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To: Donald Rumsfeld Fan
Very succinct explanation of the socialist mind set. I wonder if he ever read Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged'?

Here's the link to the Liberty article. It seems he did read AS, along with a ton of other free-market books:

I stumbled into reading Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand — I read all of them. I said to myself, "Wow, this all makes sense. This is how the world really works. This is incredible." Then I became Laissez Faire Books' best customer for the next five years. I think I read every book in their catalog. If any of you in the audience have written books, I have probably read them.

...

How many of you have read Ayn Rand? How many of you have been influenced by her? "Atlas Shrugged" remains one of the five greatest novels I have ever read. Who can ever forget characters like Dagny Taggart, Hank Rearden, Francisco d'Anconia, from "Atlas Shrugged," as well as Howard Roark in "The Fountainhead"? These characters all demonstrated tremendous passions and drive, backed by high self-esteem. Each one inspired this young entrepreneur. I wanted to be just like those heroic characters in "Atlas Shrugged."

However, despite her literary greatness and many positive contributions to the freedom movement, I believe that Rand has also harmed the movement. How? She was overly...

...you'll have to read the article to find out. :-) I haven't read most of it yet - I printed it out for me & hubby to peruse tonight. It seems he's one of those aging-hippie libertarians many of us former LP'ers knew & loved. (Granted, he's an aging hippie libertarian who's the CEO of a $5 billion company, LOL!)

Anyway, this paragraph is truly inspiring:

What I love most about the freedom movement are the ideas of voluntary cooperation and spontaneous order when channeled through free markets, leading to the continuous evolution and progress of humanity. I believe that individual freedom in free markets, when combined with property rights through rule of law and ethical democratic government, results in societies that maximize prosperity and establish conditions that promote human happiness and well-being.

31 posted on 06/13/2006 3:57:59 PM PDT by jennyp (WHAT I'M READING NOW: "Code" by Petzold)
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To: jennyp
Oops, proper HTML formatting, Jenny. <wraps own knuckes>

Here's the link to the Liberty article.

32 posted on 06/13/2006 4:00:42 PM PDT by jennyp (WHAT I'M READING NOW: "Code" by Petzold)
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To: jennyp
stumbled into reading Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand — I read all of them. I said to myself, "Wow, this all makes sense. This is how the world really works. This is incredible."

. I read all those authors in my youth (good stuff). But the person that had the biggest impact on my thinking was Barry Goldwater (senator Arizona).


33 posted on 06/13/2006 5:50:06 PM PDT by Donald Rumsfeld Fan ("fake but accurate": NY Times)
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