How Ron Paul Channels Ayn Rand

I have a blog item in the FrumForum today on serial presidential candidate Ron Paul, and how he has adopted policies that closely parallel those of Ayn Rand.

This is the first a number of blog posts I expect to write for FrumForum, which is a leading political website.

© 2011 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.
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AYN RAND NATION: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul, will be published by St. Martin's Press on Feb. 28, 2012. Pre-order by clicking here.

You Can Judge a Book By its Cover

Or at least you can in this instance. The cover art was just posted on Amazon.com.

© 2011 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.
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AYN RAND NATION: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul, will be published by St. Martin's Press on Feb. 28, 2012. Pre-order by clicking here.

More on the Gotti Movie and Marco Fiore

The entertainment website Showbiz 411 has an article yesterday that gives more details on the background of the producer of the forthcoming biopic on John Gotti, Marco Fiore d/b/a "Mark Fiore."

The thing that bugs me about Fiore's role in the Gotti film is not that he is a convicted stock swindler, but rather this kind of thing:

Fiore has been telling the people he’s hired for “Gotti” that he did go to jail, that it was no big deal. “He said he took the fall for someone who the government really wanted,” says a source.

In reality, Fiore was a major league stock scammer, served time in prison for significant offenses, and was one of the cast of characters in my 2003 book Born to Steal.

I always like to see ex-cons turn their lives around, but pretending that the past didn't exist is not the way to do it.

© 2011 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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AYN RAND NATION: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul, will be published by St. Martin's Press on Feb. 28, 2012. Pre-order by clicking here.

Some Amazon-ranking Weirdness

I think this shows how meaningless (and volatile) those Amazon rankings are.

Since my feeble attempts at publicity for AYN RAND NATION yesterday afternoon - just on this blog, which I've shamefully neglected since starting my weekly Street.com column some months ago, my long-unrevised website and on Twitter and Facebook - my Amazon rankings went from 3 million to 69,000 and now (and for the next few hours, I guess) it's the best-selling Ayn Rand biography.

All this is nice, considering that the publication date is five months away. It's doubly nice that a book that is not an Ayn Rand biography is, momentarily, the best-selling Ayn Rand biography. It's an examination of Rand's influence on modern American society. But I guess that category comes closest to describing the book.

Be that as it may, I am gratified that apparently some people out there are making a long-term investment in the book. By all means pre-order it by clicking here. I believe that Amazon doesn't bill you until it's shipped, but don't hold me to it.

© 2011 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

My Next Book — AYN RAND NATION

My next book is something of a departure for me. It's not about scams or crooks or finance. It's about the hidden struggle for America's soul.

That's the subtitle of AYN RAND NATION, which will be published by St. Martin's Press on February 28, 2012.

AYN RAND NATION will explore the pervasive influence of the Russian-born author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. She has long been dismissed by the intelligentsia as a fringe character. Don't you believe it.

Her ideology, Objectivism, has been adopted in large measure by a wide swath of America's opinion leaders, and to a large extent by virtually all of the Republican presidential candidates.

Rand provides the ideological underpinnings for the effort to cut or destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and to drastically shrink the role of government.

She wrote the recipe for deregulation.

Love her or despise her, Rand is a pervasive influence in the national dialogue. To understand the ideological basis for that dialogue, and to comprehend the mindset that led to the 2008 financial crisis, it's essential to understand Ayn Rand.

That is the purpose of AYN RAND NATION.

Through the stories of people influenced by Rand, from the Tea Party to members of her inner circle to Alan Greenspan, this book explores how Ayn Rand became a pervasive influence on the American right.

This book explores why Rand matters — and why her ideology needs to be engaged, not ignored. Click here to pre-order your copy.

In the weeks and months ahead, watch this blog for updates and developments.

© 2011 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.