Did Ms. Rand take advantage of the dole because she recognized she needed help or because she was taking revenge for so many years of having paid into the system?

Why didn't she use her commonly known name when registering?

Does the fact that Ms. Rand turned to the government for assistance in her personal life render the core principals of her ideas....shruggable?

I think her core ideas were 'shruggable' enough already. Certainly the way she presented them via her novels with sociopathic ubermensch heroes was an indication there was something a bit odd going on there.

Her basic starting point was correct - Bolshevik Russia, and Stalinism in particular, was horrifically wrong. After that, it went a bit haywire.

Still, even if I dislike the ideology, doesn't mean I hate everything associated with it. Spent hours this week playing Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, redoing the 2112 suite by Rush, which is based (loosely) on her allegory Anthem. Gotta love the riffs.

Ayn Rand was a Russian emigre and I always thought her ideas were just an extreme reaction to what happened in her country She shared as little understanding of the human need for social cooperation as communism has for individual self-interest. Her
absurd ideas, however, have had at least an indirect effect in the modern political landscape (see 47 percent comment and the US conservative movement's desire to get rid of the safety net)