Lazy Fair City

[Wolf DeVoon]

It's as plain as the wart on Abe Lincoln's face. LFC failed because they had no judiciary, no independent forum to adjudicate disputes and halt arbitrary "government" by Rex and Alex.

The rest of this business of ridiculing me hardly matters.

[Wolf DeVoon]

squeals "slander," "defamation," etc., at the slightest resistance or questioning of its statements.

That's not what happened.

[moralist]

Michael writes:

I think utopias fail because they start from the premise that all humans are perfectible by a process created by... er... whoever the human is who creates it.

Bingo.

That's the "top down" theory which doesn't work.

"Bottom up" is the only way that actually works.

Greg

[Jonathan]

Here's a newscast that I came across about James Ray Houston from "Tom Hawley's Video Vault."

Thanks, MSK. It's fun to see video footage of this clown. Others have described him as charming. I see nothing of the sort, but more of a greasy Bob Ewell kind of character. Creepy, trashy, criminal.

J

[Jonathan]

squeals "slander," "defamation," etc., at the slightest resistance or questioning of its statements.

That's not what happened.

Wrong. It's exactly what happened.

Squealing and dodging and weaving, and attacking straw men, and conjuring distractions is all that you do. Just look at the difficulty that Billy has been having in trying to get you to honestly, directly answer very simple questions.

J

[Brant Gaede]

It's as plain as the wart on Abe Lincoln's face. LFC failed because they had no judiciary, no independent forum to adjudicate disputes and halt arbitrary "government" by Rex and Alex.

The rest of this business of ridiculing me hardly matters.

It didn't fail because it couldn't succeed?

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

J, "fun"--like the Aztecs using human heads in their special brand of football?

--Brant

while I don't think Wolf is a masochist or you are a sadist, I'm sure getting uncomfortable

[Jonathan]

It's as plain as the wart on Abe Lincoln's face. LFC failed because they had no judiciary, no independent forum to adjudicate disputes and halt arbitrary "government" by Rex and Alex.

The rest of this business of ridiculing me hardly matters.

An "independent forum to adjudicate disputes" wouldn't have amounted to anything, and wouldn't have stopped or impeded or affected con man Houston in any way. Most likely, he would have been able to charm such a "judiciary" made up Zombie Zealot Chipped™ dunces, and if not, he would have just ignored their rulings and maybe even perpetrated revenge against them.

J

[Jonathan]

J, "fun"--like the Aztecs using human heads in their special brand of football?

--Brant

while I don't think Wolf is a masochist or you are a sadist, I'm sure getting uncomfortable

No, "fun" like pulling back the curtain to expose the "wizard." "Wolf's" game is up, but he's still hoping to believe that saying "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" will make people unsee what they saw.

J

[Brant Gaede]

Somehow Dorothy's going to get back to Kansas.

--Brant

[Wolf DeVoon]

It's as plain as the wart on Abe Lincoln's face. LFC failed because they had no judiciary, no independent forum to adjudicate disputes and halt arbitrary "government" by Rex and Alex.

The rest of this business of ridiculing me hardly matters.

An "independent forum to adjudicate disputes" wouldn't have amounted to anything, and wouldn't have stopped or impeded or affected con man Houston in any way. Most likely, he would have been able to charm such a "judiciary" made up Zombie Zealot Chipped™ dunces, and if not, he would have just ignored their rulings and maybe even perpetrated revenge against them.

You don't know what you're talking about and making stupid assumptions, as if entitled to divine by intuition that there were no other stakeholders, key people, or intellectual issues that predated LFC's insolency and collapse of Rex's covert funding stream.

[Wolf DeVoon]

"Wolf's" game is up

Rubbish. No single individual like yourself can determine the value or meaning of an idea -- which BTW you steadfastly avoid mentioning because you're incapable of an honest discussion. I answered Scherk's questions. You haven't asked any, except to demand that I show my driver's license and c.v., which no one has a justifiable reason to demand.

Smears are all you know or believe. It's stupid to say I contradicted myself anywhere or at any time on OL.

[Jonathan]

It's as plain as the wart on Abe Lincoln's face. LFC failed because they had no judiciary, no independent forum to adjudicate disputes and halt arbitrary "government" by Rex and Alex.

The rest of this business of ridiculing me hardly matters.

An "independent forum to adjudicate disputes" wouldn't have amounted to anything, and wouldn't have stopped or impeded or affected con man Houston in any way. Most likely, he would have been able to charm such a "judiciary" made up Zombie Zealot Chipped™ dunces, and if not, he would have just ignored their rulings and maybe even perpetrated revenge against them.

You don't know what you're talking about and making stupid assumptions, as if entitled to divine by intuition that there were no other stakeholders, key people, or intellectual issues that predated LFC's insolency and collapse of Rex's covert funding stream.

Really. So, what do you fantasize that you and your fellow head-in-the-clouds utopian zealots would have done if "Rex" had refused to go along with your playing at being an "independent judiciary forum"? Were you going to issue him a citation from your little legal lemonade stand? Do you fantasize that he was going to abide by your judgments? This asshole who spent his life ripping people off was going to be tamed by you and your pretend constitution? He was suddenly going to be intimidated by, what, your lack of ability or will to enforce any of your toothless and make-believe judiciary?

J

[Ellen Stuttle]

Dagny crashes into Paradise, meets her dream boat, transacts with actual gold coins, meets the most interesting people in the world, separate from the disintegrating infrastructure of Socialist America,

Interesting description. In brief, Dagny "dies" and goes to Heaven. I never so explicitly thought of stating it like that before.

and then you hear about this real place that sounds like Shangri La . . .

It doesn't sound like "Shangri La" to me. Instead, like a place I wouldn't have wanted to go near or have anything to do with, even before I learned here on OL about the extent of shadiness in the financial underpinnings.

I wouldn't want to go to Galt's Gulch either - but from a different emotional reaction. A boring place, it always seemed to me, from the first time I read Atlas onward. The sound of LFC, from the little I'd heard of it prior to material posted on OL, was that of a suspicious attempt at the unworkable, likely to attract foolish people ripe for being conned, and conners looking for low-hanging opportunity.

Ellen

[Wolf DeVoon]

I am simply cautioning all gullible people to back away from the rattling snake.

Horseshit. Re-read your first post. Had nothing to do with gullible people or rattling snakes.

your Freeman’s Constitution makes no sense, without a place, a time, and citizens.

[Wolf DeVoon]

Really. So, what do you fantasize that you and your fellow head-in-the-clouds utopian zealots would have done if "Rex" had refused to go along with your playing at being an "independent judiciary forum"? Were you going to issue him a citation from your little legal lemonade stand? Do you fantasize that he was going to abide by your judgments? This asshole who spent his life ripping people off was going to be tamed by you and your pretend constitution? He was suddenly going to be intimidated by, what, your lack of ability or will to enforce any of your toothless and make-believe judiciary?

More stupid assumptions. Strike the invective and all you have is ignorance.

[Jonathan]

"Wolf's" game is up

Rubbish. No single individual like yourself can determine the value or meaning of an idea -- which BTW you steadfastly avoid mentioning because you're incapable of an honest discussion. I answered Scherk's questions. You haven't asked any, except to demand that I show my driver's license and c.v., which no one has a justifiable reason to demand.

Oh, such a frantic and exaggerated poor little victim!!!

I haven't demanded anything. I've only asked you to back up your claims about yourself. I didn't bring up your history of employment out of the blue. You brought up the issue in your writings and postings, but conveniently left out the details of the whole truth. Why is it something that you volunteer and even boast about if anyone's then asking you about it is so horribly nasty and unfair? Why so proud and eager to promote your 20 years of professional expertise doing this or that, but then suddenly you're too tender and fragile to handle anyone's asking you to back up the claims with some examples? Such behavior comes across as your trying to fool people into believing that you're something that you're not.

There's a very simple solution to avoiding the horrors that I've heartlessly inflicted upon you by asking you to back up your claims: Don't bring up issues that you don't want to discuss, and which are going to make you cry and squeal and wail.

Smears are all you know or believe. It's stupid to say I contradicted myself anywhere or at any time on OL.

Your expressing outrage at certain fraudsters but not at others is a contradiction.

J

[Jonathan]

Really. So, what do you fantasize that you and your fellow head-in-the-clouds utopian zealots would have done if "Rex" had refused to go along with your playing at being an "independent judiciary forum"? Were you going to issue him a citation from your little legal lemonade stand? Do you fantasize that he was going to abide by your judgments? This asshole who spent his life ripping people off was going to be tamed by you and your pretend constitution? He was suddenly going to be intimidated by, what, your lack of ability or will to enforce any of your toothless and make-believe judiciary?

More stupid assumptions. Strike the invective and all you have is ignorance.

Heh. Just as I suspected. You have no answers. You've never even thought about it have you? You just assumed that your little utopian lemonade stand pretend "judiciary" was going to be magically revered and obeyed by a life-long shitbag con man. Hahahaha!!!

J

[william.scherk]

I understand the appeal of the siren's song. Dagny crashes into Paradise, meets her dream boat, transacts with actual gold coins, meets the most interesting people in the world, separate from the disintegrating infrastructure of Socialist America, and then you hear about this real place that sounds like Shangri La . . .

You gotta be kidding. LFC was paradise? All these libertarian escapist fantasies crashed and burned. I think LFC was the last. Those libertarians took the ball and ran to the wrong goal.

The "Galt's Gulch Chile" fiasco was more recent than LFC. We have covered that fiasco here (and here). One successful libertarian subdivision/gated community was established in Cafayete Argentina. It looks like it is prospering.

LFC failed because they had no judiciary, no independent forum to adjudicate disputes and halt arbitrary "government" by Rex and Alex.

I don't know who "Alex" is -- neither his official role at LFCIT/LFC, nor what role he played in 'government.' Can you shed light, perhaps give his actual name?

[Brant Gaede]

The place in Argentina has a major Doug Casey and big money imput. There's a somewhat similar development going on on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. They are both out of this discussion loop. Not so Chile. The major dividing line is theft and fraud and legitimate, above board private treansactions. Birds of feather . . .--that's the commonality.

--Brant

[Ellen Stuttle]

LFC failed because they had no judiciary, no independent forum to adjudicate disputes and halt arbitrary "government" by Rex and Alex.

I don't know who "Alex" is -- neither his official role at LFCIT/LFC, nor what role he played in 'government.' Can you shed light, perhaps give his actual name?

When I arrived at the airport in San Jose I was picked up by the Head of Security, who used the pseudonym Alex a tall, tough, completely ruthless asshole who I learned to fear and hate.

[....]

[The LFC Times] went to print weekly without editorial pressure or rewrite, a story that contradicted and mocked the prevailing sentiment in Laissez Faire City, projecting a future completely unlike the fascist top-dog enclave ruled by Rex and Alex. I fought with both of them repeatedly. Orlin backed me up, and probably kept me alive when it would have been convenient and easy to have me killed. At one point I went on strike, refusing to write another word and was placed on house arrest at headquarters in San Jose. The issue was money and I returned to Nosara with cash in my pocket, which Rex did not want to part with.

Ellen

[moralist]

Brant writes:

The major dividing line is theft and fraud and legitimate, above board private transactions. Birds of feather . . .--that's the commonality.

Exactly.

Each is drawn

to their own kind

to get what they deserve

good or bad.

Greg

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

No single individual like yourself can determine the value or meaning of an idea -- which BTW you steadfastly avoid mentioning because you're incapable of an honest discussion.

Tough crowd, Wolf. The dirt miners are looking to strike the mother lode.

I've found the only real value of any idea is how I can use it in my own life. Then its validity is not a matter of needing to convince anyone else when I already enjoy it's material and spiritual benefits.

You have a one hell of a story that would make one hell of a movie.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

Anyone can determine a value for all valuing is selfish and subjective. Doing a good job of determining what might be a value to others or even one other is more problematic when you enter the realm of the optional. This isn't about water, food, clothes and shelter--and the air we breathe. Considering the innate nature of the human organism it should value freedom. In reality that value is much more elusive. Many hate freedom.

--Brant

or it scares them--or both

[moralist]

Brant writes:

Considering the innate nature of the human organism it should value freedom. In reality that value is much more elusive. Many hate freedom.

The big zero sum lie is that freedom can only come from enslaving others. This arises from the angry unjust accusation that others are preventing the freedom of the blaming victim and that they must be enslaved for the blamer to be free.

Then there's real freedom which is a stand alone application, because it has nothing whatsoever to do with what others choose to do, and can be enjoyed by anyone who learns how to govern themselves.

Greg