Saturday, April 18, 2015

7 politicians who praised Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand discusses the film 'Song of Russia' before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C., Oct. 20, 1947. | AP Photo
A handful of lawmakers have voiced support for the Russian-born novelist.

Rep. Paul Ryan once credited the philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand as “the reason I got involved in public service,” but this week he’s singing a new tune, telling the National Review’s Robert Costa, “I reject her philosophy.”

Here are seven other politicians who have talked up Rand:

1. No, Sen. Rand Paul wasn’t named after Ayn Rand, but the Kentucky Republican told supporters in 2009 that he “cut [his] teeth on Ayn Rand in high school” and has read all of her novels.

2. In a 1966 letter, Ronald Reagan wrote, “Am an admirer of Ayn Rand …”

3. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson calls “Atlas Shrugged” his “foundational book,” and the Republican said in a 2010 debate the novel is “a warning of what could happen to America.”

4. Like his son Rand, Rep. Ron Paul went through an Ayn Rand phase.

In 2007, he told Dartmouth students that “she had a lot of influence on me,” but he has also criticized her take on religion and Christianity as seeming “so cold.”

5. Each year, Justice Clarence Thomas hosts a screening of the 1949 film version of Rand’s novel, “The Fountainhead,” for his four new law clerks.

6. Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and current Libertarian candidate for president, gave his fiancée a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” when they started dating, and told her, “If you want to understand me, read this.”

7. Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford penned an essay for Newsweek, “Atlas Hugged,” just months after his affair was exposed in 2009.

He said he was “blown away” by Rand’s novels in the ’80s, but “since then, I’ve grown more critical of Rand’s outlook because it doesn’t include the human needs we have for grace, love, faith, or any form of social compact.”

Abortion
 
Abortion is a made up issue designed to coalesce a right-wing political movement. 
 
It isn’t even mentioned in the Bible unless you consider the obvious implications of the ordeal of the bitter water in Numbers 5.

Everyone has a right to make their own decisions about abortion and we believe if someone is against it they shouldn't have one. 
 
No one has the right to impose their beliefs on this topic on others, especially when right-wing Biblical interpretations are fabricated for political purposes. 

Most
conservative "Christians" won't read won't read any further than this. 
 
They just can't handle hearing something that could bring down their entire psychological house of cards. 
 
That means it's up to us to educate ourselves and educate those around us who will listen.
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It's very interesting to note that in Jewish law and tradition an unborn fetus is not considered a person (Heb. nefesh, lit. “soul”) until it has been born. 
 
The fetus is regarded as a part of the mother’s body and not a separate being until it begins to egress from the womb during parturition (childbirth).

Things haven't always been the way they are now with American Christianity.

A 1968 a symposium sponsored by the Christian Medical Society and Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of evangelicalism, refused to characterize abortion as sinful, citing 'individual health, family welfare, and social responsibility' as justifications for ending a pregnancy.

In 1973, Wallie Amos ‘W. A.’ Criswell, President of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970, had this to say:

“I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed."

Enter con-man Paul Weyrich, the late religious conservative political activist, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, and Godfather of The “Christian” Right, who literally shopped various issues trying to galvanize a conservative “Christian” movement.

His hypothetical “moral majority” needed a catalyst—a standard around which to rally. 
 
For nearly two decades, Weyrich, by his own account, had been trying out different issues, hoping one might pique evangelical interest: pornography, prayer in schools, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, even abortion. 
 
“I was trying to get these people interested in those issues and I utterly failed,” Weyrich recalled at a conference in 1990.

The 1978 Senate races demonstrated to Weyrich and others that abortion might motivate conservatives where it hadn’t in the past. 
 
He saw his opening and he never looked back. 
 
He and his buddies Francis Schaeffer, Jerry Falwell, Richard Viguerie, and others were off and running in the creation of The "Christian" Right.
This article in Politico explains the entire early ugly history in great detail. 
 
It is a must read. 
 
 ... As you will learn, abortion was just a ploy to rally a herd mentality. 
 
Bigotry was the real motivation behind the madness of Paul Weyrich and his bunch.
There are of course many other facets to this story. 
 
Frank Schaeffer picks up where Politico left off in his book,

"Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back."

Frank's book is another "must read" for seekers of the Truth.

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In the past 5 years South Carolina police have 
fired their weapons at 209 people and not one
officer has been convicted.
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Dear Dot,

Last Saturday, South Carolina Police​ Officer Michael Slager shot Walter Scott eight times—killing him—and then immediately began the cover up.

Officer Slager moved evidence around and lied on the record about what actually happened.

If it weren’t for video footage released by the New York Times a few days later, he probably would’ve gotten away with it.

But since the release of the video Slager has both been fired and indicted with murder charges.

Yesterday a donation drive was started on Indiegogo to raise money for Officer Slager in the aftermath of Walter Scott’s murder. So far five fundraising pages have been created and Indiegogo is refusing to take them down, which is outrageous.

Demand that Indiegogo remove these disturbing and hurtful fundraisers from their platform, which enable Officer Slager to profit from killing an unarmed Black man.

Indiegogo is defending the fundraising drive by using language that we’re all too familiar with.

The company is claiming that they’re an “open” platform and that they "don’t judge the content of campaigns."

But we know that there is no such thing as a neutral technology platform.  

By allowing a fundraising drive in support of a killer cop who lied to avoid charges, Indiegogo is taking a stand. Instead of standing on the side of justice and decency, they’re standing with those who fail to acknowledge the policing crisis Black and brown people face in America.

Walter Scott’s horrific death doesn’t stand alone.

In the past 5 years South Carolina police have fired their weapons at 209 people and not one officer has been convicted.

This is a harrowing statistic.

That’s why ColorOfChange members in North Charleston and across the country are rising up to demand an end to discriminatory police violence.

With our nation paying more attention to policing than it has in years, now is the time to hold Indiegogo accountable.

They must do what's right and put an end to campaigns that endorse anti-Black police violence.

Last year we launched a campaign targeting GoFundMe after they made a similar argument about being a “neutral technology platform.”

GoFundMe failed to take down a fundraising drive in support of Darren Wilson, which raised over $430,000 and which the company profited from.

But after 130K ColorOfChange members spoke up--and after a couple months of consistent pressure--GoFundMe donated these profits to the Ferguson-Florissant school district.

Months later we know that GoFundMe remembers our campaign.

When a similar Michael Slager fundraiser was started on their platform this week, GoFundMe took it down immediately. This is the power of collective action. When we act together, we win.

These kinds of fundraising drives on the most popular platforms cannot be allowed to stand.

They send the exact wrong​ ​kind of message.

That you will be supported and even celebrated in the aftermath of taking Black lives.

​We must put an end to them once and for all.

Thanks and peace,
—Arisha, Rashad, Matt, and Bhavik
   for the ColorOfChange team