This is pretty amusing, though it was, of course, only a matter of time:
In 2005, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue”. The New Republic wrote:Despite Ryan’s newly-professed distaste for Rand, were she alive today, she would likely applaud Ryan for his draconian GOP budget, which cuts food stamps and other programs for the poor, ends Medicare as we know it, gives $3 trillion in tax breaks for corporations and the rich, and raises taxes on the poorest Americans.“The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”
Ryan also noted in a 2003 interview with the Weekly Standard, “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.”
But today, Ryan is singing a far different tune.
From an interview with National Review’s Bob Costa this week:
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.
Who's next to be expunged? Ronald Reagan?
Yeah, go figure, another politician flip-flopping. I think Ryan looks like Eddie Munster. Ha.. I'm quite certain I read somewhere that Ayn Rand was also believer in "open" relationships, and to that extent back in the day, had some sort of an intimate relationship with Alan Greenspan? I find this interesting, almost incestuousness, given the rights fascination with Rand, Ryan's flip-flopping, and Greenspan's enormous contribution to our economic collapse of 08. Hmmm... all this reminds me that sometimes the words disgusting and immoral can be uttered in the same breath as orgy. This is all conjures an ugly picture in my minds eye... with Eddie Munster brandishing a whip.
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