Lahde Quits Hedge Funds, Thanks `Idiots’ for Success

The whole article is worth reading, but here are some highlights:

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.

“I was in this game for money,” Lahde, 37, wrote in a two-page letter today in which he said he had come to hate the hedge-fund business. “The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government.

“I do not understand the legacy thing,” he wrote. “Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.”

Lahde ended his letter with a plea for the increased use of hemp as an alternative source of food and energy that segued into a call for the legalization of marijuana.

“Hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products,” he wrote. “Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term.”

He added, “The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country.”

Lahde said the only reason marijuana remains illegal is because “Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other addictive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers.”

Even Racists Are Voting for Obama

Not only does this article include a quote from Jack Kerouac’ On The Road, but it’s packed full of exchanges like this:

So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”

Congresswoman Proposes new McCarthy Hearings for Members of Congress

I’ll be able to enjoy this a lot more in three weeks when Barack Obama is President and the Democrats have a super majority in Congress, but still, this lady has been so comically outragous when she gets on TV, I’m pretty sure she just does this kind of stuff for laughs. Sadly, she’ll probably lose her seat in Congress on election day now because she’s can’t stop saying things that are bat shit crazy, so we might as well enjoy her while she lasts. Follow the link for the video.

Oh, and this lady was named one of “The 10 Worst Members of Congress” by Esquire before she said this.

In a television appearance that outraged Democrats are already describing as Joseph McCarthy politics, Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann claimed on Friday that Barack Obama and his wife Michelle held anti-American views and couldn’t be trusted in the White House. She even called for the major newspapers of the country to investigate other members of Congress to “find out if they are pro-America or anti-America.”

The Rationality Project, Esquire Magazine

You’ll have to buy the magazine to read the whole superbly written article, but here is an excerpt. Author A.J. Jacobs tries to eliminate the “System 1,” instinctive, emotional side of his brain in favor of pure rationality. He stumbles along the way and his experiment ends with this exchange with his wife:

I realize Project Rationality is my attempt to live completely under System 2 and override the unstable lizard brain that is System 1.

This is disorienting to other people. Humans crave melodrama. My wife got upset with me today for not getting upset enough. I had done something dumb. I’d left our son’s stroller in the back of a cab. it was a cheapo stroller, but still.

“Well, that was a mistake,” I said when we realized it. “I will try not to do that again.” (I do notice I’m using fewer contractions. Getting too into this Spock character?)

“That’s it?” she asked.

“What do you want? You want theatrics?”

“I want you to say something like, “Oh no, that’s terrible. I can’t believe I did that. I feel horrible.”

I explained that I didn’t feel that way. I felt annoyed at myself, and I vowed to try not to do it again. But I will probably forget other things in the future, so she should be prepared. In either case, throwing a hissy fit wouldn’t get the stroller back nor help reform my behavior; it’d just create negative emotions. Plus, we overestimate the value of things we own–it’s called the Endowment Effect.

My wife said our son needs to understand the value of objects.

I paused. “Point taken,” I said. Our son is still a System 1 creature. “Next time I will put on a show for our son.”

My wife stomped out.