Another fun fact, via Reddit, and Daily Kos: “…In 2011, news broke that notorious libertarian/objectivist Ayn Rand had accepted Social Security and Medicare in the 1970s after she was diagnosed with lung cancer (unsurprisingly she was a cigarette-cancer connection denier)…”

Update: Bonus quotes:

“I don’t think there’s any need to have essays advocating selfishness among human beings; I don’t know what your impression has been, but some things require no further reinforcement.” – Christopher Hitchens

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.” ~ John Rogers

~

Can I get an “amen”:

Rolling Stone: What do you think Paul Ryan’s obsession with her work would mean if he were vice president?

Barack Obama: Well, you’d have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we’d pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we’re only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else … that’s a pretty narrow vision. It’s not one that, I think, describes what’s best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a “you’re on your own” society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party.

~

Modern (not traditional, moderate) Republicans, and the Grover Norquists of the world, talk about government as an evil to be starved and drowned in a bathtub. Yes, literally.

But back in the day, not so far away, public service was considered an honor, and it must be again: serving the commonwealth, the common good, is messy and difficult but noble and worth working at. I was reminded of this the other day, when voting (with my elephriend Amy Ippoliti)…the sweetness of the folks taking our early vote ballots, the delight and honor of that moment: doing our most basic duty as citizens…public service and the role of government can and must be to, together, do what we can not do singly. Independence and entrepreneurship are vital—I’m one, after all—but we do not build our success on our own.

We are all connected in fact and in compassion, and responsible for our own success or failure, both. ~ Waylon Lewis, ed.