John Oliver demands to know why Ayn Rand is still a thing.

I have to admit that I have never read any of Ayn Rand's work.

And after seeing this clip, with its clown car of Rand apostles, there is virtually no chance that I ever will read any of her books.

Video of Paul Ryan running away from Christian attempting to give him a Bible. Oh, that's an unfortunate visual!

Courtesy of the You Tube site:

After speaking at the 2011 Faith and Freedom Conference, Paul Ryan refuses to answer why he based his budget on the extreme ideology of Ayn Rand and not Biblical principles of economic justice then runs away from the Bible offered to him by the 7000 members of Faithful America who signed a petition asking the same question. 

"I appreciate it. I've got some bibles."

Perhaps but one has to wonder if he has actually read any of them.

The fact is that while Ryan hides behind the camouflage provided by Christianity, his budget is  anything BUT humane or moral.

In fact just the other day he stated that he and Mitt Romney would IMMEDIATELY move to protect defense spending by instead cutting funds from programs that serve the poor and needy.

Courtesy of TPM:

 If Mitt Romney wins in November, he and a Republican Congress will fast track legislation early next year to replace across the board defense cuts with cuts to food stamps and other programs for needy Americans. 

“In January our intention is that if we don’t fix it in the lame duck is to fix it retroactively once a new session of Congress takes place,” Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, told a crowd in North Carolina Thursday, “We have procedural way in the Senate to advance that legislation very quickly and get it to the next President of the United States who I believe is going to be Mitt Romney, to pass that into law and retroactively prevent that sequester from taking place in January.” 

Ryan was referring to legislation House Republicans passed earlier this year to avert sequestration — the penalty Congress imposed on itself, on a bipartisan basis, for not reaching an agreement on more targeted legislation to reduce the deficit. Sequestration will cause deep, abrupt cuts to both defense and non-defense programs starting early next year, and for the next 10 years, unless Congress overturns it or replaces it with other savings.

I don't give too much credit to religion for instilling morality in people, but it certainly could not have hurt for Ryan to have taken that Bible back in 2011 and perhaps read some of the words attributed to this Jesus guy whom his declared faith is named after.

The guitarist for one of Paul Ryan's favorite bands "Rage Against the Machine" seriously doubts that he understands their music.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone:  

Last week, Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan, the Republican architect of Congress's radical right-wing budget plan, as his running mate. Ryan has previously cited Rage Against the Machine as one of his favorite bands. Rage guitarist Tom Morello responds in this exclusive op-ed:

"Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine."

"You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that "Those people are undeserving. They're . . . lesser." Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff. This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket."

"But Rage's music affects people in different ways. Some tune out what the band stands for and concentrate on the moshing and throwing elbows in the pit. For others, Rage has changed their minds and their lives. Many activists around the world, including organizers of the global occupy movement, were radicalized by Rage Against the Machine and work tirelessly for a more humane and just planet. Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening". 

There is of course much more to this exquisite verbal take down of Ryan and his philosophies to be found by clicking the Rolling Stone link at the top, and I recommend that you read the entire thing as it is pretty awesome.

You know I think this is illustrative of a certain pattern we are seeing emerge concerning Ryan. He listened to "Rage Against the Machine" without hearing their lyrics, just like he read Ayn Rand without understanding that she was perhaps one of the worst examples imaginable of an Atheist.

I have to imagine, considering his antipathy towards his fellow man, that he also did not truly comprehend the teachings of Jesus Christ he surely must have been exposed to while attending his Catholic church.

It kind of makes you wonder if Paul Ryan has a clear understanding of ANY of the information to which he is exposed? And if not, HOW does that make him the designated "intellectual" in the Republican party.

Or is that a question that just answered itself?

Don't you DARE challenge Paul Ryan's policies or he will make jokes about you while the police slam you to the ground.

From the YouTube page:

As Congressman Paul Ryan cracked a joke about him, Tom Nielsen found himself face down on the floor being handcuffed by police. The 71-year-old retired plumber from Kenosha was thrown to the ground, placed in handcuffs, and arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest after objecting to Ryan's plans to gut Social Security and Medicare during his congressman's only public appearance scheduled during the August recess -- a $15 Rotary Club luncheon in West Allis on Tuesday. 

Nielsen repeatedly told police that he wasn't fighting them and that he didn't want to make any trouble. He also told them several times that he had a broken shoulder. Police officers ignored his comments as they wrestled him to the ground despite his howls of pain.

That would have made Ryan's heroine Ayn Rand so proud.