This American Life (honest – that name just popped into my head out of nowhere!)

Two items occupy the vast expanse of my empty head this morning. I am wading through Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book, The Black Swan, and setting aside his massive ego, he is enjoyable and insightful. I particularly like the following, in which he comments on the ability to have regular income without sucking up to people. His company, First Boston, went belly-up, but he was left with what he called the equivalent of a fellowship.

This is sometimes called “f*** you money,” which, in spite of its coarseness, means that it allows you to act like a Victorian gentleman, free from slavery. It’s a psychological buffer: the capital is not so large as to make you spoiled-rich, but large enough to give you the freedom to choose a new occupation without excessive consideration of the financial rewards. It shields you from prostituting your mind and frees you from outside authority – any outside authority. … While not substantial by some standards, literally cured me of all financial ambition – it made me ashamed whenever I diverted time away from study for the pursuit of material wealth. Note that the designation f*** you corresponds to the exhilarating ability to that compact phrase before hanging up the phone.

I offer a corollary to his words: The number of times anonymous people say f*** you on the blogs corresponds exactly one-to-one with the inability to use those words in real life without serious consequences.

Here’s another tidbit: The Denver Post today reports on the most recent poll in our senatorial race: Ken Buck (R) 48%, Michael Bennet (D), 43%, Other, 8%, and undecided (1%). Bennet is toast, which is OK, as any man who has shat upon his base as much as Bennet has shat upon his deserves defeat. Send him back to investment banking, from whence he came!

The Post, in its entire long article citing “political observers” (?), ordinary street people and other polls – never once tells us who these “Others” are, even though they are determining the outcome of the election!

it’s as if, in 1992, the presidential election ended as follows: Clinton (43%), Bush (38%), Other (19%). Ross Perot gave us minority president Bill Clinton, and unnamed and anonymous “others” in Colorado will give us minority Senator Ken Buck.

My vote? “Other.” It is my vote, and I choose to spend it wisely.