Lazy Fair City

[Selene]

And I in no way assumed Jonathan and you were connected and if you said you were both Canadians I would not be surprised.

Seriously? What have I ever said that sounds even remotely Canadian?

J

Probably some of your hockey statements...look what you are dealing with...

[Brant Gaede]

Wolf gets it back on track.

--Brant

[Jonathan]

Let's simplify things by calling him Rex. He operated a lottery. The Feds deemed it wire fraud and arrested his son.

Were you involved with him and were you there at the time that he was operating his lottery scheme? Were you observing his "business" practices?

Rex took the fall.

Is that what he told you?

J

[Jonathan]

And I in no way assumed Jonathan and you were connected and if you said you were both Canadians I would not be surprised.

Seriously? What have I ever said that sounds even remotely Canadian?

J

Probably some of your hockey statements...look what you are dealing with...

Hockey is Minnesotan, not Canadian.

J

[Brant Gaede]

Isn't that so Canadian--that you would say something like that?

--Brant

[Mikee]

I think the enterprise of LFC is part of the DNA of human culture and it is far better that it existed and is being talked about than if it never existed. Kudos to risk takers and dreamers. To you Wolf...

[Brant Gaede]

Yep. The human race is still learning to walk. Falling down is part of that.

--Brant

[Jonathan]

There was a run on ATM, fueled by panic, after Orlin seized all the privacy software that Rex spent millions of his own money to develop and launch.

Why did Orlin seize the software?

J

[Jonathan]

Isn't that so Canadian--that you would say something like that?

--Brant

We were raised

With the stick

And a pair of blades

On the ice we cut our teeth

We took our knocks

In the penalty box

Our mother was the referee

This sport was here

Before we came

It will be here when we're gone

The game's in our blood

And our blood's in the game

Lay us down under

A frozen pond

We will fight to the end

We will stand and defend

Our flag flying high and free

We were born the child

Of the strong and Wild

In the State, the State of Hockey

A big blue line runs around our state

A line that can't be crossed

The day they try to take this game

Is the day the gloves come off

We will fight to the end

We will stand and defend

Our flag flying high and free

We were born the child

Of the strong and Wild

In the State, the State of Hockey.

[Jonathan]

Is that from the "Wolf in the Fold" episode?

J

[Selene]

 

There was a run on ATM, fueled by panic, after Orlin seized all the privacy software that Rex spent millions of his own money to develop and launch.

 

Why did Orlin seize the software?

 

J

 

 

 

[Mikee]

Reply to Jonathan #135:

Could be.

"Scott had a love for good Scotch whisky, often making references to drinking or frequenting drinking establishments on more than one planet, even referring to himself once as an "old Aberdeen pub-crawler." (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; TOS: "Wolf in the Fold")"

[moralist]

oooh... The Magnificent Seven.

Love that movie, Adam!

 

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

deleted

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

Let's simplify things by calling him Rex. He operated a lottery. The Feds deemed it wire fraud and arrested his son.

Rex took the fall. It had nothing to do with Laissez Faire City, other than the fact that Rex paid in over $3 million in cash, some of it proceeds from the lottery -- roughly a third of all paid-in LFC working capital. He stole nothing from LFC's founders or deep pocket backers. ATM operated like a bank, accepting deposits and making loans. There was a run on ATM, fueled by panic, after Orlin seized all the privacy software that Rex spent millions of his own money to develop and launch. He was a brilliant man, operating outside of the law, accused but acquitted previously. There are worse things than breaking the law, you know, like collaborating with the Clintons and Alan Greenspan.

Without Rex and a handful of key investors, there would have been no Laissez Faire City, no prospect of a new nation, either in a territorial enclave as originally hoped, or as a cyberspace "virtual" city populated by anonymous freemen. It could be argued that Rex was a drunkard, a tyrant and spendthrift. Yet he worked every day for seven years and did everything humanely possible to attract top talent. He had a weak spot for anyone who had been wronged and he read every word I wrote, not that those aspects were directly connected. I quarreled with him repeatedly.

You know Wolf, this makes for an interesting story because of its moral theme. It would also likely make a good movie.

You could make lemonade out of these lemons.

Greg

[Wolf DeVoon]

Jonathan asked: Were you involved with him and were you there at the time that he was operating his lottery scheme? Were you observing his "business" practices?

The lottery predated LFC by many years. I don't know very much about it, except the following. Rex served in the US Army in Germany, made contact with Russians, saw that Russian postage was cheap, and used it to arbitrage mailing costs. Laissez Faire City International Trust was organized and domiciled in Moscow. Gorbachev-era diplomats and a KGB general who admired Ayn Rand were among the initial founders. In 1999, they persuaded Putin to allow a Russian language translation of Atlas Shrugged.to be published in Moscow. I was invited to attend the event, but declined.

Canadians, Australians, Swedes, Poles, Italians, and prominent Americans contributed to LFC in the beginning. The goal of a free society attracted worldwide support. I was invited to join them because Rex liked my writing. He urged me to write a novel about government corruption. I refused and wrote The Good Walk Alone, which was serialized above the fold in Laissez Faire City Times for 16 consecutive weeks. While I was working on it, LFC whiz kids were trying to cobble together a Charter based on cyberspace reputation networks and resolution of disputes by arbitration, with Rex retaining arbitrary executive power as City Manager. I replied with an internal "opinion of counsel" that stopped that idiocy dead in its tracks.

In a laissez faire community of any kind, physical or digital, the rule of law arises from and requires all of the following: a constitutional right to practice legal representation on behalf of others; the right of practicing lawyers to associate for the purpose of selecting judges who, on appointment to the bench, are barred from private legal practice; and the right of any person or organized group to obey and execute lawful orders that may be issued from time to time by the courts so created. The jurisdiction of laissez faire constitutional law and the courts which duly interpret and uphold such principles exists globally and perpetually as a matter of right. Laissez faire constitutional law flows from a single proposition, which is that no one may legally judge his own cause of action or act to penalize another without fair public trial and impartial due process of law. Laissez faire law is discovered and demonstrated in the process of litigation and trial. It cannot be legislated, codified, or imposed by a "lawgiver."

[Brant Gaede]

I like your compressed narrative writing style revealed on the back cover of The Good Walk Alone. It's as if you were thinking of the big screen and wanted an in your face impact, but it's with words only. I haven't read much fiction in years, but I'm going to give this a try.

The key to making any big time movie and controlling the production is money. Howard Hughes proved that by using his own money. It's not that he was any great movie maker but no one was any dog wagging his tail. He was the dog. In present times Donald Trump is doing the same with his political campaigning. Let's just hope he falls way short, for as a President he'd be no better than Hughes as a movie maker.

Now someone like Clint Eastwood is like cream rising to the top. His movies are very good, make money and don't go over budget. Someone with out of control talent like Michael Cimino destroy themselves for the money faucet gets turned off. There was a "great" director in the early 1920s, Erich von Stroheim, famous for Greed, who had a somewhat similar fate for that reason. He ran smack dab into Irving Thalberg. Twice. The last time fired. (Thalberg himself was at the top of the game, doing what he did at MGM. A director not out of control and backed by the studio head in the 1930s was Frank Capra. More cream to the top.) Steve Jobs is the best example of successful competence and genius I can think of. Tesla had a problem--or problems--but not lack of genius.

--Brant

[Wolf DeVoon]

Without Capra as an inspiration, my life would have been dark and dreary. His autobiography Name Above The Title should be required reading in high schools. Retired from Hollywood fillmaking in the late 50s, Capra was approached by Bell Telephone to produce a series of educational films for children about science. Two in particular were wonderful, Hemo The Magnificent and The Strange Case of The Cosmic Rays. During the crisis of World War II, Capra was recruited by George Marshal to produce the 7-part series "Why We Fight" that arguably tipped the war effort in terms of morale. His first postwar film "Meet John Doe" is perhaps the greatest story of American society ever told.-- but Jimmy Stewart in "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" are the films people loved best.

That Hitchcock, Peckinpah, and Spielberg are studied in film schools is an obscenty.

[Peter]

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. Victor Hugo

You can't watch a Capra movie and remain a cynic. Jonathan quoted, “In the State, the State of Hockey.”

Chaching! I though Minnesota was part of Canada, and now I am sure. I know someone from Fergus, Canada but I won’t divulge who he is because of currency laws and the statute of limitations is about to run out. There is an underground tunnel connecting Fergus, Canada, under Lake Huron, across Michigan and its tiny lake, under some of Wisconsin and right to Minnesota. Several malls exist underground as well as a thriving community of people who call themselves hobbits. But they look just like you and me, without a tan amongst them. And their furry, bare feet. And Scottish Canadian accents.

Fergus is a lot further south than a lot of the United States (you should check out a map) and it is famous for its Scottish and Highland games and Festival. From the site: If you enjoy highland games, this is THE event you should go to. Celtic music, pipe bands, highland games, tug of wars and an amazing good time. Yes, it is a bit of a hike (2 hrs) from Buffalo but those who have gone have said it is fantastic! And, there is camping. To learn more and get tickets which are $25 on Friday and Saturday and $18 on Sunday, seniors are less, children 12 and under are FREE. Plus, you get to see all those guys in skirts! Maybe the wind will gale! Just look at the schedule! The Red Hot Chili Pipers are performing! Perhaps Celtic Woman will make an appearance. Put this on your schedule for August 2016.

7:30 – 8:00: Tommy Leadbeater, Opening Act
8:00 – 8:40: Massed Bands with individual band presentations
8:40 – 8:50: Massed Fling
8:50 – 9:20: Gathering of the Clans and the Lighting of the Hearth Ceremony
With Special Guest Vocalist-David Leask
9:20 – 9:35: INTERMISSION
9:35 – 10:45: Red Hot Chili Pipers
10:45 – 10:55: Fireworks
11:00 – 11:45: Albannach
11:45 – 12:00: Intermission
12:00 – 1:00: Steel City Rovers

[Brant Gaede]

Without Capra as an inspiration, my life would have been dark and dreary. His autobiography Name Above The Title should be required reading in high schools. Retired from Hollywood fillmaking in the late 50s, Capra was approached by Bell Telephone to produce a series of educational films for children about science. Two in particular were wonderful, Hemo The Magnificent and The Strange Case of The Cosmic Rays. During the crisis of World War II, Capra was recruited by George Marshal to produce the 7-part series "Why We Fight" that arguably tipped the war effort in terms of morale. His first postwar film "Meet John Doe" is perhaps the greatest story of American society ever told.-- but Jimmy Stewart in "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" are the films people loved best.

That Hitchcock, Peckinpah, and Spielberg are studied in film schools is an obscenty.

I sure don't agree with that last sentence, Wolf. Even if an obscenity they would be worth studying for that reason alone, but it's not true it's an obscenity. You're more than welcome to tell us why, however.

It was the early 50s that Capra did those educational films. I wish I could see them. I might have seen one or two in high school, especially Hemo the Magnificent. His last two films were A Hole In the Head and a remake of one of his 1930s' films (Lady for a Day?) Capra got hit twice. The first was WWII. That war made his optimistic outlook at least temporarily obsolete, and he tried to start his own production company and got rolled over by those complexities including the IRS tax obligations. Columbia had been wonderful for him. The SOB who ran it ran it right that way. I did read his his autobiography. Apparently his films were better than he was and that autobiography, which I don't think he wrote though heavily inputted, matched him up with his films. However, I never did read the follow up recent biography which I read rather dumped on him. It's impossible to say he wasn't a fundamentally very decent man. I once watched him on his episode of This Is Your Life and that was much apparent.

--Brant

[Jonathan]

Jonathan asked: Were you involved with him and were you there at the time that he was operating his lottery scheme? Were you observing his "business" practices?

The lottery predated LFC by many years. I don't know very much about it, except the following.

So, your statements and judgments in post 125 about the lottery, the Feds, and Rex "taking the fall" are based on what?

Rex served in the US Army in Germany, made contact with Russians, saw that Russian postage was cheap, and used it to arbitrage mailing costs. Laissez Faire City International Trust was organized and domiciled in Moscow.

Ah, so this fan of Ayn Rand, and of Objectivism, and of liberty and individual rights, chose to take advantage of slave-labor-caused low prices in Russia?

Gorbachev-era diplomats and a KGB general who admired Ayn Rand were among the initial founders. In 1999, they persuaded Putin to allow a Russian language translation of Atlas Shrugged.to be published in Moscow. I was invited to attend the event, but declined.

And of course you can't name any names or provide any documentation or other proof, right?

Canadians, Australians, Swedes, Poles, Italians, and prominent Americans contributed to LFC in the beginning. The goal of a free society attracted worldwide support.

Rand's character Midas Mulligan was a careful investor who did his homework on the businesses and people with whom he dealt. He investigated potential partners' talents for creating wealth. What were "Rex's" criteria?

I was invited to join them because Rex liked my writing.

Is the fact that "Rex" said that he liked your writing the reason that you're still loyal to him?

While I was working on it, LFC whiz kids were trying to cobble together a Charter based on cyberspace reputation networks and resolution of disputes by arbitration, with Rex retaining arbitrary executive power as City Manager. I replied with an internal "opinion of counsel" that stopped that idiocy dead in its tracks.

So these "whiz kids" were idiots? It sounds like someone didn't do a very Mulligan-like job when selecting employees.

Or perhaps they were exactly what "Rex" wanted: skilled but naïve kids who would eagerly make him king because they were so happy that he liked their work and made them feel special?

Also, you didn't answer my question about Grabbe. You said that he seized his software. I asked why. Are you suggesting that he did it arbitrarily, or perhaps even immorally or criminally? Was he not within his contractual rights to do so? Did he give any reason for seizing it, like, for example, that perhaps he had discovered that it was being modified or abused in some way by "Rex" and his "idiot" "whiz kids"? Is it your view that Grabbe, who had a solid, above board history (as far as I can tell), was being a bully/criminal/meanie, and "Rex," who appears to have had a long history of self-induced trouble, was a sweet innocent babe who was a victim of Grabbe and of Feds who had it out for him for no legitimate reason?

J

[Jonathan]

I though Minnesota was part of Canada, and now I am sure.

As Wolf would say, "Say that to me in person, and you'll have a different outlook on life."

Heh.

J

[Jonathan]

That Hitchcock, Peckinpah, and Spielberg are studied in film schools is an obscenty.

Oh, of course! Anything outside of your subjective tastes and preferences is not just inferior, but should be banned from the classroom! Your aesthetic preferences are the only ones that should be taught, and everything else is "obscene."

[Brant Gaede]

That Hitchcock, Peckinpah, and Spielberg are studied in film schools is an obscenty.

Oh, of course! Anything outside of your subjective tastes and preferences is not just inferior, but should be banned from the classroom! Your aesthetic preferences are the only ones that should be taught, and everything else is "obscene."

The Holocaust was an obscenity. We don't discuss if it was an objective or subjective obscenity for it's objectified by our humanity. Wolf is certainly invited to explain why what he said was an obscenity is and leave out this objective/subjective crap. I think he was on a moral not so much an esthetic angle. Maybe. Esthetic, go for it--ream him out. I agree with that. Moral is another kettle of fish. Morality can be objectified. Esthetics? Maybe, to some extent. That's hard and I tend to avoid the effort.

--Brant

[Jonathan]

That Hitchcock, Peckinpah, and Spielberg are studied in film schools is an obscenty.

Oh, of course! Anything outside of your subjective tastes and preferences is not just inferior, but should be banned from the classroom! Your aesthetic preferences are the only ones that should be taught, and everything else is "obscene."

The Holocaust was an obscenity. We don't discuss if it was an objective or subjective obscenity for it's objectified by our humanity. Wolf is certainly invited to explain why what he said was an obscenity is and leave out this objective/subjective crap. I think he was on a moral not so much an esthetic angle. Maybe. Esthetic, go for it--ream him out. I agree with that. Moral is another kettle of fish. Morality can be objectified. Esthetics? Maybe, to some extent. That's hard and I tend to avoid the effort.

--Brant

Ah, I see. The filmmakers Wolf listed weren't aesthetically obscene, but morally so. Only morally speaking was their work the equivalent of the holocaust. I guess then that I misunderstood Schindler's List? I had it completely backwards? It was actually pro-Nazi?

J