'Harper Government' Meets Helen Of Troy?

Give up the girl? I swear she will grow old
at home in Argos, far from her own country,
working my loom and visiting my bed.
Leave me in peace and go, while you can, in safety.
Homer, The Iliad, Robert Fitzgerald Translation, Book I, lines 35-38

And you thought the Tory Bund of the 'Harper Government' would come to ground with the issues of the gap toothed, mouth breathing, knuckle dragging social Darwinists, of the deep rear back benches, as they fought for the rights of hetro-sexual marriage and the lives of the unborn, no matter what? But it now appears that there is a Trojan Horse in the Tory Bund, that is going to bring a rather much more interesting mythological fall of the whole damn mess. The Oracle of Ottawa is as surprised as you no doubt are.

Size does matter?

Befriend and betray. It has all worked so well for the "The Boss" till now. But as usual with sadistic, bent bullies, at some point they go too far, and fuck over the wrong person. Then the whole house is brought down slowly and all so publicly. Like a local Tory riding association president taking the wings off of a fly...The dream Tory ideological city will soon be illuminating the night like the burning ruins of Troy of all those years ago.

Helen of Troy - Comes to Ottawa...

It all started, when, at the behest and orders of "The Boss", that a certain young stud of a minister, whose usefulness had exceeded his expiry date, was outed, under the radar, so to speak, so that he would no longer be that late night lingering threat... He had committed all the sins. He was better looking by a mile, way too smart for his own good, and the insult of insults; his old lady is way better looking then anything any Tory has ever done! "The Boss" realizes that with that exotic young Persian on his arm, no one will even see the boss, and the embarrassment of having to drag his old wal-mart frump to the same functions, well! And what the hell is "The Boss" to say to that forever friend ambassador of that troublesome little country from the middle east? Especially when the ambassador from Iran comes calling at the same time?!! Oy Vey!!

Mrs. Peter Afshin-Jam-MacKay gets "on message"...

Who Is Mary Gabriel?

All those years ago they had said hello to each other and could not look away. Soon, both knew, they would have to say good bye forever. But for now, just for now, it was as it had ever been.
Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital, p. 486

Well, it is all in, and all done. All 709 pages of it. I even thought the notes were good reading! How sick is that? Love and Capital was even nominated for a National Book Award for non-fiction! For an American to write about Karl Marx and get nominated for a National Book Award is like you or me making a short film with a cell phone and having it nominated for an Oscar! Writing about Karl Marx in America automatically puts you way behind the eight ball, so to speak. She should have won! But she got beat out by some tall guy with big hair, that wrote once about Shakespeare, a guy who was merely a front man for the Earl of Oxford. But you get invited everywhere when you write about Shakespeare. It is like recommending a blue chip stock. No one ever got fired for doing that.

Mary Gabriel (Yeah..She is hot, isn't she?)

As I neared the end of her book, I started to wonder; Who is Mary Gabriel? There was practically no information about her in the book, save and except that she was an editor with Reuters for twenty years and the names of two other earlier books, and the fact that she now lives in Italy. Well the Oracle of Ottawa was not happy with that. So I did some simple digging on Google. I found that she had recently did two interviews. So I watched both of them. The first was her December 1, 2011 appearance on Charlie Rose! Like the book must have been really good, if Charlie Rose will have the author of a book on Karl Marx on his nationally syndicated television show!

Why am I not surprised?

But the interview that you simply have to see is the "After Words" interview she did on C-SPAN on October 06, 2011! It is near an hour long and was conducted by Bertell Olman. A lot of information about Mary Gabriel leaks out here between the lines. But you have to watch for yourself... The real interesting thing that I found concerning her education was at Smashwords - About Mary Gabriel- and my earliest suspicions were all but confirmed. She is a native of Minneapolis and a long time resident of Baltimore! Why a nice Catholic girl no doubt? And as I suspected she has had a dream education. A "Diplome" from the University of Paris at the Sorbonne! A B.A. in fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art ! And for good measure, cause a girl should always having something financially fungible to fall back on; a Masters degree from American University in journalism!! Man those student loans must have been a real bitch!!

The Oracle of Ottawa did not receive a free copy of Love and Capital. I paid full hardcover price for my copy like everyone else. And I didn't mind a bit, because it was worth it.

Mary Gabriel reading at the National Book Awards. Think of her as the Ian Fleming of biography...

'Harper Government' To Raise Retirement Age?

The truth is that the wants of the people are complex historical phenomena reflecting the dialectic interaction of their physiological requirements on the one hand, and the prevailing social and economic order on the other.
Paul A. Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, p. xvi

Very shortly, just like in the United Kingdom, Canadians are going to have to work longer, pay in more, and eventually receive less during their retirement. It is quiet simple to put the nuts to this plan and the whole 'Harper Government' by simply retiring as soon as possible. This simple realization came to the Oracle of Ottawa as he remembered a nice clear example that Karl Marx used in Das Kapital, Volume I, where he explains that the ultimate profit in a business rests solely on the last ten to fifteen customers standing in the daily line up of about 100 customers. It is the last ten people in the line that keep the doors open! Think about it...

Doomed?

Well dear reader, it is the same for governments. The much longer line of the citizenry pays income and other taxes. It is a very simple matter to bring that government down. You only need a small fraction of that line of taxpayers to stop paying taxes, by simply retiring now. Contrary to all the spin and black hole marketing, you will require much less then you think to retire. As a matter of fact the Oracle of Ottawa has discovered that up to 40- 60% of what you earn "working" is simply lost in the costs of the honor of having a stupid "job"! Your results may vary, but I doubt it.

Is that RRSP still bulging Fat? Is the house paid off? The wife is already retired? Are the kids all gone and out there kicking serious career ass? Then why in heavens name are you still hanging around in your civil service job? Especially you people in the Federal Civil Service! Do you really think that that last ugly budget paring before Christmas last is the last one? Well let the Oracle of Ottawa disavow you of that silly notion! The 'Harper Government' could be sitting on the largest surplus in Canadian history and it would not make any difference! They are coming for you out of ideology. Not facts, not science, not reason. They are coming for the workers for the sheer sadistic right wing joy of being able for once to actually to do it.

Just as a serial killer always keeps a souvenir of his last victim, so do the right wing wack ball contractors and managers that are going to call you in to fire your ragged ass. Yes sir they have it all on tape... Many of them will pull themselves for years when you start to cry in front of them. They practically come in their pants when that happens. But it is a much different story when that same pig opens his inbox one morning and finds over a dozen resignations with attached leave forms! No bonus or video jollies!

Us "over fifties", are from the greatest generation that has ever lived. We have taken no crap and no prisoners. Are we going to let everything that has gone before us vaporize with out a fight? Flip that cocksucker manager you email resignation. Watch on CPAC how the little shit ball finance minister tries explain why tax revenues are virtually drying up! There will be other days and other governments. Then we can return to work (or not) and double, triple dip like wild crazy bastards! After all we are the entitled generation. We are entitled to our entitlements. We just have to sit it out and watch the 'Harper Government' go down in flames.  And there is not a goddamn thing the right wing, gap tooth, mouth breathing, knuckle dragging social darwinists can do about it!

December 21, 2012 - Forget About It!

The brilliant Schiller was wrong in his Joan of Arc when he said "against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." It is actually by means of the gods that we make our stupidity and gullibility into something ineffable.
Christopher Hitchens, On Intelligent Design, p. 77

Is it really true that the whole world is dumber than a bus load of Conservatives? The oracle of Ottawa is really getting miffed at all the hub-bub building about this 2012 end of the world crap! Would you believe that the article about it now ranks 649th out of the nearly four million articles in Wikipedia? Would you believe that that article has been hit over one million times in the last thirty days? No?

You buy this crap?

Would you believe that the Oracle of Ottawa saw a very well heeled and seemingly rational and well educated man literally close all his bank accounts and announce to the teller that he was leaving North America to hide out in his ancestral Austria? Well that dear reader is true! I witnessed this act of insanity at my very own bank branch in Ottawa Ontario, just before Christmas last!  I was dum-founded as was the teller, who could hardly keep the straight face...

Not a wheel to be found...

 If you think about this logically and rationally for just a moment several arguments should soon occur to you. But I will go over a few of them with you because the Oracle of Ottawa knows that not every body is an "85" in this sorry world.

Argument 1: If the prophetic power of the Mayan calendar is or was so shit hot, how come they didn't predict there own demise? In turn why would you consider their prediction about our civilization?

Argument 2: If the Mayan culture and civilization was so damn awesome, how was it that it was kicked over by less then two dozen rag ass pirates from of all places Spain!??

Argument 3: Why would you believe any prediction from a "civilization" that existed for over two thousand years and never got around to figuring out or even come close to inventing the wheel? How much advice do you take from people that run every where? Yeah, not too much....

So for all you panicking, sorry, dumb as fuck wallies, I hope that this will at least allow you to sleep tonight....

The nice man from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back up the Oracle of Ottawa with even more rational information that you paid for with your tax dollars, that were all in all very well spent... No go to bed you idiot!!

Peter MacKay Marries Nice Girl From Iran

Marry’d in Haste, we oft repent at Leisure;
Some by Experience find these Words misplac’d,
Marry’d at Leisure, they repent in Haste.
Poor Richards Almanack, 1734

R.E. Note from the society desk.

They come and they go...

Peter MacKay, present Minister of Defence in the 'Harper Government' has married a very nice girl from Iran by the name of Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Now known as Mrs. Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay...
You didn't actually think that I would touch this, did you?

A wonderful addition and role model to Conservative Party of Canada family values... Oh by the way? "That emptiness inside you", don't count on that being filled in any time soon.....Can't you just wait for the Sun News Krista Erickson interview?lol...

uniball VISION RT pen - Shop And Tell

Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind. 
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IX, 9

There is nothing worse than trying to write with a poorly made Dollar Store pen from China. They are a real bargain, but they sure as hell are no deal. The Oracle of Ottawa doesn't just write this humble blog. He writes a journal every day, in the good old fashioned way, with a fine quality writing instrument. I have been doing this every day for decades without any gaps. The motivation has a lot to do with that old Greek guy that once said, about 2,500 years ago, that an unexamined life is not worth living. Obsessive compulsion should be practised by more of us.

uni ball - A lot of high technology for less than a dollar!

Recently my usual office supply store where I used to get my day pens started going out of retail business in Ottawa. Therefore I had to find a new supplier. Ironically quality showed up in a most unlikely place. While in a Dollarama waiting for the wife to complete her shopping I decided to scan the stationary  aisles and I came across uni ball pens! At first I thought that they were Chinese knock offs! But upon turning the package over I spotted the ACMI seal! And reading on in the very fine small print I discovered that the uni ball VISION RT pens, (three for two dollars, plus tax), conformed to ASTM D-4236! In other words this stuff is the ultimate in quality! And what it is made of won't kill you if you get it on your skin or your little kid or dog chews into it!

The Oracle of Ottawa loaded up! I got two three packs of the black VISION RT's and the multi color pack containing one blue, red and green pen, again for two dollars! But the test is in the writing and the comfort and the quality of the line. And most of all the the durability. You will not be disappointed! These sixty six cent pens write as nice as an expensive luxury pen. I was quite simply astounded at the quality of the line. And the line seems to be very long indeed! The pen will not run in your pocket or on an airplane. And they are certified for secure document signing that can't be altered. These pens are imported from Japan by Sanford! A Rubbermaid company, that has made the list of America's most loved companies more than once. Gee, I wonder why? 

Here is another review buy another contented camper. Real quality is not marketed, it is discovered! Good durable stuff does not always have to be expensive. You just have to be a good shopper.

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....