While checking my page views on Google + on Sunday(last) at 7:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) I had 1,024,571 views. At 12:03 a.m. Monday I discovered that I only now had 964,924 views! The Oracle of Ottawa was shocked that my Google + account was now counting backwards. What ever could be the cause of that?
Freedom of Speech is now selective?
Well it just so happens that the Oracle of Ottawa was making some pretty cutting comments on videos that were describing that insane Alibaba initial public offering that went off last week on the New York Stock Exchange. The Oracle of Ottawa didn't agree with the whole thing at all.
We have all heard about Gresham's Law, which states basically that bad money drives out good money. Well the Oracle of Ottawa is smart enough to be able to project that a little farther and to come to the stark conclusion that bad securities on a once good stock exchange will drive away all the good stocks. When you are ready to allow old thing, no matter how big it is, for one dollar more, we are on a real slippery slope people.
Of course the whole thing was a rather strange glitch that I am sure the best and brightest at Google are on top of. But it does give one pause doesn't it? The Oracle can't but help feel that if I only commented on cute and cuddly kitten videos nothing regarding my page views would have occurred. But what ever you do, don't comment on peasant Chinese securities offerings of Variable Interest Entities on the New York Stock Exchange!
A person who knows nothing about literature may be an ignoramus, but many people don't mind being that. Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination, p. 2
It is very gratifying to see that the spin doctors and fart catchers of the Prime Ministers Office have finally found the solution (drug?) to Denis 'Blinky' Lebel's very telling and hilarious eye twitch. Now that they got that solved, perhaps they can start schooling the pathetic Minister of Transport and Infrastructure (!) on the basics of economics and the role of government, especially as it applies to avoiding instances of market failure and the problem of barriers to entry.
CP Rail is not a lemonade stand...
It was all brought to light today in Question Period. The very sharp Olivia Chow drew the short straw again and was tasked to put the Minister to task about what was going to be done about the recent 4,500 jobs being cut at Canadian Pacific Railway and how the effects of service and cost to its customers were going to mitigated by the 'Harper Government'? Well up stands 'Blinky' and does the free market capitalist bullshit shuffle how government has no right to interfere with the managers and stockholders of a private business! The Oracle of Ottawa was aghast at the level of ignorance that this "Minister" displays.
A transcontinental railroad is not a lemonade stand! In free market capitalism if 'Blinky' starts a lemonade stand in Ducks Ass, Alberta and he is not making a very competent go of it, the Oracle of Ottawa can open up another lemonade stand across the street or down the road close by and with better service, product and a cheaper price per unit, the Oracle of Ottawa could drive 'Blinky' out of business. All fine and good. Except you cant do that when you are up against a monster transcontinental railroad, that has a market cap of 6.5 billion dollars! That is a demonstration of a rather small barrier to entry.
Also out West, the heartland of the 'Harper Government', CPR has virtually a monopoly in many areas. Not all areas are served by both CPR and CN. Therefore when a railroad is in trouble or trying to make trouble it god damned well is the business of the government of the day to get involved! And if the said line and road is trading for a fire sale price on the stock markets of North America it is the responsible governments job to consider getting into the railroad business (again). Fix the sucker up and then offer the shares back at huge profit, just like the Liberals did with Canadian National! And Canadian National is a hell of a lot bigger than Canadian Pacific! Doesn't 'Blinky' know such things?
In closing, it has come to the attention of the Oracle of Ottawa that the Minister 'Blinky' was a member of the sovereigntist Bloc Quebecois! (July 23, 1993 - April 28, 2001) Tabernac! Why isn't some one from the Royal Opposition asking 'Blinky' if he is really a Federalist? Get him on his feet and ask him to say if he loves Canada! And this summer, on the break, get him enrolled at University du Quebec in an introduction to economics course! Whats that? Your kidding me, right? All right then, get him enrolled in high scholl this summer....
You can't just start up another Canadian Pacific, like you can a lemonade stand.... Back Olivia Chows bill!!
If anyone had said to me then that the whole thing would be lost in my lifetime, I would have said that it is not possible to lose so much so quickly without an atomic catastrophe, at least. But lose it we have. Gore Vidal, At Home, Essays 1982-1988, The National Security State, p. 124
Well, it is all in and done. The nutters are all back in the box. President Obama has been returned for a second term. A competent, decent man provided to the world and the United States of America by a merciful and divine Providence. The victory was decisive and final. All the swing states and the popular vote. Upon scanning the less than brilliant moments of several Republican candidates on the miracle of You-Tube, the Oracle of Ottawa wonders at the ability of the great Republic to carry on.
Gore Vidal - So early and so correct...
The Oracle of Ottawas ongoing "Thinking About Thinking" project continues. And recent directions have brought the Oracle to the works of the great Gore Vidal. Described by many of lesser ability as the last American Imperialist. The Oracle of Ottawa is greatly enjoying the discovery of this great American man of belle letters. How can someone have been so consistently right so early is beyond the comprehension of the Oracle of Ottawa.
It was all brought home to the Oracle of Ottawa in the essay "The National Security State" written by Gore Vidal for the Nation, June 4, 1988. Where upon he describes, how at the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the assumption of the presidency by Harry Truman the permanent state of war was enabled in the United States with the introduction of the National Security Act of 1947, enacted in 1950. Known as NSC-68, it is still in force even at this very moment. It requires, as Gore Vidal so clearly describes, up to two thirds of all tax revenues to keep in place. And the described effects upon the social fabric of the Republic have continued in the same direction that Gore Vidal fist observed in the 1980's.
But relief may be at hand. President Obama has this interesting situation that he has inherited called in the media, the "fiscal cliff", the Oracle of Ottawa has provided a link to fill in the details. The right wing wack ball Republicans are hell bent on raising the defense budgets ever higher at the expense of what is left of the social safety net. It seems that the military industrial complex will be fed even if it means total financial and economic ruin.
It appears to the Oracle of Ottawa that a great opportunity has been inadvertently handed to President Obama in his second term, that if acted on will leave him a place in history as lofty as Lincoln freeing the slaves in the time of the Civil War. Why upon further dangerous reflection, the Oracle of Ottawa has come to realize that we are all slaves to the existing military industrial complex and its constant war readiness. President Lincoln freed the slaves, and President Obama could free the whole world of the slavery of fear and raw corporate, mindless, destructive unpredictable military power, and its constant search for new foes
All the President has to do is let that date come and pass. The excessive talk of another recession is to the Oracle of Ottawa somewhat premature, methinks. What the economists are predicting will probably not even come close to happening. Of course if there is a recession, it will certainly be the Republicans fault won't it? A perfect gift of God to the whole world. A chance to drive a wooden stake into the heart of the accursed conservatives, once and for all, forever.
The Oracle of Ottawa is certainly no expert on America, so I have included this clip where upon Gore Vidal himself explains all the details. It is of course most illuminating...
Canada isn't doing well right now because it is Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda. It doesn't work. Justin Trudeau, French Media Interview, November 2010
The F9 monkeys, in the beanie hats and shorts, must have been damn busy last week in the Prime Ministers Office! They had to watch every Justin Trudeau media tape back two years! All to actually find a piece where he was certainly telling the truth. Who knew that Calgary by-election was going to be so close? Not that any one will even talk to pollsters especially from the Conservative Party of Canada, so no one really knows how bad it will be for the 'Harper Government'.
Justin Trudeau - Telling the truth?
The Oracle of Ottawa certainly can not disagree with the younger Trudeau. As a matter of fact I whole heartedly agree with him and was somewhat bummed out when he apologized for actually telling the bare naked truth. The Oracle of Ottawa feels the same way about David McGuinty in telling the right wing knuckle draggers to go back to Alberta!
The 'Harper Government' has been and continues to be an absolute disaster for Canada. Look at any and all of the metrics that compare nations to each other and we have lost ground most every where. You would think that poor old Steve of the 'Harper Government' is racing the Americans yo the bottom! And the way it is going he will probably win.
How could Canadians complain about the Alberta knuckle draggers? Why lets take a look at a great and up and coming Conservative in the form of Jim Hillyer! Now that is future cabinet material if the Oracle of Ottawa knows anything at all. And after that he might even become fully literate! That is he might be able, in the future, to read his own talking points, without practicing the night before.
Canada is in good hands with the 'Harper Government', only the best and the brightest.... For an even more brilliant display of this actors political acumen see Question Period for November 23, 2012 at time 30:27 on the CPAC tape. And it seems that leukemia thing is in total remission. No doubt a miracle...
Always go to other peoples funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours. Yogi Berra, The Yogi Book, p. 73
Well here we are dear reader. Starting tomorrow, the last shreds of the Canada that you have always known, will over the next few years, be gone forever. The Wee Jimmy provided all the symbolism that any rational, aware and thinking person required. There was the great man in a local Aldo shoe store getting his brand new pair of made in Asia, by sweated under paid labour, budget (?) shoes. The Oracle of Ottawa never wears made in Asia shoes. He only wears made in Canada shoes. Now if the wee minister was at Mark's Work Wearhouse getting himself a nice sensible pair of Terra work shoes, that are literally hand made in Canada, we could all have something to look forward to in that symbolic act.
Wee Jimmy delivers Manifest Destiny...
Yes sir, the Conservatives are going to bring you their sacred dream, starting tomorrow. Government is going to be getting out of the business of government. Starting tomorrow you to will have the most treasured and coveted right of every Conservative; the right to fail all on your own. And after all the measures start kicking in on this great trek of personal liberation, we will all be but guaranteed this most sure and sacred result. As the Oracle of Ottawa warned early and often in this humble blog, you will now work longer, pay more and eventually, maybe, if you don't die, get less. Which really exposes a very interesting paradox. You would think that if capitalism and free unregulated markets are so goddamn awesome, we should be expecting to have the retirement age lowered to age 60? Gee, the Oracle of Ottawa wonders if any one from the newly envigorated NDP will bring this up, when the front bench of the 'Harper Government' brain dead morons start on their capitalism and free markets are awesome kick.
Starve, kill, privatize. That is the secret game plan. You will not have a democracy very long without a dedicated Civil Service. Besides, democracy with the right of free and collective bargaining and an open level of active social discourse is just so inconvenient, isn't it? Especially when those bastard liberals (i. e. them...) with their big union bosses start throwing numbers around... Just fire the lot of the smug Eastern cock-suckers! Oh yes, you can be assured that many civil servants will be without a job after tomorrow. But after about two to six weeks after their terminations, they will be getting the call from the designated Alberta contractor, offering them their old jobs back at a little over minimum wage! Wait for it... Tomorrow around six o'clock the wee ministers cheap Asian shoes will be doing their job, biting like hell.
Whoa - Wee Jimmy! Not too heavy on that Lady Grecian, every body will think you are Stockwell Day!!
In a free nation it is very often a matter of indifference whether individuals reason well or ill; it is sufficient that they do reason: hence springs that liberty which is a security from the effects of these reasonings. Baron De Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Book XIX, Section 27
Whenever a trial balloon by the 'Harper Government' goes wrong, the first statement made by the spin doctors and fart catchers is that even the other Conservatives are shocked. But make no mistake about it dear reader, this was no mistake. This was a carefully crafted and practised trial balloon. Just to see what the reaction of the Canadian people would be. It is the thin edge of the future wedge under the door. The focus groups in Duck's Ass, Alberta just loved it!
'Harper Government' is bringing it back!
yes it is real..that was a human...
The Oracle of Ottawa finds it ironic that the 'Harper Government' would be willing to allow the right to die to murderers, but not to you and I! I mean, really, what is so special about murderers that they will get a major piece of social legislation before you and I and all the terminally ill across Canada? Gee-whiz! Those murderers get all the breaks. The rest of us have to keep going to the Supreme Court for the permission for the right to die! Perhaps the terminally ill ALS patient should just run someone over with there electric scooter?
The Oracle of Ottawa had no idea that the prisoners had such a powerful lobby! You see dear reader, the only thing that keeps you and I from having the legal right to the end of life is two very powerful lobbies. The first one is the huge retirement home real-estate investment trusts, and the second is the mega lobby of Big Pharma! I mean, really, how will the sales of retirement home shelter and the even more important sale of drugs to the people so incarcerated go if there are no such compliant raisins left to "harvest"? That would certainly be deemed a threat to the economy I should think...
What we really, really need in Ottawa right now is lots and lots of free Scotch and sleeping pills in the Conservative section of the Senate cafeteria!
The truth is that the wants of the people are complex historical phenomena reflecting the dialectic interaction of their physiological requirements on the one hand, and the prevailing social and economic order on the other. Paul A. Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, p. xvi
Very shortly, just like in the United Kingdom, Canadians are going to have to work longer, pay in more, and eventually receive less during their retirement. It is quiet simple to put the nuts to this plan and the whole 'Harper Government' by simply retiring as soon as possible. This simple realization came to the Oracle of Ottawa as he remembered a nice clear example that Karl Marx used in Das Kapital, Volume I, where he explains that the ultimate profit in a business rests solely on the last ten to fifteen customers standing in the daily line up of about 100 customers. It is the last ten people in the line that keep the doors open! Think about it...
Doomed?
Well dear reader, it is the same for governments. The much longer line of the citizenry pays income and other taxes. It is a very simple matter to bring that government down. You only need a small fraction of that line of taxpayers to stop paying taxes, by simply retiring now. Contrary to all the spin and black hole marketing, you will require much less then you think to retire. As a matter of fact the Oracle of Ottawa has discovered that up to 40- 60% of what you earn "working" is simply lost in the costs of the honor of having a stupid "job"! Your results may vary, but I doubt it.
Is that RRSP still bulging Fat? Is the house paid off? The wife is already retired? Are the kids all gone and out there kicking serious career ass? Then why in heavens name are you still hanging around in your civil service job? Especially you people in the Federal Civil Service! Do you really think that that last ugly budget paring before Christmas last is the last one? Well let the Oracle of Ottawa disavow you of that silly notion! The 'Harper Government' could be sitting on the largest surplus in Canadian history and it would not make any difference! They are coming for you out of ideology. Not facts, not science, not reason. They are coming for the workers for the sheer sadistic right wing joy of being able for once to actually to do it.
Just as a serial killer always keeps a souvenir of his last victim, so do the right wing wack ball contractors and managers that are going to call you in to fire your ragged ass. Yes sir they have it all on tape... Many of them will pull themselves for years when you start to cry in front of them. They practically come in their pants when that happens. But it is a much different story when that same pig opens his inbox one morning and finds over a dozen resignations with attached leave forms! No bonus or video jollies!
Us "over fifties", are from the greatest generation that has ever lived. We have taken no crap and no prisoners. Are we going to let everything that has gone before us vaporize with out a fight? Flip that cocksucker manager you email resignation. Watch on CPAC how the little shit ball finance minister tries explain why tax revenues are virtually drying up! There will be other days and other governments. Then we can return to work (or not) and double, triple dip like wild crazy bastards! After all we are the entitled generation. We are entitled to our entitlements. We just have to sit it out and watch the 'Harper Government' go down in flames. And there is not a goddamn thing the right wing, gap tooth, mouth breathing, knuckle dragging social darwinists can do about it!
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...
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....
I am concern'd for the condition of the learned world, which lies under such a deplorable ignorance in all these particulars. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, p. 271
Sometimes you hear something and you go into shock. The Oracle of Ottawa was so shocked and offended by it that he was simply unable to post as per usual last night. But after the passage of more than 24 hours and another look at the tape, the Oracle of Ottawa must address this incident. It is based on an exchange in Question Period in the House of Commons on November 02, 2011. It was recorded on CPAC and you can watch it here.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms....
It involved an exchange between Joe Comartin of the NDP, a prominent defense lawyer, who is giving up a whole lot of billable hours to sit in the Royal Opposition as Opposition House Leader, and the Conservative Party of Canada resident legal genius Vic Toews. Presently faking it through the cabinet post of Minister of Public Safety. If you are frequent viewer of Question Period you know that Vic Toews is no match against Joe Comartin. The sign of a great defense attorney is to be able to get the bad guy to say the truth that he had no intention in his worst nightmare of ever saying out loud. Joe Comartin got the "bad guy" to spill his guts...again...
Joe Comartin: If they are so hell bent on ramming through this bill, will they at least listen to the three provinces that have come forward and said that we are not paying the shot.Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, are not paying the shot. You pay the shot.
Vic Toews: Well Mr. Speaker I do respect my colleague opposite but I know that he comes from a long distinguished career of defending criminals as a defense criminal lawyer, our perception is a little bit different, our perception is a little bit different... (House Goes NUTS!!)
My chin dropped! A cold rush went up my spine! Did I hear this right? Did I actually hear this? Yes I did! Is the Minister of Public Safety telling the House and me that the Conservatives have other plans for Charter Rights, especially sections 7 through to section 14? The Oracle of Ottawas experience as a seasoned tory watcher is that such utterances are "tells" or Freudian slips. They accuarately foretell the future. The more base and stupid the utterer, the sooner it will happen. And the present front line of the Conservative Party of Canada is appearing very thick indeed! Remember, you heard it here, second!
Canada is verily circling the bowl! Vic Toews is no Lord Acton!
Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
Lord Acton, Letter, (23 January 1861), published in Lord Acton and his Circle (1906) by Abbot Gasquet, Letter 24
It is the hope of every civilized man that he will have one good idea or perform one service that will live on after he is gone. Canada is quickly becoming another place. It will soon be no longer the peaceable kingdom that I have known all my life. This is a heads up for all the high dollar tourists from the European Union and countries of the British Commonwealth. People coming from South America, Asia, and all you Talliban lads coming home for leave will be right at home in the new Canada.
Pack this! Essential for travel in Canada!!
We now have a right wing conservative government that is more crazy than the two terms of George W. Bush! The omnibus crime bill is now in second reading and is all but a done deal. Six plants or six seeds, will get you over ten years. Mandatory sentence, no appeal. This week apparently, the long gone registry legislation is planned to be introduced. You will not have to register most long guns such as rifles and shotguns. The Federal Conservatives have let it be known in the House of Commons that the present registry databases will not be turned over to Provinces that want to start a provincial gun registry! You can watch the actual footage of the senile Vic Toews say so to the members, live on CPAC. We are suffering the beginnings of a total social breakdown.
Rent the LAV III instead of an ordinary car...
Early in the new year, anyone will be able to go into any hardware store or big name box store produce cash and walk out with a fire arm. It is all as simple as that. Of course when this starts there will be no safe place. I feel that is my responsibility to warn you to pack a very good quality bullet proof vest. If possible avoid renting an ordinary car. I strongly recommend the LAV III which will provide decent armour protection up to the .50 calibre size.... Better yet, I would strongly suggest that you make other arrangements if at all possible. This will be certainly be no place to honeymoon or to bring a family to.
Pack one of these - we can't take care of you....
The Oracle of Ottawa has lived a good life and has many pleasant memories of his trips to what is today the European Union. I had a wonderful time, and I really feel obligated to warn you guys away. This is not the worst of it I am afraid to tell you dear reader. There is still the Baby-Port legislation to be introduced. Probably early in the new year. If you want a detailed understanding of this upcoming legislation just get a copy of The Hand Maid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. you will pretty well have the whole picture after reading the book. Then, after that, it is rumoured that the Sharia Law Family Values Bill will be tabled, another omnibus piece of legislation designed to wring any remaining vestiges of liberality from Canadian society...
Soon every mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, social darwinist will be armed to the teeth! You have been warned..
The unequal distribution of income is the chief source of the periodic crises that regularly erupt. This is generally concealed in conventional economics by reference to an unexplained lack of demand. Herbert I. Schiller, Living In the Number One Country, p. 195
For such an "un-event" Sun News TV has certainly spent an inordinate amount of time covering it! Ever since Saturday last, there has been practically non-stop saturation of it. The Oracle of Ottawa puts it down to that recurring dream that all the right-wingers are having lately, you know that dream, the one where your minimum wage rent-a-cops lets in the rabble from the street and leads them to the inner sanctum...and then your illegal landscaping crew carves you up with gardening tools that you sold to them! Yeah that dream...
The 99% are coming....
Small media markets are a very hard dollar aren't they? And the way that Sun News goes after it it just keeps getting smaller! The spinning gets tighter and faster and the bottom keeps receding away at near the speed of light. Meanwhile in the sordid press division, the best banner reporters are worked to death, or as the HR thingy would say; fully multi-tasked. That is what all you youngster Sun News word slaves have to look forward to, death in a third rate industrial park "newsroom" way past your retirement, when you should be living on your acccolades and royalty cheques. You would all be better off writing a blog in public housing on welfare!
Speaking about public housing, what the hell is wrong with Krista Erickson? Ever since her long summer vacation I have noticed a marked and profound change in her appearance. Her once posh face is all sinew's and there is bumps and unevenness of the lips that is really gross. What the hell is up with that? And she is missing her cues and teleprompter reads. And it has all happened so fast and recently. Creepy as hell. I imagine in true Sun News corporate fashion they will run her till she drops on air for the ratings surge, no doubt...
Here is real journalism by Russia Today. There is a rumor in Ottawa that this is the network that is going to get Sun News TV's old Ontario channel slots after October 31, 2011...I can hardly wait, RT is just freaking excellent!
In modern times sound policy-making must often come to grips with numbers. Randal Marlin, Propaganda & The Ethics of Persuasion, p. 118
Once Charlie Rose talks about it, you know that it is "on". As the lowlife right wing neo-con media in Canada and the United States tries to whistle past the graveyard over the impact of Occupy Wall Street, all it takes is someone of the stature of Charlie Rose and guests like Paul Krugman to disavow the neo-cons of that notion. And earlier this evening in Canada the "state broadcaster" the CBC has all but rolled out the carpet on the coming wave. This will be another wrench in the "Harper Government" gear box! With hopefully many more bigger and annoying ones to come.
more wrench's in the gear box....
Meanwhile, earlier today, Lisa "The Hapless" Raitt in an utter move of desperation has referred the Air Canada strikers to the CIRB! ( Canada Industrial Relations Board ) ,in a desperate attempt to prevent the collapse of the Canadian economy! ( Oh Please....) This action is highly irregular, and hasn't been attempted in my living memory. But that is the way with neo-con babes, they always go for the gun too quickly! Meanwhile Canada Post has filed a constitutional court challenge over the 'Harper Government' back to work legislation back in the summer. As you can plainly see the swamp is quickly filling with some very hungry and pissed crocodiles!
Why do the fat conservatives taste like little boys??
Meanwhile, amid all the union busting, as per Bilderberg Group directives, the forward scouts for Occupy Wall Street are arriving in Canada and scoping out the best locations for the coming inexerable wave of future troubles and embarrassments. And in the hapless Tory way of shit fortune, it will all boil up at the same time, and all but ruin the great mans last term as Prime Minister. It all should be very interesting to watch unfold.
Meanwhile, all the labour union lads are arranging for their strikes and last talks to take place during Parliaments very long summer recess!! Those crafty lefty bastards! Methinks the 'Harper Government' is going to be very tired by the time of the next election. No justice, no peace?
Behind their fluffy rhetoric about free trade and free markets lurks a hostility toward freedom for ordinary people - and a love affair with police and prisons. David McNally, Another World Is Possible, p. 52
It must be a great challenge to provide communication services to a political party that would rather have no need for any communications at all. On August 30, 2011 our fearless prime minister Steve Harper, (owned and paid for buy the Canadian people...) and his wife, clad no doubt in their best outfits from Walmart, dined with the United States ambassador to Canada David Jacobson and his Misses, Julie, at the ambassadors residence..(owned and paid for by the American people...) The dinner was prepared by Ottawa chef Steph Legari a barbecue specialist. Now the Oracle of Ottawa knows that Americans know their barbecue and for this Ottawa chef to cook for the United States Ambassador to Canada, well, you have 'arrived'.
Ambassador David Jacobson
Of course pictures were taken. The chef with the two "power couples". In Ottawa, pictures are taken to be seen! And the Oracle of Ottawa is pretty sure it was no skin off David Jacobsons back! Who ever heard of a nice Democrat that didn't like to get his picture taken, especially while having a good time? He appears in his photos and in his writings as one hell of a gregarious, warm guy. And he still hasn't stuffed even one of his feet in his mouth yet! Unlike the guy before him, that required a Marine 24/7 with a shoe horn. And that poor marine, as we all know in Ottawa, got lots of exercise with that shoe horn....
Resistance is Futile...
The chef passed the photos on to one Ron Eade food editor at the Ottawa Citizen. Being the craftsman that he is he posted the menu, the pictures, and no doubt a fine written description of the evening. Next thing you know Mr. Eade is being contacted by one Andrew MacDougall from the Prime Ministers Office with a rather firm request for the said journalist to kindly remove the blog post! Well of course that did not happen. And one can only hope that the said actor from the PMO will shortly have a one way ticket to Ducks Ass Alberta from whence he no doubt came.
As this story hit the front page of the Thursday Ottawa Citizen one can safely surmise that there is one very pissed American Ambassador! And he has every right to be miffed! And the Canadian people should be miffed also! We to have been severely dissed by this also.This simply does not reflect the character of the Canadian people at any time!!
Of course the golden age for food and social editors in Ottawa were the Trudeau years! Woo Hoo! If there was a spread anywhere and the pictures and story was not in the next days paper someone from the PMO had some serious 'splaining to do the next day! But alas, the Oracle of Ottawa is confusing yesterday with today again, sigh....
See? Wasn't telling a lie. Now we all know that this man has a job to do, but the Ambassador is a hell of a decent, thoughtful and respectful guy. I wonder how many pictures were taken at this barbecue??
When I think of all the good things still to be written I am glad, for there is no end to them, and I know I myself shall write some of them. William Saroyan, The Bicycle Rider In Beverly Hills, p, 9
If it hasn't dawned on you yet, the Oracle of Ottawa leans pretty far to the Left. So you might be wondering why I have the Adsense set up. Well truth be told, it all has to do with irony and it is part of the graphic design of the little blog offering. For example you can write about right wing nutters and like magic you will have an American Heritage banner ad! Loads of laughs..
You want a piece of me dick head??
If writing only happened to get Adsense chump change all the Adsense servers would spin down to zero in a nano-second! There is absolutely nothing in it! But if you insist, a little tip. If you want the big click money just don't forget to mention one little word; insurance...You can just sort of work it in on each post.. Too Easy! Of course corporations are not psychopathic entities at all. That is why when you write a tribute piece on someone who passes away from cancer there will appear a great selection of ads to sell health insurance, even if you live in Canada! It does give a great shade of irony to the page...
Opps! Time for some happy....
It amazes the Oracle of Ottawa all the little whores that will gladly jump your wagon of boundless talent in the hope that some of your brilliance will be fungible to their little shit ball entities! There is no such thing as pride in the corporate whore world. The Oracle of Ottawa often wonders why you rube proles put up with the abuse you smile through every day of your over marketed, wasted lives! It would all stop if you simply stopped giving your money and your life blood service to the shit companies you dread the utter sight of!
But you are so far gone and your balls have retreated so far back up into your thorax that you could join a ladies only golf club! Ya, go ahead and Twitter me you fucking twit! Or better yet de-friend me on Facebook you fucking moron! Is that your smartphone vibrating or is it the Grim Reaper trying to tell (sell?) you something? And for crying out loud, don't click on any thing, it only encourages them...
It is also certain, that a commonwealth is always in greater danger from its citizens than from its enemies; for the good are few. Benedict de Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chapter VI, Section 6
The Oracle of Ottawa's "Thinking About Thinking Project" is yielding quite unexpected results so early into its run. Perspective is widening at an ever increasing rate. All quiet shocking to its creator. While reading this Fridays Globe and Mail the top front page story caught the Oracle of Ottawas eye immediately and set off his bull shit alarm in the steady violated mode. In a wonderful article by Bill Curry of the Ottawa bureau entitled "Ottawa eyes fix for population crunch" the best fart catchers and spin doctors under contract to the Conservative Party of Canada have conjured up a new disaster, recently discovered, whereby the surface story as told to you and me is that by tomorrow there will not be any taxpayers left to support all the just recently discovered senior citizens!
Wee Jimmy needs more gold!
The whole thing of course is an outright crock of shit! This same crock doubles as the Finance Ministers crock of "gold" at the end of his ideological rainbow. The declining population argument has been covered by the Oracle of Ottawa, and you can check it out here. Rest assured, the whole thing is an outrageous lie. But what is the real story? What is the real purpose of this spin doctors recent creation? The Oracle of Ottawa will share his views, developed with his recent new powers of critical thinking....
It seems that many promises were made in the last federal election to many "new" Canadians that are not satisfied to be merely Canadian citizens in their own right, but demanded that if the Conservatives got a majority that they could bring to Canada forthwith all their relatives of their small extended families. Well by a total fluke of probability and chance, the impossible deed was indeed achieved! Now wee Jimmy's micro-dick is in the sharpener as he realizes that a gazzilion peasant grandma's and other unproductive litter will soon have to be resident and a total drag on Canada's social system. The real problem, and indeed, it is pressing, forgive the pun, is how to jerk off the Canadian population on how to pay for this useless and insane expense.
Wee Jimmy - ponders the next Big Lie...
Hence the "population crunch"! Wee Jimmy knows that it is the Big Lie that will work, if it is done right. What has to be done is to convince the gullible tax paying Canadian public that they can no longer count on the social contracts of yesterday. So that will mean that the retirement age will have to be changed to the age of 68 from the present age of 65. You will of course have to pay more into the pension fund, work longer, and if you live to collect a pension cheque, it will, of course, be less! Why that is just like the recent British changes! The extra (unneeded) revenues will be more than enough to load up the endless plane loads of peasants various... And to pay for all their ailments from the time they land to the time they finally drop dead. The Oracle of Ottawa is totally confident that the 60% of Canadians that didn't vote for the Conservative party will totally and gladly accept this... Won't they?
The Oracle of Ottawa saw the first images of the Oslo blast on the BBC and felt strange and weird right away. While my wife and Sun News TV were screaming "Those damn Muslims!" The Oracle of Ottawa held his tongue, the fingerprints of an Islamic attack were missing, it all wasn't right! The perfect placement of the device and the missing follow up detonations, made the Oracle of Ottawa very nervous.. This is somebody else, this is different, but who? Why?
The Oracle of Ottawa warned about upcoming strange things to come in a post to this blog entitled "President Obama Caps bin Laden..., at the time of writing I had no idea that it would all get so outrageously vicious. The sheer veracity of it all is simply stunning! The weirdness I predicted was already acting itself out, when the 2011 Bilderberg Group meeting was, from all reports, very scarce in leaders of state! No one from the Canadian government or the Canadian central bank attended. Our fearless leader who never misses a Bilderberg Group hoedown held a Conservative Party Convention on the same weekend! Don't you think it is weird that all the government types skipped this years meeting? Why it all reminds the Oracle of Ottawa of a certain ethnic group that did not report to the World Trade Center towers on 9/11! Is that a wicked coincidence or what? All the "truthers" will be in a frenzy now, and rightly so!
What bothers the Oracle of Ottawa the most is that he has very pleasant memories of Norway from his wild and misspent but highly coveted youth, of which a goodly part was spent in the Canadian Navy way back in the 1980's! It was the good ship HMCS Fraser that got me to Norway. We got ashore in Bergen and Hammerfest. When the Norwegian Prime Minister appeared with a statement on the BBC that Norway is a very special place, well, it is not another case of a politician just blowing smoke! Norway is a paradise! Of all the countries that I have been to, Norway is what I would like Canada to copy! To this very day I will argue that it is the Norwegian system for me, to anyone who will listen! Ahhh! The answer has just presented itself!
Bergen, Norway - True! Norway is a paradise!!
Ever since the death of bin Laden and the capture of his treasure trove of data in the pile of laptops, hard drives, CD-Roms and countless flash memory sticks, the lads in Langley have been really busy. Among a great many things discovered is the shocking fact that bin Laden had very good connections to the highest cheer leaders of the Global Right Wing Agenda! There was and is no time being wasted! Note how the so called "phone hacking" scandal just seemed to break wide open after Easter! Then the annual Bilderberg Group meeting that no one showed up for... The rape of Greece that did not go at all smooth. The increasing ferocity of the "Arab Spring". It just seemed to this author that the right wing agenda is being foiled at every turn with extremely good information. And we have not even mentioned the slow strangle of the Republicans in the United States. The President seems to have very good and timely intelligence indeed!
So now we can begin to understand why the right wing has gone "all in" on Norway. If you want to really piss a right winger off anywhere in the world let him toss the standard pitch of the benefits of unrestrained capitalism just like the old days of no trade unions, of no social services and on and on... Then they will try to smirk you down by giving you the opportunity argue back. And my Norway argument wins every time! And God do they ever hate to be destroyed by a perfectly sourced example! Their faces go white with rage! The tail is securely fastened between their legs and they are gone in a smoking huff!
Now of course the "agent" that appeared to single handedly shock a great nation with his barbarous acts, acted all alone! Have you heard that one before? A guy that owns a little hobby farm somehow managed to cache up six freaking tons of Ammonium Nitrate! Heads are going to roll here and I say let'em roll! What happened here in Norway was an attack of the Right for the sole attempt and purpose to destroy the one great embarrassing exception to the global right wing conspiracy to reduce us all to the Third World. I would advise all the countries of Scandinavia to be on alert. And the same goes for all the posh members of the European Union. The Right is in its death rattle, and it is going all in.
The scientific world is to be less threatening than was feared. It is to be made safe for human beings. And the way to make it safe is to reflect on the foundations of knowledge. Simon Blackburn, Think, Knowledge, p. 17
The News Gods have been good to the Oracle of Ottawa. As soon as Parliament went on its summer break I thought that in the depths of the summer doldrums I would be down to writing little daily essays on "focus words" randomly selected from the Chicago Manual of Style or esoteric words selected from the Oxford English Dictionary. But alas, the totally unexpected collapse of the world wide right wing has kept the Oracle very busy.
The right wing wacko's take another hit...
I was hoping to catch the utter spectacle of the Murdoch family grilling by a British House of Commons committee. Perhaps there would be some live excerpts on CPAC or the BBC perhaps latter in the day. Little did I expect that it would be on every news network! Save and except Sun News TV! After discovering the hearings on every available network on my cable package I thought I would see how bad a job Sun News could make out of it! I stumbled into the dregs of the "Round Table" with poor Pat Bolland doing his best to rescue Alex Pierson from herself. Poor Pat Bolland! I tuned out when the wacked Alex was going on about breast feeding a doll at the mall??
But alas, even Sun News knew that it had to follow the leaders again in changing the program routine to stop the rating meter from going to zero. The little East Indian real estate agent was clearly miffed and and all but indignant as the elegant and graceful Brian Dunstan was called in to perk up the snore-fest! It was a hoot to watch the body language!The little Anita standing tall, projecting her little puppies like a junior real estate agent getting screwed out of her 1.5% commission on a three way town house sale in the skid-row part of Toronto!
It was a very eventful day all in. The pieing of Rupert Murdoch, the astounding progress of the big budget deal down in Washington, as I predicted, again who has the most to lose from a default? The Republicans! Not the Democrats! And when you got the goods out of the bin Laden cave many opinions will change for ever and for good. Just as I told you earlier Dear Readers. It seems that the Oracle of Ottawa can see several weeks ahead in the "news cycle".
The hoot of the day was to occur latter on Canada Live hosted by the patron of Canadian Arts, Krista Erickson! It was the first time that the bubbly Krista had the look of abject panic as the elegant Brian Dunstan was segmented into her show! But you had to know it was going to happen. I mean management has over 4,000 reasons to seek her replacement! The Oracle of Ottawa is making the call that Miss Krista does not have long to go...
Somewhere in the expanse of Quebec there is an exclusive golf and country club. And a table in the back, in the smoke and low lights there sits the bug-eyed crazy heir and son of a half great Canadian media wanna be empire. He is contemplating the train wreck of the Sun News dream. The nonexistent ratings, the circus of the 4,000 outstanding complaints that will not go away. The CRTC hearings, the threats from the Conservative party establishment, that will soon start to wrench the spokes of the bigger wheel of the above mentioned media empire, all of the other parts of which turn a pretty penny compared to the train wreck that Sun News TV has turned out to be.The rumor is that the plug will be pulled quietly in the second week of August, the dog days of summer, when no one is watching... By Labour Day no one will even remember Sun News TV, it will be like it never even happened.
The visual quality is a little off, but the words are perfect. Enjoy the collapse of the Right Wing global agenda!
Why isn't anything happening in the senate? Why do the senators sit there without legislating? Because the barbarians are coming today. What laws can the senators make now? Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating. Constantine P. Cavafy, Waiting For the Barbarians, 1898
As I have mentioned in many earlier posts to this humble blog, the Oracle of Ottawa gets very nervous about the future of Canada when the barbarians start talking wholesale and rather insane changes to long existing Canadian institutions. Being of a very suspicious and conspiratorial nature, with darn near a half century of careful reading behind me, I am acutely aware of how dangerous such moronic tinkering can be.
One of the greatest books that I have ever read was that by Edward Gibbon, entitled The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I was very fortunate to acquire and still own the wonderful two volume quarto Virtue and Hall edition with the Bartlett plates, the pull out maps, and all the in text engravings of the roman coins and monuments. It took me months to get through. But it was totally riveting. I still get very strange looks every time I say that, but I just can't lie to you Dear Reader. One of the great lessons of this work was the importance of protecting the institutions of the state. The Roman Empire lasted from 753 B.C. - 1453 A.D.! And so did the Roman Senate! A very strong theory about the fall of the Western Empire could possibly by tracked to a Preston Manning type character inadvertently dinking up the machinery of state. Ponder that for a moment...
Canadian Senate chamber ceiling...
My most favorite Prime Minister, of my lifetime, is without a doubt Jean Chretien. He was more than a two-termer, serving over ten years as Prime Minister, always with huge majorities, and always with awesome poll ratings from beginning to end. This was no doubt due to making the the very subtle Canadian system work! It also helped a-lot that he was an expert on how the system actually worked! The one main reason for his long stable run was not to tinker in Constitutional matters! He was very aware of the words of Thomas D'Arcy Mcgee, of which ones exactly, I will leave as an exercise to the reader!
Jean Chretien was very leery about an elected senate, especially one that would be "jury-rigged" from the present senate. In his biography, he briefly discussed some of the problems that could come up. If both houses were elected by the people, and there was a Liberal majority in the House and a Conservative majority in the Senate, which one would be the legitimate voice of the people? Should the senators and the members of Parliament be elected at the same time, should we go to the dreadful 24 month continuous American system? One could also conclude that if there was a treasonous plot to save a certain modern nation state that is at present losing former friends at an alarming rate, the destruction of the house of sober second thought, would have to be the place to start, to destroy the present Canadian Constitution. Beware!
