When will Atlas Shrug?

I've been MIA for most of the past week, in a funk of my own creation. I'm an avid reader; since I could walk and talk, I've loved books of all genres. I was one of the nerds who delighted in literature assignments, usually the weirder the better.

Many moons ago, I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. This was near the end of the Reagan era, when capitalism and patriotism were on the rise, and to me it was just another interesting novel - a fascinating source of grief that I tried to work into a challenging semester load. Last week, I decided to re-read it. What a source of grief again, for entirely different reasons!

I admit I had a difficult time with Rand's creepily prescient work. Many times I had to put the book down as I cried, overcome with an anxiety approaching ice-cold fear. We are headed for Rand's societal meltdown. And unbelievably, it's not that far in the future.

Turning things around is going to take a lot of work from all of us. We need to get informed -- which won't be easy if the current administration is successful in locking down the Internet -- and we need to get involved. Above all, we need to replace as many liberal politicians as possible come November. Our government is strangling production in this country. These people do not produce jobs, do not generate income, accomplish nothing effectively. And they continue to cry "You HAVE to!" as they conspire to steal from future generations under the guise of entitlement spending.

We must stop it, now.

Or Atlas WILL shrug.