• Romney Court Could Turn America Into A Tea Party Utopia: Experts 
,
Tim Jost, a liberal law professor at Washington & Lee University, warns that the Roberts Court has already, to a still unknown extent, limited Washington’s authority over federal-state programs and the regulation of interstate commerce. [....] But Jost doubts that a Romney-shaped Court would rapidly make radical changes. “I suppose it’s conceivable that we would go back to a sort of Ayn Rand situation where Congress really had no power to do anything but provide for the national defense and a few other specifically enumerated powers in the Constitution,” he said. “But boy that would be a radical change. I don’t know if we’re getting there anytime soon.”  

• • Paul Ryan Hits Back At Catholic Critics Of His Budget 
,
Atheism  |Capitalism  |Paul Ryan  |Inaccurate  | Ahead of Ryan’s speech, 90 faculty members at Catholic-affiliated Georgetown wrote a letter lambasting Ryan for “continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families,” among other things. “In short, your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ,” they wrote. In a sign that the criticism bruised Ryan, he proceeded to label his well-documented affinity for Rand an “urban legend” in an interview with National Review published Thursday, saying he rejects her “atheist philosophy.” He did not, however, comment on Rand’s anti-government views that more closely reflect his political philosophy.  

• • • Atlas Shrugged Producers Replace ‘Embarrassing’ DVD Covers That Say Movie Is About ‘Self-Sacrice’ 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Egoism  |Image  | The producers of the film version of “Atlas Shrugged: Part One” apologized for an “embarrassing” error on the DVD cover that described the theme of their adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel as one of “self-sacrifice.” As disciples of Rand, one of libertarianism’s heroes, are supposed to know, Atlas Shrugged is actually all about “rational self-interest.”  

• Priebus Toasts Wis. Recalls: ‘We Need To Have A Country Of Makers, And Not A ... 
,
Atlas Shrugged  | Republican National Committee chairman and Wisconsin native Reince Priebus is very upbeat about the results of Tuesday’s state Senate recalls, in which Republicans were able to retain their majority. And what’s more, he says it presents a valuable lesson -- and a pocket-sized John Galt speech -- for the whole nation.  

• • • The Tea Party’s Atlas Shrugged: TPM goes to the movies 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Individual Rights  |Image  |Video  | What do you get when you cross Tea Party politics with a movie adaptation of a critically-panned but bestselling dystopian novel from the 50s? TPM went to see Atlas Shrugged: Part One on Friday and found the answer: Nothing good.  

• • • Rand Paul gives Senate lesson in Ayn Rand and light bulbs 
,
Anthem  |The Fountainhead  |Individualism  |Rand Paul  |Video  | Just call him Sen. The Unconquered. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke on Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, against government plans to phase out the incandescent light bulb in favor of the newer compact fluorescents. And in this speech -- promoted by his office in a press release entitled “Sen. Paul Rails Against the Collective” -- he borrowed from none other than the writings of Ayn Rand, whose early novel Anthem featured the light bulb as a plot device.  

• • How Glenn Beck and Fox News successfully painted AZ shooter as Hitler, Marx devotee 
,
We The Living  | [Jared Loughner’s] YouTube page [...] listed both Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto among his favorite books. It also listed Ayn Rand’s first novel We the Living, though there’s no viral online meme depicting Loughner as an Objectivist. Peter Pan and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz are also on there, though Loughner’s not widely known today as a fan of children’s literature.  

• ‘The Tea Party goes to Washington’: Rand Paul inks book deal 
,
In a series of letters, op-eds and columns in the daily newspaper at Baylor University, the young [Rand] Paul showed himself to be a strict libertarian with an almost religious devotion to author Ayn Rand.  

• • Rand Paul, college scribe: Keep government out of everything 
,
The Fountainhead  | Ever heard of Ayn Rand? The young [Rand] Paul was quite a fan. In this piece, he goes on and on about The Fountainhead and its main character Howard Roark. Roark is “the man who refuses to recant,” Paul wrote. “The Galileo who stands aloof, challenging society’s circumscribed vision.” If such a thing is possible, the column gets more Rand fanboy from there.  

• • Who is John Galt? The new star of Wisconsin Senate race debate! 
,
Atlas Shrugged  |Ron Johnson  | Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and his Republican opponent, businessman Ron Johnson, met last night for a debate, with topics ranging from health care to outside ad spending to...Atlas Shrugged. That’s right. A U.S. Senate debate ended up including a discussion on the 1957 novel by Ayn Rand, about a world where business owners and innovators rebel against and abandon a society that over-regulated them and redistributed their earnings. Johnson, who is himself a plastics manufacturer, has cited it as a favorite book of his.