So would that article be a straw man or an ad hominem argument? He certainly takes no time discussing why someone might consider the Environmental Movement to be communist and makes the assumption that objectivists and other fan's of Rand's philosophy are merely fans of Rand herself.

About the author: " He is president of the Part-Time Faculty Association of Allan Hancock College, California Federation of Teachers Local 6185, and is an executive board member of the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council." Nuff said.

A Communist.

Was not my car but it could have been.

I struggled to make it to the end of that article.

I grew up in Malibu, and my dad was an LA. County Life Guard at Zuma Beach before starting his own business. We spent many days on the beach and when we got home my parents used gasoline to take the tar off the bottoms of our feet that naturally oozed from the sea floor and found it's way onto the beach. I wonder where this guy thinks the La Brea Tar Pits came from that are full of Pleistocene animals?

"Altruism, compassion, charity — all were evil, because they were only a façade that enabled the weak to take down the strong." This is not in the books.

The Medicare / SS thing is the generic invalid cheap shot to take at Rand when someone's run out of arguments. If she was a "Red" for receiving benefits, why wasn't she a "Red" for choosing to pay taxes to those programs instead going to jail for tax evasion?

I completely reject the bumper sticker and Ayn Rand's claim that there's something communistic about concern for the environment. Of course political groups try to co-opt movements to their own interests. Political parties tried to do this with the OWS and the Tea Party. . It's not a conspiracy, but most people involved in a party as a career have an interest in the stability associated with people arguing as groups over two menu choices that aren't that different.