Are politicians and judges what they read?

Senator-elect Rand Paul is a “big fan” of Ayn Rand, the ultimate novelist for the greed-is-good crew—even though he assures us that his first name is just short for “Randal.” Check out Paul on YouTube.

I’ve long known about Ayn Rand and another admirer—Alan Greenspan, the ex-Fed chairman. But here’s a new one for me. A 2004 biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas depicts Thomas as enough of a Rand worshipper to make his law clerks sit through showings of The Fountainhead, so they can admire uber-individualist Howard Roak. Here’s other information on Rand and Thomas—one of her many celebrity fans.

Meanwhile an antisemitic blogger alerts God-fearing gentiles that Ayn Rand was an evil Jewish subversive intent on destroying Christian America by making it less community-spirited (no link here, since the Scandals blog is a member in good standing of the Zionist Conspiracy). Of course. Just what else would you expect with her real name of Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum? Oh, the need for vigilance! Could “Paul” (photo) really be “Paulosky”?

The scary thing is what politicians, Fed Reserve chairs and judges will be like after they read my book.

Detail—probably obvious: The “Similar Posts” feature below is generated by cybernetic elves rather than an old-fashioned human—hence, some weirdly selected links.

(Thanks to Beth Wellington for the Thomas find. In a political-finance-law context, she also has a few words to share about yet another Ayn worshipper, Clarence Thomas’s wife, Virginia, aka Ginni. Could Justice Thomas’ donations-related rulings have been tainted by a conflict of interest? Also see a related Maureen Dowd column.)