“I’ve never sought anything for myself. Miss Taggart, I can proudly say that in all of my life, I have never made a profit!” Her voice was quiet, steady and solemn: “Mr. Lawson, I think I should let you know that of all the statements a man can make, that is the one I consider most despicable.”

I’m about 300 pages into Atlas Shrugged at this point and it’s a bit disheartening to see that I’ve come so far and still have not passed a third of the way through this contrived drivel about the wealthy industrialists who toil relentlessly to complete their visions of grandeur and are rewarded by having their teats suckled greedily by the the rest of society who then turns around and complains bitterly about the ego-enriched milk. I do know however, who the first person to go Galt was. Her editor.

This is just pure capitalist pr0n. I really thought that the book was going to be a bit more subtle with Rand’s objectivist’s message slowly peaking its head out as the book goes on like a selfish turtle. But Rand is as subtle as shaving with a chainsaw. And without any shaving cream at that. There’s no middle ground. Everybody is either a pinko Marxist commie socialist or Donald Trump but with a larger ego.

“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.”

The first part of the book deals with the Taggert Transcontinental Railroad which was founded a couple of generations ago by Nat Taggert who would rather put his wife up for collateral on a private loan than accept a non-wife-whoring loan from the government. Because in this universe, using people as collateral is morally superior than accepting publicly funded money. Jim Taggert inherits the railroad and becomes president while his sister, Dagney, claws her way up through the ranks. Dagney has the guts to make decisions which explains her fast rise in the company. Well, that and her last name is Taggert and her dad owned the railroad. But that was mainly incidental I guess. Anyway, Jim believes there is more to life than making money and believes that the masses should be included in the scheme of things. Dagney, realizes that her brother is a pinko Marxist commie socialist fool and makes a move to takeover the railroad before Jim destroys everything good in the world (ie Dagney’s stock).

[Dagney]”They dislike me, not because I do things badly, but because I do them well. They dislike me because I’ve always had the best grades in the class. I don’t even have to study. I always get A’s. Do you suppose I should try to get D’s for a change and become the most popular girl in school?” Francisco stopped, looked at her and slapped her face.

She teams up with Hank Rearden who has invented a new form of metal which is stronger and lighter than steel but is untested. This safety hazard is not much of a speed bump for Dagney and she uses the metal to construct her John Galt railroad line named after a mysterious man whose name everybody has heard of but nobody seems to know why. When asked why she thinks the metal is safe she answers, “I studied engineering in college. When I see things, I see them.” Ya see? Who needs government oversight?

“Francisco, what’s the most depraved type of human being?”

“The man without a purpose.”

But Jim and his cry baby friends lobby the legislature to pass a bill limiting the amount of businesses that one man can own and this appears to be the first step in persecuting the nation’s embattled minority, the wealthy industrialist.

As part 1 comes to a close, there is more legislation about to be passed to restrict the rights of our brave but misunderstood business owners. I’m expecting the next step is that they’ll have to wear armbands with a dollar sign so that they may be rounded up from their art deco penthouse ghettos and liquidated with ease.

Ron Paul/Rand Paul 2012!

“Why ask useless questions? How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Who is John Galt?”