The original and ongoing popularity of my post from from last year, Socialism’s Lying Promise, as well as the headlines that crop up every day it seems (see this for example) have led me to do two things.

I’m rereading “Atlas Shrugged” in its entirety as opposed to skimming the book and digging into my favorite parts and I’ve added a new category to the blog for references and so I can post excerpts that I find particularly valuable.

Today’s AS gem is:

“When I die, I hope to go to heaven - whatever the hell that is - and I want to be able to afford the price of admission.”

“Virtue is the price of admission,” Jim said haughtily.

“That’s what I mean, James. So I want to be prepared to claim the greatest virtue of all - that I was a man who made money.”

“Any grafter can make money.”

“James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning.”

Francisco smiled; it was a smile of radiant mockery. Watching them, Dagny thought suddenly of the difference between Francisco and her brother Jim. Both of them smiled derisively. But Francisco seemed to laugh at things because he saw something much greater. Jim laughed as if he wanted to let nothing remain great.

Atlas Shrugged, Chapter 5 - The Climax of the D’Anconias

I think of stuff like this when I hear the President talk down to Tea Partiers, when I hear the President tell men like Joe the Plumber he has to take their money for the good of others and when I read that states’ biggest revenue stream is Federal tax dollars. The Looters and Moochers despise the Producers, men who make money, as greedy and selfish. Yet they cannot wait, and go to great lengths, to get their hands on that very money all the while claiming they will use it better than the folks who actually value it enough to make it. The hypocrisy and megalomania of those laying a moral claim to the results of another man’s life are breathtaking.

Cross posted from Blue Collar Muse