• Sen. Johnson: Obama health law ‘greatest assault on our freedom’ 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Ron Johnson  | Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Monday that President Obama's signature healthcare law is the greatest threat to liberty in his lifetime. Johnson, an outspoken conservative, said he ran for Senate mostly out of opposition to the Affordable Care Act. He criticized the law in an interview with the Atlas Society, a think tank inspired by the Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."  

• Ron Paul says farewell, Elizabeth Warren says hello, Mitt Romney says drop dead 
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As I have written before, I very much regret that Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has decided to leave the Congress. I have always applauded his campaign for openness at the Federal Reserve Board and his support for bringing back Glass-Steagall (though I have strongly disagreed with his Ayn Rand-inspired philosophy on other matters). Ron Paul always brings integrity, honor, important ideas and good spirit to our political discourse.  

• • • Ron Paul is the real Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan is the impostor 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Paul Ryan  | Watching Paul Ryan whine about the injustices of the supposedly evil liberal media, while other conservative and partisan Republicans whine about the supposedly evil rigged liberal polls, I thought of Ayn Rand. Didn't Mitt Romney recently castigate much of the nation for failing to take personal responsibility? Give Ron Paul credit for this: Agree with him or not, at least he does some justice to the philosophy of Rand and the concept of taking responsibility. As for Paul Ryan, if Ayn Rand ever heard Ryan's whining about the media, she would give him a serious spanking and demand a refund of her campaign donation.  

• • Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and the party of Ayn Rand 
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Capitalism  |Egoism  |Paul Ryan  | Paul Ryan is no Jack Kemp.  Kemp fervently offered policies to help the poor and blue collar workers. Paul Ryan fervently offers polices to hurt the poor and cites Catholicism as his source. He fervently offers attacks against programs that help the middle class, such as Medicare and Social Security, and cites Ayn Rand.  Romney's choice of Ryan makes it official: Republicans are a subsidiary of the cult of Ayn Rand, self-interest and greed.  The election is now between Romney-Ryan, the candidates of change that voters dislike (apologies to the delusional right) against Obama, the candidate of a status quo that voters do not like (which is why Obama's slogan is not "four more years").  

• • Rep. West: Liberals believe in a ‘hammock,’ not a ‘safety net’ 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Video  | There is a lot of talk about economic “safety nets” these days, but according to Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), what liberals really mean by that is “hammock.” “Conservatives believe that every person who comes to America or is born here, they have a ladder that they are given as their birthright,” he said in an interview with The Atlas Society released on Wednesday. [....] He spoke highly of the controversial novel that inspired the name of the organization. “I think that ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is the most widely read book second only to the Bible, which is a good thing,” West claimed of the 1957 ode to objectivism by Ayn Rand. He said he is hopeful that people are “waking up” to the idea that the government is “trying to subsume those things that the individual should be seeking to do for themselves.”  

• • If you like JP Morgan's $2 billion loss, you will like Mitt Romney and love Ron Paul 
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Capitalism  | We are reminded yet again why the economic policies of Ron Paul might be fine for Austria in a previous century or fascinating in books by Ayn Rand that glorify greed but are disastrous for America, where growth should be gloried, greed should be condemned, Mitt Romney should be defeated and Ron Paul’s economics should be ignored.  

• Mitt Romney and Ron Paul: The vulture capitalist, the vulture ideologue and the war against women 
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Atheism  |Capitalism  | Romney and Paul are the vulture capitalist twins. Romney made his fortune that way. The man with the Swiss bank account and the elevator for his cars who rides with his dog on his roof was responsible for big layoffs in pursuit of vulture profits. The man who put his name on corrupted newsletters that included talk of race wars and proudly champions his admiration for the atheist Ayn Rand would decimate and destroy programs that help women and workers while advocating his brand of vulture capitalism.  

• Catholic bishops criticize Ryan budget for hurting the poor 
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Atheism  | Reasonable people can disagree about the best means to help the poor, but it is fraud and folly to hurt the poor and use Jesus as a rationale. Especially from those who proclaim their adoration of the proud atheist Ayn Rand.  

• • What Hilary Rosen, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Ayn Rand have in common 
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Capitalism  |Egoism  | Ron Paul would probably secretly adore Rosen, for reasons his hero Ayn Rand and his idols the Austrian economists would appreciate: their shared adoration of the glory of the selfish, the cult of self-indulgence and the creed of greed in all forms.  

• • Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Ron Paul champion the exceptionalism of greed 
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Atheism  |Capitalism  |Paul Ryan  | True faith is exemplified by the Sermon on the Mount, not the cult of greed championed by the atheist Ayn Rand and turned into the policies of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Ron Paul.  

• Rep. Justin Amash meshes his civil-libertarian bent with fiscal conservatism 
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In his effort to redefine conservative success in Congress, 31-year-old freshman Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) invites comparison with the House’s best-known libertarian — Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). [....] The walls of Amash’s office are scattered with the portraits of the heroes of classical liberalism — a vein of conservative thought that forms the foundation for most libertarianism. Near a poster of author Ayn Rand is an autograph from F.A. Hayek, the Nobel-prize-winning economist and prominent defender of free-market economics who died in 1992.  

• Mitt Romney’s secret weapon: Ron Paul 
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Perry looks like a far more authentic conservative while Paul looks increasingly like a phony libertarian. No legitimate libertarian would act like a shill for the Romney campaign. Even Ayn Rand must be turning in her grave at the serial hypocrisy of Paul's help for Romney!  

• • How Obama can win big 
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Atheism  |Capitalism  | While Republicans defend economic disparities with adoration of ancient Austrian economists and the proud atheist “libertarian” Ayn Rand, who attacked Ronald Reagan and called John Kennedy the same names Republicans now call Barack Obama — Obama battles for patriotic capitalism, “Made in the USA” jobs, pay equity for women, and a spirit of shared purpose and success.  

• • What do abused dogs and laid-off workers have in common? 
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Atheism  |Capitalism  | Republicans are big on faith (as I am) so the teachings of Jesus should have some relevance to the policies we promote (though Republican conservative devotees of Ayn Rand would vehemently disagree). [....] Let us have this debate with serious discussion of the creative destruction theory of Joseph Shumpeter, the teachings of Jesus Christ on matters of faith, the philosophy of the atheist laissez-faire libertarian Ayn Rand and her conservative Republican disciples, and the modern facts and challenges of the American and global economy.  

• Ron Paul supports Romney on ‘vulture’ layoffs. Shame! 
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Capitalism  | Ron Paul can be brilliant at analyzing the bad brew of business greed and crony capitalism, but in the end, this Ayn Rand disciple of laissez-faire libertarianism is a leading champion of the very greed and crony capitalism he rhetorically speaks against. Shame, shame, shame.  

• • Ron Paul should apologize for racist newsletter comments 
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Capitalism  | This is my problem with this Ayn Rand notion that government should be destroyed as a referee that protects people from abuse, that free enterprise should rule alone, and that private citizens should take responsibility for their actions. If Ron Paul wants others to take responsibility for their actions, he should take responsibility for his.  

• • Ron Paul and Rick Perry lobbied for energy subsidies they oppose in Republican reign of hypocrisy 
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Perhaps Ayn Rand would say that libertarians aren’t what they used to be, though more likely she would say go for the gold, and never give a sucker an even break, which is the story of Republicans today.  

• • The bailed out-bankers’ boys: Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Chris Christie and friends 
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Atheism  |Inaccurate  | At least Ron Paul sincerely believes his views, which would crash the economy. Paul is a devotee of the great advocate of Darwinian cruelty against everyone but the rich, Ayn Rand, who was also the favorite proud atheist of many conservative Republicans.  

• • Will Rick Perry pray for Wisconsin Republican losers? 
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Atheism  |Paul Ryan  | In the first of two big events coming soon, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) will host a prayer event at which I hope he joins Jesus in calling for help for the poor, the hurting, the needy, the jobless and the homeless. Will Perry side with Jesus? Or will Perry side with Ayn Rand, the hardcore atheist so admired by Ron Paul, Paul Ryan and many other Republicans?  

• • Rick Perry and Ayn Rand versus Democrats and Jesus 
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Atheism  | The politics of the Rick Perry right are not the politics of Jesus, but the politics of Ayn Rand, a proud atheist who believed John F. Kennedy was a fascist. Do Rand’s Republican disciples agree with, or disagree with, her fervent atheism? [....] Like most Democrats, I’ll take Jesus every day before Ayn Rand. This is what faith and values are all about, and if Perry wants to argue the contrary, go ahead, make my day.