• And Now, a Word from Mr. Mourdock's God 
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“I am the god of 'In God We Trust.' You shall have no other gods before me. Give to the poor (if you must) out of your excess and at your discretion. Don't be compelled by guilt. The poor don't need a safety net as long as I, the god of the Koch brothers and Ayn Rand, lives in the heart of every patriotic American. It is money that I love, not mercy for its own sake. Mercy without conditions offends me.”      View blog reactions

• Movie review: Amazing 'Avengers'—Film goes above and beyond comic book fans' expectat 
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Marvel was the countercultural home of misfits like Lee & Kirby. It was a place where Ayn Rand-inspired iconoclasts like Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man, had creative freedom. The weirdness and combustibility of the creators and their characters turned tiny Marvel Comics into the industry leader within a decade.      View blog reactions

• • Support attracted by Ron Paul sends chills 
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Egoism  | Because Mr. Paul espouses social-political theories that young people in the first throes of infatuation with Ayn Rand’s dreary melodramas take seriously, he is as close as many of them will ever get to the long-dead founder of Objectivism. Mr. Paul has become an avatar of enlightened self-interest, even while maintaining a friendly, if not necessarily avuncular, demeanor. He’s like a prickly old uncle who shows up at a family gathering after years in exile ready to pass on his version of the family’s twisted history to the next generation.      View blog reactions

• • New year is time for new compassion 
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Anthem  |Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  | After a bout of intense disillusionment with President Jimmy Carter, which I eventually got over, I flirted briefly with adopting a libertarian form of conservatism. I even read Ayn Rand's "Anthem," but found her writing so turgid that it dissuaded me from moving on to “Atlas Shrugged” or "The Fountainhead."      View blog reactions

• The wretched, venal life of Rev. Ike 
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Rev. Ike never claimed he was a "Christian minister," though he could fill Madison Square Garden with money-grubbing acolytes as fast as any preacher. "This is the do-it-yourself church," he would say tossing aside the Apostle Paul and channeling Ayn Rand. "The only savior in this philosophy is God in you."      View blog reactions