Fussbudget

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all
 

Nice article from New Yorker on Paul Ryan – this quote from the article talks about his Ayn Rand influence. Ryan is so clearly on the side of 'selfishness as a virtue' as espoused by Rand -- I can't imagine this being a good choice except that it satisfies the conservative base who don't really care for Romney.

Like many conservatives, he claims to have been profoundly affected by Ayn Rand. After reading “Atlas Shrugged,” he told me, “I said, ‘Wow, I’ve got to check out this economics thing.’ What I liked about her novels was their devastating indictment of the fatal conceit of socialism, of too much government.” He dived into Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman.

In a 2005 speech to a group of Rand devotees called the Atlas Society, Ryan said that Rand was required reading for his office staff and interns. “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,” he told the group. “The fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of individualism versus collectivism.”