Dear The New Republic:

Next time you run an article like "I Was a Teenage Objectivist"  (h/t Batocchio)

Though the stories are out in force now that he is the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, I could already tell that Paul Ryan was an admirer of Objectivism (though recently renounced). After all, his signature budget proposal is, per the title of one Krugman column, “ludicrous and cruel.” From personal experience, I can attest that ludicrousness and cruelty are two of the very hallmarks of Objectivism.  

Of course, I didn’t know that when I first picked up Ayn Rand’s books—her most popular novel, The Fountainhead, and her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged—as a misguided high school kid.Indeed, I was the type of young person for whom Rand’s wacky gumbo of libertarianism, anti-communism, atheism, self-help and trickle-down economics makes a lot of sense. I was the poster child for Nora Ephron’s maxim about The Fountainhead—that “it is better read when one is young enough to miss the point.” 

In my case, I was an introverted only child of a military family who had moved to Northern Virginia from a base in rural England in the middle of eighth grade...

please see me first and let me hook you up with some better artwork. 


From "He Was A Teenage Libertarian":

   

“...they turned to prayer, beseechingthat the sin which had been committedmight be wholly blotted out.” 

-- 2 Maccabees. 12:42 

...

Seriously, I don't bite,  play well with others, I'm in your price range and I know how to meet a deadline.