Ayn Rand and Fred Phelps?

The following appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. It's from James Taranto's "Best of The Web" column. For those of you who may not be familiar with Westboro Baptist Church, it is the home base of Topeka, Kansas's own Fred Phelps - if that name does not ring a bell, visit http://www.godhatesfags.com/. Be warned: you may want to wash your computer - and yourself - afterward.

That Taranto is even mentioning the Ayn Rand Institute and Westboro Baptist in the same paragraph is outrageous. That he may be implying that the two are in any way morally equivalent is monstrous.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006106&ojrss=wsj

Idiotarian Tidal Wave

Tsunami news got you down? The Ayn Rand Institute come to the rescue with some comic relief, an article titled "U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims" by David Holcberg:

Every cent the government spends comes from taxation. Every dollar the government hands out as foreign aid has to be extorted from an American taxpayer first. . . . The question no one asks about our politicians'"generosity" towards the world's needy is: By what right? By what right do they take our hard-earned money and give it away?

The funniest part, though, is the opening paragraph:

As the death toll mounts in the areas hit by Sunday's tsunami in southern Asia, private organizations and individuals are scrambling to send out money and goods to help the victims. Such help may be entirely proper, especially considering that most of those affected by this tragedy are suffering through no fault of their own.

Which of the tsunami victims are at fault for their suffering? That would be the Swedes, according to an outfit called the Westboro Baptist Church (motto: "God hates fags"). "Thank God for Tsunami & 2,000 dead Swedes!!!" declares a Dec. 29 news release from the group, which refers to Sweden as "land of the sodomite damned." Well, maybe every tsunami has a silver lining, but what about the 148,000-plus dead non-Swedes? Can't God do a better job of avoiding collateral damage?

To be fair, the Ayn Rand Institute takes the position that "government should not have the power to legislate morality," which would seem to be at odds with the Westboro view of homosexuality. But Sweden does have very high taxes and other socialist economic policies of which Ayn Rand definitely wouldn't approve.