By now, you may have heard that David Letterman (who is mentioned by the Czar far more than the Czar would like or believes he warrants) has revealed that he was the victim of an extortion plot for $2 million dollars, and he participated in a sting that arrested the blackmailer.

You probably have also heard that the blackmailer had the goods on him. He publicly confessed to having a series of affairs with various female staff members on his show.

You might well ask, if they caught the people behind the extortion plot, why the hell he would come out about the embarrasing and potentially humiliating affairs, particularly before a large, public audience on his own show.

In fact, he received very good advice to do so.

In the realm of personal security, there is only one proven way to destroy blackmailers. You do what Letterman did. This is not the Czar’s personal opinion or preference in this limited case: it is a nearly universal consensus by scary people who know what they’re talking about.

When you suffer a blackmail situation, the victim has basically four choices: pay the bastard, confront him, ignore him, or pull the rug out under his feet. The first three never work: whatever damaging evidence he has on you now goes public and you have to deal with the awful consequences. And you never know for sure whether or not he’s done with you: there may be far more.

The fourth option is the right one when the blackmailer has real evidence that could damage you. You collect as much information, ultimatums, terms, and conditions as possible from the blackmailer. You then quietly go to each friend, family member, business associate, and good acquaintance and inform them of everything the blackmailer says he has on you. In fact, you basically need to confess everything you can think of. Experience shows that spouses and partners take the news pretty well, especially if it happened years ago (as it did in Letterman’s case). Anger gives way to concern, and victims often find that people are eager to assist and help more than condemn or alienate.

Why would Letterman go public with the disgrace when police caught the people behind the plot? Because he received very good advice to do so.Then you get an attorney, who starts protecting your financial and personal effects, and also involves law enforcement on your behalf.

Finally, you go as public as possible with the confessions (all of them, not just the salient ones), before the extortionist does.

In Letterman’s situation, they caught the people behind it. But Letterman does not know, just as you would not know, who else is involved or might be willing to try a smarter extortionist scheme. By going public, you totally disarm any copycat extortionists; by not going public with your disgrace, you face a lifetime of serious or not-very-serious extortionists eager to try their luck at ruining you.

So Letterman did this exactly right. The bad guys are in jail, future copycats have nothing over him, and he probably feels forgiven and free for the first time in a very long time.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.