While checking my page views on Google + on Sunday(last) at 7:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) I had 1,024,571 views. At 12:03 a.m. Monday I discovered that I only now had 964,924 views! The Oracle of Ottawa was shocked that my Google + account was now counting backwards. What ever could be the cause of that?
Freedom of Speech is now selective?
Well it just so happens that the Oracle of Ottawa was making some pretty cutting comments on videos that were describing that insane Alibaba initial public offering that went off last week on the New York Stock Exchange. The Oracle of Ottawa didn't agree with the whole thing at all.
We have all heard about Gresham's Law, which states basically that bad money drives out good money. Well the Oracle of Ottawa is smart enough to be able to project that a little farther and to come to the stark conclusion that bad securities on a once good stock exchange will drive away all the good stocks. When you are ready to allow old thing, no matter how big it is, for one dollar more, we are on a real slippery slope people.
Of course the whole thing was a rather strange glitch that I am sure the best and brightest at Google are on top of. But it does give one pause doesn't it? The Oracle can't but help feel that if I only commented on cute and cuddly kitten videos nothing regarding my page views would have occurred. But what ever you do, don't comment on peasant Chinese securities offerings of Variable Interest Entities on the New York Stock Exchange!
A right hand glove could be put on the left hand, if it could be turned round in four - dimensional space. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus, Sec. 6.361111
Justin Trudeau at the time of this writing must certainly be at least 25 full percentage points in the lead of the last polls as favorite for Canada's next Prime Minister! It is the only explanation that the Oracle of Ottawa can come to explain the insane Franklin wheel spinning of the propaganda machine out of the Prime Ministers Office. In the last wasted decade of the 'Harper Government', the Oracle of Ottawa has never seen such desperation to date.
Howard Carter proved what he claimed to find...
The propaganda has shifted from Canada's old war exploits to the tragic and doomed Franklin Expedition. This is no doubt due to the bridge burning that has recently occurred with all of Canada's veterans, while out of one side of the Prime Ministers mouth he extolls the past victories and out of the other side he has cut just about every service that they have ever had!
The ultimate insanity continued today on CBC radio, as nervous rex Murphy introduced today's topic of Cross Canada Check Up. What do you think of the incredible discovery of Franklins lost ship? That wasn't so bad, as the intro piece that no doubt the PMO wrote for him, that compared the discovery of this unknown and unidentified wreck as the greatest achievement since Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's Tomb! The Oracle of Ottawa couldn't believe his ears!
Sir John Franklin - Note the resemblance...
The 'Harper Government' found an, as yet, unidentified wreck of a vessel that was of the same kind that was used by Franklin in his last expedition. There is no proof at the time of this writing that is actually one of the two lost Franklin ships. Although it is in only eleven meters of water and a Canadian warship was in the area, the 'Harper Government' for some strange reason did not see fit to drop a clearance diver over the side for a closer look, some pictures, and some canon serial numbers which would be definitive proof had they matched the records! Can you explain that Dear Reader?
And for the riffraff of the likes of nervous rex Murphy, Peter Mansbridge, and the ultimate scum of the 'Harper Government' to deface and smear a great man of the ilk of Howard Carter to further their pathetic propaganda ends makes the Oracle of Ottawa want to puke. Howard Carter claimed what he found. And unlike the scum of the 'Harper Government' he was able to prove it at once to the world!
Unlike nervous rex Murphy, Peter Mansbridge, and most of the 'Harper Government' the Oracle of Ottawa actually graduated from an Ontario high school, and unlike the previous named, the Oracle of Ottawa even went to college and graduated from that also! The Oracle of Ottawa has learned a few things. The most important being that it is very dangerous to make bogus and or unproven claims in science, words, or law. No one in their right mind would even think of doing that. Why is the 'Harper Government' persisting in this unproven claim without any factual confirmation?
One thing is certain from the outcome of recent events. There are two contracts at the CBC that will no doubt not be renewed when the Trudeau Government comes to office.
The Oracle of Ottawa has been watching television for darn near as long as television has been around. My earliest memory is watching The Friendly Giant on the mother ship of the world famous CBC. It was pretty awesome on the 26 inch Zenith with the wooden curtains! The whole broadcast universe back then consisted of less than five channels. The Oracle still has very vivid memories of watching the development of the United States Gemini space program. And I can still vividly remember that summer night when man first walked on the moon, and the screams of my mother when Oswald was capped on live television. Television back then was important.
Television - Finally at the fork in the road?
Now the Oracle of Ottawa watches his television on a bitchin' 42 inch Samsung, with the digital box, with way more than one bundle. There is something on channel 1 through to channel 999! And even though he has enjoyed it for a couple of years now, the Oracle of Ottawa is still blown away sometimes by the images from high definition. But like most Canadians the Oracle of Ottawa has a lot of gripes with his local cable provider.
The main bitch that the Oracle of Ottawa has had and still has with his cable provider is trying to get rid of that bundle buried in the bundle(s) that he has already paid for. The Oracle of Ottawa calls this the STC bundle. And it doesn't matter what bundle you pick you always get stuck with the STC bundle. You just can't be rid of it. The STC bundle consists of the Sheets, Towels and Chopstick channels. For some weird reason in Canada and with Rogers Communications you just can't be rid of these useless channels.
Most Canadians don't give a shit about what it costs. We just want what we want, and some body better give it to us or we will make other arrangements. The cable companies still claim that it is technologically impossible to provide pick and pay! And they still deny that the cable box does not tell them everything that I do through their cable box remote! The Oracle of Ottawa is very relieved that his tax dollars have been spent maintaining the CRTC regulatory agency. These pick and pay hearings I am sure are going to bring us all a lot of relief.
So far it has been mighty funny watching the corporate whore lawyer from Bell spout the old same tired crap. But this time there is real fear in his voice. The Oracle of Ottawa just loved that. Pick and pay is coming, and it will no doubt be forced down the overfed throats of the corporate whores of media. May we all get to feast in our equal shares of the burnt savory offerings!
Tim Hortons has been around darn near as long as the Oracle of Ottawa. It was one of Canada's most iconic and loved brands. The old days were the best. All the baked goods were actually baked in the store. Not received frozen and then microwaved by a temporary foreign worker. There fore each Tims location had its own finger print so to speak. There were no purchase or time restrictions once upon a time. And you could even smoke right at the table! Seems like the lost coffee shop of Eldorado don't it?
Board meeting at Burger King?
Now that the Oracle of Ottawa has left or rather, abandoned the rat race of this present locked down world, he finds himself less and less at the Tim Hortons. The last straw came when the corporate over whores in marketing at head office decided that that they would discontinue the extra small coffee size. And after tasting the new Dark Roast, the Oracle of Ottawa decided that it was all just a corporate whores marketing plan to 'frame' Tim Hortons more with the Starbucks crowd. If I wanted to go to Starbucks I would just go there. But I have never been in a Starbucks in my life and I am not changing that anytime soon.
As you get older and wiser, you realize that everything eventually comes to an end. It takes a brand with the highest morals and standards to preserve over long periods of time. An example of a brand that has survived since 1833 is C. F. Martin & Company the legendary maker of acoustic guitars. These brands are becoming more and more scarce as time goes on. The Oracle of Ottawa has come to the hard realization that the brand of Tim Hortons is in all likely hood just not going to survive the near future.
The worst, most untimely marketing campaign of all time?
When the Oracle of Ottawa first heard about the rumors that Burger King was in talks to take over Tim Hortons, the Oracle of Ottawa dismissed it all out of hand. The first thought that went through my very ample and brilliant head was; "Ain't ever gonna happen". But with the price of $94.00 a share and the backing of the Oracle of Omaha, the Oracle of Ottawa had to concede that it has a likely 50 -50 chance of actually happening.
What is most dismaying is that a scum, nearly dead brand such as Burger King could just march up to Canada flash some filthy cash and the board of Tim Hortons just seemed to cave in on the spot! The only reason that Burger King is doing this deal is to prop up its own nearly dead business model on the life blood of another, in the near future hope that there will be a bigger fool out there somewhere where by the Wall Street Bankers will be able to flip it over for a couple of million or billion, depending on the fool that can be found at the desired time.
It is all really depressing. But there is a silver lining. Somebody somewhere here in Canada will take a close look at the original Tim Hortons model and do it all again from scratch. Many ground floor opportunities are and will be had, and the Oracle of Ottawa will be watching out for them. And you should to Dear Reader...
A sentence in a story gives us the same satisfaction as a picture. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Grammar, p. 171
It was all the news today here in Canada. It was announced by the chromed domed eminence himself, along with his most trusted spin doctors and fart catchers assorted, that one of the long lost ships of the doomed and tragic Franklin Expedition had been located somewhere up in Northern Canada south of King William Island. The first thing that struck the Oracle of Ottawa was how could they make that claim with out even having dived the wreck, which later in the day was announced to be in only eleven meters of water!
Sir John Franklin - As insane as Stephen Harper?
And then for some strange reason the Oracle of Ottawa felt a rage suddenly well up in him. And this reaction is being quite noted all over Canada at the time of this writing. This is not a Canadian story in the least. It is a tragic story of a megalomaniac with a very advanced death wish psychoses, not at all unlike Steve Harper of the 'Harper Government', who dragged himself and a whole expedition to their deaths. Just like the 'Harper Government' is dragging Canada to a very uncertain future. And whose policies have emboldened the likes of Putin and have created the world environment that has allowed the ISIS Islamic State to thrive...
It all started to unravel around 5:00 p.m. when the momentous discovery was discussed on Power and Politics on CBC Newsworld. The majority of the panel was less than impressed. There were very many questions. Such as how does this useless unchecked "discovery" make my life as a Canadian any better? Will it speed up the delivery of my unemployment check? Will it bring critically needed home services to Veterans that have recently been gutted by the 'Harper Government' ? Will it make the lives of the survivors of missing and murdered aboriginal women any better? Will it allow home door to door mail delivery to continue? No? Then what the fuck is it good for? And how in hell can you call finding the remains of a colossal failure very much not unlike your own as 'Nation Building' ?
It is going to look pretty bad if that hulk is not one of the two Franklin Expedition ships. It has totally shocked the Oracle of Ottawa that Parks Canada has not its homework on this one. The two expedition ships of the Franklin Expedition were known as bomb vessels. Do you know Dear Reader how many of these were built by and for the Royal Navy in the 19th century? The list is very long indeed. There were at least one hundred ships of this class constructed! Do you know Dear Reader how many expeditions were sent to look for Franklin in the 19th century alone - Twenty at least! And not to mention how many of these vessels were used by the Hudson Bay Company to supply their outposts into the 20th century!
But it was the communications genius of Geoff Norquay (a total sack of crap..) on hire from Earnscliffe Strategy Group that let all the cats out of the bag, on air, in real time. The little whippersnapper from the NDP mentioned that instead of looking for Franklins long lost remains it would have been more intelligent to be doing serious mapping for all the international boundary commissions that Canada will have to attend to defend its present borders in the next two years. Geoff Norquay rolled his eyes knowingly nearly into the back of his head and stated that there has been a serious amount of mapping done to locate Franklins trash. Then the young NDP lad stated that that mapping is over five hundred miles useless from the area where mapping was most required! It was killer Dear Reader and no doubt Geoff Norquays last screw up on the PMO dime.
No sign leads us beyond itself, and no argument either. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Grammar, p. 114
You know it is the dog days of the 'Harper Government' when you have the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the personage of one John Baird, blathering gibberish that the Russians, having overflown HMCS Toronto somewhere in the Black Sea constitutes a grave act of war. The Oracle of Ottawa nearly fell of of his sofa when he saw the report on Power and Politics on the good old CBC. The Oracle of Ottawa is certain that the train wreck minister will soon be doing very gay interior designs for the new Liberal government McMansions in his riding of Barfhaven within the next year.
It is sort of like the Gulf of Tonkin incident all over again. The war hounds of the 'Harper Government' are trying just one more time, in the hope that a tragedy will some how save their worthless hides. Or it could be that the minister was reading from prepared notes from the United States Department of State, seeing as the president is to speak to the issue(s) on Wednesday night in Prime Time!
HMCS Toronto
Let the Oracle of Ottawa assure all Canadians that what happened to the HMCS Toronto is nothing out of the ordinary. Canadian naval units get "zoomed" all the time. What has really pissed off the Oracle of Ottawa is that when he as a young blood on HMCS Fraser sometime in 1984 and that not only got "zoomed", but "brushed up" by a big bad scary Kashin destroyer of the then Soviet Union! It got even worse and way more scary when they zoomed us with a Badger bomber at around 150 feet. All these incidents were done with full weapon radars in lock on mode! Which is an act of war in the international law text books. And can be very carcinogenic as we were all told later. And not a word of that ever got into the media back in Canada! What was up with that Dear Reader?
At least HMCS Toronto didn't run into this!
So what could the lads and ladies on the HMCS Toronto have been up to, to provoke such a nasty old cold war response from Ivan? It did not take the Oracle of Ottawa long to find out. And the Oracle of Ottawa has included video proof. The drone flight over the hot area in Ukraine probably did not go over very well. But even then there is nothing to worry about.
HMCS Toronto is part of, by now, a very large SAG, or surface action group. It includes on the newest and baddest American carriers which I shall not name. If there is a carrier, there is also several nuclear powered submarine attack boats. And seeing the gravity of this situation and how it could get all out of control it would not surprise the Oracle of Ottawa that there also a "boomer" somewhere on station. Loaded up with ICBM's with the pits in and standing by. Hopefully the hapless members of the press and the various MP's will ask about such things at John Baird's briefing tomorrow...
I hope that the essay will be useful for some, while harmful to none, and that my openness will be to everyone's liking. Rene Descartes - Discourse on The Method, p. 4
It happened some time last Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The Oracle of Ottawa's page view counts on his Google + and his 'umble blog added up to over 1,000,000 views. It was another goal that I thought I had set impossibly high and would never be achieved. But yet again I over achieved without even really trying. Now I have to think of some other impossible thing to go for.
The Oracle of Ottawa hones up another one...
The Oracle of Ottawa has taken the summer off. Due to the ongoing implosion of the Canadian right wing revolution and the soon to end 'Harper Government' the Oracle of Ottawa felt that his work was done. And has taken great pleasure in the fact that his words have helped to put another nail into the coffin of the 'Harper Government'. The polling numbers are relentless and unchanging. The young Justin Trudeau will be the next Prime Minister of Canada, and it will be very well before the next set election date in 2015.
Yes indeed Dear Reader, the budget will indeed take care of itself, especially when you are going to legalize pot across Canada! The 'Harper Government' just can't even begin to deal with it. It is a joy to see the wingers twist. There are also very many other issues, too many to mention, that the conservatives are on the wrong side of history on. Rather then try to deal with it in rational manner, old Steve Harper is back up in northern Canada still hoping to find Franklin. You can't make this stuff up. The Oracle of Ottawa is pretty sure that Franklin and his company have been dead for very many years now. And besides they were not Canadians. If the Brits want look for him, well they should go ahead and knock themselves out. But so far in the last decade or two it has been a no show. Do you think there is information in that Dear Reader?
Now about that million page paradox. It was with great chagrin that the Oracle of Ottawa has slowly learned that one chippy comment on Google + would on average get ten times more hits then one of my highly crafted blog essays! How ignorant is that? You know Dear Reader how the Oracle of Ottawa feels about twitter and literature in 140 character batches. Yet I must come to the conclusion that the Oracle of Ottawa is just a total natural at it or that people are dumber than I thought in my wildest dreams.
