• • Fave NYC moment? Best pizza? And Jets or Giants? The Daily News gets to know our mayoral candidates 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Paul Ryan  | Though a Democrat when he was Bronx borough president, [Adolfo] Carrion picked Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” a valentine to laissez-faire capitalism favored by conservatives like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis).“I have revisited that book several times,” said Carrion, running for mayor as an independent. “To me, (it’s a) somewhat simple reflection of what we’re engaged in in modern life. It’s a great deal about merit and responsibility.”  

• Former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr. 

Atlas Shrugged  | Favorite book? Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand  

• • Silicon Valley investors seek to raise $27 million to fund Blueseed, a floating tech-world community 
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Atlas Shrugged  | Think of it as “Atlas Shrugged” meets “The Love Boat.” Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija have had it with government regulations standing in the way of technological progress. Discouraged by strict visa regulations that limit the number of high-tech temporary workers allowed in the United States each year, the two men looked to the sea for a solution and in 2011 came up with the idea for a community they call Blueseed.  

• • • Idaho State Senator thinks Ayn Rand should be required reading for high schoolers 
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Atheism  |Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Paul Ryan  |Personal life  |Image  | If one Idaho legislator had his way, every student in the state would be learning ‘personal responsibility’ from Ayn Rand. State Sen. John Goedde has introduced legislation that would require Idaho high schoolers to read and pass a test on Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” before graduating, The Spokesman-Review reported. “That book made my son a Republican,” Goedde said, when asked why Rand was his pick. Rand’s famous novel has been touted by conservatives like Rep. Paul Ryan and Rush Limbaugh for promoting freedom and personal accountability. [....] Despite conservatives’ embrace of Rand, the author wasn’t a model of their touted values. Not only was she an atheist who was pro-abortion, but she also hated Ronald Reagan.  

• • Glenn Beck is ‘going Galt’: Right-wing TV host unveils blueprints for $2 billion utopian 
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“I want to show you what I want to leave future generations,” Beck said as he showed off blueprints for Independence, USA, the wholesome town that he estimated would cost $2 billion to build. Taking inspiration from Ayn Rand and Walt Disney, Beck said the new community would be fully self-sufficient and would include a media center, expo park, ranch and residential area, all of which would signal “the rebirth of our nation through its own principles.”  

• How the right lost its imagination 
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Paul Ryan  | Today’s GOP practices fiscal policy as conceived by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity: no new taxes, cut social programs, leave the rich alone and let the poor suffer in silence. [....] [This] is the politics of a small man named Grover Norquist, who essentially dominates the entire Republican Party with his anti-tax pledge. It is the politics of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who dreams of a small government run by and for rich white men who read Ayn Rand before falling asleep.  

• • A post-election reading list 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Paul Ryan  | If you vote for Romney... ...and Romney wins: “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. Sort of an easy one, considering that Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan is an avowed Rand acolyte (though he has attenuated his affection for the strident Russian-born philosopher as his national exposure has risen). For many on the right, protagonist John Galt is the embodiment of can-do capitalism. Granted, it will be hard to ram a Randian worldview through a fractious Congress, but an objectivist can dream, can’t he?  

• Republican Party, heal thyself 
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Paul Ryan  | What we need as a nation is simple. We need to see actual logic enter the political ring. We need battlers with eloquent grit and internal fortitude. A Republican fighter who can do more than buy the nomination, as shape-shifting Romney did; who can do more than build a vision on the eggshell-thin ideas of Ayn Rand, as pretty boy Paul Ryan did.  

• • • Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand and the hypocrisy of the media 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Paul Ryan  |Image  | Now, Ryan certainly is a Rand devotee. He’s said as much. But so are most conservatives, who at least in some part profess an appreciation for Rand’s objectivism and her iconic treatise-cum-novel Atlas Shrugged. Whether or not his Randian applications to the economy make for the kinds of nefarious characterological implications that some are suggesting seems a little far-fetched.  

• • Paul Ryan’s imaginary expertise 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Paul Ryan  | Ryan’s views on monetary policy are, by his own admission, heavily influenced by Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” (In a 2005 speech, he said: “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.”)  

• • In wake of Obamacare victory, the Romney camp is licking its wounds 
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Ayn Rand Center  | ‘Supreme Court Supports Obamacare: American Freedom Strangled.' That was the headline of an Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights press release after the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act was announced. The Washington-based conservative group’s borderline hysterical statement could have been issued by any number of rightist organizations which, although still reeling from the severe — and unexpected — blow dealt to them by the court’s decision, rushed to send out all kinds of statements condemning it and vowing to keep fighting to repeal it.  

• Silicon Valley legend, PayPal founder Peter Thiel envisions floating cities off coast of California 
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The conceptual drawings of PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s vision look bogus and backwards - tall towers that could very well be part of Manhattan’s skyline constructed on floating “oil-rig-type platforms.” Millions of people reside there and answer to a government founded on Ayn Rand-inspired utopian and libertarian ideals.  

• Can the Smoker in Chief really lead America in health care reform? 
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As I approach my 10-year college reunion, it's clear that I missed a few classes that would have proved helpful. Those classes include "Leadership and Ethics" and "Ethical Theory," offered by the Program on Ethics and Public Life at my alma mater, Cornell University. See, I'm certain that at some point those classes would have covered the issue I've been grappling with recently, in which case I'd be able to tell you what Plato and Aristotle said about it. Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas, too. I bet you Hobbes and Locke have really super advice on this one. And you just know Ayn Rand would be all over it. [....] With President Obama making his final push for health care reform, I ask you to consider the following "If, Then" theorem: If our health is the President's business, then the President's health should be our business.  

• ‘BioShock 2’ proves to be simple run-of-the-mill sequel 
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Rapture is an extraordinary combination of art deco design, steam punk horror and failed Objectivist philosophy.  

• • Vocal ‘Stossel’ isn’t docile: Fox series to reflect his libertarian views 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | Quinnipiac University professor Richard Hanley says [John] Stossel's libertarian move is not shtick. "His record shows that he authentically believes in the sanctity of markets. His opening program [on Fox Business News] will celebrate the patron saint of unfettered capitalism, Ayn Rand, and her book 'Atlas Shrugged,'" Hanley says.  

• Pacifica has a project of historic proportions 
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[Pacifica Radio Archives director Brian DeShazor] went through some 800 tapes from 1968 and selected 105, featuring key figures like King, James Baldwin, John Lennon, Huey Newton, Ayn Rand and Joan Baez. The result, spanning politics and culture, is the 1968 Revolution Rewind collection. Much of it is available free at www.pacificaradioarchives.com.  

•Back to the drawing board 
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On plans by the producers of reality TV series "The Bachelor" to feature architects in its next season.
There's an undeniable sexiness to the field that reels women in. Think of Gary Cooper as Harold Roark in Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead," an idealistic architect who refuses to compromise his principles and thus sweeps Patricia Neal's married Dominique Francon off her feet.  

• •Bryant Park’s lit list 
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Gossip columnist asks NY Fashion Week attendees what they're reading.
"The Princess Diaries" star Anne Hathaway: "'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand. It's beautiful. Someone asked me actually recently how I was enjoying it. And I said it's not so much that I'm enjoying it, but I feel like someone took the thoughts of my heart and put it down on the page and I'm discovering it. To say I'm enjoying it is an understatement - I'm really discovering parts of myself in the novel. It's really amazing."