My AmazonReview of "The Reasonable Woman," allegedly by Wendy McElroy

[Brant Gaede]

I miss Ellen Moore. Any world that could afford her was a better place than what's since. She never claimed she was smart--she wasn't very--only invincibly authoritatively right about Objectivism--that is, invincible ignorance and a queer kind of integrity one should not aspire to.

--Brant

[George H. Smith]

I miss Ellen Moore. Any world that could afford her was a better place than what's since. She never claimed she was smart--she wasn't very--only invincibly authoritatively right about Objectivism--that is, invincible ignorance and a queer kind of integrity one should not aspire to.

--Brant

Ellen was definitely sui generis. But she could also be vicious, as illustrated by her unprovoked attacks on BB. There was a screw loose somewhere.

Btw, was Ellen Moore Canadian? I seem to recall she was. If so, that would explain a lot. Too many years of staring at all that snow?

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

If I had been born cute, and if I had breasts and a cute ass, I would have had a much easier time persuading O'ist men in this controversy.

I don't know about that. Breasts and a cute ass on a dude wouldn't make his arguments more persuasive to me, and I think most men feel the same way. In fact, I might side against a dude with breasts and a cute ass just to make sure that he didn't think that I wanted to go out with him or whatever.

Anyway, does the bitch still make public appearances? If so, I think I'd really enjoy showing up and questioning her in front of one of her audiences about all of the evidence you've presented here.

J

I didn't mean to over-generalize about male Objectivists, but there were a number in 1998 who had the attitudes I described. This struck me as odd, because writers have gotten nailed for plagiarism for far fewer duplications than I posted in 1998.

I think one of the problems, at least in 1998, is that many libertarians were very uncomfortable with this entire scandal, especially those who had been (and still were) friends with both Wendy and me. Wendy has been much more assiduous than I in cultivating friendships and contacts. Witness her apparent conversion of Richard Martin ("Normal") to her side. I suspect this happened years ago. Wendy knew that Richard could be a valuable ally in her cause, given that he was a major participant in my "sex and drugs" years in Long Beach.

Now, what does Richard know about the plagiarism scandal? Absolutely nothing. We were never in contact after 1998, and my days of teaching FOR were long over by the time I moved to Long Beach. Yet, despite his ignorance on this subject, he decided to post a message on this thread about dozens of explicit photos in his possession.

So what was the point of Richard's comment," I wanted you to know I have the briefcase." This was an implicit threat, probably on Wendy's behalf, to distribute or post some of the photos that he thought would prove especially embarrassing to me. The fact that Richard also stole intimate photos of various friends of mine -- both men and women -- and the fact that he is crowing, in a public forum, about having stolen those photos makes him a criminal creep of the highest order. And if, as I suspect, Richard was acting in collusion with Wendy -- well, that gives you an idea of how low Wendy will stoop to shut me up about her plagiarism.

So who is Richard Martin, a.k.a. "Normal?" Well, I don't know what he is doing now, but when I knew him during the early 1990s, Richard was running a successful realty company with his father in Long Beach. (Richard was adopted into a well-to-do family, and he always had money.) I think the name of the company was Martin and Martin Realty, or something to that effect. The last time I talked to Richard on the phone c. 1996, he told me he was doing drug counseling.

I spent some time googling Richard's name last night, but nothing certain turned up. There are a lot of Richard Martins around, and Richard may very well have moved elsewhere. I got no relevant hits for "Martin Reality" in Long Beach, etc., etc., -- and I tried many permutations. Richard never seemed to enjoy the realty business (he wanted to be a writer), so it is quite possible that Richard sold the company after his father retired or died.

In any case, given the help that I got in locating Robert Murphy a while back, I thought some enterprising OLers could also help me pinpoint Richard on the Internet. He must be there somewhere. (I wouldn't know for sure that a hit was Richard unless I could see a photo.)

Richard initiated this nasty little game, but he lacked the guts to reveal his name, so I have done it for him. I want everyone to know about the infamous Briefcase Boy who decided to threaten a former friend.

Should Richard return to me the briefcase he stole and its contents, I will let this matter drop. Otherwise, he will join Wendy on my active shitlist --and, as Wendy has learned the hard way, that is not a pleasant place to be.

Ghs

[Normal]

Nope. I'd rather hurt myself than put you in striking distance of her. Reread the letter she sent you if you have forgotten why.

You always said the best way to lie was to believe it yourself. Maybe you believe all your lies by now. You seem to lie all the time now. It doesn't matter how small the thing is. Even the briefcase. EVERYTHING was soaked in Vaseline after your drug and sex sessions. The couch was disgusting. The photos were disgusting. After so many years of drugs, you just couldn't get hard any other way. We all paid the price of hours and hours of your pawing through the pictures of your glory days. Lie all you want now. I should return the photos to the women...but I don't much like some of them either. How many of them knew you were using them to whack off or trying to with your drug buddies? I bet none.

[George H. Smith]

Nope. I'd rather hurt myself than put you in striking distance of her. Reread the letter she sent you if you have forgotten why.

You always said the best way to lie was to believe it yourself. Maybe you believe all your lies by now. You seem to lie all the time now. It doesn't matter how small the thing is. Even the briefcase. EVERYTHING was soaked in Vaseline after your drug and sex sessions. The couch was disgusting. The photos were disgusting. After so many years of drugs, you just couldn't get hard any other way. We all paid the price of hours and hours of your pawing through the pictures of your glory days. Lie all you want now. I should return the photos to the women...but I don't much like some of them either. How many of them knew you were using them to whack off or trying to with your drug buddies? I bet none.

Richard,

If you find the pics so disgusting, why did you steal them in the first place? And why have you kept them all these years? And why did you ask to borrow a few of them before you stole the briefcase?

The truth is, Richard, that you could not deal with stuff we got into during all those "sessions." I warned you about this from the very first time you asked me to give you some drugs and expressed interest in joining in the "sessions."

As for the couch -- yeah, it got pretty ratty, but your having sex with my girlfriend on it time and again didn't help, now did it? I eventually had it cleaned, you know.

It is quite a coincidence that you showed up when you did. I have a hard time believing that Wendy had nothing to do with this.

As for the pics, I had the explicit permission of everyone involved, and everyone knew what the limits were. I also told people that I would return them, or destroy them in their presence, on demand. When, shortly before Wendy moved to Canada, I told her to come over to my place on Franklin, because it was time to destroy the pics we made together (I had one of those large paper cutters), she begged me not to do this. She said there was too much history there, and that I should keep them. The problem, as you well know, had to do with her clueless hubby later on.

If the vaseline on those pics bothers you, then I suggest that you wash your hands thoroughly after you jack off to them next time.

Ghs

[9thdoctor]

I have not exactly lived the life of a typical philosopher.

Well, you're no Immanuel Kant, that's for sure. I understand you were very much into Christianity as a teen, is it accurate to say that your life is like St. Augustine's, only in reverse?

Somewhere in the movie Striptease there's a scene of Burt Reynolds covered in Vaseline, I don't have time to look for it right now (might not even be on YouTube), but here it belongs.

[George H. Smith]

Nope. I'd rather hurt myself than put you in striking distance of her. Reread the letter she sent you if you have forgotten why.

I don't know what letter you are talking about. I know about the letter Wendy sent to you, which I have mentioned before on this thread, and you might have given that to me at some point. I don't recall, but, in any case, I lost that letter years ago.

If you would not put me in "striking distance" of Wendy, then what was the point of your showing up all of a sudden on this thread? Your post about the briefcase had absolutely nothing to do with my charge of plagiarism against Wendy, for which I have provided a mountain of evidence. And if you didn't post the briefcase remark on Wendy's behalf, then what was the point? Why didn't you simply write me an email offlist? I don't get it.

I always liked you, Richard; you know that, so I don't understand why you have turned on me. I knew that we wouldn't remain in contact; that wouldn't have worked out, after all that had happened. But we parted friends, and I certainly didn't expect you to pop up years later in the role of an attack dog.

As for those drug years, they got insane. You went nuts, and I went even more nuts, eventually breaking down completely. I walked a dangerous precipice for years, long before I even knew you, and I eventually fell off the edge. I never blamed this on anyone else, yet you seem to blame me for the problems of everyone else. What A. did with me, she did voluntarily and under no pressure. Many of the things we did, we did at her suggestion.

I destroyed every picture in my possession after I moved to S.F., shortly before my future wife and I decided to move in together. My past was not something I had any desire to drag into a new relationship. You are the one who still has my photos, and you have no right to them. You stole them, pure and simple.

You should package up that briefcase and ship it to me. Then I will destroy those photos. I frankly don't trust you to do this, given your actions thus far. You've got some kind of connection to them I don't understand. Email me and I will send you my mailing address -- and that will be that. We needn't communicate again.

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

I have not exactly lived the life of a typical philosopher.

Well, you're no Immanuel Kant, that's for sure. I understand you were very much into Christianity as a teen, is it accurate to say that your life is like St. Augustine's, only in reverse?

That's a truly remarkable insight. I'm very impressed. Seriously.

Growing up, I often told people that I wanted to become one of two things: a porn star or a monk. Both are types of exhibitionism -- the former in front of humans, the latter in front of God.

I ended up becoming something of both -- a strange hybrid that didn't quite work out in some ways.

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

The following is off-topic (assuming this thread has a topic), but at least it is not salacious.

Is anyone else having trouble with using the downloadable iespell program on OL? It used to work fine for me, but now it really messes things up. When I click to correct a misspelled word, it inserts the word over another word -- well, it's hard to describe, but it it a real mess, even though no vaseline is involved.

I unsintalled the iespell from my computer and then reinstalled it, but this didn't help. I had to stop using it altogether, which is why my recent posts have contained so many typos.

This problem seems to have started when I downloaded the latest version of Windows Internet Explorer (Version 9) a couple weeks ago.

Here is an example. I originally misspelled "program" as "pogram" in the following sentence and then attempted to correct it with iespell. Here is how it came out: "Is anyone else having trouble with using the downloadable iespellprogramam on OL?"

Any suggestions?

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

Even the briefcase. EVERYTHING was soaked in Vaseline after your drug and sex sessions. The couch was disgusting. The photos were disgusting.

What kind of creep steals another guy's stash of private porn, lies to him about having stolen it, keeps the pics for over 15 years without saying a word, and then barges onto a public forum to announce how disgusting the pics are?

I am reminded of the first joke on this clip:

ADDENDUM: I'm sorry if I didn't keep my private porn pics as pristine as Richard -- who is a very neat guy -- would have liked. If Richard had given me some advance notice that he was going to steal my property, I would have cleaned it up a bit for him. I sure wouldn't want a burglar to steal anything of mine that he found disgusting.

As for the pics themselves, they were nothing out of the ordinary. You know -- the usual stuff: the guy takes a photo of the girl masturbating...the girl of the guy masturbating...oral sex...intercourse...two girls and a guy. two guys and a girl...etc. The only unusual thing about my collection was how early I started it and how extensive it was.

I should note that I had no pics whatever of anal sex. This is probably why Richard got so pissed off by the pics. If you are going to steal a stash of porn, you want your preferred type of sex to be represented. Again, my apologies to Richard, the Briefcase Boy. With advance notice, I could have worked something out. I could have invited some gay friends of mine over to fuck him in the ass, while I took photos.

Ghs

[Brant Gaede]

It must have been the Vaseline, which I too, find disgusting. KY is far superior--for sex, inferior for disgustiing.

--Brant

[George H. Smith]

It must have been the Vaseline, which I too, find disgusting. KY is far superior--for sex, inferior for disgustiing.

--Brant

This depends. Vaseline is better for some things, especially if those things go on for hours and hours, as did the sessions with Richard, me, and my girlfriend. K-Y gets absorbed into the skin quite quickly.

I hope Richard's wife didn't notice all that Vaseline on his dick after those handjob sessions. It was disgusting -- but I didn't mind, since I didn't ever touch it or plan to steal it.

Ghs

[Brant Gaede]

I miss Ellen Moore. Any world that could afford her was a better place than what's since. She never claimed she was smart--she wasn't very--only invincibly authoritatively right about Objectivism--that is, invincible ignorance and a queer kind of integrity one should not aspire to.

--Brant

Ellen was definitely sui generis. But she could also be vicious, as illustrated by her unprovoked attacks on BB. There was a screw loose somewhere.

Btw, was Ellen Moore Canadian? I seem to recall she was. If so, that would explain a lot. Too many years of staring at all that snow?

Ghs

I think she lived in North Dakota. Same difference.

--Brant

[Jonathan]

I spent some time googling Richard's name last night, but nothing certain turned up. There are a lot of Richard Martins around, and Richard may very well have moved elsewhere. I got no relevant hits for "Martin Reality" in Long Beach, etc., etc., -- and I tried many permutations. Richard never seemed to enjoy the realty business (he wanted to be a writer), so it is quite possible that Richard sold the company after his father retired or died.

Might this be him?

Does this little rant and follow-up comments sound like the Richard Martin you knew?

[Brant Gaede]

It must have been the Vaseline, which I too, find disgusting. KY is far superior--for sex, inferior for disgustiing.

--Brant

This depends. Vaseline is better for some things, especially if those things go on for hours and hours, as did the sessions with Richard, me, and my girlfriend. K-Y gets absorbed into the skin quite quickly.

Ghs

"Hours and hours?" That might have been a good time to listen to some books on tape.

--Brant

[Jonathan]

I miss Ellen Moore. Any world that could afford her was a better place than what's since. She never claimed she was smart--she wasn't very--only invincibly authoritatively right about Objectivism--that is, invincible ignorance and a queer kind of integrity one should not aspire to.

--Brant

Ellen was definitely sui generis. But she could also be vicious, as illustrated by her unprovoked attacks on BB. There was a screw loose somewhere.

Btw, was Ellen Moore Canadian? I seem to recall she was. If so, that would explain a lot. Too many years of staring at all that snow?

Ghs

I think she lived in North Dakota. Same difference.

--Brant

I'm pretty sure she was Canadian.

J

[George H. Smith]

You always said the best way to lie was to believe it yourself.

You got this fouled up.

I have said for many years -- long before I started doing drugs -- that if you make the decision to lie to other people, then the best way to do this is to get into a state of mind in which you subjectively believe the lie while you are telling it. This is essentially what many good actors do. I believe it is called "method acting."

You failed to mention another favorite dictum of mine, namely: lie to others, if you must or will, but never lie to yourself.

The notion that one should not deceive oneself is key to everything I believe. Most people deceive themselves by selectively forgetting relevant aspects of an event (as you have obviously done with those coke sessions) and then interpreting the past in terms of the remaining incomplete memories.

Over the years various friends, both male and female, participated in those intensive sessions. The women intuitively understood better than most men what was really going on. I thought you were different. I thought you understood my point that most of the interesting "action" in those artificially constructed sex scenarios was psychological rather than physical. But I guess I was wrong. I guess you were just another witless prop who jumped at the chance to stick his dick in a good looking gal.

Ghs

[Brant Gaede]

I spent some time googling Richard's name last night, but nothing certain turned up. There are a lot of Richard Martins around, and Richard may very well have moved elsewhere. I got no relevant hits for "Martin Reality" in Long Beach, etc., etc., -- and I tried many permutations. Richard never seemed to enjoy the realty business (he wanted to be a writer), so it is quite possible that Richard sold the company after his father retired or died.

Might this be him?

Does this little rant and follow-up comments sound like the Richard Martin you knew?

Not impressive and only mildly interesting. I like Rand critics who are demonstratively authoritative about something.

--Brant

[George H. Smith]

It must have been the Vaseline, which I too, find disgusting. KY is far superior--for sex, inferior for disgustiing.

--Brant

This depends. Vaseline is better for some things, especially if those things go on for hours and hours, as did the sessions with Richard, me, and my girlfriend. K-Y gets absorbed into the skin quite quickly.

Ghs

"Hours and hours?" That might have been a good time to listen to some books on tape.

--Brant

Nope. You had to be there. It is possible to achieve levels of excitement far exceeding any "normal" orgasm, and people, male and female, can make it last for hours and hours. It can even go on for a day or more.

Maybe someone else on OL knows what I am talking about, since there are different ways to generate these prolonged states of continous and intense excitement. Whether it is a good idea or not is another question, of course -- because once you experience that level of stimulation, you will crave it for a long time thereafter, and you will find that "normal" sex cannot give it to you.

This will all be explained in my autobiography, in meticulous detail.

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

I spent some time googling Richard's name last night, but nothing certain turned up. There are a lot of Richard Martins around, and Richard may very well have moved elsewhere. I got no relevant hits for "Martin Reality" in Long Beach, etc., etc., -- and I tried many permutations. Richard never seemed to enjoy the realty business (he wanted to be a writer), so it is quite possible that Richard sold the company after his father retired or died.

Might this be him?

Does this little rant and follow-up comments sound like the Richard Martin you knew?

There is no way I can really tell without looking at a photo, but neither link looks like something Richard would write, assuming his views have not changed dramatically. He was a hard-core libertarian when I knew him -- well, except for the "steal your friend's private porn" thing.

Richard is a very smart guy and (I thought before the briefcase post) a very nice guy. I don't know what happened to him, but something has changed. His OL posts don't sound the like the Richard I knew. This sometimes happens to ex-addicts. They find "Jesus" and become really obnoxious. I hate reformed sinners.

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

I found these photos of Richard, the Briefcase Boy. He apparently wants to remain anonymous.

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

Nope. I'd rather hurt myself than put you in striking distance of her. Reread the letter she sent you if you have forgotten why.

I don't know what letter you are talking about. I know about the letter Wendy sent to you, which I have mentioned before on this thread, and you might have given that to me at some point. I don't recall, but, in any case, I lost that letter years ago.

A friend who knows about my past has informed me that I misread and misunderstood Richard's reference here. He is referring to Annie, my ex-girlfriend, not to Wendy. True enough.

Of course, I never asked to be put in "striking distance" of anyone. I just wanted to know if she was okay.

In any case, Richard did not in any way deny that he is posting on Wendy's behalf. He obviously is.

Ghs

[caroljane]

I miss Ellen Moore. Any world that could afford her was a better place than what's since. She never claimed she was smart--she wasn't very--only invincibly authoritatively right about Objectivism--that is, invincible ignorance and a queer kind of integrity one should not aspire to.

--Brant

Ellen was definitely sui generis. But she could also be vicious, as illustrated by her unprovoked attacks on BB. There was a screw loose somewhere.

Btw, was Ellen Moore Canadian? I seem to recall she was. If so, that would explain a lot. Too many years of staring at all that snow?

Ghs

I think she lived in North Dakota. Same difference.

--Brant

I'm pretty sure she was Canadian.

J

Sure, blame Canada again. Less than 9% of the North American population and we are accused of contributing lady wackjobs to the US in disproportionate numbers.

I bet these gals were fine until they went down to the States and met up with you guys.

[caroljane]

George, I think your autobio needs a new title. The Sex, Drugs etc is overused.

How about "The Freest Man in Bondage?"

(I thought of "the Freest man in Kansas"_ first but I don't think you are from Kansas.

You're welcome.

Carol

Staring at ice

[George H. Smith]

Here is the info I got on Richard Martin by following up on an old business number I have for him. The number was originally for his realty company in Long Beach, but it connected me to his newer business.

Richard is the CEO of the construction company Martin Bros. Marcowall, though I have been told that he is no longer active with the company. Here is the website.

http://www.martinbros-marcowall.com/

Please, folks, I don't want anyone to harass Richard. I just want people to know who this creep is.

Richard has obviously transformed himself into a respectable businessman, a pillar of his community. I'm very surprised that such a person would log onto a public forum to announce that he stole his friend's private porn stash many years ago and still has it, and then complain about the Vaseline.

There is now virtually no doubt in my mind that Wendy or Brad contacted Richard. I doubt if Richard knew anything about this OL thread before this.

If I am wrong, then Brad can make another entrance on OL and say so. Otherwise, I will assume I am right.

Ghs