[gridlock]

One can generate a lot of heartburn thinking about all of the things that would be better about this country and the world if the Supreme Court had done the right thing and ruled for Al Gore instead of George W. Bush in 2000.

You can stop reading right there. I know I did.

People who open with such a line might as well take a Sharpie and write "I AM A BITTER IDIOT" across their foreheads.

[Finny]

This article is an ideal illustration of a valuable life lesson. In my young adulthood, I thought that those who were successful in their fields -- people like the editorial writers at the New York Times -- were successful solely because they were smart, thoughtful, and skilled.

I know better now; I hope this article will enlighten free-thinking, observant young people that fame and financial success are only sometimes connected to smarts, skill, and credibility. It will give them a leg-up on life to to realize that in the corporate world as well as media, politics, and entertainment, fame and financial success are sometimes determined solely by the credulity and shallowness of those who pay their salaries.