• • • The Permanent Dependency Class 
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Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Capitalism  |Individualism  |Paul Ryan  | The virtuous side of Republican philosophy is that it wants to give Americans the tools to avoid poverty in the first place. It preaches self-reliance, independence, limited government taxation and regulations, and great personal freedom (especially the freedom to own and use a gun). With such tools, any American who works hard can reasonably expect to participate in the American dream, including becoming a financial success. This philosophy ties into a strain of thinking that comes from the Ayn Rand wing of the party, which worships ultra-individualism, and which makes a fetish out of Rand’s fictional heroes John Galt and architect Howard Roark, men who with their entrepreneurial genius created what most benefited society, and then took what they wanted when they wanted it, because men of genius are entitled to act that way. Everyone else in Ayn Rand’s fictional world is a parasite, feeding off the work of the productive members of society.      View blog reactions

• The Invisible Handshake 
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Capitalism  | It is not too much to say that, very much within the philosophy of Ayn Rand, Mitt Romney has spent his business career raping companies, raping employees, and raping communities. Now he has his eyes on the presidency.      View blog reactions

• • Uncle Sam Gets a Visitor 
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I finally got rid of [these guys from the Tea Party Clinic] by promising to read their publication. Here it is on the table – two pages on the wit and wisdom of Ayn Rand. I haven’t read it yet. Do you want it? No, I didn’t think so.      View blog reactions

• What’s a capitalist to do? 
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Capitalism  | What’s a capitalist to do when he loses $500 billion and almost single-handedly destroys the global economy? In Japan you would bow deeply in public and express the deepest possible remorse and shame, that is if you already had not committed seppuku. In America, where the Ayn Rand ethos of objectivism reigns supreme, you weasel your way out of any explanation or regret, while riding off in the sunset with your undeserved fortune.      View blog reactions