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....

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....

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?  

A Most Excellent Book For Serious Bloggers

Newspapers did not create news; news created newspapers.
Edwin Emery & Michael Emery, The Press And America, 5th Edition, p. 6

For all virtual actuarii we attempt at each post to improve. Even though most of us are blessed (or cursed) with a compulsion to push on no matter what, some solid background provides much comfort and density. The major problem today is that an in depth and readable history of mass media is very rare on the ground. But the Oracle of Ottawa was very fortunate Friday last, while on yet another book crawl, to come across utter and absolute gold! It was the book I dreamed about and very nearly sure that there was no such thing to be had at any price. Thank God I was wrong yet again...

Canada Gazette masthead 1868 (still in print...)

I found my very own copy of The Press And America - An Interpretive History Of The Mass Media, FIFTH EDITION! In hardcover no less. It was a very good day indeed. I was in rapture immediately. It starts with the Acta Diurna that was posted regularly in the Roman Forum from 59 B.C. to 222 A.D.and ends with the New Journalism to 1984 A.D. And the writing throughout is very readable, like that of a very old experienced hand.. Now long gone, buried and muzzled by the corporate whores who now rule the universe of type... It is also very tastefully illustrated throughout. And most important to me is that it contains an index entry for my "mentor" and over all inspiration Hunter S. Thompson, the great Doctor.

Wooden hand press, circa 1750

The major reason that this book is so important is that it relates the history of the "Press" in very great detail and explains all the bumps and victories along the way. And you soon realize that if you are posting to a blog regularly, you are part of this very long and important history. What you are doing even if you do not realize it, is that you are carrying on and are part of a very great and responsible duty that a free and stable society simply cannot do without. It all sort of gives purpose and reason to carry on no matter what, doesn't it?

We sort have let things slide a bit, haven't we? Did you know that Russia Today (RT) is closing in on the BBC!?

Another Ignorant Paradox Of This Blog

Hell is other people.
Jean-Paul Sarte, No Exit, Garcin, Act I, Scene V

The Oracle of Ottawa is not using the above epigraph in jest, I really cannot stand the great majority of people that I come across. The Oracle of Ottawa does not do "lunch", or Facebook, and would never be caught dead "networking"! The Oracle of Ottawa does carry a cell phone, but it is always turned off, I don't want to speak to you or anybody else. If you wanted to be my "mentor" I would quickly tell you to kiss my fucking ass! I would rather drop dead then suck up to anybody for favor or any kind of information. To the Oracle of Ottawa cultivation is something that happens on a farm or in a garden.

Hell really is other people...

This blog is now way over two hundred posts, and it has been very weird, all the posts that I thought would get a ton of hits and comments barely ever got a view! Imagine my chagrin. All the people pieces that I have done, I have done out of rage and utter offense, mere throw-aways, to make me feel better, and then to be forgotten. I never in my wildest dreams thought that those posts would make up my top ten posts! Now that is really ignorant! What does one do now? Re-evaluate his position and sell out for the adsense money? The Oracle of Ottawa does not see that happening any time in the near or distant future. I am rather starting to build a defense that it is all a random process beyond my control.

This whole writing thing has been very enlightening. Like Hunter S. Thompson always said in many of his letters; "If you want to really understand something, just start writing about it"! Hey! Come to think about it, the great Doctor spent a very great amount of his life avoiding most people...



Hell is everyone but you...

Conservative Ontario Hat Trick Jammed!

I believe it will not be very necessary to prove, that these qualities produce an association among ideas, and upon the appearance of one idea naturally introduce another.
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Sec.IV, p. 11

What does the wee blue leprechaun Jimmy Flaherty have in common with Mayor Rob Ford? Okay your right on that one, the height deficiency disorder. What else? Well okay I will have to give that one also. The near megalomaniacal desire for power that they aren't intelligent enough  to wield on their own. But now you are getting really close! Earlier on in this blog the Oracle of Ottawa was referring to the Bilderberg Group a lot of times in jest. Tongue firmly in check, it seemed to make the words flow better and for some weird reason it gave the writing something I was trying to achieve... But the Oracle of Ottawa had a weird hunch to check something out, and in requirement  to the Thinking About Thinking Project, which is still ongoing, I follow all hunch's as procedure... Well the Oracle of Ottawa has truly frightened himself this time!

David Hume says; "I told you so..."

As you have no doubt heard in the old media, Dear Reader, the details of the incredible fees being earned in Ottawa by one Deloitte-Touche at the peasant rate of only $90,000 per day! All to help and aid the wee little bantam rooster Jimmy Flaherty in gutting the Civil Service...The whole contract tops out at a mere 20 million dollars. I am sure many extensions will surely be granted... Now at roughly the same time His Imperial Highness of Hog Town, Rob Ford, has the firm KPMG in for the kitten drowning exercise at the City of Toronto! I haven't heard what this is costing the beleaguered Toronto tax payer, but you can count on it being very rich...

The Oracle of Ottawa remembers when we once had competent governments in Canada. The last big clean up in Ottawa occurred under the administration of Jean Chretien. Why the guy wouldn't even think of contracting out such a task! They were Liberals, for crying out loud and  smart as hell too! They had more than enough brilliance in house, it was a total doddle!! And they did what they had to do, but they did it nicely and respectfully! Why people lined up for early retirement just to get their retirement plaque signed by a Great Prime Minister! It all went swimmingly.

So why is it that two levels of government, of the right wing wacko variety, have to bring in foreign contractors to do stuff that any civil servant staffer is more than competent to attend to on his own? Well the Oracle of Ottawa will let you discover this all by yourself...
Enter the following searches into Google... I have already done so to save you the time.... So just click on the link and it will take you there....

Deloitte-Touche Bilderberg Group.....(engage the high lighter...)

KPMG Bilderberg Group......(engage the high lighter...)

Now do you understand? These foreign "contractors" seem to be certified ideologically pure by the Bilderberg Group!! Why isn't the old style media running with this? Why isn't someone standing up in the House of Commons and asking this question? They will, and still do, have much more protection in the House than this poor blogger does out naked in the open....

The Oracle of Ottawa could go on and on... But I am not Hunter S. Thompson, and this is not the Rolling Stone magazine... Gods speed you poor fools....

Note wee Jimmy in the bottom right of the frame...making Lovey eyes with old Rob....
(This post was created with the help of Genesis - Wind and Wuthering, it worked in Christmas of 1976 and it still works.)

The 'Harper Government' Leans On Blogger

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??

My Blog Is Displaying A Logarithmic Distribution?

Mental conceptions of the world can become a 'material force' in a double sense; they become 'objectified' in material objects and materialized in actual production processes. 
David Harvey, The Limits To Capital, p. 101

The Oracle of Ottawa is certainly not innumerate. As a matter of fact he has a very good grounding in numbers indeed! Due to security concerns there is no need to delve into any great detail. But suffice it to say that the said grounding in all things numeric has allowed the Oracle of Ottawa a much greater limit of freedom than an ordinary person. Why it is one of the main reasons he is now free to regale you with his near daily missives.

Damn logarithms are everywhere!!

Aside from the utter joy of seeing my verbal constructs in immediate print and marveling at my God gifted artsie limp wrist when it it comes to all things of effective graphic design, the Oracle of Ottawa realizes that he abounds in wealth of more than one kind. One of the most interesting places in the blog has become the Stats section. Some weird things are going on here that I have not seen mentioned in any math book that I have read lately. It appears that there are two very clear demonstrations of the logarithmic distribution at play

Logarithmic distribution....

The first one seems to appear in the top ten hits. I will list the articles by number as a percentage of the total hits of the whole blog....

Article 1 : 22.04%
Article 2 :   7.67%
Article 3 :   5.82%
Article 4 :   3.80%
Article 5 :   3.17%
Article 6 :   2.12%
Article 7 :   2.12 %
Article 8 :   1.96%
Article 9 :   1.60%
Article 10 : 1.40%

The conclusion? Well, from a total posting of 165 posts, the top-ten posts will amount for over half (!!) of the total hits of the blog! ( 51.70% exactly...)  To this blogger, that is rather extraordinary in deed! The second display of the log distribution resides in the top-ten viewing countries! I will list the top-ten countries by percentage of total blog views....

Canada :               59.27%
United States:       19.28%
United Kingdom:    2.93%
Netherlands:           2.21%
Singapore: (?)         1.71%
Germany:                1.17%
India:                      1.01%
Russia:                    0.88%
Australia:                 0.70%
France:                    0.61%

The conclusion here is that about 90% of your total blog views will come from just ten countries! ( 89.77% exactly..) Who ever said that doing math is boring? And a little "experiment" like this is essentially doing applied math... I am still amazed that the distribution is so logarithmic, I expected a much less pronounced or "flatter" distribution...Always look for yourself and always think for yourself!!

Don't believe me? Watch my buddy here, he backs me up nice....

On Mr. Mohamed Harkat

Shit gets deeper... You get the picture?
Training Day, Alonzo Harris....

The policeman is your friend...Your government is concerned about your welfare...An employer if well served for a long number of years has an obligation... You could believe these things once in Canada, the last time I think was during a long weekend in 1963.

" Gimme the bitch..."

This blog  is read in ten countries, and it originates from Ottawa, Ontario Canada. So this you can consider breaking news. There is no way Mr. Harkat is al keda!. This is total bullshit. Sophie and Moe have been through more in there eight year marriage then most people will experience in ten lifetimes of marriage...The first killer argument that Mr. Harkat is what the Germans would call a "putzen" a poor hapless sod, that shit just happens to beyond all measurements of logic and chance. The biggest tell is the wife Sophie. She is from Vanier, a very folksy part of Ottawa of good strong French girls. Now I can assure you that you cant keep secrets from a Vanier French girl past the second date let alone eight years! Don't believe me? Marry one of them! Just hang out at the " I Conquered " hotel or the general vicinity and you will have a " girl friend" for freaking ever!

And remember Dawg... forever is a long time! Not even Osma bin Ladens kid brother could get away with it.

Now of course we in Canada all know how good our government is with this stuff... check out the Arrar article on Wikipedia!! CSIS hits it out out of the park every time!

The second major argument is that if this poor bastard is so deadly and powerful, WHY THE HELL DO YOU KEEP HIM IN JAIL???  CSIS  has unlimited stake out resources.. Just look at the Toronto Eighteen case! If Mr Harkat is so all powerful and bad ass, I as head of CSIS would play dumb let him "go" and see what comes up? Is it just me or what?

Now I will tell you what I think is really going on.. The lawyers and at least two judges know in their heart of hearts that the CSIS secret evidence is total crap. Hell I will really blow your doors off and tell you that CSIS itself knows this is crap and they don't like it one freaking iota of a bit!!

Now here is where old style media has a job to do. Contact some social reporters and find out who is at all the American Embassy functions that shouldn't be there..Who is that clown sucking up to the CIA Chief of Station drinking watered down Chivas and cumming in his or her Depends when said Chief of Station pats him or her on the head and tells them "your just like an American, Partner... " Find this clown or clowns and we got this thing solved! Chop, chop, off you go...

The above video clip has nothing to do with the story or does it?

Oracleofottawa issues Travel Advisory

So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand. 
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian  War,   Book I, 1.21-[3]

( As your lawyer I must advise against this! .. YOU are not a Nation State!!) 

Ya right! But I am  a citizen of  a "nation state" and I am freaking tired of seeing my marsh-mellow country men laying in the streets of freaking shit-hole Mexico with AK-47 gunshot wounds! on my nightly news... It takes away from more important coverage on economic matters that matter much more to me! ($$)
Geez we can't wait any longer for our Government to do it....
  So here it is: You stupid Wal-Mart shopping wally idiots of Canada who sit in cubicles all day, and you  gross beer drinking hockey watching beanbags who don't have a clue about how dangerous this world is, let alone the "Third World"; STAY OUT OF MEXICO!!!
  Unless you have survival training, police training, and /or recent military service stay out of the "Turd World"!! Jesus Christ in a burqa who hard can this be to understand? This advisory also covers those floating burger palaces of the sea!   No! No! No! You are not safe...you stupid freak'in morons!!
This concludes the Travel Advisory....

[ oh god, oh god, Legal department, board room five minutes.. oh god.. someone call Foreign Affairs...oooooooo   GOD!: EDITOR]
 

As your lawyer I advise…

 You'd be surprised at the things people will do in order to get their names or pictures in the paper.
Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway, Letter to Judy Stellings, November 18, 1956, p. 30

that you keep on your present course of action. Only posting to your blog when you have refined each piece and continue to slowly get this blog to the look you want.

My Doctor told me...

“ Right… Well I am reading like a sponge and I have hit on a good patch, no hurry here… I am trying Windows Live writer but I am not too happy with it. I don’t know anyone who writes or blogs and it seems very hard to find the things that I want… “
“ And I can’t control the line function with Live Writer for some reason and the Blogger editor can’t justify properly.. Screwed coming and going… Got some great ideas though if I could just get control of the medium…..”

As your lawyer I advise that you stick with it…try different formats and get angry! Only write about it if it is fun…

“ Well, alright, if you really think so..”

[ I can neither confirm nor deny that this gifted bit of narrative took place… EDITOR ]

Stream of Joyce it is....

Good roads, canals and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expence of carriage, put the remote parts of the country more nearly upon a level with those of the neighbourhood  of the town. They are upon the greatest of all improvements.
Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI, Part I,  p. 174

Preamble:
I am so tired hearing the right wing wack'o conservatives whining about taxes. There are a whole bunch of places on Earth where there are low or even no taxes. Like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ethiopia to name a few failed states of tax free bliss. Yet the havens of tax free bliss have not relieved me of my whining conservative friends. Why is that do you think? It seems even in Canada that the tax system runs more on inertia and four more years then on the greatest good for the greatest number. What I would like to see is an international index of tax efficiency measured with a numerical value to four decimal places from .0000 to 1.000. Now as we all know governments spend tax dollars. How do you measure a well spent tax dollar? How do you measure a poorly spent tax dollar?  Well lately it has dawned on me that a well spent tax dollar can be measured by the number of tax dollars it will return to government revenue in the future! Let me list a few well spent tax dollar projects (i) the Saint Lawrence Seaway, (ii) Hoover Dam (iii) Tennessee Valley Authority
(iv)Canadian National Railway  and (v)Petro Canada. The last two were sold off simply because government shouldn't be in business! And the Canadian government made an absolute killing on both deals! That is a well spent tax dollar! Hoover Dam generates a whooping river of money still; not to mention all the tourist traffic. That was a well spent pile of  tax dollars. Have you seen the brand new Buicks? The latest GMC trucks? Well my little tea-party friend "Government Motors" seems to be working really well indeed! The United States government should retain the interest in Government Motors. It appears that so far the quality of the managers in the Federal Civil Service are of a much higher quality then mere vulgar capitalism based corporations! Someday not tomorrow or the next day, but soon enough, we are going to go toe to toe with the Asians again! Where do you think you are going to get your tanks planes and guns? Toyota? Cream of Sum Young Guy Motors in China? Oh stop your killing me....What is a poorly spent tax dollar? It is simply a tax dollar spent that will not return even itself to government revenues in the length of time of a 25 year residential mortgage!! A good example of poor tax spending is excessive defense spending. A good example of a well spent tax dollar is education... I figure there must be a way to measure this just from the standard "national accounting" numbers that are already out there... Is there or what?

Economy:
The "rare earths" article has surged in page views recently at Wikipedia. This was caused by the Chinese choking off some delivery's to Japan... The Chinese have a "stranglehold" on rare-earth? Since freaking when? Is this figure as accurate as there GDP growth numbers? This is a crock!! The Russians have more of this filth stored from the Soviet days then the Chinese can shake a stick at! Here in Canada we haven't even started and or bothered to look for it! But it is here.. oh ya we got it up the wazzooo! I must be right... the surge has petered out and the article is back to its average number of page views... hmmmm do you think there is information in that??

Rare Earth-What today is made of...

Media:
This blog is reaching the farthest ends of the earth! I can't freaking believe that people in Russia are reading!??
And eight other countries.. It seems, much to my chagrin, that the most read post was my first stream of shit rant! I thought I would get booed out of the blog o verse.. And the post that I thought would go through the roof was the one on Saint John the Apostle.. really proud of some of the turns of the word in that one... Not one freaking view! Go figure. Writing is frustrating hard and cruel. Pictures are coming! I am starting to amass them and soon as I can figure out how to pound them in you will see them...Watched the New Sherlock Holmes on WPBS this evening and it was the best television I have ENJOYED in a long time...When Sherlock says "I am not a psychopath! I am a high functioning sociopath.. Get it right!" He really is a man of my own heart.

The light shines....

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the life of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not over come it.
John 1:1-4, English Standard Version (Study Bible), p. 2019

Saint John

Preamble:
John was the last surviving apostle and the only one to die of natural causes at the age of 94! Wikipedia has a beautiful article about him and it is worth the time. The board and scholars of the English Standard Version must certainly be proud of this translation. It brings the melodic counterpoint of the Koine Greek to its English  translation. Compare this to any other translation. The English Standard Version is head and  saint above the rest. It is hard to be a "one percenter". And it must have been frightening as hell against the Romans, whose pure cruelty of power would make a battle hardened combat veteran of today look like a school crossing guard. At the end of the day we realize that John was  a blogger, who posted to his medium with an enduring faith in the permanence of the word and the timelessness of his message.

Tomb of St. John in Ephesus, Turkey

Economy:
The Ontario Municipal Election is on October 25. The last time I checked there were 14 candidates for the job of counsellor  in my ward! Some wards have many more. The reason is that municipal politics is the entry level to public life in Canada, or if your really cynical admission to the shallow end of the trough! How to pick the right candidate? I will share an algorithm with you. Algorithms are very important. I count them as one of the three most  unsung inventions of modern life. The other two being the Haber-Bosch process and the standardized steel shipping container. Okay, here we go! Now this is not "politically correct" but it is easy and quick. First drop off all the fat ones. Reasoning: If the candidate cannot manage himself why would you allow him to manage your stuff?  Second: Drop off all the ugly ones. Reasoning: Ugly means inflexible, it means "issues", it means impossible to reach agreement on anything. Now you should have about two or three attractive candidates left. Now pay attention... Pick the second best looking one! You will get it right over 75% of the time! I read it in a math book, honest to God!

Media:
The prediction of the demise of the book I am afraid is somewhat premature. With the advent of the internet and Wikipedia I have never read so much in all my freaking life! I have an OED with the magnifier! I have two editions of the Chicago Manuel of Style! I actually looked in one the other day and it was interesting! I don't get no respect at all!! I have books read for Wikiqoute, I have books for cited references for Wikipedia. I have books in read, books to read and books that got to go.. My cat is threatening to call the Department of Worker Health and Safety if she gets caught in another remainder avalanche! Its tough.. I'm telling ya...

Pfffittttt.....and its gone...

All that is solid melts into air, all that is sacred is profaned.....
Karl Marx, The Manifesto of the Communist Party(1848),Section I, Paragraph 18, lines 12-14

When I was a young man I read right over the above quote. I just didn't get it. As I got older and did the inevitable reread the total view of this great work took on a whole different light. That is one of the weirdest and most wonderful things about Marx; it just won't get old. The things that I thought would never go away in my lifetime have. Former workplaces, people, the whole gamut. Marx was so right. Ole Karl always said turn the proposition on its head. So if everything melts into air, everything solid must come from air! The process is reversible. Just try picking winning stocks over a several year time frame. You will soon find if you are good that all that is solid comes from air. I always had a theory about the Manifesto.. It is pretty radical and I hope I don't offend any great Marx scholars. Here it goes, hold on tight. Karl and Friedrich had no idea in the least how important the work that they undertook would really be. Most of it was written in bars and taverns and we all know that Karl loved his beer and cigars.. "A spectre is haunting Europe..."  Brilliant Herr Marx! Karl replied over and over; " if you thought that was good buy me another beer and some cigars, Oy, I got hundreds of 'em" They drank free for at least six to eight weeks I figure.. If you don't believe me go to the Karl Marx Commons at Wikipedia and two thirds down there is an actual manuscript page! Note the ashes on the edges! And is that a hotel monogram on the sheet of paper? I will leave it to you dear reader to decide. And yes this story has a morale; Don't , don't, DON'T  drink and write. You could destroy the world!

This is I think my fourth post. I honestly thought that I would be talking to myself for at least six months. Wrong! I already have readers in Canada, United States, United Kingdom and really surprising Singapore! The new media what can I say? And the daily percentage increase is staggering. I am totally humbled. Now it is 11:00 pm. I have just finished watching my beloved CBC The National and that wonderful young man Adriane Harewood with my local news. Now what do I do? Watch George Whoselastnameicant sayorpronounce with the Red Chair or Charlie Rose? Pfffitttt... George your gone. Charlie Rose was awesome again tonight. Tee Chung-hwa was a great interview!(Lots of economic intelligence..) And Charlie Rose don't need no in house audience to back him up! And Charlie has every right in the world to be as arrogant as George IS but he demurs, he has no one to impress and nothing to prove. George you jacky little shit! You should watch Charlie Rose and learn your craft like a good journeyman!

For a blogger in Ottawa, Canada's National Capital it is sometimes truly great to be alive! An Ontario Superior Court Justice has struck down three provisions of the criminal code that literally decriminalizes prostitution in the Province of Ontario! What a hoot! Even I knew this was coming and I am truly glad I lived to see the day. Meanwhile the Tory's are beside themselves in moral outrage and indignation!! Meanwhile in Queens Park in Toronto Dalton McGuinty is looking for the bright side, and he soon finds it! " Gee guys this is one form of manufacturing you can't outsource!"  Woo Hoo! Sign us up! There go's the deficit! Successful politics is all in the outlook.. And I swear you could literally hear the square meter price of every empty commercial building in every empty industrial park in Ontario go up. In closing the utter highlight of the day occurred in Tim Horton's (somewhere in Ottawa..) When I overheard two old girls discussing Rona Ambrose
and her hissy indignant claim the federal government will appeal right away.. Rona Ambrose oh yes .. she's the minister of Shrew!

An Introduction...

"he who enlists a man's mind wields a power even greater than the sword or the scepter,"
Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers(1953), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 3

Saint Jerome in his study.

Welcome to The Economy of Media. Each blog entry will always contain a cited quote. If you read this dribble, you will always go away with more than you came with. It has been a rule that I have followed all my life. I will follow a standard format also. First there will be the quote, which I am hoping you will find timely and clever, followed by a discussion . The third  part I will discuss some topic of the economy; it may be local or international. The fourth part will discuss some topic of the media and its impression pro or con that it has left upon me. Economy and media are two things that we are buffeted and abused by every day. I am pissed and I am not taking it any more. All I have to lose is my rage. All I have to declare is my naked shining brilliance.
I am somewhat goal oriented, so the goal of this blog is to see it to a size of one million words, and to see its popularity reach some where in the top one million websites on earth. In the past that nagging little voice has been telling me to write, write, and write some more. I would shudder and lay down until the feeling went away. The main thought that frightens me the most is that my words could someday cause revolution, move the earth and or cause some other unintended consequence. What would Karl Marx think if he found out how his musings written in The British Library Reading Room had and continues to have through out the earth?
But the voice won't be placated by a nap any more. My wife and sister in law are begging for the first entry.
Once when I was a younger man a book seller told me that if I wrote a great book, I would get laid and fetted in the most luxurious way(s)! But I demurred I just felt and still do that it just isn't in me.. Then a little later on I met an actual author who told me, that hell, even if I could write a bad book I would get laid! Woo Hoo!! Sign me up! I know I can write bad most of the time so it is all blue sky really! A lot of this will be just random association and if one or two sentences sound like Kurt Vonnegut or Hunter S. Thompson; Thank you Lord...
There will be no corporate whoring here! Every ho is welcome to compete for a space! Later on when I figure out how to do it I will install  a virtual "begging box" (donations...) I got a strategy for this to... No one will pay for good writing, but some one may pay me to stop!
At first I wanted to call the blog The Oracleofottawa but some other putz already took the name and wrote less than ten paragraphs about his trip to the third world with some skank he was dating at the time and then stopped! So I thought and thought,  while napping of course, for a real good slick Canadian name. The Economy of Media came to me. It contains two popular buzz words and I figured that I could get a ton of pity and error hits. Entering The Economy of Media on Google search netted 220 million hits. Which by the way is way more then The Oracleofottawa could get, way , way more... So here we go folks I bought the ticket and we are going to take the ride. I just hope I am not too successful because I hear that too much alcohol and fornication can kill you....

F. Scott Fitzgerald

This part is about the economy, something that used to serve us all, but now we are slaves of. I have read my Ayn Rand and my Adam Smith (really I did..) and to me capitalism was the cats ass. Then along came 2008 and my opinions have been changed for ever. We will get into this a lot more latter. But the daily bug of the economy is this bubble of gold, the barbarous relic as Keynes would say. I have my very own conspiracy theory about this and it is the right wing bible thumping wacko's conspiring together to ruin President Obamas' first term. The only world these people are going to change for the worse is  there own. I figure that at the end of his second term gold will be somewhere around $250 - $400 an ounce. You have been warned.

In the realm of the media, I don't know where to start. But let us end on something positive. It was so good that I felt myself about to levitate from my sofa! It was Charlie Rose interviewing Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. Go to Google Video and watch it. Brilliant! Two guys seated at a very nice oak table. One man wanting to share what he knew and another man that wanted to really know. How much did this cost to make? Hardly nothing. What will be its value to posterity? Priceless! Did I learn something? You bet. It left me convinced that although things are a little rough right now America and Western Civilization will pick itself up, lick itself off and rise to ever higher heights. No one ever made money betting against America.