'Ye shall know them by their fruits'

Like a lot of teenagers, I read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The books influenced me at the time, though, as I matured, I saw more and more of the flaws in Rand's philosophy.

Not everyone has these epiphanies, as our Speaker of the House demonstrates. He gives copies of Rand's books as Christmas presents and asks his interns to read them. 

***
Carl Paladino of Buffalo founded a real estate development company in 1973. It owns and/or manages many different types of real estate -- apartments, commercial, hotels, parking garages, and convenience stores. Paladino is worth about $150 million. His parents were Italian immigrants, so it seem safe to classify Paladino as a self-made man.

He's also former GOP candidate for governor of New York and Donald Trump's 2016 campaign chair for New York. He currently sits on Buffalo's school board.

***
From Atlas Shrugged:

"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is MADE—before it can be looted or mooched—made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced."

Paladino, in a recent interview with a Buffalo alternative weekly:

Artvoice: What would you most like to happen in 2017? 

Carl Paladino: Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her. 

Artvoice: What would you most like to see go in 2017? 

Carl Paladino: Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla

***
There's a lot to mine from this. At some point, I'd like to delve deeper into how Paladino justified his remarks ("Yeah, I'm not politically correct.") and what being against political correctness has come to mean. 

For now, I'll simply note that Paladino is living monument for Ayn Rand's philosophy that advocates, among other things, for earned wealth as a signal of talent, intelligence, and accomplishment. 

Make of that what you will.