Well then that confirmes my tentative profile of Walt, then.  It's kind of sad really.  I've known so many of those types, one being my own SIL.  And like Walt's mom, my mother-in-law, who is not well off by any means, has to keep making "investments" in my SIL's life too. It's either that or watch your child dig themselves into a hole they'll never get out of.  That's a hard thing for the whole family to deal with.  His age makes it even sadder--a man that age should be a bit more prudent and established by now, not all over the place.  I don't think he's a bad guy or even necessarily greedy.  He's probably scrambling as hard as he can to keep status quo in his life.  He has probably talked himself into believing that the evidence of his ADHD in the business world is a sign of his enterpreneurial spirit.  I'm sure he sees no harm in what he was trying to do and I can tell by how he's phrased everything that he thought he was being fair and reasonable.  Unfortunately he didn't realize he's entered an alternate universe where he's seen as anything but. 

He seems very impulsive--not the best of traits for someone setting themselves up to run businesses.  It's worse when a person mistakes their own impulsiveness for a take-charge attitude.  Hubris and cluelessness are a recipe for disaster.  I hope you all go easy on ol' Walt, at least for his family's sake.  Well I guess that's all I'll say about this subject since I see the conversation has gone off into a new direction. 

He's probably kind of an aimless moron with money.  I'm familiar with some of those Northern VA tech corridor types, having worked with that ilk back during the DotCom boom...and my poor husband occasionally has to put up with them now.  The ones who present themselves as expert in web-related endeavors and who are truly smart and good at what they do,  simply do it and aren't all over the damned place because they're in demand and their employers bend over backwards to keep them.  The ones who have their heads up their azzes seem to be the ones who have their fingers in every pie, so to speak.  

A good number of them were "laid off" during the dot com bust and are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to start businesses of every kind, mostly relating to the internet because they bought into the idea that the internet was "the place to be" even though they usually don't have a clue how to survive in it.  And worse, they usually are armed with intellectual property they half-assedly raided from their former employers or are trying to set up a clone of their previous company and end up getting sued over no-compete clauses.  A lot of them have MBA's that mean nothing other than they were able to afford to educate themselves beyond the limits imposed by their intelligence and common sense.  As a result, they love to spout corporate-speak and sound like they know what they're talking about.  They can often wrap themselves in a pretty package, land a job, and then lose that job in a year or less when it becomes apparent their MBA stands for Masterful Bullshit Articulator.  My husband has found himself in demand at his company because he can spot these doofuses during the hiring process and save the managers untold agony--if the managers themselves are not too stupid to take note.  

That is not to say Walt is one of these people.  But so far he's matching the profile.  I'm not personally famiiliar with Warrenton VA, but if I'm not mistaken, I think it is not exactly the hub of business for the Northern VA area--it's a lower cost of living area than the more centrally located regions.  

Walt has evidently made a run at local govt under the banner of the Libertarian Party: http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Thiessen_Walt_672833557.aspx   For those of you not familiar with the US political parties, the Libertarian party is never a strong contender in our elections.  It can attract a lot of NWO (New World Order) conspiracy theorists and people who have a hard time appealing to the mainstream--not because their ideas are totally off.  But because they have difficulty fully articulating their ideas and tend to blow up when someone tries to debate them.  Or...they are sound in one area, but completely bonkers in their other ideas.  Such was the case with one Congressional candidate I was thinking of voting for until I researched him.  He had sound ideas about economics but was totally batshit crazy and apparently poorly educated in any other area.  

Sorry if any of this has been brought up already.  I read to about page 16 in this thread and backtracked from the last two pages and that's about when my eyes gave out.   I'm sure somebody will make me walk the plank if I repeated useless junk.