City of Ottawa - Avro Lancaster Fly Over

Shared human behaviour is the system of reference by means of which we interpret an unknown language.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, Sec. 206

It was a wonderful Indian Summer day here in Ottawa today. The Oracle of Ottawa greatly enjoyed yet another perfect Saturday Routine. I hit all my spots, and scored a passenger seat load of hard to find future reads for my ever ongoing "Thinking About Thinking Project".  It was just as I pulling in to my usual parking spot in the covered ground level parking garage at St. Laurent Shopping Center that I heard that roar of four Merlin engines. That fucking thing was real low this time. For a moment the Oracle suffered a small relapse and went briefly to utter black. You could feel the vibration through the car seat. It has been a while.

Dresden  1945 - Something to be proud of?

The Oracle of Ottawa slammed the Chevrolet into park, exploded out of the door, picked up the direction of the roar and sure enough it was that goddamned Avro Lancaster bomber flying way under 1000 feet. The Oracle of Ottawa thought he had taken care of this problem. It was many years ago that this monster of death was flying over the City of Ottawa at every occasion. The Oracle of Ottawa picked up the phone and called his Federal Member of Parliament. The Oracle then gave a very reasoned and passionate argument why these overflights, especially the real low ones must stop. The staffer must have been compelled by my argument, the flights stopped cold. Today was the first one since that time, it had been years of peace and quiet.

For any one who is reading this let the Oracle of Ottawa fill you in. The Oracle of Ottawa could get veteran license plates! Shit, the Oracle of Ottawa even still has his honorable release certificate, which is required at the DMV to get vet plates. But the Oracle of Ottawa would never do that. The Oracle of Ottawa truly believes that only veterans who served in a hot conflict, (i.e. shot at, a lot), should be the only people to ever get veteran plates. And don't even ask me about the Royal Canadian Legion. I have never been in one and I have no intention of ever going into one. It is a carry over of when they refused me entrance in the Arnprior, Ontario local branch, when I was in full uniform! Fuck those sweats for ever.

Avro Lancaster Bomber

 And yes the Oracle of Ottawa had a ton of relative veterans.  My grandfather, who served the whole length of World War II, and earned a very serious strip of medals damn near a foot wide, used to tell me war stories, until when I was about 11 years old, when I asked him if he had ever ran into Panzer Kurt Meyers Boy Army in France? I can still remember the look on his face as he went ashen white pale. There were no more war stories.  I had an uncle (?) on my mothers side who was a tank crew man in the run to Germany. I never met him, he had a metal plate in his skull, from taking a round to the tank he was in. My parents thought it wasn't safe for us kids to visit. And there was that distant relative that actually flew in the big bombers over Germany. The Oracle of Ottawa never met him either, he was a total mental basket case, that my parents and their circle discussed in whispered tones, who passed away sometime in the early 1970's. And then there was my Mothers brother who served in Korea with the Royal 22nd. Regiment. My Dad used to tell me he was a little touched before he went in, but the Oracle of Ottawa can tell you for sure that he was totally nuts for the rest of his life. The story that he used to tell of the endless waves of Chinese coming at the position and the site of the ammo belts quickly diminishing has stayed with the Oracle all his life so far.  And if you think it got awkward at my Mothers wake when my uncle first met one of my siblings Chinese wife, you have no freaking idea...     
 

 
But it is that sound of the Avro Lancaster bomber that drives me into an utter black rage every time I hear it. Just one of them flying low over head has the most evil sound. Could you even imagine the sound of 722 of them? Can you imagine the sound of 722 Lancasters  and 527 B-17's flying in onto a city? The Oracle often wonders if the people could have actually heard the drone of the Merlins before they saw them? Could you even imagine that there were Canadians flying those Lancasters over Germany? Over Dresden? And Dresden wasn't the only city that was fire bombed during World War II.  How the hell can any well informed Canadian tolerate the utter wanton flaunting of this past evil? Let the Oracle tell you Dear Reader, if we would have lost, our relatives would have been tried as war criminals.
 

It feels like it was decades ago now, when the new Canadian Aviation Museum opened in Ottawa, there was an exhibit of a Lancaster Bomber flight deck, that was salvaged from a Lancaster that flew several missions over Germany, so the guide said. You could sit in the flight crew seats. Damn! If you are ever in Ottawa you gotta check it out. Carl Jung said that large machines have anima, he forgot to mention that steel can soak up fear forever. Sit in one of the crew positions, try to imagine your over Germany in a lumbering pig full of fuel and munitions, any moment now the flak and the night fighters will certainly appear. Maybe even a ME-262, the worlds first operational jet fighter. There was no defense against it. You will actually feel your heart start to beat faster. It is a real bit of experience.

The Oracle of Ottawa has went on way to long on this one. If you ever do a tour of any kind of military duty you will discover that there is evil in the world. If you live a long time after it and really become well informed you will discover that you really have no idea how evil the world really is... It is the Oracle of Ottawa's greatest wish that this last flying Avro Lancaster monster of death be pulled into a museum and welded forever to the floor...  

China - The Best One Volume History

Nations are what their deeds are.
G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy Of History, p.74

If you are not living under a rock, you don't need anyone to tell you that China has become, in recent times, a very large force in the world. This is of course going to be real trouble in the near future. A good way to understand this is to have a basic understanding of the history of China. The problem is that the peasants of the Peasants Republic of China has a history that covers roughly about eight thousand years.
 

Worried about China? Forget about it..

 As a public service for his world wide readership the Oracle of Ottawa has been keeping an eye out for the perfect modern day summary that the modern busy person of today could read and benefit from. The problem with Chinese histories is that there is  a lot of them and most of them are as boring and as dry as fried out area of hell. The ideal situation would be to discover one that was written by someone that was actually on the ground at the time of the big modern changes that we are all presently dealing with today.

It is all a pretty tall order, but the Oracle of Ottawa has discovered just the ticket recently, by total chance of course, while still ever working on his "thinking about thinking" project. The name of the work is: A History of Chinese Civilization by Jacques Gernet.(Second edition...) It is under 800 pages, but is the most readable history of Chinese civilization that the Oracle of Ottawa has ever seen. And for good measure the Oracle of Ottawa has read it and most heartily recommends it as the work that hits the spot.

The one you want...

 The work has been translated into English and published by Cambridge University Press which is all that has to said as far as the bona fides are concerned. The book consist of eleven parts, broken into numerous chapters. After reading through it, the reader will have a very strong handle on what makes China tick, and why it ticks in the way it does. It explains most clearly the greatest weaknesses of China as a society in the modern world. The time period covered is from 8,000 B.C. up to 1989 A.D. with that nasty business in Tiananmen Square. The work is very well illustrated, with tons of summary facts and chronologies for handy quick reference. 

This is a most useful work for persons that are thinking of investing and /or doing business in China. (Don't!) Or for people that just want to understand the evening news somewhat more clearly. The main idea is that China is totally different from the Western World. It explains why, and why it will never change. It also explains the great structural weaknesses that presently are built into Chinese society  The Oracle of Ottawa has also included a video of another Canadian who has also been on the ground very recently and comes to pretty much the same conclusions as Gernet does but in an even more hard hitting way. Enjoy...

Sheeple - You Gotta Love Them

The Bible invariably uses the sheep as the typical apocalyptic or ideal animal. I suggested in one of my books that the reason for that is that sheep societies are perhaps more like human societies than those of any other animal: because the sheep is gregarious, stupid, and easily stampeded.
Northrop Frye, Symbolism In The Bible, Lecture 4, p. 47

Well Dear Reader, it is that time of year again in the Western World. The coming end of the year holidays known as Christmas And New Years. This used to be the time of the year that the Sheeple used to drive the Oracle of Ottawa just crazy. You know the standard aggravations. Joe the Chinese peasant that tries to back into his parking spot at the mall and takes the doors and mirrors off your brand new car. Or some pathetic trot that whips out a debit card to buy a newspaper and a pack of gum. The Oracle of Ottawa could go on and on, but he won't.

Sheeple - Learn to love them....

It was just recently that the Oracle of Ottawa has had another bit of profit from his ongoing thinking about thinking project, and that is that you must come to learn to love the Sheeple. There is simply no percentage in getting all Agent Smith with them. Yes they are a disease, a virus, and they do have a lingering odor, that can really get on your nerves. But the Sheeple at the end of the day have many very important qualities. The most important of them is that Sheeple constantly want things, and there is no way to reason with them is there?

Sheeple - Wallyus Simplicus

And if you are a very smart and shrewd person, you will learn to be very interested in what the Sheeple as a herd want next. Especially if you own a ton of common stocks. When the herd of Sheeple move as a group, shit, they can really move a stock, even a once sure as hell soon to be dead and gone stock. Just ask anyone that works for Apple! Now the Sheeple don't know why they want certain things, all they know is that they want what the other Sheeple want, and they will darn near do anything to be good Sheeple to have exactly what the other guy Sheeple wants and / or already has.

The thing that the Oracle of Ottawa has learned is that the Sheeple can make you really stinking rich. You just have to be able to guess somewhat closely what you think they might possibly want in the near future. This means that you must always have a nice inventory of common stocks that in any way could be possibly affected by the Sheeples herd mentality. Just remember that once one of those stocks goes off and turns a ten to fifteen bagger, be smart enough to get rid of it right away to some other sucker, preferably one of the Sheeple who thinks that he is smarter then you.  

Now the average Sheeple come in four common varieties. The Preps, The Wally's, The Trots, and the most common and dangerous, the skidmarks. Now the Preps are at the appex, the Wallys just like the Dilbert cartoon character fills up over 85% of all corporate cubicals at the time of this writing. The Trots are like specs in a Brownian motion, they just smile and hope to get along, somehow.  The skidmarks are the largest, most powerful and certainly the most dangerous of all the Sheeple. They seem to come from all levels of society. There is no understanding them on an individual basis, mostly because most of them don't even know they are alive. And if you investigate into the situation, they really couldn't care less. But when they want something, look out, they can move stock markets around the world, and just as quickly forget about it when they stray on to something more desirable that they had no idea that they wanted....    

Thomas Hobbes - A Mortal Flaw Discovered

I Authorise and give up my Right of Governing my selfe, to this Man, or to his Assembly of men, on this condition, that thou give up thy Right to him, and Authourise all his Actions in like manner. This done, the Multitude so united in one person, is called a COMMON - WEALTH, in latine CIVITAS. This is the Generation of that great LEVIATHAN, or rather (to speake more reverntly) of that Mortall God, to which wee owe under the Immortal God, our peace and defence. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapter XVII, p. 120 

It was just this Sunday morning past Dear Reader when the Oracle of Ottawa read the above passage from Thomas Hobbe's Leviathan, published in 1651, which is to this day considered to be the foundational work that describes the origin and construction of our contemporary societal institutions. Immediately the Oracle felt uncomfortable, that something was wrong, so wrong, in this key passage. He reread the passage again very slowly, and then it dawned on him in a flash!

Leviathan - Mortally flawed??

 Like a nuclear explosion going off in the Oracle of Ottawa's head he realized the serious fatal error within this key passage. It appears that the awesome passage of Hobbes which is the basis for most all societies of the world is most flawed since it breaks two of the Ten Commandments! Not not just any two of the ten but rather the first and second commandments! This is so critical as Hobbes uses scripture as an allegory and a metaphor to build the description of the body of the Leviathan!

 For all of the Oracles Dear Readers that need a little refresher, the first commandment states: I am the Lord thy God. The second commandment is: Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. The above passage, one of the key passages of Leviathan breaks the first commandment in spirit and it breaks the second commandment to the point of outright blasphemy! Now all the really sharp Readers out in the world, especially those in Germany, know that when an error is planted deep into a foundational construction or a set of measurements, the error will propagate slowly (i.e. in a linear fashion) at first and then it will propagate much later in a non-linear fashion.   

Once you come to terms with the monumental discovery you can rapidly understand the cause of all wars, calamities and other atrocities of history various. (Since two buried opposing powers cannot grind against themselves forever.)  All of a sudden Adam Smith and especially Karl Marx are all starting to come in ever so much more clearly. Buried deep within the constructs of our present societies, which all originate from Leviathan, there is buried an ever repeating time bomb, due to a misconstruction of logic that periodically goes off over the course of history. The humble blue collar Oracle of Ottawa has done his life's duty in discovering it and pointing it to you... Now work it! 

What Is Thomas Mulcair On?

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
Sir Francis Bacon, Essays, Essay L - Of Studies

Thomas Mulcair is the second son of a huge family of ten kids! He was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He rose way up in Canadian society, it is a hell of a story. From essentially the wrong side of the tracks, in all truth and honesty, he has risen to become the Leader of the NDP, which is now the Royal Opposition in the present Parliament. The whole story makes Horatio Alger look like a slacker.

Thomas Mulcair - Give yourself a shake!!

 It has been a pleasure to watch ole Tom roll on and over Steve Harper of the 'Harper Government'. As far as the Oracle of Ottawa can tell he is one of the very few that has made Harper squirm at will and with much pleasure. You know that Mulcair is getting to Harper by the unfailing thumb tell that Harper exhibits every time Mulcair starts to get a little too close to the truth. Just watch early videos from Question Period when the 'Harper Government' was young and cocky, and then compare them to recent videos of Question Period since the onset of the Senate scandal. Do you see it? Pretty wild or what? The 'Harper' thumbs are literally twisting.

Don't fuck with the Senate!!

The Oracle of Ottawa has gone on at length in earlier postings about how much he utterly despises the 'Harper Government', or anyone else for that matter, that starts to talk about the dinking or any serious changes to any of Canada's constitutional institutions. And that includes the Senate of Canada. The Senate of Canada has existed since 1867 and is enshrined in the Constitution Act, 1867. The person that was behind its creation and the expression 'House of second sober thought' was ironically a Conservative Prime Minister, the first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. MacDonald! The creation of Canada is a hell of a story, it was in the end a grand compromise, and the older the Oracle of Ottawa gets he is becoming more convinced that the creation of Canada, out of all its opposing forces, could only have been Divinely inspired.

The Canadian Senate will continue, unchanged...

Senates go back in history over two thousand years. Why even the first and earliest Senate of the world, located in Rome (Curia Julia) still stands! And wherever and whenever a Senate is abolished there usually the results of dire consequences and endless troubles. Again I direct the reader to research the history of the Weimar Republic  of Germany in the time from 1919 -1933. There was another guy, Adolf whats his name, who was as hot to be rid of the Senate as Steve Harper is today in Canada. Why do you think that is? The Germany that rose out of the ashes of World War II and the division of Communism certainly included a Senate (Bundesrat) and even after re-unification Germany still has a second "upper" (appointed) house.

Is the Oracle of Ottawa the last old man in Ottawa to read that far back in history? The system we have works and has worked for as long as Canada has existed as a nation state. Yes there have been bumps on the road, and there will continue to be, that is human nature. If the powers of the day want to bring in some minor rules to protect the petty cash as times and technology changes that will be acceptable. But the Oracle of Ottawa does not want an elected Senate. The Oracle of Ottawa does not want the United States in Canada. All this has been dealt with over a century ago. It is surely shocking that the powers that be today do not know that, save and except that young Justin Trudeau. The Oracle of Ottawa totally agrees with the Justin Trudeau model of Senate Reform; If you want a good Senate start by putting good people into the Senate, just like his father did! And the Oracle of Ottawa must be honest and tell the truth. Someday he expects to get that call, and yes, for that Library of Parliament card, the Oracle of Ottawa will come out of retirement for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and serve in the House of sober second thought....

Chris Hadfield? - Spare Me!

What can be shown cannot be said.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus, 4.1212

Space is just another busted flush. It all dawned on the Oracle of Ottawa today in a flash as he was driving about Ottawa on his Thursday routine. It was one of those truly ugly life realizations that just come onto you in their full ugly truth. Like when you finally realize that the wife is running around on you, or even worse, all the things you have believed in all your life are at last discovered to be nothing but a lie.

Chris Hadfield - Spare Me!!

The news on the CBC radio was stating that the voyage of Canada's mustached Pete was finally and mercifully coming to an end. Chris Hadfield seemed to have done everything in space. One more maudlin saccharine TV display and the Oracle of Ottawa was going to have to start storing air sick bags in the media viewing area of his secure bunker.  The whole thing seems to amount to we put a air type twit into space and all he could do was tweet.

Werner Von Braun with "friends" 1941

 The really sickening parts were the meet and greet with all the little brats in schools various across Canada attended usually by the creepy Prime Minister of the 'Harper Government'. Most of the little shits won't advance past their game boys. And a about a third of them, all the "new Canadians" can hardly wait until they are old enough to blow something like Chris Hadfield up and back to you know who. Allah carte if you catch the Oracles drift.

The other most sickening part of all this marketing crap was Chris Hadfield himself. There is just something about the man that creeps the Oracle of Ottawa right out. He just can't put his finger on it, but someday in some newspaper it will all be there on page six, bottom. Wait for it. The Canada Space Agency has a yearly budget of 488.7 million dollars. And all we can get is tweets.

The Oracle of Ottawa is old enough to be able to boast that he has watched all the history of modern space on the old vulgar media. Starting way back with the Mercury and Gemini programs. Also the Oracle of Ottawa also vividly remembers that July summer night in 1969 and the one giant step for mankind. That was a great time to be a young Canadian! We were building a Just Society then, now at the end of the space age we are ironically dismantling that same society. How weird is that?

Decades later when the Oracle of Ottawa finally started to think for himself, he went back into the history of mans climb into space. The reality of it all is not a very pretty story at all. All the great minds of the technology that kept the likes of Chris Hadfield in space was developed by a very special crew of lads from Nazi Germany. They were brought to the United States of America under an OSS operation that was called Operation Paperclip. It was a typical American Imperialist operation that was based on the offer of "take it or else we will prosecute you as a war criminal".  There were many notable names, including Werner Von Braun and the true father of the jet engine Hans von Ohain. There was another gentleman that worked on the development of the space suit that Chris Hadfield wears into space today. The data to design it came from volunteers of Nazi concentration camps that suffered horribly in crude but most effective data gathering. I will leave this name as an exercise for the reader. The CIA just about got away with it, but there was just one too many loose ends and proof that they couldn't bury.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, here in Canada today, as Chris Hadfield tweets, mothers of developmentally challenged children are abandoning there own sons and daughters at government offices and hospital emergency rooms. Can you imagine? In Canada!? We can't afford to support that stuff anymore, funding has been cut, you are welcome to find a free market solution for children that not even the "invisible hand" would touch. And Chris Hadfield sends another tweet...     

Bob And Fred Armstrong - A James Gang Youth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Best Apocrypha

Wisdom was created before all other things...
Sirach, 1:4, The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Augmented Third edition 

It all started with the reading of The Great Code: The Bible And Literature by the great Canadian Northrop Frye. The search for enlightenment and the ensuing "thinking about thinking" project has taken some very weird twists and paths. After literally burning through the Great Code, and continuing with The Words of Power, the Oracle of Ottawa often felt the top of his head seemingly to loosen. It was all so masterful.

The one you really want...

 What really peaked the Oracle of Ottawa's interest was the discussion of the importance of the Apocrypha. The discussion of its importance in the Bible peaked the Oracles interest very much indeed. So much so, that I was determined to dig up a copy and get right on it. Left to right, front to back, Starting at the top left of the first page straight through to the bottom right of the last page, like ole Norie always said, there is no other way.

After going through my (extensive) stash of bibles, a very wondrous collection of various translations and printings over time, the Oracle of Ottawa was shocked to discover that he had only one Bible that had the Apocrypha! And that was The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Augmented Third Edition, in the New Revised Standard Version. I bought it brand new a couple of years ago, and it only cost a little over twenty bucks, out the door, all in. All 2300 plus pages of it. If scholarship is measured by the pound, it was one of the best deals I ever cut!

The Cyrus cylinder...

 The only problem was that Northrop Frye was not very big on the Revised Standard Version, but it was all that I had at hand and I got on it. It seems that the editors of the New Revised Standard Version took Northrop Frye to heart and seriously, the NRSV is very literary in its style. And, if you check out the excellent essays in the back, they made a note of Northrop Frye's criticism, and mention him by name, and claimed to have fixed the problem. All the Oracle of Ottawa can tell you dear reader is that the editors were true to their word and claim.

Long story short, the Oracle of Ottawa enjoyed the Apocrypha very, very much. The annotations are excellent, along with the confirmation references, such as this passage is confirmed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, with the proper text reference number. Don't ask me why, but the Oracle of Ottawa loves that stuff. The literary style and the content was enjoyed mightily. These books are very important, since it lays out the ground to the time just before the coming of Christ. After the Apocrypha you will have a most visceral feel the Gospels that follow. And the Book of Judith? It simply has to be the most X-rated book in the whole Bible! Some say it is the first historical novel, but the Oracle of Ottawa says it is the earliest example in any language of feminist literature. Judith made her way in the world. No glass ceiling whining from this hot babe, she just cut her way through.

Another aspect that really interested the Oracle of Ottawa was the Maccabees books. Especially the mention of Cyrus and the detailed description of the return from bondage with his full support. While reading the Apocrypha check out the subjects and rulers on Wikipedia as you are reading. It will deepen your understanding deeply and very quickly, especially from the historical and literary views. While checking out Cyrus the Oracle of Ottawa learned of the Cyrus Cylinder! Most fascinating...        

 One thing leads to another, seeking enlightenment is like that...

The Other Montreal

The Eye sees more than the Heart knows.
William Blake, VISIONS of the Daughters of Albion

In the ever on going "thinking about thinking" project, the Oracle of Ottawa continues to discover new and very weird things. Being a Canadian the Oracle of Ottawa was raised and steeped in his elementary Canadian history. One of those facts being that there is and has only been one Montreal. Founded in 1642.  It is located in the province of Quebec, and is the largest French speaking city in North America. The second largest French speaking city in the world next to Paris, France.   

The "other" Montreal...

Imagine the Oracle's surprise while reading "Empires of the Word - A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, when on page 408, there is a map that contains a settlement named Montreal, that is presently located in Shoubak, Jordan!  This Montreal was founded and built in 1115! That is over five hundred years earlier than the founding of the Montreal that we all know of today.

The Montreal Crusader castle was built by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem and yes, ole King Baldwin, was French. And as per French settlements named Montreal, the other Montreal was built on top of a high hill. Of course all that remains today is the ruins. But once a upon a time there would have been the castle and a huge community located around it. The outpost stayed in French hands until 1189. Until it fell to the other guys.

The lesson of the story is that you are seldom taught the real story in school about anything. And that building settlements in far off lands on a persistent basis is what makes a language live forever. French is in the top twenty languages in use today. Well actually the top ten. And as far as the Oracle of Ottawa is concerned French is one of the "Big Four" languages. In the Oracle's world the only languages that matter are English, French, German and Spanish. Speaking one or more of these languages, and the world is your oyster.

The "other Montreal"!

The Lost City of Ani

All along the watchtower, princess kept the view,
While all the women came and went; barefoot servants too...
Bob Dylan, All Along The Watchtower, 1967

On a barren plain, on a most north eastern point of present day Turkey, lie the ruins of the lost city of Ani. It fell for the last time sometime around 1064 A.D. It was a strongly fortified, yet cosmopolitan city of over 200,000 people. It was known in ancient chronicles as the city of forty gates and one thousand and one church's! It was no doubt its position on the Silk Road, that was the source of its wealth.  Even though it was strongly fortified it was intellectually an open city for many century's. Along with all the Christian church's there are still remains of a Mosque and a fire temple of uncertain origin. Since big business was going on it would be very interesting to research how many Jewish temples were within the city walls. It is interesting to note that Ani in Hebrew means "I am"! (Right?)

Church of The Mother of God  - Ani...

 The Oracle of Ottawa was shocked that he had never heard of this city and its imperial story! It was recently featured on the front daily page of  Wikipedia sometime over the Christmas holidays last. The Oracle of Ottawa knows for certain that Gibbon did not mention it in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire! And the Oracle of Ottawa read the whole work and it is quiet surprising that Edward Gibbon missed that awesome story!

If you Google it there is a ton about  the great lost city. There are also some very haunting present day videos that have been shot by recent tourists and posted to You-Tube! Yet it does not turn up in any of my reference books that I keep a large store of in the fortified bunker! And the more you watch those modern video captures, the more you will become entranced by the magic of Ani.

Inside the ruins of Saint Gregory's...

The Oracle of Ottawa can't stop imagining the great caravans of animals that must have stopped and rested in Ani. They would be as long as the eye could see. Easily over one thousand animals under load, not counting the extensive outriders that such a high value load of goods would require. All this over a thousand years ago! It simply boogles the modern mind! And although the Oracle of Ottawa has lived for over a half century this is the first that I have ever heard about it. There is also an extensive cave network in the confines of the lost city, could there be lost works or even original manuscripts hidden away from the sackers and looters? Ani, the city of forty gates and a thousand and one churches....

The magic of the Lost City of Ani! Perhaps a future UNESCO World Heritage site? What a haunting story...

Slogging Through With Leszek Kolakowski

'Genuine' works of literature are those which seek to to mirror the world as a whole,and it is for the critic or ideologist to ensure, as far as he may, that the work embodies a true reference system giving significance to its component parts and subordinating them to an over-all artistic purpose.
Leszek Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, Book Three, p. 1018

It was earlier this week that the Oracle of Ottawa turned past page 1,000 of Leszek Kolakowski's monumental work; Main Currents of Marxism, only about another 200 odd pages to go! How sick is that? The Oracle of Ottawa got the unabridged complete edition, containing all three volumes, all piled into one very large volume, that was masterfully printed by W. W. Norton & Company. Not only did the great Pole get all the main currents, but he seemed, in this readers estimation, to get each and everyone of the slightest eddy currents also!

Leszek Kolakowski

This work is the most complete history of Marxism as a philosophy that this humble reader has seen to date. It is most exhaustive and very extensive. It covers everyone from Marx to Marcuse.  And many of the players were known personally by Leszek Kolakowski. For anyone who is interested in the historical effects of Marx on the history of the world, what more could you ask for? No one can truthfully say even today, no matter where they live, that Marx has had no affect on them. As the great Canadian economist John Kenneth Galbraith said (The Affluent Society) Marx  (still) affects you, no matter if you were or are aware of him or not!

The Oracle of Ottawa must warn you that Main Currents of Marxism is not for the faint of intellect. Truth be told, the Oracle of Ottawa had to lay the work aside for periods of time, to let it all sink in. One should not be discouraged that it will not not be dealt with like a work of pulp-able science fiction that is somewhat precariously perched upon the present day "best sellers" list. This is a work for the ages, and in turn will go mostly unnoticed and unread by the great unwashed masses. And the fact that the work contained thirty years of the life of Lezek Kolakowski should give the reader of just average intelligence some solace if it takes a few months to get carefully through. Diligence however, as per usual, will be, in this case very well rewarded.

There were very few people of the 20th century who fate had perched in such a perfect position, place and time as Leszek Kolakowski. There were even fewer people that had such rock solid guts and sense of purpose and fate to fulfill their destiny. Although a dissident and outcast in the times of the Soviet Union and still practically unknown in the West, Leszek Kolakowski is considered today as one of the greatest Poles to have ever lived in modern times, even more so that he lived to observe and enjoy total vindication in his lifetime.

Here is a small bio, in Polish, but you can get the real sense and greatness of the man. If you doggedly stick with it, you will become a greater person....

Does The World Population Problem Add Up?

As long as it is allow'd, that reason has no influence on our passions and actions, 'tis in vain to pretend, that morality is discover'd only by a deduction of reason.
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book III, p. 457

The Oracle of Ottawa has heard it since he was a kid in the 1970's, and I am sure you dear reader have heard it all your life, so far, also. If the population of the planet Earth is not reigned in soon, there will be humans six deep everywhere before you know it! It is now well into the 21st century and the Oracle of Ottawa is alarmed to hear that Canada is going to need at least a million immigrants this year just to man the burger joints, all the walmarts, and to drive all the cabs that you can never seem to find when you really need one. So how bad is this so called world population problem really?

Hardly anyone here really...

As the Oracle of Ottawa has warned you dear readers over and over; always do your own thinking. Never take some talking heads word for it at any time. Do some research, crack a book, track it down, know for yourself and always do your own math, if you are able.There are about, depending on which authority you abide, six billion people, more or less, now alive on Earth.

Well how bad is that really? For example if you placed six human beings on a square meter, how much real estate would you require to have the whole population of the earth in just one place? Now, second part, if we break the world population into a average family size of three and give everybody a house and a yard measuring 30m by 30m, (or 1/4 acre, for you Yanks), how much land would we require? Would it even be possible?

Well the answer to the first part, is 1000 sq. km! That is a square measuring about 30km a side! Which is about the present size of Los Angeles! That's right, the whole population of the earth could fit into a square of about 30km in size! Why there is hardly anyone on this damn planet when you do the math! The second part, if you gave every family a home and a yard as described above, you would need an area the size of Alaska! Or an area about twice the size of Egypt, or if you want get jiggy with it, an area about 2/3 the size of the Province of Ontario! (All the above are about 1% of the Earths surface....)

It is all rather shocking isn't it? It appears that we are very far away from any population explosion anytime soon! The fact is that we haven't even broke ground on the back forty! Now the Oracle of Ottawa isn't pulling your chain. I will even provide a reference; Guesstimation - Solving the worlds problems on the back of a cocktail napkin, by Lawrence Weinstein and John A. Adam, published by Princeton University Press. 
Check it out, it is just brilliant, maybe next time we will talk about how deep the oceans will get if all the ice melts..

And yet another source that you can check out...

Discovering Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
Psalms 89:1, Old Testament, King James Version

It brings the Oracle of Ottawa great pleasure that there is still some excellent television to be watched, even in the age of the great spiral to the bottom. The Public Broadcasting Service has done a great service to get Discovering Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates on to the air. The Oracle of Ottawa happened on to an episode quite by accident and I was soon riveted to the screen! It has been a long time since the Oracle of Ottawa has observed such powerful and moving television.

Henry Louis Gates - brilliant television...

The desire to know of our origins is a very powerful and consuming desire. But as I learned from watching several episodes of Discovering Your Roots, which uses the traditional genealogy with modern DNA methods, you just might want to be real careful what you wish for! Especially if you are an African American with blue eyes! Or in the case of the Oracle of Ottawa, who has recently found out that his roots can be traced all the way back to New France in the 1600's, to the actual young wife of Champlain (!), still leaves the Oracle of Ottawa leery. Well you see... the Oracle of Ottawa and all his siblings and close relatives have the very prominent 'hook'.. if you follow my drift...that nose is way to large for a person of French, English descent... We often talk about it and wonder... What the fuck!? Do ya' think? Really?

Yes sir, that part of each show that brings in and up the subjects major haplogroups really got the Oracle of Ottawa squirming in his seat! Mixing the traditional and modern methods together can really be a hell of a whammy to take if your not ready for it! But never the less, the Oracle of Ottawa has been scanning Google to find the best place to get a full both side run down on his haplogroups.. Why, the Oracle of Ottawa is ready to write down what he thinks his ethnic percentages are... Here goes. English (Anglo-Saxon) - 25%, French - 30%, Irish - 15%, Amer-Asian (i.e. Native Canadian) - 15% (my mothers side...) that leaves room for the expected shocker... and  the Oracle of Ottawa just knows that it is there... yep, Haplogroup J1 and / or Haplogroup J2, Oy Vey!!   Damn you Henry Louis Gates! I watched you and I learned something, and even worse I am being driven to find out even more! Perhaps you want I should write you a check? Oh damn! There it is again...

 Brilliant, moving television! Get your DNA kit ordered now...  

Love And Capital - Best Book of 2011

The traditions of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.
Karl Marx, MECW, Volume 11, 103-104, 106

The Oracle of Ottawa reads at least a hundred books a year. No Tom Clancy, no John Grisham. Only non-fiction works of science, economics, history and philosophy. He is also very careful of the text he chooses. Only complete unabridged texts will do. He has even been known to do extensive research on the text before he acquires it. The Oracle of Ottawa is on a mission from God. The search for enlightenment is not to be taken lightly.

Karl Marx and daughter Jenny Marx

It is seldom that I come across a real page turner in the non-fiction genre. And even rarer is one that is written by a woman. The year past has been very good to the Oracle of Ottawa indeed. I first saw Love and Capital by Mary Gabriel in a local Chapters retail store. As all my dear readers know the Oracle of Ottawa has developed in to real little Marxian scholar in the last few years. And anything new about Karl Marx is looked into deeply, immediately. Open Love and Capital anywhere and start to read, and it is riveting. The style is like oil, smooth and viscous. And it flows for ever. Bet you can't read just one page!

I have read a few Karl Marx biographies and I have a few more standing by to be read. But I am sure that Mary Gabriel's book will become the modern standard. It is based on the familial level, which I do not believe has ever been attempted before. And it contains some real new revelations which I will not give away here. Having access to the secret Stalin files was surely a help. And it was put to very good use by the author.

There were two theories that I had developed  from my reading of the text of various works of Marx. First the Communist Manifesto was written in bars by a couple of wild young lads with the world by the tail, with unlimited tomorrows. I was right on that one partly. The final editing of the work was done at the kitchen table with the wife Jenny. I did not know that. The second theory that I have developed was the that the turning point of the "young" Marx into the "raging" Marx occurred with the death of his son Edgar on April 6, 1855. This event more than any other in Karl Marx's life started the gestation of Das Kapital. And only a woman could have caught all the nuances and the importance as well as it is related in Love and Capital. Mary Gabriel gave this book years of her life and I am predicting it will surely be one that will live forever.

Another thing I noticed from the text; Jenny Marx, the daughter always is wearing a crucifix! And even when photographed with her "atheist" father Karl Marx! Perhaps another myth bites the dust? And another shocker, Karl Marx and his family celebrated Christmas and New Years just like you and I. That fact wasn't in my high school history book....

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!?

Where The Words Come From

A baser meaning has been read into these characters the literal sense of which decency can safely scarcely hint.
James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, p. 33

I know that this will come as a real shock to my Dear Readers of the world, but being Canadian can be really weird! As per North America in general Canada is not an ethnic nation state, as say Germany which contains over 90% German people. Or Russia which has mostly Russians. Or Poland, which has I hear, a lot of Polish people. Canada especially in Nova Scotia and Eastern and Southern Ontario has a bit, hit or trace of everything from all over the world. Not to forget to mention the peoples that were here way before us European Johnny come lately's!

The Oracle of Ottawa has concluded from long life experience this can make for interesting outcomes and some really weird Thanksgiving dinners! And totally obscure obsessions and pursuits, which rise up from deep in the ancient DNA of the family tree. The Oracle of Ottawa has to fight it most all the time, the piles of books in the secure bunker are always on the verge of nearly taking over. The long suffering wife pleading for some floor space and a general sort and stack. The constant ascensions and de-ascensions of volumes numerous. And that un-killable urge to write things so that they sound right. It all doesn't have to say anything on the surface, the message is in the rythm. Where the hell does this all come from?

The Oracle of Ottawas make up is French, Anglo Saxon, on my fathers side and Irish, French with a 1/8th twist of Aboriginal on my mothers fathers side. The inevitable fallout of chasing those stupid fur bearing animals all those years ago... Pondering this for a moment can make for some very strange thought chains and philisophical twists and turns. But it truly has its advantages also. A well written legal text is as fascinating as an old master drawing! And when ever I hear an Aboriginal drum circle the hair on the back of my neck stands right up. It took some questions and answers to my Mom to figure all this out, but I,m good with it...

Now my Mothers Mom was Irish, and Lord she was truly Irish. Now imagine ramming all this together into one person and you can see where all the weirdness comes from. And in closing, I heard that!, it is truly fascinating being in my head!

"And my one eyed mongrel twice run over..."

The Crisis of Judgement

" but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can."
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Part One , p. 4

It is simply amazing that no one has addressed this issue, until now. And that is, how substance use and abuse has affected history by its impairment of the judgement of top decision makers.  The earliest recorded case that comes immediately to mind is that of Alexander The Great. At the end of his life he was hitched to some Indian babe(s) and hitting the booze pretty hard. It eventually croaked him. It all looked pretty bad, and it changed the course of history, and affected the lives of millions of people, and come to think of it, is still reverberating through out the world to this very day!

Calicheamicin

Now lets jump to the 20th century to a case most all of use will be familiar with. Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany. You could rightly say that he was the first and greatest example of a modern closet doper. We all know that Germany lead the way to modern "Big Pharma" with the likes of Bayer et al... And there are many references to Adolf's close relationship with his personal physician. And as he came to rely on this buddy more and more we see some bizarre decisions getting made - or not. It was like watching the Toronto Blue-jays blow a nine run lead at the bottom of the ninth inning. 

Prozac

Now as all you people out there, who have ever owned a stock in your own name know, Big Pharma is a huge multi g'zillion dollar operation. When I hear that I always think; out of all the people I run into or "interact" with in a day, how many of them are on some kind of drug that's known or unknown side effects is currently impairing their judgement? For a while I took a survey of all the people I thought would have a rational handle on the question and I was floored when the common consensus was between four to six people out of ten! And this could be higher(!) depending on where you were employed and how good the coverage was! No freaking wonder this world is such a mess!

LSD

Now lets roll it up to the opening of the 21st century. Around 2008 during the near melt down of the world financial system, reports started leaking out of "binge trading". And CEO's who were in a safe situation sewering their companies with totally irrational decisions that are still causing heads to be scratched in perplexity! I laugh inwardly of all the risk programs implemented since 9/11, and there is no procedure(s) to monitor neural / chemical safety of an organizations top decision makers! For example what is the percentage impairment of taking the Prozac family of drugs per standard dose? If the dose is exceeded, how much greater will be the impairment to judgement? If you are supervising my pension fund manager, I would appreciate it if you started looking out for us, starting anytime soon....

We are now in the Spring of 2011. Canada is in the fourth Federal Election in seven years. I don't need a CPS handbook  to see all the weird side effects form heavy psycho prescription drugs on the leader(s) of the major political parties. well okay the one presently clinging to power...most of all. It is really obvious. The train of decisions and what ever fragmented thought that is strung together makes absolutely no sense whatever! It blows the soberest mind! Could a Western Democracy ( or political party) collapse from prescription drug psychosis? 

Listen carefully to the good doctor....