Tell me who you think the mooches are.

Anyone who receives "free" stuff from the government or is a criminal (ACORN)

Who are the producers?

People who provide jobs and or services to the community for a fee. (College Professor)

I bet we disagree. I bet everybody on this thread would disagree with everybody else. And I guarantee we would ALL disagree w/ Rand.

As if the history of philosophy is based on agreement.

Objectivism is stupid, shallow, ridiculous, and utterly devoid of anything worth basing a society on.

So is communism yet it seems pretty popular for many white house staff.

Rand's philosophy makes any question of law or rights completely irrelevant.

In Rand's world the only real right is to life (other rights are derived from this one). This is a long held inalienable right, so Rand wasn't breaking new ground. She did however take that right to it's logical conclusion.

Democracy is inherently the combined acts of free individuals CHOOSING to act in concert.

Democracy is simply the rule of the majority. Liberty and Democracy are not the same. Liberty can lead to Democracy, but Democracy doesn't necessarily lead to liberty. In any case this is a semantic issue- feel free to read more into Democracy than thats there.

If the Individual is what matters, then everyone is exceptional - yet that is exactly what Randroids oppose.

Individual life is what matters. being exceptional is not the point. As Obama said were all exceptional now.

Self Sufficiency itself is a drag on society since it is inherently anti-social.

Says you. How is it anti-social? Are you arguing dependency as a social good?

From a philosphical perspective, Rand was a non-entity

I wouldn't go that far, but I don't think she was in the pantheon of great philosophers. she is basically Nietzsche-lite. A better way to think about it is applied Nietzsche. Rand meshes Nietzsche's ethics into her own political philosophy. Keep in mind all of the political experiments at the time such as the various flavors of communism and fascism.

the government was forbidden to collect taxes

Taxation was to be voluntary, not forced. In essence government was run as a business or service. In principle a great idea- in practice a little more difficult. But not that difficult. For some government services would be more like a service- like the fire department or police. Others would be more direct like education. We use Toll roads or the gas tax are excellent examples of Rand's voluntary tax. If you don't drive or ride then you don't have to pay the tax for the road use. Its is voluntary. paying for a military is where it gets real sticky.

There are no absolute rights in the Bill of Rights

Correct, the BoR are CIVIL rights. The Declaration of Independence has "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and they are considered natural rights, thus absolute. Again Rand isn't being original by stating life is and absolute right, Locke beat her to it by a few hundred years.

This is why Rand preferred writing novels, she created totally unreal situations in which unreal heros could solve unreal problems.

She wrote novels because she was more interested in applied philosophy. Keep in mind during this time writing philosophy was "man's" work. So publishing a novel by a woman, still no small task, was probably the best way to get published. This goes on today- that is why it is JK Rowling and not Joanne Rowling.

The "looters" and "moochers" are us, because we all benefit from a society which by its nature includes both rights and obligations. The "producers" are also us, because there is hardly one who has not contributed to society or (in the case of newborn babies) is not going to.

True some people can be all 3, Al Gore comes to mind, but most people are clearly defined. Look at this way a society of just moochers will fail. A society with just looters will fail. A society of producers will not fail. This allegory is told in many children tales. The Ant and the Grasshopper, the 3 Little Pigs, or Lazy Jack. Working hard and volunteering your time or resources are noble ideals used in children stories to build character. There are no children stories about using democracy to steal money from group and give it to another.