Huffington Post is a left of center publication on the net which surprised me twice in one week. First it gave 2 books on Rand foot stomping great reviews. This would be enough to stun me - except that the 2 books are written by progressive liberals and are pro- Rand. But wait, there's more! The Huffington Post actually called on liberal book clubs to read her novels!

That threw me for a loop. For years when I brought up her name liberals and leftists responded with a hatred far beyond their hatred of talk show hosts like Glenn Beck. They would dismiss her work out of hand, claiming to have read it. However I learned long ago that a good test if someone has actually read what they are attacking is to simply quote a central part of the writing- if they respond with threats or shocked anger they haven't read the subject they are attacking. Conservatives also disliked her, condemning her atheism and pro- abortion stances. Something however has happened that I doubt even she could forsee.

Ayn (pronounced like PINE or MINE) escaped Russia and went to Hollywood carrying with her a first hand knowledge of the failure of socialism. To her horror, she met Americans who loved Stalin and felt the gulags, secret police and forced famines were small prices to pay for free health care and a world of "justice". Gradually she began to create a philosophy that was pro- free market and pro- capitalism. At a time when the New York Times hailed Stalin and Time made the socialist Hitler man of the year she was as welcome at Hollywood parties the way the plague was greeted by Europe. When Hitler and Stalin signed their peace pact socialists worldwide hailed Hitler as the new breed of socialist and this made her angry. That anger would find its way into her books. Left wing critics, busy hailing Hitler and Stalin were appalled at her rejection of national and international socialism. Didn't she want a world of "justice", too?

Her anger and philosophical quest would lead to a dogmatic approach to counter the dogmatism of the left- but she was also against corporate welfare and big business cutting their own throats to get special deals from governments. In THE FOUNTAINHEAD one villain is a self made man who builds a newspaper empire- by catering to the masses. For conservatives and liberals alike, her views rubbed people the wrong way. She created her own world and philosophy- at a time when women weren't supposed to be philosophers. Her fans became as dogamtic in taking on socialists of all kinds as they were and she'd go toe to toe against the welfare state.

She had no way to know that Hitler and Stalin had attacked 11 ships, sinking them and killing all onboard during their peace pact. That fact wasn't discovered until a year ago in KGB documents. Had it been known in the late 1930's we would have fought both of them, and I assure you supporters of both would have faced far worse than the "McCarthy era" at war's end. Lucky for them, we didn't know.

Dismissed by the right, despised by the left, Ayn kept speaking, writing- and her books kept selling. ANTHEM, THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED never really left the public. The books hailed freedom in ways no other novels did, perhaps because Ayn had seen both the socialist and capitalistic state. It took a foreigner from a different land to point out what made America great and what could make it greater. The reviews were caustic, the hatred far beyond what Beck faces, but the books kept selling.

Today socialism is almost gone. China knows it needs a free market. Cuba allows people to have cell phones. The people of central Europe rose up against their leaders and let them know the free health care wasn't worth the millions dead. You can measure the failure of any government by the amount of socialism it has. When Europe declined to do mass bailouts, many were stunned when the socialist government of Sweden told SAAB cars there would be no bailout. Sweden, Germany, England, France all warned us we would prolong the recession with bailouts - we chose the socialist solution of the 30's. Today those nations have recovered, while we must now back up the trillions of dollars we printed not backed by goods or labor. Today even sociialists warn that socialist economics don't work.

So Ayn Rand sells again. ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD are being read by people who want to find out what works and what doesn't. Only this time, even the left is looking at her with new eyes.