Let's clear things up

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

Please note that my satellite service is being disconnected tomorrow. I'll answer questions tonight, but that's it.

Wolf, I'll just take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge that you have generously shared a useful lesson with everyone here...

...whether they know it or not.

Thanks,

Greg

[9thdoctor]

They were close to rolling out encrypted banking and a stock exchange, which Orlin ultimately operated in Dubai after he split with Rex in 2012.

Wikipedia says Orlin Grabbe died in 2008. So I assume 2012 is a typo. Also, is there a George F. Smith? Or did you mean George H. Smith, the one who posts here?

[william.scherk]

Orlin [...] split with Rex in 2012.

[A]fter Orlin ran off with all the freedom technology software, I came back to help Rex.

A dozen of the best people left HQ and joined me in Nosara. For several years after LFC collapsed we lived privately and happily as neighbors in a rump Objectivist community at the beach, self-reliant and entrepreneurial in a rural province that was a long way from organized government and had a local tradition of expat self-government.

From where did you come back to help Rex? Do you mean from Nosara to San Jose? Or had you meanwhile left Costa Rica?

If the time when "LFC collapsed" was 2012, "several years" brings the chronology to some time this year, 2015. Did you leave Nosara earlier this year? Is the "rump Objectivist community at the beach," or some part of it, still there, or have all or most of the people comprising that community gone elsewhere?

Just trying to follow the sequence.

Ellen

Me too. "[Rex] Houston pleaded guilty in March, 2011 in Los Angeles federal court to felony mail fraud and received a 10 year prison term."

And Crabbe thought it about it and then broke with him in 2012, just in time for Rex to die in prison.

I'm pretty sure that the Laissez-Faire City trust had collapsed and Rex done a runner by 2003.

On the whole I am glad Wolf proved to himself that he had new material in him, glad that he put up an interesting narrative, faults aside. I am still pining for a focus on the Nosara adventures. This span of time and adventures would make a good book. It's not that I don't like Wolf's constitutions, but I find the story of Laissez-Faire City a much richer ground for my imagination. How many people did Rex buy with the lottery scam income and Trust founder income? I mean, how many employees and contractors, as Wolf was employed as poet/jurist resident, novel-writer manque? What wild dream world was really going on?

But that's Wolf's call. I won't be surprised if we get some new, freshly researched resections of the LFC years. They'll be sketched here, and fleshed in his next book. Here's hoping, anyhow. I think it would be good stuff.

[9thdoctor]

On the whole I am glad Wolf proved to himself that he had new material in him, glad that he put up an interesting narrative, faults aside. I am still pining for a focus on the Nosara adventures. This span of time and adventures would make a good book.

Don't leave out all the gun-slinging. Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour may be long gone, but a Lee Child or Robert Bidinotto could probably make something good out of it. Pow! Crunch! There goes another anarchist loon (/scammer) looking at some serious ICU time. Or (better) a dirt nap.

[Wolf DeVoon]

I assume 2012 is a typo.

Yep. I meant 2002.

Jonathan wrote: "I'm here to discuss ideas" -- which is amusing and pathetic. Here's more fodder for your campaign of vituperation, defamation, and summary verdict in the court of your high-minded concern for ideas.

Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 6, No 7, February 18, 2002

'Mrs. Wynand Papers'

If you're familiar with the novels of Ayn Rand, perhaps you'll recognize the title of this article. In the third act of The Fountainhead, the editorial staff of The Banner walk out in protest, because Ellsworth Toohey and his victims were summarily fired, and Dominique decides to bogart her way through picket lines to help Wynand continue publishing the top rag in Gotham -- strike or no strike.

At this newspaper, Zola quit without notice (taking with him all the submissions queued for publication) and I stepped in to help Rex Rogers, LFC Times publisher, keep the presses rolling this week. Like Dominique Francon, I'm caught in a love triangle, feeling enormous respect and admiration for both men in this drama. Fortunately, I don't have to sleep with either of them.

Sorry -- I don't mean to make light of a difficult situation. At the moment, I'm concentrating on the immediate problem of getting this issue into electronic print and recruiting a permanent editor to take Zola's place. It won't be me. Wolfie is too well known as a polemicist and LFC legal beagle. We need someone with a newspaper background and a completely independent turn of mind. I know just the man, and I hope he'll accept the challenge of transforming LFC Times into a real newspaper that reports what's happening in Laissez Faire City.

A Newspaper with News

A lot is happening -- far too much for me to recite off the cuff. I pledge that LFC Times will report in depth, starting as soon as possible, all the LFC political and economic news that you, the Founders, repeatedly asked for.

I have enough influence in the City to make good that pledge. There was nothing wrong per se in Zola's preference for abstract opinion and global issues. However, I believe that it's time to make use of this webspace for hard news as well. In particular, this newspaper will begin to report on LFCIT, MuniCorp, DMT, ALTA, LESE, MailVault, and the private 'curb market' for various securities issued by those entities -- the totality of which is Laissez Faire City.

Too many times, though not without probable cause, security was invoked as a reason to keep quiet about what was happening in LFC. Security was also cited as a reason to exclude, monitor, fire, or investigate certain individuals from time to time during the long seven years of LFC's infancy, when the threat of moles and double agents loomed large. I was stupider than the rest of my colleagues, because I spoke of it as 'national security' (I regard LFC as a nation of freemen). As recently as last month, I used 'national security' as an excuse to attack and discredit a key insider who attempted to take over the LFCIT Board of Governors and fire its Trustee. These are real LFC stories you deserve to know about, especially now.

One of my first jobs will be to recruit news hounds -- which is going to be pretty damned difficult. Those in the know are either too busy or too deeply embroiled in the political stew to write anything. Naming a few names, I'm hoping that Dr. Steve (voted 'Most Trusted Bot'), Billy Boy, and other Dodge City CyBots will step forward to help me plumb the manifold mysteries of this organization. Yes, we'll continue to exercise common sense judgment about security -- especially our principle of personal anonymity. Lordy, it ain't that unusual to shield identity. Every day of the week, the Wall Street Journal quotes 'high-ranking officials' on condition of preserving their anonymity. No one in the news business can afford to betray or compromise confidentiality. It tends to clam up all 'informed sources' and halt the flow of information.

I also want to maintain the Interactive Comments Forum, which preserves the right of reply. If you feel that LFC Times or any of its contributors have misstated the facts, please post your comments.

I'm blessed with comrades. Huge personal thanks this week to Russ Madden, Agent Delta, and Tom Ruppenthal, who answered my emergency call for submissions. It is my intention to contact each of our regular contributors, asking them -- not to pick sides -- but to keep in mind that this newspaper has a large regular audience for their work. Nor is it necessary to applaud the editor pro tem or publisher. If I receive an article from Orlin Grabbe, I'll run it as our top story, no editorial revision or delay. This ain't no kindergarten. It is the journal of record for a whole City, both sides of every street.

New writers are welcome, too. My name is known widely enough (thanks to Zola) that you'll see a variety of gifted young libertarians, scholars, and loony anarchists make their debut in these pages. I'm keen to locate some that have gone underground, like Kari Freckleton.

Among the new voices, be prepared for a shock once in a while, because LFC is bristling with new talent and a cohort of elder statesmen that kept quiet or were sidelined in the past. Laissez Faire City spans the globe, all six continents, with hundreds of Founders and intelligent correspondents. Don't be surprised if I ask you to join the team.

I'm also pushing for a faster loading, sexier page layout. Hopefully, LFC technology folks will find time to upgrade the Old White Lady that has served us so well for so long. Most of the Founders, Beta Testers, CR Adventurers, and HQ staff were attracted to LFC by this newspaper. It continues to be our public face and the front door to a passel of online freedom technologies. We are entering an historic phase of LFC glasnost that should not be 'dissed.' Our future growth as a community depends on timely, authoritative news and practical user information concerning MuniCorp, DMT, Dodge City, and Future Captains of Capitalism. Maybe a new page layout doesn't seem like a big deal, but it marks our policy transition from baffling secrecy to public outreach. If you haven't heard it elsewhere, I'll lay it on the line for you. The entire portfolio of LFC-spawned privacy tools and anonymous banking is live, online, no bull working for real. It is a spectacular story of success -- which caused the schism that many will no doubt report and question closely in the weeks and months ahead.

That brings me to another item. We're going to a biweekly publication schedule, to save money. The newspaper pays it writers, editors, and webmasters. Four years of weekly production cost a small fortune. Rather than move to paid subscriptions (like Salon.com), the best solution was to cut our expenses by publishing biweekly from now on.

Like freedom itself, the future of LFC Times depends on no single individual -- and certainly not me. I stepped in like Mrs. Wynand Papers to put this issue on the server. I'm hopeful that everything above makes sense to you, given the fact that Zola quit and left us in the lurch (although a brighter spark than me coulda seen it coming, as Dino Saur remarked). The events of the past month and the past year were terrible for all concerned. It is still unclear what all this means, who's who, and what our mutual interest may require, now that LFC has triumphed, delivering all of the products we promised. Many gifted, pioneering, and courageous men and women were instrumental in LFC's success and most of them remain fully engaged in various product teams. This newspaper is theirs, not mine.

To contribute an article or news item, please contact _________ pending other arrangements. I'll probably edit the next issue, while our search for a qualified editor proceeds in an orderly fashion. Wish me luck for another fortnight, but more importantly, please use your noodle in tandem with mine to help us forge the future of The Laissez Faire City Times. Thanks.

-- Wolf DeVoon

(Vol. 6 No. 7 featuring this article was the last issue of Laissez Faire City Times. Rex pulled the plug.).

[Mark]

I enjoyed reading Wolf's reminiscences. Jonathan sounds like an ill-natured lout.

[9thdoctor]

Please note that my satellite service is being disconnected tomorrow. I'll answer questions tonight, but that's it.

Before you check out, I'm curious about your assumed name. And this is probably going to sound crazy, but what the hell. I have no idea what DeVoon means (sounds Dutch-ish to me), but when someone chooses Wolf as a pseudonym I can't help thinking of Wagner, specifically Siegmund in Die Walküre, who introduces himself as the son of Wolfe, and is therefore Wehwalt der Wolfing. So, are you a Wagner freak and came up with it that way, or was it maybe Jack London's White Fang...inquiring minds want to know.

Zap this ahead to 21 minutes in to hear Siegmund introduce himself. With english subtitles.

Feel free to ask me whether I'm really a Doctor, and if not, what kind of first name is Ninth...

[Ellen Stuttle]

I assume 2012 is a typo.

Yep. I meant 2002.

You might want to correct the date, while you still have your internet service. Future readers might just read your post, and not the whole thread, and thus be misled by the typo.

Ellen

[Wolf DeVoon]

What wild dream world was really going on?

Pretty simple stuff. Men in their 40s and 50s left Intel and Microsoft to develop encrypted email and banking. Red Army vets and Russian diplomats had salaries and interesting problems to solve. Dozens came to live and work in Costa Rica because they were dissatisfied with Swedish, American, Chinese, Polish, Italian, British and Mexican governments.

[Selene]

Soldiers of Misfortune ...

[Wolf DeVoon]

I'm curious about your assumed name

Pen name, please. Like Eric Blair (George Orwell), Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire).

In the mid-90s I designed a piece of furniture consisting of two sofas pushed together and called it a Crib Devoon. When I had no choice but to self-publish The All-Purtpose Guide, I considered it sensible to adopt a pen name. It was prudent to continue using it at LFC. I don't know anything about Wagner. Ask me about Led Zeppelin or Frank Zappa.

[Ellen Stuttle]

[....]

Just trying to follow the sequence.

Ellen

Me too. "[Rex] Houston pleaded guilty in March, 2011 in Los Angeles federal court to felony mail fraud and received a 10 year prison term."

And Crabbe thought it about it and then broke with him in 2012, just in time for Rex to die in prison.

I'm pretty sure that the Laissez-Faire City trust had collapsed and Rex done a runner by 2003.

The site you link to, Las Vegas World News, mistakenly gives "J. Orlin Grabbe" as one of Houston's aliases:

Other aliases included Sun Ray Star, J.Orlin Grabbe, Rex Rogers and he lived in a number of states separating people from their money.

Ellen

[Wolf DeVoon]

Time to go, folks. It's been swell. If you're curious about my moral character, I recommend First Feature. There isn't a shred of doubt that filmmakers are despicable scoundrels.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I assume 2012 is a typo.

Yep. I meant 2002.

You might want to correct the date, while you still have your internet service. Future readers might just read your post, and not the whole thread, and thus be misled by the typo.

Ellen

Ellen,

I corrected it and mentioned the correction in your first post in this thread since the date was so well highlighted by the quote.

Michael

[9thdoctor]

I don't know anything about Wagner.

That's easily remedied! Around 13 minutes in we learn of your namesake.

Ask me about Led Zeppelin or Frank Zappa.

If and when I can think of a reason to.

[Jonathan]

Jonathan wrote: "I'm here to discuss ideas" -- which is amusing and pathetic.

And yet all of my questions from post 8 remain unanswered. Once again, instead of backing up any of your assertions with answers and evidence, you quote your past writings which don't answer the questions or address the criticism, and you pout and play victim, just as I've said you do. That is what is "amusing and pathetic."

Here's more fodder for your campaign of vituperation, defamation, and summary verdict in the court of your high-minded concern for ideas.

See? You're pouting. In your hypersensitive mind, my questioning you about statements you've made is "vituperation." My observing the fact that your statements don't add up, or have no evidence to support them, or contradict what others have reported, is somehow "defamation." Heh. And my patient tolerance of your evasive maneuvers, and my persistence in not falling for your distractions, is somehow my reaching a "summary verdict"? Hahahaha!

Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 6, No 7, February 18, 2002

'Mrs. Wynand Papers'

If you're familiar with the novels of Ayn Rand, perhaps you'll recognize the title of this article. In the third act of The Fountainhead, the editorial staff of The Banner walk out in protest, because Ellsworth Toohey and his victims were summarily fired, and Dominique decides to bogart her way through picket lines to help Wynand continue publishing the top rag in Gotham -- strike or no strike.

At this newspaper, Zola quit without notice (taking with him all the submissions queued for publication) and I stepped in to help Rex Rogers, LFC Times publisher, keep the presses rolling this week. Like Dominique Francon, I'm caught in a love triangle, feeling enormous respect and admiration for both men in this drama. Fortunately, I don't have to sleep with either of them.

Sorry -- I don't mean to make light of a difficult situation. At the moment, I'm concentrating on the immediate problem of getting this issue into electronic print and recruiting a permanent editor to take Zola's place. It won't be me. Wolfie is too well known as a polemicist and LFC legal beagle. We need someone with a newspaper background and a completely independent turn of mind. I know just the man, and I hope he'll accept the challenge of transforming LFC Times into a real newspaper that reports what's happening in Laissez Faire City.

A Newspaper with News

A lot is happening -- far too much for me to recite off the cuff. I pledge that LFC Times will report in depth, starting as soon as possible, all the LFC political and economic news that you, the Founders, repeatedly asked for.

I have enough influence in the City to make good that pledge. There was nothing wrong per se in Zola's preference for abstract opinion and global issues. However, I believe that it's time to make use of this webspace for hard news as well. In particular, this newspaper will begin to report on LFCIT, MuniCorp, DMT, ALTA, LESE, MailVault, and the private 'curb market' for various securities issued by those entities -- the totality of which is Laissez Faire City.

Too many times, though not without probable cause, security was invoked as a reason to keep quiet about what was happening in LFC. Security was also cited as a reason to exclude, monitor, fire, or investigate certain individuals from time to time during the long seven years of LFC's infancy, when the threat of moles and double agents loomed large. I was stupider than the rest of my colleagues, because I spoke of it as 'national security' (I regard LFC as a nation of freemen). As recently as last month, I used 'national security' as an excuse to attack and discredit a key insider who attempted to take over the LFCIT Board of Governors and fire its Trustee. These are real LFC stories you deserve to know about, especially now.

One of my first jobs will be to recruit news hounds -- which is going to be pretty damned difficult. Those in the know are either too busy or too deeply embroiled in the political stew to write anything. Naming a few names, I'm hoping that Dr. Steve (voted 'Most Trusted Bot'), Billy Boy, and other Dodge City CyBots will step forward to help me plumb the manifold mysteries of this organization. Yes, we'll continue to exercise common sense judgment about security -- especially our principle of personal anonymity. Lordy, it ain't that unusual to shield identity. Every day of the week, the Wall Street Journal quotes 'high-ranking officials' on condition of preserving their anonymity. No one in the news business can afford to betray or compromise confidentiality. It tends to clam up all 'informed sources' and halt the flow of information.

I also want to maintain the Interactive Comments Forum, which preserves the right of reply. If you feel that LFC Times or any of its contributors have misstated the facts, please post your comments.

I'm blessed with comrades. Huge personal thanks this week to Russ Madden, Agent Delta, and Tom Ruppenthal, who answered my emergency call for submissions. It is my intention to contact each of our regular contributors, asking them -- not to pick sides -- but to keep in mind that this newspaper has a large regular audience for their work. Nor is it necessary to applaud the editor pro tem or publisher. If I receive an article from Orlin Grabbe, I'll run it as our top story, no editorial revision or delay. This ain't no kindergarten. It is the journal of record for a whole City, both sides of every street.

New writers are welcome, too. My name is known widely enough (thanks to Zola) that you'll see a variety of gifted young libertarians, scholars, and loony anarchists make their debut in these pages. I'm keen to locate some that have gone underground, like Kari Freckleton.

Among the new voices, be prepared for a shock once in a while, because LFC is bristling with new talent and a cohort of elder statesmen that kept quiet or were sidelined in the past. Laissez Faire City spans the globe, all six continents, with hundreds of Founders and intelligent correspondents. Don't be surprised if I ask you to join the team.

I'm also pushing for a faster loading, sexier page layout. Hopefully, LFC technology folks will find time to upgrade the Old White Lady that has served us so well for so long. Most of the Founders, Beta Testers, CR Adventurers, and HQ staff were attracted to LFC by this newspaper. It continues to be our public face and the front door to a passel of online freedom technologies. We are entering an historic phase of LFC glasnost that should not be 'dissed.' Our future growth as a community depends on timely, authoritative news and practical user information concerning MuniCorp, DMT, Dodge City, and Future Captains of Capitalism. Maybe a new page layout doesn't seem like a big deal, but it marks our policy transition from baffling secrecy to public outreach. If you haven't heard it elsewhere, I'll lay it on the line for you. The entire portfolio of LFC-spawned privacy tools and anonymous banking is live, online, no bull working for real. It is a spectacular story of success -- which caused the schism that many will no doubt report and question closely in the weeks and months ahead.

That brings me to another item. We're going to a biweekly publication schedule, to save money. The newspaper pays it writers, editors, and webmasters. Four years of weekly production cost a small fortune. Rather than move to paid subscriptions (like Salon.com), the best solution was to cut our expenses by publishing biweekly from now on.

Like freedom itself, the future of LFC Times depends on no single individual -- and certainly not me. I stepped in like Mrs. Wynand Papers to put this issue on the server. I'm hopeful that everything above makes sense to you, given the fact that Zola quit and left us in the lurch (although a brighter spark than me coulda seen it coming, as Dino Saur remarked). The events of the past month and the past year were terrible for all concerned. It is still unclear what all this means, who's who, and what our mutual interest may require, now that LFC has triumphed, delivering all of the products we promised. Many gifted, pioneering, and courageous men and women were instrumental in LFC's success and most of them remain fully engaged in various product teams. This newspaper is theirs, not mine.

To contribute an article or news item, please contact _________ pending other arrangements. I'll probably edit the next issue, while our search for a qualified editor proceeds in an orderly fashion. Wish me luck for another fortnight, but more importantly, please use your noodle in tandem with mine to help us forge the future of The Laissez Faire City Times. Thanks.

-- Wolf DeVoon

(Vol. 6 No. 7 featuring this article was the last issue of Laissez Faire City Times. Rex pulled the plug.).

You just did, once again, exactly what I've said you do. No answers, just more fluff and bluff and fantasy quoted from the past.

Carnival barker. Make believe. Self-praise. Assertions without anything to back them up.

J

[Jonathan]

I am still pining for a focus on the Nosara adventures. This span of time and adventures would make a good book. It's not that I don't like Wolf's constitutions, but I find the story of Laissez-Faire City a much richer ground for my imagination. How many people did Rex buy with the lottery scam income and Trust founder income? I mean, how many employees and contractors, as Wolf was employed as poet/jurist resident, novel-writer manque? What wild dream world was really going on?

But that's Wolf's call. I won't be surprised if we get some new, freshly researched resections of the LFC years. They'll be sketched here, and fleshed in his next book. Here's hoping, anyhow. I think it would be good stuff.

I also think that it would make a great book. The unvarnished truth of it would be a very compelling read, something that would stick with readers for a long time. I'd love to see an insider's view, from a perspective of reconsidering and reexamining the players and events, with the utopian trance brushed away from the writer's eyes, and the Randian hero poses outgrown and finally abandoned. I'd love to see that kind of strength. Unfortunately, I don't think that "Wolf" can take off the masks.

J

[Jonathan]

The site you link to, Las Vegas World News, mistakenly gives "J. Orlin Grabbe" as one of Houston's aliases:

Other aliases included Sun Ray Star, J.Orlin Grabbe, Rex Rogers and he lived in a number of states separating people from their money.

Ellen

That might not be a mistake. Although Houston and Grabbe were different people, it's possible that Houston claimed to be Grabbe on some occasions. And who knows, perhaps he borrowed the identities of other real people as well.

J

[Brant Gaede]

Hey, Jonathan. Did it ever occur to you that Wolf might be all worn out and it requires too much energy to deal with your cross-examinations? I'm not sure he is. How could I know? I can create a hypothetical Wolf model which explains that and it would not be very flattering for I don't have enough info to flatter. But I look at myself--I'm 71--and I'm not all worn out. I still have gas in the tank and everyday I keep putting more gas in the tank. The fact I've always used my real name in these forums might have something to do with it. I've always had a tremendous regard for my name esthetically speaking. I've always tried to live up to it. I've never once that I can recall ever hid my name on the Internet in over 25 years. This is ego-driven honesty.

Now it's okay to change your name. It's using one name to completely hide another that is a problem from my metric. We know who Ayn Rand was. We know who Nathaniel Branden was. Females getting married usually take a new last name--but I wouldn't if I were one, but I'm not female and didn't grow up one so I can't properly imagine the female name-changing with marriage context from inside out.

And so one wonders about Wolf. He says he spent several years in prison but doesn't tell us why. I do know it may just be another story he made up. Some time ago after he disappeared for a long time from OL he suddenly sent me an email and gave me what might have been his real name. I don't remember it. I could spend a week looking for it if I had any good reason. I won't. I also knew through such communication where he had disappeared to. Interesting. Tue or not it was interesting. But again I won't repeat it out of both my confidence and my lack of interest in telling more about it.

Maybe Wolf likes being Mr. Mystery Man and comes and goes as such. I only wish one thing: that he's not a depressive, a victim of himself. Taking responsibility for your life means not being a victim. Being your own victim is victimhood on steroids. There is no way out. The only good thing about it is your rage has no existential outlet. You're not going out and avenging yourself as an ineffective way of discharging your anger.

I have to say this, Jonathan: you may be trying to play volleyball with unexploded ordinance. You can play this same "game" with everyone you engage here. (I put "game" in quotes because you aren't playful nor do you try to be.) You're consistent and basically the same with everybody. You don't come after me because I don't pump out bullshit and you don't think I'm dishonest, but when you do go after someone you're like the trial lawyer doing a cross-examination and you only care about the result not what it's doing to the person being questioned. And, of course, you're trying to do a Perry Mason. This is not a problem for most people who stick around here but most of those are guys. The Internet itself on sites like this is not a female friendly environment.

--Brant

[Peter]

Jonathan wrote: Carnival barker. Make believe. Self-praise. Assertions without anything to back them up.
end quote

And Brant expostulated, “This is ego-driven honesty.”

Not about you Brant. Woof’s story is almost like a scene from The Grifter’s Almanac, a play I am writing, which may appear in The Reader’s Digest, and then become a movie starring Matt Demon. After all, “The Martian” was a self published e-book that took off, became a paperback, and then a movie. My make believe play is on the same fast track. Then I will retire to an island owned by Bransonweiger, and James, Jimbo Whales and we will start our own cyber country called Shangra La De Dah, which will be visited by 200 guests, if you include the lady escorts. It is odd that Woof would start another thread of self-congratulations but little substance, refuse to answer questions, then mysteriously disappear. Does that sound like a publicity stunt or is that too grand a description?

And who are the people who praise his performance? Fellow shysters.

I do want to thank the keen wits and minds of those seeking the truth. You guys (and gal) were true investigative reporters. That was tragic, silly, pathetic, fun.
Peter

[Jonathan]

Hey, Jonathan. Did it ever occur to you that Wolf might be all worn out and it requires too much energy to deal with your cross-examinations? I'm not sure he is. How could I know? I can create a hypothetical Wolf model which explains that and it would not be very flattering for I don't have enough info to flatter. But I look at myself--I'm 71--and I'm not all worn out. I still have gas in the tank and everyday I keep putting more gas in the tank.

Look at me as putting gas into "Wolf's" tank, and igniting fire in his belly, rather than patronizingly patting his withered hands and pretending to believe his bullshit so as not to disturb his peace and comfort during his slow, sad slide into the grave.

You don't come after me because I don't pump out bullshit and you don't think I'm dishonest...

Exactly! You don't pump out bullshit.

...but when you do go after someone you're like the trial lawyer doing a cross-examination and you only care about the result not what it's doing to the person being questioned.

Are they ever concerned about what their posting styles are doing to other people? In fact, aren't their poses and disguises intended to affect others?

And, of course, you're trying to do a Perry Mason. This is not a problem for most people who stick around here but most of those are guys.

--Brant

Sorry, Brant, but I'll never be the type of person who can tolerate the intellectual or literary equivalent of this.

It's what Pigero did. It's what Newberry did. It's what Phil Coates did. It's what "Wolf" does. Their writings and online postings are 'selfies' transparently disguised as serious disquisition. And I can't help but laugh at it.

J

[Ellen Stuttle]

And so one wonders about Wolf. He says he spent several years in prison but doesn't tell us why. I do know it may just be another story he made up.

I searched Wolf's content for the word "prison," since I recalled his having mentioned several times during his previous OL appearances that he'd done a stint in prison. He didn't specify why in any of the mentions I found.

June 22,2007:

I learned a great deal in prison, for instance[.]

January 14, 2008:

Okay, Jordan. I understand. I did something similar in my 20's, went to prison for it. I did it again in my 40's, got slammed and then shunned. Attempting to be completely honest on OL these days, gonna end up looking like a nut. Barrel o' fun being truthful. If I had a job, how long do you think I (or anyone else) would be employed, if I told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

September 4, 2014:

[N]ot one of the 2,000 criminals I met in prison went to court voluntarily.

September 5, 2014:

Dictatorships of North Africa and SE Asia, big city drug lords, company CEOs, Russian mobsters, ministers of state, Hollywood producers, A-list stars and agents, prison guards, riot police, and "OGAs" are not abstract ideas to me.

September 22, 2015:

The story of making "Zooty Brisko" (1973) is recounted in my book First Feature. I went to prison, Technicolor closed their Chicago lab, and 22 rolls of negative were thrown in a dumpster.

That last, and most recent, mention comes closest to even specifying the circumstances.

The search turned up some other material relevant to the current thread. I'll give links and excerpts in a separate post.

Ellen

[Brant Gaede]

Sorry, Brant, but I'll never be the type of person who can tolerate the intellectual or literary equivalent of this.

J

LOL

[william.scherk]

Not everyone here will have read much of the Laissez-Faire City Times, whether it was edited by Zola-Grabbe or by James Ray Houston's son Sonny V (Junior). It is preserved to some degree by the Wayback Machine. See the home page here. the 'current issue,' which was the last, dated February 28, 2002. Articles from back in the day are indexed by author.

For example, the link for Wolf DeVoon leads to 32 further links of articles. During his hiatus from OL, we can read deeply.

Of all of them that I have read, Mrs Wynand Papers stands out, for pathos and for puzzles ... for the promises made. We now hear that "Rex pulled the plug" on the newspaper, which I guess means no more money for writers and editors. Who owned the 'thing' itself at that moment? I think it was Zola (Orlin Grabbe). Who had possession of the website? I think it was Grabbe. So, why was the plug pulled?

-- I think it very likely that the plug was pulled because of promises made by Wolf. He promised to shed light and he got blackout.

Jonathan wrote: "I'm here to discuss ideas" -- which is amusing and pathetic. Here's more fodder for your campaign of vituperation, defamation, and summary verdict in the court of your high-minded concern for ideas. [...]

(Vol. 6 No. 7 featuring this article was the last issue of Laissez Faire City Times. Rex pulled the plug.).

From 'Mrs. Wynand Papers' ... with emphases added.

A Newspaper with News

A lot is happening -- far too much for me to recite off the cuff. I pledge that LFC Times will report in depth, starting as soon as possible, all the LFC political and economic news that you, the Founders, repeatedly asked for. I have enough influence in the City to make good that pledge. There was nothing wrong per se in Zola's preference for abstract opinion and global issues. However, I believe that it's time to make use of this webspace for hard news as well. In particular, this newspaper will begin to report on LFCIT, MuniCorp, DMT, ALTA, LESE, MailVault, and the private 'curb market' for various securities issued by those entities -- the totality of which is Laissez Faire City.

Too many times, though not without probable cause, 'security' was invoked as a reason to keep quiet about what was happening in LFC. Security was also cited as a reason to exclude, monitor, fire, or investigate certain individuals from time to time, during the long seven years of LFC's infancy, when the threat of moles and double agents loomed large. I was stupider than the rest of my colleagues, because I spoke of it as 'national security' (I regard LFC as a nation of freemen). As recently as last month, I used 'national security' as an excuse to attack and discredit a key insider who attempted to take over the LFCIT Board of Governors and fire its Trustee. These are real LFC stories you deserve to know about, especially now.

As far as I understand, Wolf left San Jose at some point, lived in Nosara for some length, left Costa Rica at some other point. The to and fro of the other real people is sort of left up in the air. Rex paid Wolf to live and work as writer-in-residence, and at some point, 'counsel to the king,' and at some point ended paying Wolf.

Where was Rex in reality? I can't quite figure it out. Either he hid out in Nosara, which seems unlikely, or he hid out in some other area of Costa Rica. He bailed on Laissez-Faire City and scrammed. It was only the USA that thought they could nail his ass for mail fraud, and when Rex was taken into custody, it was in Costa Rica, where he delivered himself to Embassy staff rather than be extradited.

The greatest promise was to give factual news on the various scams and products of LFC, the acronyms in the passage above. It gives the reader hope that the then-opaque collapse of the Trust would be examined with an objective eye and full accounting.

On the whole I am glad Wolf proved to himself that he had new material in him, glad that he put up an interesting narrative, faults aside. I am still pining for a focus on the Nosara adventures. This span of time and adventures would make a good book.

Don't leave out all the gun-slinging. Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour may be long gone, but a Lee Child or Robert Bidinotto could probably make something good out of it. Pow! Crunch! There goes another anarchist loon (/scammer) looking at some serious ICU time. Or (better) a dirt nap.

There are good outlaws and bad outlaws in my mind, or rather different kinds of outlaw attitude. The basic libertarian anarchist outlaw attitude would see all forms of tax avoidance ethical in principle. All forms of 'offshore' paradise would be in principle attractive. The paradise seeking could speak of their impeccable morals, of honor and dignity, of no leash or fetter.

In my Bidinotto revenge novel, the Wolf would hunt down each miscreant of the 'lost years' in Paradise, and make them come clean. Rex's frauds would be exposed. The promises made by Mrs Wynand Papers would be fully realized. The greater good project would squeak through -- Wolf would save Libertania from all the thugs and parasites and cheats and thieves!

What wild dream world was really going on?

Pretty simple stuff. Men in their 40s and 50s left Intel and Microsoft to develop encrypted email and banking. Red Army vets and Russian diplomats had salaries and interesting problems to solve. Dozens came to live and work in Costa Rica because they were dissatisfied with Swedish, American, Chinese, Polish, Italian, British and Mexican governments.

No summary is complete without a mention of James Ray Houston's cheats and pathology. It's a whitewash without that mention. "Salaries" paid from a lottery scam. "Banking" a fiction, deposits plundered.

I am thinking Wolf has taken this round's questions and vituperation to heart: he's a wordsmith, he's lived through interesting adventures, he loves the truth and he loves a well-told story, he wants to fill in the blanks of his own LFC knowledge, and he wants to put forth an exciting, honest story. Hats off to Wolf if he is retreating to his writing lair. Hats off if he is offshore getting something striking and original together, synthesizing, analyzing, researching, scene-carding.

It's a great property, is what I am saying. Wolf could do it justice.

I am still pining for a focus on the Nosara adventures. This span of time and adventures would make a good book. It's not that I don't like Wolf's constitutions, but I find the story of Laissez-Faire City a much richer ground for my imagination. How many people did Rex buy with the lottery scam income and Trust founder income? I mean, how many employees and contractors, as Wolf was employed as poet/jurist resident, novel-writer manque? What wild dream world was really going on?

But that's Wolf's call. I won't be surprised if we get some new, freshly researched resections of the LFC years. They'll be sketched here, and fleshed in his next book. Here's hoping, anyhow. I think it would be good stuff.

I also think that it would make a great book. The unvarnished truth of it would be a very compelling read, something that would stick with readers for a long time. I'd love to see an insider's view, from a perspective of reconsidering and reanalyzing the players and events, with the utopian trance brushed away from the writer's eyes, and the Randian hero poses outgrown and finally abandoned. I'd love to see that kind of strength. Unfortunately, I don't think that "Wolf" can take off the masks.

Some of that might be due to Wolf's self-deprecation. At times we read things like he has low self-esteem, shitty writing chops, dim views of his own self. Brant notes that depressive appearance. That doesn't augur well for what I pine for, but maybe the self-deprecation is just a reverse-psychology faux-modesty tactic.

Imagine if we were just sitting around the porch of an evening, and we had Wolf with us, whittling and spitting and spinning a yarn. We could get more detail out of him in one hour's conversation than we will have done with these weeks of 'Tell More About Laissez-Faire' ...

I mean, we could have cleared away the ID issue. We would have Ellen noting the timeframe data like a script supervisor. We would have praise and corn whisky and raucous laughter. We could have let him soar in fiction and then whittled him back down to earth. We'd figure out how he himself got conned by Rex and how justice has been slowly grinding all the bad actors into dust.

Fare thee well, Wolf.

Edited October 2, 2015 by william.scherk

[Brant Gaede]

I asked Wolf is there were any McDonalds nearby (Free WiFi). This was in response to his Internet connection being shut off. He didn't answer. I have this vision in my head of him living in the California desert 100 miles from anywhere in his new 110,000 dollar home.

--Brant

Nevada? Texas?