• • GOP love to play games 
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[The GOP] game plan was to do nothing and allow the sequestration to create a deeper desperation in this country. It's a dream come true for tea party-Ayn Rand followers — the chance to justify their claims that government doesn't work and they want self-rule. And the American public will again pay the price so that the 1 percent can claim the spoils in their transfer of wealth.  

• • • ‘Atlas’ column lacks intellectual heft 
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Atlas Shrugged  | The title on your Sunday opinion page (“Atlas Shrugged: Evil Alive”) drew my attention immediately. While I was not surprised to read Stephen Goldstein’s name on the byline, I was disappointed with the lack of intellectual vigor. I gave him more credit. To compare John Galt to the U.S Congress is laughable. Galt and his band of producers faced with tyranny and confiscation of property decide to go on a labor strike, “a strike of the mind.” If intellect is not the foundation for innovation and production, then the strikers will not be missed and production will continue uninterrupted – or will it? Congress produces nothing.  

• • • Stephen Goldstein: “Atlas Shrugged” evil alive and well 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Paul Ryan  |Rand Paul  | John Galt, the evil genius of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,” is “alive and well” roaming the halls of Congress. A figment of Rand’s imagination, Galt continues to do serious damage through any number of assorted tea party/GOP extremists, like Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and Rep. Eric Cantor. If, like most Americans, you’ve asked yourself how and why a radical minority of the GOP has refused to do business with the president, Democrats, and even members of their own party, no matter how dire the potential consequences for the country, the answer is simple: As latter-day John Galts, they are living out the plot of a work of fiction.  

• Patrick O'Connor: Show business fixture dies of pneumonia at 87 
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After careers in theater and TV, he spent more than 50 years working for more than a half-dozen publishing houses, including Pinnacle Books, New American Library and Warner Books. His authors included Ayn Rand and Andrew M. Greeley.  

• • • Paul Ryan — future president of the United States? 
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Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Capitalism  |Personal life  | [Ayn Rand] opposed all forms of welfare, unemployment insurance, support for the poor or middle class, any regulation of industry, and government expenditures for roads or other infrastructure. For her the only roles for government were law enforcement, defense and a court system. She argued that all taxation should be voluntary.  

• • • His strategy for the nation is delusional and frightening 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Paul Ryan  | I've had Paul Ryan on my mind for ages. My novel, "Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!," is a dystopia that paints a picture of free markets gone wild and the United States turned into the Corporate States of America by mean-spirited "captains of industry" who put profit over people. While I was writing it, I thought of people like Ryan, who idolize Rand and accept her preposterous (and poorly written) fiction as gospel truth. He used to give out copies of "Atlas Shrugged" as Christmas presents and try to make his Congressional interns read it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Romney would feel so desperate that he would choose so toxic a partner for his running mate.  

• • Does it take a village, or are we on our own? 
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Atheism  | A man who considers himself a good Christian should be taking his advice from Hillary, not Ayn Rand.  

• • • Atlas Shrugged or Atlas Drugged? 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Egoism  | Given her first-hand knowledge of leftist evils, it is not surprising [Ayn Rand] developed a countervailing philosophy, which she explored in "Atlas Shrugged." For Rand, life had a moral purpose, and it was not collectivist comradeship. Instead, it was "rational self-interest," with people pursuing their own happiness.  

• • • United States is suffering from Toxic Rand Syndrome 
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Alan Greenspan  |Atheism  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Egoism  | I want to thank Kingsley Guy for the kind words he has to say about my just-released novel, "Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!". [....] Of course, Kingsley is correct that the 240 fast-moving (some have said "hilarious") pages of my dystopia are a frontal attack on Rand's lumbering, badly written "Atlas Shrugged," a merciless 1068 pages in my paperback edition. And he accurately states that "Shrugged" is considered "Scripture by libertarians," a curious label for the work of an atheist but by no means an overstatement; Rand's acolytes worship her. And yet, her philosophy is nothing more than one woman's neurotic obsession with legitimizing unbridled greed, sanitizing it by calling it "rational self-interest" and objectivism, and glorifying it in works of fiction.  

• Florida knows all about the 1 percent 
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Capitalism  | In the post-Ayn Rand-Milton Friedman-supply-side-free-market-foolery-everyone-else-be-damned era of unbridled greed, none of the shocking details I’m about to tell you is supposed to matter. We’re told to sit back and put our abiding faith in the mystical magic of markets to solve our economic and social problems.  

• • Stephen Goldstein: Mean-spirited Republican agenda polarizes America 
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Atheism  |Egoism  | Racist, militaristic, theocratic, anti-immigrant, homophobic, anti-woman, anti-intellectual, greedy, anti-consumer, pro-gun — these 10 sorry, regressive, mean-spirited adjectives best brand the elements of the tea party/GOP's benighted platform. [....] Elect a Republican president and give his party control of one or both houses of Congress and you’ll endure their real agenda and a country no one — not even right-wing extremists — would want to live in. Consider the details and implications of “the 10,” individually and collectively — and recoil in horror. [....] 8. Greedy: The real Republican bible is “Atlas Shrugged,” atheist Ayn Rand’s justification for unbridled selfishness.  

• Stephen L. Goldstein: Why modern conservatives are way off base 
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Atheism  | Experiments at McGill University and the University of Chicago suggest that rats have empathy for each other. Perhaps they could supply the missing gene for tea party/GOP with conservatitis. Science has also proven that the neurochemical oxytocin makes people trustworthy and moral. So, it could be the basis for a vaccine to treat symptoms of conservatitis. For others, substituting Judeo-Christian teachings for the Godless rants of Ayn Rand may suffice.  

• • We the people: Sharing financial ideas with Congress 
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Atlas Shrugged  | The word on Red Street is that Ron Paul, our libertarian father, is already visiting Goodwill for picking out new dinge-colored drapes for the Oval Office. Later, as he takes the presidential oath of office, he will place his hand on a copy of “Atlas Shrugged.” We should anticipate a new federal holiday honoring Ayn Rand.  

• • The Heavy Pets carry that weight 
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Atlas Shrugged  | When I interviewed the band for the release of The Heavy Pets, Lloyd made sure to mention how much more attention the band had been paying to vocal harmonies, a fact that paid off by Friday night’s show, which featured great harmonies between Garulli and Lloyd, particularly on the medley of Ayn Rand-celebrating tunes, “Song for John” and “John Galt.”  

• Smaller government is not the answer 
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Individualism  | When I lived in Michigan, there was a morning radio show that began each day with a child’s voice saying “I love my country, but I fear my government.” This reflected the libertarianism/objectivism popularized by President Reagan in the 80s with his “Starve the beast” approach to running the country. Long before Reagan, when I was still in college, this sort of thinking was labeled nihilist or anarchist. Today, these people may wrap themselves in the American flag and call themselves tea partiers or libertarians, but they are all merely the intellectual descendants of misbegotten anti-government bomb-throwers of the 1920s and 30s.  

• Local book news 
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[The Literary Feast] has become a nationally known event since it began 22 years ago. Authors this year include Russell Banks, "The Reserve"; R.B. Bernstein, "The Founding Fathers Reconsidered"; Deborah Crombie, "Necessary as Blood"; Joy Fielding, "The Wild Zone"; Anne C. Heller, "Ayn Rand and the World She Made" [....] and L. Jon Wertheim, "Strokes of Genius".  

• Highland Beach issue all about class envy 
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Letter to the editor.
For years, liberal local officials have denied building projects using the "environmental" card. Private citizens have been denied property rights to "protect the midget mouse." Of course, the real purpose was to jealously keep private property from being developed and instead force the owners to keep it as "open space." [....] There are lots of public beaches for all to enjoy, and before you go, pick up an Ayn Rand book to read while you are there.  

• Gaming is serious business 
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The video game BioShock, which has story lines revolving around a failed utopia, has been likened to the novels by social critic Ayn Rand.  

• • Businesspeople are true heroes of the local economy 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | Heroes don't always wear capes and battle super-villains. Sometimes they walk among us. The philosopher Ayn Rand knew this every time she looked at an audience of powerful faces and said: "You are the true heroes!"  

• • Letter writer misreads Ayn Rand’s message 
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Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  | Letter to the editor.
The writer of the Nov. 28 letter, "Winning at any price is the creed," who referred to Ayn Rand's "theories of greed and selfishness," obviously has never read Ayn Rand for himself, or if he did, he failed to understand a single word. Ayn Rand's two greatest works, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, are about hard work, integrity, intellectual honesty, overcoming obstacles and the inherent right to the fruits of one's own ideas. She writes in the most minute detail, intentionally leaving no wiggle-room for erroneous interpretation.