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" (Optional soundtrack to this blog post...)      I&amp;#039;m sure that, at some moment on Tuesday night, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver currently running for vice president of the United States, felt a stirring deep in his deeply Catholic soul and absented himself from the festivities, ducking into the Gents and looking at himself in the mirror, with the face that Jon Chait so ably has called Sad Paul Ryan, and wondering how he had come so far from the morally straight streets of smalltown, bootstrappy Janesvile, Wisconsin, to this place where he was hanging out in the citadel of Mammon, getting chummy with a gamey gaming mogul and a walking international Near Occasion Of Sin, as the priests used to put it. And no jokes about &amp;quot;where the priests used to put it,&amp;quot; ya bastids. (Also, too: You will note that the word &amp;quot;&amp;#039;ho-monger&amp;quot; does not appear in that paragraph, because that is unproven, and this is a blog dedicated to improving the tenor of Our National Dialogue. So, therefore, ipso facto, no references to &amp;#039;ho-mongering. Thank you.) From Nick Confessore and Co.&amp;#039;s report from outside the &amp;quot;finance event&amp;quot;: In keeping with Mr. Adelson&amp;#039;s penchant for staying below the radar, Romney aides refused to say who attended the meeting with Mr. Ryan, though the location (a private room at one of Mr. Adelson&amp;#039;s hotels) and leaks from the Romney camp left little doubt. And in keeping with laws that prohibit elected officials from explicitly asking donors for super PAC money, aides to Mr. Romney insisted before the event that the meeting was not a fund-raiser. Hey, devoted fan of Thomas Aquinas \u2014 and not that crazy Russian roundheels who wrote with a paint roller \u2014 remember how Luke kicks off the 12th chapter of his gospel? In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. I&amp;#039;m telling you, nothing says &amp;quot;Fighting The Culture Of Dependency&amp;quot; quite like raising a couple of hundred thou&amp;#039; from a casino operator. Ever been to Tunica, Paul? Ever seen the poor folks, pumping quarters into the slots for eight hours a day? Believe me, they&amp;#039;re more the victims of a culture of dependency than, say, you were, when I was helping to send you to college with my tax dollars. At this point, really, we&amp;#039;re just haggling about the price. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15302/paul-ryan-sheldon-adelson-las-vegas-11711409/>