Wealthcare | The New Republic
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/wealthcare-0

Jonathan Chait, 09/14/09, The New Republic takes AR seriously in a long art (c. 5,000 words?), ostensibly a review of Burns and Heller's books. Lousy article, but Chait gets some imp things right: says AR is different in regarding redistribution wrong, not in practical terms, but moral terms. But stresses that the moral issue is the virtuous and productive being sacrificed to the lazy and immoral. Says she has been very influential among the right.

On Ayn Rand's legacy and the American right: "Ayn Rand's novels tend to strike their readers with the power of revelation, and they are read less like fiction and more like self-help literature, like spiritual guidance. Again and again, readers would write Rand to tell her that their encounter with her work felt like having their eyes open for the first time in their lives... The likes of Gale Norton, George Gilder, Charles Murray, and many others have cited Rand as an influence. Rand acolytes such as Alan Greenspan and Martin Anderson have held important positions in Republican politics. "What she did--through long discussions and lots of arguments into the night--was to make me think why capitalism is not only efficient and practical, but also moral," attested Greenspan. In 1987, The New York Times called Rand the "novelist laureate" of the Reagan administration. Reagan's nominee for commerce secretary, C. William Verity Jr., kept a passage from Atlas Shrugged on his desk."

I feel kind of like having some sort of stroke upon reading these, but man, they are *perfect*. ... except I'm still honestly not sure they're real? THEY'RE JUST TOO PERFECT.

I want to meet a serious woman who both challenges me intellectually and inspires me to noble things by her beauty.

Mocking TheAtlasphere.com

The comments are quite excellent too, especially pauls101 comparing Marx's and Rand's flaws of abstraction.

Two weeks ago, Ayn Rand aficionado Alan Greenspan admitted to a House subcommittee that his libertarian economic worldview had been shaken by events on Wall Street; last week, Governor Paterson approvingly cited Rand’s advocacy of stout individualism, which he says citizens of New York State will need during the budget crisis. Meanwhile, on TheAtlasphere.com, a dating site, Rand fans are just looking for love; below, excerpts from user profiles. Lewis, London, U.K. I love intelligent, sassy girls, particularly those working in consulting or investment banking (but other fields are great too). Really, nothing is hotter than an accomplished girl in a suit, as long as she is willing to settle down and have my children. I want a girl who will support my ambitions against the naysayers in society.