, the shadow world is a strange house of many twisted rooms.

page 283 - the very weird and scary fingerprints of the Carlyle Group in and around the shadow world.

page 505 - how Pat Robertson was a good buddy of a certain third world dictator who lobbied for his interests in America in a hoped for return of a gold mine concession in Liberia! Praise the Lord and pass the ammo!

 All in, the Oracle of Ottawa couldn't put this book down. And it is a keeper at arms length for future reference. It has also occurred to the Oracle of Ottawa that Andrew Feinstein might not only have one hell of a good book, but rather, he may have given birth to a whole new juicy franchise! Could it be that Andrew Feinstein is the founder of the Jane's of New World Order dirt and filth? The Oracle of Ottawa can hardly wait for the next updated installment!  

Vince Gilligan Interview With Charlie Rose

Things acquire the status of being good or evil only if someone - anyone - cares about them one way or the other.
Richard Taylor, Good And Evil, p.31

It is deep into the dog days of summer. The Oracle of Ottawa has been on his usual baseball watching binge, and enjoying every moment of it. Why today the Oracle got in three complete games! As the last west coast game ended, the Oracle of Ottawa flipped to PBS Watertown in the hope of catching something interesting and was quiet surprised to find that Charlie Rose was on. The interview was with the creator of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, on stage, live, at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.

Vince Gilligan(left) - Aaron Paul(right) - who got it from Ep. 1 

The Oracle of Ottawa was intrigued. At last, the man himself! And it being the last and final season of Breaking Bad, the Oracle of Ottawa was hoping for the sincere, so obvious, explanation of what Breaking Bad was really about. There was nothing to lose now, the last eight episodes are in the can, and there is nothing left to lose by explaining the truth to the complacent American audience what the whole epic was really about. To hear the words right out the mouth of the mind that created it all. Or so I thought. What the Oracle witnessed was bizarre, surreal and completely raving American Psycho!  

Much to my amazement and shock, the Oracle of Ottawa had to come to the flooring realization that Vince Gilligan is in essence an idiot savant! Through the whole interview he stuck to his "awe shucks" marketing routine, choosing his words carefully, fully pondering there future possible impact on his further possible projects! He truly has not or ever had a clue to the impact of the prophetic epic that he has been allowed to tell, and its real meaning! At the time of this writing the Oracle of Ottawa is still reeling...

The first episode of Breaking Bad was one of the most powerful works of television that the Oracle has ever experienced. A brilliant chemist ends up teaching high school chemistry somewhere in a Southern US state. It is no doubt a "right to work" state, the money is lousy, there is no union, there is a handicapped child, and to add insult to injury, there is the insane American class burden of Walter having to portray to society that he is indeed middle class and is yet left by contemporary American society to some how pay for it all with nothing. Then there comes the cancer diagnosis! To this viewer in Canada, one could tell right away that Walter has no medical insurance to cover this catastrophic illness. Forced to the wall Walter abandons his morals and makes a monstrous conscious decision to survive long enough to provide for his family after his demise.

Contrast this with a Canadian high school chemistry teacher in Ontario, Canada  with Walters credentials. This teacher makes $70,000 - $130,000 a year, minimum. He is a senior department head, he might even teach a class or two a week. If this man comes a downer with a cancer diagnosis, it is just another life hurdle, certainly not a death sentence. He will have government and private additional insurance. He will be given sick leave at full pay, or very nearly, for as long as it takes. His chance of a full remission and recovery is astoundingly high. Not like Walter...

What Breaking Bad is really about is the death of the American Dream. It is a prophetic epic of the future of America. It is a symbolic tale of the death of America. A republic and a dream built on an outmoded frontier mentality that peaked on a battle ship deck in a Japanese harbour sometime in 1945. Now the European Union is the biggest economy on Earth. The standard world currency is not the American dollar, it is the Euro. The grand cities that were once the arsenals of democracy rot in bankruptcy. We are told that it is all creative destruction. Everybody got the destruction, and it seems that the creative ability was also destroyed in the process also...

Ponder the carnage created by Walter White. Ponder the vast amount of state resources it takes to search him out and possibly stop him. Ponder the global social costs around the world. Walter White is (was?) just one ordinary man forced to abandon his society, the great Leviathan, and in turn it is more than just one life that becomes nasty, brutish and short. What will be our fate when the Walters start coming out of the woodwork in their thousands?

Postscript: The Oracle of Ottawa was shocked by Vince Gilligan when he could not explain Walter Smith's street name of Heisenberg, it is no doubt a tribute to Werner Heisenberg who unlike Walter Smith was able and allowed to make great contributions to the world as the father Quantum Mechanics.
Bryan Cranston in the character of Walter Smith always exudes the aura that he too could have done great things if something as mundane as an IPO had not gotten in the way. Werner Heisenberg was also the father of the Uncertainty Principle, do you get it now?

Frankenstein - The Best Modern Edition

The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, Volume I, Chapter IV

Frankenstein is simply one of the most enduring archetype tales of Western Civilization. The Oracle of Ottawa has come to it a number of times in his lifetime. The first time as a child, when I read it in Classics Illustrated, No. 26. At that time the Oracle of Ottawa enjoyed it as a story of a crazy doctor that patched together his very own home made man. How twisted weird is that? And just a hell of a good story. Later on in life the Oracle of Ottawa read the actual novel, and still took it as a great ghost story, and began to ponder the utter intricate detail, and its ability to draw you in. The third time the Oracle of Ottawa, much older and wiser now, came upon the Belknap Harvard annotated edition in hard cover. Now the Oracle of Ottawa realizes that it is all more than just a superficial story. It is all so much deeper than that.

Belknap - Harvard edition

The Annotated Frankenstein is a masterpiece of American printing. It warms the Oracle's soul that Americans still print books in the actual United States of America, right down to the silk like end papers! The margins are as wide as Texas, and the annotations are very scholarly and deep. Which will provide many searches on Wikipedia, that will take you to post graduate depth in no time. Just follow the links. And best of all it is cheap! Or in a more sophisticated phrase; represents excellent value. This is the most definitive edition, that balances content perfectly with artistic craft and beauty. And all that detail, will still bring the goose bumps to you just like the first time you read it when you were a little kid. Well actually with all the background thrown in, it actually makes the book even more scary!

Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster

 As the Oracle of Ottawa came to Frankenstein for the third time in his life, he realized that this is much more than a scary story. It is a masterpiece, a damming indictment of a system that the author observed being born in her lifetime, but as of yet, did not have a name for. It is the story of a mere mortal of a man that thought he could cheat God so to speak. He would use all the methods that had recently been discovered, and combine them in his own selfish way that would create something greater than the sum of its parts. But as you have no doubt noticed in earlier readings he did not ponder the effects of his creation on the greater common good, and, of course, the results were monstrous.

On top of the text of Frankenstein, there is included a ton of fascinating information. The Oracle of Ottawa found the chronology just fascinating. And I won't give anything away. But the editors did miss one or two interesting dates. For example, in 1776, was the publication date of Adam Smiths Wealth of Nations! And in 1818 the first edition of Frankenstein was published, the same year as the birth of Karl Marx...              

Herman Melville - The Meaning Of The Whale

We live in a world that has got along without us for billions of years, and could still get along without us, in fact still may.
Northrop Frye, On Education, p.148

It has been many years ago now, that the Oracle of Ottawa has read Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The Oracle found it a deep, dark, masterpiece that goes very deeply into many of the remotest recesses of the human mind. The best edition to read is the one that was illustrated  by Rockwell Kent. Today if you can discover a first edition of Moby Dick in the orange or slate blue cloth, it would be worth about $60,000 to $100,000.00 dollars! Which is all pretty ironic because it was all but a busted flush in Melville's lifetime. It is widely known that poor old Herman only made $556.37 from the American edition in his lifetime and the book never sold out its first 3000 copies in his lifetime. It was the same with Karl Marx with Das Kapital, and it was the same with Henry David Thoreau and Walden. The nut of the story is don't expect anyone to get it while you are still alive, normal people are such a drag aren't they?

Herman Melville

As with all classics of English literature, Moby Dick goes down a lot easier if you know your Bible and have a good grounding in the rudimentary facts of the classics. The Oracle of Ottawa would just like to touch briefly on some points that he found passing weird. Many of the characters have Biblical names, this is all real important, and the Oracle of Ottawa suspects that some of these names could have Islamic references, it is very surprising that no one has went there yet, so to speak. The theology is grounded in the Old Testament, and possibly the early Prophet. Moby Dick is the gayest, queerist, raging fag novel in all of American literature. Note that there are no women characters, or any mention of the feminine at all through out the greatest American novel. But this is very important to what the novel and especially what the whale is all about.

Moby Dick - Americas gayest novel...

Another aid that will help the modern reader get the most out of Moby Dick is a copy DSM IV. You will soon discover that he majority of the characters of Moby Dick are lightly touched to outright certifiable! How long do you think the character Ahab would last in modern society? If you read right through to the end you will be very well versed in the symptoms of all the major obsessive disorders. And if you are very perceptive you will soon realize that the whole book is about the pursuit of raw naked power. You can delve deeper into this by reading Arthur Schopenhauer in his Will And Idea. It all can't be helped really.

The whale is the ultimate homo erotic phallic symbol. The monster beast that plows the deeps. Just about what America has always been about isn't it? The whale is the symbol of raw naked power and the joys that come with it. Domination, degradation and humiliation. Moby Dick, the ultimate representation of the real American experience. Any questions?

The Bible - A Reading Plan That Works

Man lives, not directly or nakedly in nature like the animals, but within a mythological universe, a body of assumptions and beliefs developed from his existential concerns.
Northrop Frye, The Great Code, p. xviii

The Oracle of Ottawa still can't believe that he finally read the whole thing! It was all in and done on Thursday last. All 2180 pages of it. (Oy!)  The Oracle of Ottawa could never read as fast as Harold Bloom at 400 pages per hour in his prime! The Oracle of Ottawa doesn't think he can break the 40 page an hour barrier, but never the less, he gets it done.

The "Red Brick" This is what you want, exactly...

It was all started by watching Northrop Frye on TVO's show Big Ideas. They found a whole wack of video tapes of the great Northrop Frye lecturing at Victoria College and they ran one on the Introduction to The Bible course that was very popular back in the 1980's, when even then, Northrop Frye was all but a legend in his own time. The Oracle of Ottawa was fascinated with the approach, and vouched safe the fact that you will never get through Milton if you don't know your Bible. But the thing that got me sucked in was the realization that the Oracle of Ottawa had never read the Apocrypha!  

That was how it all started about three months ago. This will be a piece of cake the Oracle thought. There were several editions and translations on hand in the secured bunker. But, much to the surprise and chagrin of the Oracle, he only had one version of the Bible that contained the Apocrypha! And that turned out to be The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, in the Augmented Third Edition of the New Revised Standard Version. College Edition, An Ecumenical Study Bible. ( Did you know that in the time of the King James Version, around 1611, that it was against the law to print a Bible without the Apocrypha?) The fluke of circumstance turned out to be a Godsend. Read on and the Oracle will explain...

It is all about the covenants. If you can grasp that little idea you have the job wacked. And the perfect place to start is at the Apocrypha, the period between the old covenant(s) and the new covenant(s). The Oracle found it all most interesting reading. Especially the Book of Ruth! What a Babe! This has to be some of the earliest feminine literature there is. And it was hot X rated stuff, it made the Oracle all tingly several times. Glass ceiling my ass... Any way as you read on into the Maccabees, you realize that the world at that time was changing rapidly, the old ways were not working like the past and there is a detected longing and hope for something better. Soon you will have read right through, and there will be a lot to ponder.

Now after reading the Apocrypha, read all the essays that are located after the New Testament. This stuff is utterly fascinating gold. Did you know that a talent weighed 75 pounds? After this section you will certainly know the difference between a Philistine and a Pharisee! And the Oracle surely enjoyed the essay on the work of Northrop Frye! The words in the words and the importance of the words in the right order, you will eat this stuff up.

Now after the Essays section, start the New Testament, yah! Put a first bookmark right there. Now with your second bookmark place it at the beginning of the last book of the Old Testament, which of course is Malachi, the last of the minor prophets. Now place your third bookmark at the book of Genesis. Now everyday start at the New Testament for as long as you can, then get in a few pages from the last of the Old Testament. Then try to get one page or two from Genesis.

Since the text of the New Testament is more modern and familiar, you will finish these books of the New Covenant before the Old Testament. When you have wacked, or rather finished reading the New Testament, take that first bookmark and place it at the start of the second book of the Old Testament, after Genesis. Now when you have read Malachi proceed to the next unread book at the end of the Old Testament. Now what you will see happening is that you are working into the middle. And the shorter books at the end of the minor prophets will spur you to continue.

With dogged determination, you should have the whole project end at around the prophet Jeremiah. Individual results will vary of course due to native pig headedness, desire and level of intelligence. When you get it  in and all done, you will think differently and understand the incredible haul of the development of what we call Western Civilization. And you will certainly be able to proclaim that you lived up fully to the promise and potential of your baptism, as you damn well should!    

Engine Porn! - Another Internet Epidemic

When internal combustion engines were ultimately produced, the technology was based heavily on that of steam engines.
Richard Stone, Introduction to Internal Combustion Engines, Second Edition, p. 8

Suck, squeeze, bang and blow! Just reciting the mnemonic of the actions of the four stroke internal combustion engine makes the Oracle of Ottawa all tingly. And you bet, it is all for my own selfish gratification, all mine, to wallow in and enjoy for hours at a time. And of course, as in all pursuits of force and power, and the strokes that go with them, the Oracle of Ottawa has his fetish's. The Oracle of Ottawa loves the immense and full bulk of large prime movers, because torque is your friend. And the Oracle of Ottawa truly loves maturity and long lived elegance. There was never a clip of vintage steam and early internal combustion engines that the Oracle did not like.Of course the Oracle also really has a thing for the legacy creators of Germany and the rest of Europe. And the Oracle will readily admit that he swings both ways with respects to spark ignition (SI) and / or compression ignition (CI). Hey? We are all adults here aren't we?

Lenoir Engine - Lets try this....

 Just what is it about a lump of cast metal with cylinders that have pistons injected into them that makes so many men go nuts? What is it about the sound of a large Electro Motive Diesel starting right up on a cold morning that keeps you coming back for more and  more? Could it be that that Karl Jung was totally right when he suggested that large machines and engines have anima? The Oracle of Ottawa can assure you dear reader that it is especially true of ships, especially warships. A happy ship will be happy no matter who is on it, and a shit ship will be hell no matter who you put on it. But I digress.

The Oracle really started getting into engine porn due to You-Tube. The bastards! I constantly enjoy myself in a very secret way and to add insult to injury, I actually learned a ton of useful facts and information! Why it is getting so advanced, that the Oracle of Ottawa has actually dug up some texts on his book crawls, pertaining to the history and the stories of various developments. And much to the surprise of the Oracle you always read in any text on engines, whether it is modern or vintage, that at some point the author admits that what goes on in an engine of whatever kind is still not completely known! Imagine that?

As in all great inventions, that eventually change the world, science and its methods hardly had anything to do with it. This was brought home to the Oracle just last night when he re-watched The Secret Life of Machines - The Internal Combustion Engine, when Tim Hunkin  related the story of how Etienne Lenoir invented the first internal combustion engine by ripping out the steam feed pipe to a steam engine and replacing it with a tube from the gas lamp! There is no indication that he was holding an advanced text on fluid flow and thermodynamics at the time! So there! Just like Edison and the light bulb. Have idea, try idea, no matter how crazy science might say it is. That is how shit really gets done.

Now this method certainly didn't stop with the 19th century pioneers. A fascinating example occurs again in the 1980's when Keith Duckworth of  Cosworth Engineering when he and the lads developed the V6 and V8 turbo from scratch! Just enter the name(s) at You -Tube and you will find the documentary which the Oracle of Ottawa found utterly absorbing. Then after that you might want to check out the excellent videos from Nelsons Racing Engines, but, be warned, that shit is super hard core! They manufacture street engines that dyno out at over 1000 horse power!  

Seeing the rich expanses of the past, what ever does the future hold? The Oracle of Ottawa strongly suspects that we missed something really obvious. And it is going to be some "garage-ist" watching You-Tube videos and puttering in his basement workshop that is going to blow the doors of the 21st century wide freakin' open... 

Blogging - Safe As Houses

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
1 Corinthians, 15:36, NRSV

Of course, a lot of people have said to the Oracle of Ottawa, that they think he should shut the blog down, and that it is way too dangerous a thing to do today. With all the touchy issues that the Oracle of Ottawa touches upon, this cannot be good for a long and otherwise boring life. Some people have even warned that the Oracle certainly runs the risk of extraordinary rendition, to a secret location, where I will be reprogrammed by a steady diet of Fox News. The Oracle of Ottawa always responds that the United States is nice to visit at any time of the year. 

Blogging - Safe as houses...

What the these caring people do not understand is that blogging makes the Oracle of Ottawa feel real good. It is the Oracles greatest hope that one or maybe two of his created memes will catch on and cause the creation of a better, and all around, more equitable world. We must, after all, live in hope. Then the Oracle of Ottawa explains that this stupid blog is the one creation of my whole life that will probably live on the longest after the Oracle is gone. Like they say, once it is on the net, it is there forever. And who knows? Maybe some crazy publisher in a distant left wing country in the European Union will publish it, and it will become the gospel and bible of a new and better world order.

The safety issues were explained to the Oracle of Ottawa by his favorite niece, nothing to worry about Uncky Oracle, the words are way too big, and even worse than that, you sometimes discuss math and numerical mathematical concepts. Result; no conservative of any stripe will be able to get through the opening  epigraph of the post. See? Blogging; safe as houses...  

Here is a Blog Checker from the Conservative Party of Canada, located in Ducks Ass, Alberta. Nothing to fear but the unavailability of free birth control and the morning after pill....

Bob And Fred Armstrong - A James Gang Youth

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
John, 3:8, NRSV 

The Oracle of Ottawa has a led a full and interesting life. Sometimes too full and way too interesting. Even though the Oracle of Ottawa has only lived a little over half a century, his circle has become amazingly small in the last decade or two. It has been happening so fast that sometimes the Oracle of Ottawa is sure that he is suffering survivor anxiety. All of my circle that has departed didn't do half the insane shit that I have done and survived. The Oracle of Ottawa ponders this reality deep into many a night at present.

Lately, the Oracle of Ottawa has been haunted by a pair of brothers that were twins, but not identical twins, that he grew up with in the Arnprior area in the 1970's. Now imagine that you grew up with two thirds of the James Gang when you were growing up! Bob Armstrong looked an awful lot like Joe Walsh, why he even talked like Joe Walsh, and even better than that he could play guitar and sing like Joe Walsh! His brother Fred, looked an awful lot like the bass player from the original James Gang, right done to the mannerisms and the awesome sideburns.And Fred and Bob always had James Gang style motorcycles! Fred was the master mechanic. He is the only guy that The Oracle has ever met in his life that could rewire a complete Triumph motorcycle without a book! And friend, if you know anything about Lucas Electrics, you know that is a super human feat.

If that all wasn't eerie enough, the memories of them jamming out in the back wood shed at their mothers house in Braeside are some of the clearest memories of my youth. And let the Oracle of Ottawa assure that all those stories of excellent smoke and the purest chemicals of the 1970's are all perfectly true, and even through the high time haze, the memories are still clear as a bell. It would usually start with Bob announcing that he felt a jam coming on, by this time Fred already had the Fender precision bass plugged into a huge Hi-Vox(?) stack. Bob would amble into the shed like a rock star walking onto a stage, carrying a mint, pristine, 1960's Fender Stratocaster that even then was worth a fortune. He would flick on the vintage Fender amp, and tune up. Depending on how "lubricated" the night was, the concert had commenced!

The show would start with the excellent and accurate rendition of the Ventures "Walk Don't Run", and I swear to God, it sounded just like the album. Then a few more beers, and out would come some awesome Hendrix, complete with full guitar face! Then the other lads from the hood would amble in, sometimes even the parents would stand out in the street... Excuse me while I kiss the sky... At the end of the song the brothers would point out technical errors to each other, which was also really interesting.

Then it would all get serious, Bob would set up the mike, and the brothers would huddle in a whisper, then the highlight of the evening, the highlight of my life at the time, Turn to Stone! And Bob would just wail it over and over, just like Joe Walsh in the most out of it days! It made such a deep impression on the Oracle of Ottawa, that even after all these years, when he see's the video of the song he still experiences a full brain rush of all assorted endo-morphins and all the certain remaining chemical residuals...       

In memory of Bob and Fred Armstrong. Someday will be all together again, free from rack, ruin and all pain.

Whispers in the Loggia - A Blogging Algorithm

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
Deuteronomy, 31:8, NRSV

Is it truly possible to start a blog on a very esoteric subject and have any hope of seeing it grow to a one man media monster? Is it possible to build a huge global blog readership with just word of mouth, without marketing? Is it really true that if you post most every day and keep your nose to the grindstone, say eight or nine years, that you will be having about 2500 page views every five minutes? Well folks, the answer to those questions is a resounding yes indeed!

The Vatican is boring?

 And as per usual and per course, the Oracle of Ottawa will provide a reference. The Oracle of Ottawa is usually not very impressed with the majority of blogs that he checks out. The level of literacy and the lack of lyrical music of the words being in the right order, as Northrop Frye would say, is all but appalling indeed. And with the hyped demise of the codex book, the Oracle of Ottawa has become very despondent about the future of literacy on more than occasion, and that is just recently.      

The example of a monster blog, 26 million views at the time of this writing, is called Whispers in the Loggia, written singlehandedly by one Rocco Palmo. Who has become so recently notable, that he has his own article on Wikipedia!( A loggia is a roofed open gallery.) The Oracle of Ottawa has to admit that is a brilliant name. And the blog is a brilliant design of utter sparse simplicity, that is somewhat reminiscent of the early Catholic Church of Paul and the other many and assorted Apostles. Why the youngster even has the brass and utter balls to ditch the comments option!    

Of course, there is really no power in writing a blog...

" Hello? Mr. Palmo? This is the Vatican, media Curia calling in the hope that we can entice you to travel to Rome, so we can kiss your bum for the required amount of time so that we can implement our new policy of becoming media friendly... Yes, yes, of course, first class Air Italia, can we expect the honour of your presence? Wonderful..."

Really blogging is a waste of time and won't lead any where, won't it?  

'Harper Government' - Another Ironic Twist

Their wanderings through the crimson twilight had brought them to the neighbourhood of Metre 170 on Rack 9.
Aldous Huxley, Brave new World, p. 20

Most everyone alive in Canada today is well aware of the so called Robocall scandal. It allegedly occurred just before the last federal election, whereupon the 'Harper Government' finally won it's majority. A very large number of seats were won by less than 5% of the popular vote. Almost immediately, there were complaints of weird calls being received by voters on election day claiming to be from Elections Canada  that redirected voters to nonexistent polling stations. The multiple cases are now before the courts and the subject of many investigations.

Aldous Huxley-Ford be with you..

One of the names that keeps coming up over and over in the present vulgar old style media is a company from western Canada called Racknine Communications. The Oracle of Ottawa thought that was a pretty snappy name, sort of catchy in many ways, since computer servers are stacked in standard 19 inch racks. The Oracle of Ottawa at that point thought no more about it, and continued on with his ongoing "thinking about thinking" project, in  the hope of gaining enlightenment.

Well recently the "thinking about thinking" reading has taken the Oracle of Ottawa to a reread of a novel that the Oracle first read while he was a mere teenager, back many years ago when the Oracle of Ottawa was "fab". That novel was Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. You know a novel of the future is great when you first read it, and come to the conclusion; that could all very well happen! You know that same novel is an absolute classic when you reread it decades later and come to realize that, holy shit, that Brave New World is already here!

It is all in the early pages, as a bunch of new alphas are being given a tour of the Central London Hatchery, since no humans in the Brave New World are conceived in the old fashion way, but rather, they are grown outside of the womb and then "decanted". It just so happens that the Brave New World doesn't need too many sharp people. So, on the assembly line, at Metre 170 on Rack 9 is the location where the little test tube humans are chemically dumbed down, with alcohol and a host of other chemicals and methods! The Oracle of Ottawa again thought of the name of Racknine Communications. Surely it is all a coincidence! Isn't it? 

You would think that the old style vulgar media would have picked up this story and fact way before a mere blogger, wouldn't you? Who would have thought that there actual live interviews of the creator of the Brave New World still in existence? Well somehow there is. Enjoy and listen very carefully....