George Jones - Someday My Day Will Come

I'll be the one I want to be
Someday my day will come...
George Jones, Still The Same Ole Me, 1981

It was with great surprise that the Oracle of Ottawa heard of the passing of George Jones. What surprised the Oracle of Ottawa even more was that he died cared for, and in bed, and that he lived to be 81 years old. It is a hell of a long way from Saratoga, Texas to being a pillar of Western Popular Culture. Many readers are no doubt surprised that the Oracle even knows who George Jones was, but the Oracle must come clean and freely admit that between the most excellent rock concerts of my fondly misspent youth, the Oracle would always crank up the radio when a George Jones song came on in the car. And growing up in the Ottawa Valley we had one of the first FM Classic Country stations, CKCY. and everyone up the valley tuned in, and back in those days it was all Classic Country, and if you listened you were very familiar with George Jones.

George Jones strikes a wicked Hunter S. Thompson pose
and see's it all to the end.

The Oracle of Ottawa comes from a generation that can very easily remember the sound of the Grand Old Opry coming in through an AM radio on a Saturday night in the 1960's. And of course we all heard the stories of George as he became more and more famous and his life careened more and more out of control. And in recent years as more and more details availed themselves from George himself, the Oracle of Ottawa was forced to realize that Keith Richards was really just a ribald amateur compared to George Jones!

The excess was legendary. The Oracle can't help but comparing the similarities of the lives of Hunter S. Thompson and George Jones. Both were equally famous in their craft at very nearly the same time in American cultural history. One in the printed word and the other in song. One survived it all and one did not. There are some very important lessons here. The first is that is very hard to kill a Marine, and George Jones was a Marine. And the second lesson is that a man will survive most anything if he does not give up on his God(s). And the Oracle was always impressed with the Possum's deep underlying faith. So much for Fredrich Nietzsche...

Dalton McGuinty - A Three Termer!

We must therefore endeavour to discover by experiments the particular qualities, by which 'tis enabled to produce so extraordinary an effect.
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, p. 102

Well, it is all in and all but done. It seems that the Harper - Ford hope of an all conservative Ontario is but another dream unrealized. Premier Dalton McGuinty has won his third term. It has not been since the time of Sir Oliver Mowat, a Father of Confederation, that a Liberal Premier has scored three successive terms in office! This has not happened in over 130 years! Not only that, by the end of this mandate, Dalton will be in the top five list of Premiers by time in office! He is already way up in the Top Ten... A hell of a legacy...And a fine time to be in Ottawa - South.

Premier Dalton McGuinty - Three Termer

It was all a hell of a dirty, low and negative campaign. Complete with federal conservative interference, by the wee finance minister Jim Flaherty, who by the way, his wife managed to win a seat with the provincial PC's! It is all clear by the rules and all, but the Oracle of Ottawa feels deep down that it is all pretty "greasy". But I will leave that to the dear readers to decide. Of course, by the time the polls had closed for all of thirty minutes, the provincial conservatives were blaming the defeat to those evil labour unions!

Andrea Horwath - A Valiant Campaign

Another bright light of the evening, was the valiant campaign of Andrea Horwath of the NDP. She entered the race with ten seats and raised that number to seventeen. She ran a positive upbeat campaign. She really has the light of a public figure. And will no doubt have a long go in the "life".

Tim Hudak - Clean Up - Aisle Seven!!

Last and least was the disappointing campaign by one Tim "Chain Gang" Hudak. It was low dirty, negative and constantly underhanded. All in, the perfect conservative effort! But even with the endorsement of Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto and the Federal Conservatives now in power in Ottawa, he still couldn't even come close. One would have to conclude that there really is a God.

Pretty hard to argue with success and a track record like this....

Air Canada - First World Carrier? -

Since there is no telling in advance where it may lead, reflection can be seen as dangerous.
Simon Blackburn, Think, p. 11

You know your getting old when you can remember the days when Air Canada was a posh airline! You know, back in the days of unopened sky's? When there was still first class. When the Canadian Government owned it. And all the repair work was done by the actual airline! When you could get on your flight like boarding a city commuter bus. The happy, contented and well paid employees. All just fond memories now.

Air Canada DC-8 - The good old days....

Today I would just rather stay at home then to fly anywhere. As I watch my television and listen to the stories of grossed out and forever offended travelers, I scratch my head in utter amazement. Mostly amazed that I still have hair and that I am well enough off that I don't have to fly anywhere. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, it couldn't sink lower, up step the mindless corporate idiots digging a new lower level of hell for the never to end spiral to the bottom. Dante himself would be amazed...

I am of course referring to the Michel Thibodeau court victory of a crummy $12,000 for not being served in French on a flight between Ottawa and Montreal! Geez! You would think that you wouldn't be able to be served in English on that route! Screw the Canadian Constitution! That is all just dead Liberal stuff now! Air Canada is pursuing the new paradigm; Walmart of the skies! Have a nice day! Everything will be fine as long as you speak "white" partner!

dog pound of the sky!

 What amazes me the most is the insane value that Air Canada places on $12,000 and yet is ready to risk the loss of 12 to 120 million in future revenue! Does this make any sense at all? Do you really think the high dollar European Union traveler is going to risk flying Air Canada? Hardly! I wonder how many languages are spoken on any Air France flight to any where? I am pretty sure it is way more than just French! But of course I am confusing today with yesterday again. The days when an international airline was considered a posh cosmopolitan business. My bad! The days back when you could  rest assured that on any flight leaving the confines of an English speaking province anywhere in Canada you could be pretty confident of being served at the minimum of the Big Four languages. English, French, German and Spanish.

But all the multi-lingual types that used to be standard at Air Canada have moved on to better and greener pastures, like driving a cab...

What!? Not satisfied?