There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-kld’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.
This has been around for awhile, but rings true. When I was in Junior High School kids who were in the Honor Society would read Atlas Shrugged to show they could handle a long book. Most of them later realized it was poorly written and intellectual claptrap and that was that. Lord of the Rings was long as a series, much more expertly written and intellectually deeper (not that it is terribly deep).
Jim notes Paul Ryan's speech to the Ayn Rand Society... he is certainly bent on destroying social programs. Of course, now that he is with Romney, he is claiming he isn't a follower of Rand, but he still requires staff to read her. I guess he is capable of change now that he admits maybe his sub 3 hour marathon may have been part of a poor memory.
Romney, in picking Ryan, executed a McCain-like Hail Mary.... We'll have to see how sound his judgement was.
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