There's an interesting read about Ayn Rand in the New York Times this week. Amazingly, the focus is on how Rand's philosophy positively influenced some well-known business leaders, and was a counter to the prevailing collectivism of much of the 20th century.

“As a woman and a Southerner,” she (Darla Moore, vice president of the private investment firm Rainwater Inc.) said, “I thrived on Rand’s message that only quality work counted, not who you are.”

Rand’s idea of “the virtue of selfishness,” Ms. Moore said, “is a harsh phrase for the Buddhist idea that you have to take care of yourself.”

Full disclosure: I never read Atlas Shrugged, because I don't read much fiction, and I certainly don't do 1200 page fiction. I'm lazy like that. But her mercifully shorter nonfiction gives you the gist of her philosophy, which is as iconoclastic and necessary as her personal life and the behavior of many her acolytes was culty and interesting only to her philosophical enemies.

There should be more articles in the mainstream media about Rand's influence and fewer about her personal life and weird followers. Why do lefty intellectuals not get the same treatment? How much do you know about Noam Chomsky's personal life?

The Times couldn't resist doing what it does best, however.

The book’s hero, John Galt, also continues to live on. The subcontractor hired to demolish the former Deutsche Bank building, which was damaged when the World Trade Center towers fell, was the John Galt Corporation. It was removed from the job last month after a fire at the building killed two firefighters.

Can't write an article about capitalist philosophy without tangentially attributing death to it, can they?