Ayn Rand RIP...Please

“Ayn Rand died more than a quarter of a century ago, yet her name appears regularly in discussions of our current economic turmoil. Pundits including Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santelli urge listeners to read her books, and her magnum opus, ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ is selling at a faster rate today than at any time during its 51-year history.”

The Wall Street Journal

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"Men have been taught that the ego is the synonym of evil, and selfishness the ideal of virtue. But the creator is the egoist in the absolute sense, and the selfless man is the one who does not think, feel, judge or act. These are functions of the self."

Ayn Rand
The Soul of an Individualist

"I've met a huge number of conservatives whose world view is what everyone selling a get rich quick scheme is just praying for: "Poor people are poor because they're lazy and stupid. I'm going up. Up. Up!" Unfortunately, like a lot of us, they get a crappy job that pays for shit and they don't go up. Up. Up!

Our would be revolutionaries have gone a step or three down the trail. Clearly anyone who disagrees with them and is doing better than them is part of a conspiracy to hold them back, and anyone doing worse, who is being supported in some way by the state is part of Ayn Rand's great unwashed that would fall into barbarism if not for their continued contribution to society. It's us vs. them! (Well, it's them vs. me, since I work in the sciences and my wife grows arugula and deer tongue in the back yard, but you know.)

Personally, I'm waiting for enough liberal types to get frightened by these guys, followed by the absolute hand waving freak-outery when FOX reports a poll that suggests that a lot more liberals are buying guns."

Kid Charlemagne