Friday, May 16, 2008
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Hollywood legends
David Noh, Gay City News (New York)
"The Song of Bernadette" (1943) won [Jennifer Jones] an Oscar at 24, and was followed by "Love Letters" (1945), a magnificent Gothic romance with an Ayn Rand script, and the luridly campy "Duel in the Sun" (1946).
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Contrasting mushroom hunting & the Hillary campaign
Dale Netherton, American Chronicle
Early in her career [Hillary Clinton] was asked if she was familiar with Ayn Rand and she replied, she had read her in her youth but had outgrown her! Really. Since Ayn Rand created Objectivism which teaches the primacy of existence over consciousness or facts versus wishes, how do you "outgrow´ this fundamental truth? You can certainly deny it which Hillary did, but not without consequences. Reality is still there whether you choose to see it or not.
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Your neighbors: Cindy Orme Bertram
Indianapolis Star
Atlas Shrugged
Favorite book: "Being a Christian, I love the Bible. For enjoyable reading, I loved 'Advice and Consent' and 'Atlas Shrugged.' "
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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It’s just welfare for oil companies
Mike Argento, York Daily Record (PA)
Don't get me started on Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who forged a solid coalition of video-game enthusiasts, stoners and the kind of annoying people who think Ayn Rand is the greatest author in history. (She's not, OK?)
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Nerd mentality
Jerry Portwood, New York Press
Interview with Ben Nugent, author of American Nerd.[Nugent] analyzes specific case studies of nerds he recently met (debate club geeks, polyamorous Ayn Rand fanatics) or knew as a child (D&D gamers, videogame addicts) in an effort to show his appreciation for those nerdy friends he left behind.
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The way of the future in American schooling
Matthew Ladner, Townhall.com
In the Aviator, director Martin Scorsese tells the story of Howard Hughes, had perhaps the biography of Howard Hughes been written by Ayn Rand. Hughes is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio as obsessively pushing the envelope forward in aviation, breaking both technical and legal barriers to progress.
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The Industry Standard’s top 25 B-to-Z list blogs
Richi Jennings and Ian Lamont, Industry Standard
[Len Bullard of the 3D On The Web. Cheap!!! blog:] "Talk community as much as you like. Use all the classical arguments of objectivism vs communal obligation. It will come down to the company offering the service, the terms, your willingness and ability to litigate and their willingness and ability to contest your litigation. "
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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Trains track progress
Tribune-Review (Pittsburgh)
Atlas Shrugged
From hobo songster Boxcar Willie to Ayn Rand, who used the Taggart Transcontinental line as a vehicle in her exaltation of man in "Atlas Shrugged," railroads are part of society's circulatory system.
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Bullard’s racism lies in his notion of collective achievement
Jabulani Sikhakhane, Cape Argus (Cape Town)
The Virtue of Selfishness
(Requires subscription.)The debate sparked by the column that led the Sunday Times to fire David Bullard has missed one of the fundamental flaws of the argument that Bullard sought to put forward. In essence, Bullard (who has since apologised) and his supporters subscribe to the notion of collective achievement, meaning that all white people can lay a claim to Albert Einstein's brilliance, simply because they have the same skin colour. [....] Ayn Rand, the late Russian-born American author, debunks the collectivist achievement notion in an essay on racism, published in her book The Virtue of Selfishness. She describes racism as the lowest, "most crudely primitive form of collectivism", which ascribes moral and social significance to a man's genetic lineage. [....] Where Rand's arguments strike a chord is that she recognises the inadequacies of extrapolating from one individual's behaviour assumptions about the group from which that person comes from.
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Green sell: Do you buy it?
Shannon Rupp, The Tyee (BC)
Capitalism
The evolution of green from a movement of zealots as fierce as anything politics and religion have spawned into a mainstream marketing phenomenon has been fascinating [...]. [....] But the marketing schtick I've dubbed "Ayn Rand goes green" may soon be on the wane.
Monday, May 12, 2008
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Intriguing show takes shape
Vivien Horler, Cape Argus (Cape Town)
(Requires subscription.)Kevin Brand is a sculptor who claims his vocation is “a bad reaction to author Ayn Rand's one-dimensional characters”.
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Judging a book
Hindustan Times (New Delhi)
The Fountainhead
Can a book really change your life? [....] No, don't worry, I'm not going to roll out the usual suspects. You know, the books that every generation discovers in college with a fresh flash of recognition and claims for its own: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand; The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir; The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer. I devoured all of the above and many more cast in the same mould. But I can't say that any of these books changed my life in any significant way.
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Wittgenstein and market forces
David Cohen, The Guardian (London)
Capitalism
On the appointment of John Armstrong as philosopher-in-residence at the Melbourne Business School.Those within the business education environment usually aren't known [...] for possessing any great technical appreciation of philosophy, give or take the odd Ayn Rand enthusiast among their ranks.
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Reading the Ron Paul Revolution
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Pajamas Media
Review of The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul.Paul is an old-fashioned Rothbardian. I’m more of a Heinleinian libertarian and we, like the Randian libertarians, tend to view national defense as more important than the Rothbardians do. Paul’s view, essentially, is that if we quit sending troops abroad, other people and countries would quit wanting to kill us. I’m not particularly persuaded by this.
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The final curtain call of a college student columnist
Jake Kilroy, Daily Titan (Cal State U, Fullerton)
The Fountainhead
This summer, I have goals like "Learn to really play guitar," "Drive through Canada and don't die" and "Read The Fountainhead." Meanwhile, in the many summers following my college days, I may have goals like "Repaint closet doors," "Replace fences and build gate" and "Finally finish The Fountainhead."
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Choose freedom over the status-quo
Marilyn Jost, Daily Record (Parsippany, NJ)
Capitalism
Op-ed piece by a Ron Paul supporter.To quote Ayn Rand, "The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." Every single new law that gets passed costs us money and takes away freedoms! Every single new law entrenches us deeper into big government.
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Short-order tourist visits SCV
Josh Premako, The Signal (Santa Clarita, CA)
While doing a Google search for his name a few months ago, [Jeff] Bratz said he found another Jeff Bratz, who lives in Des Moines, Iowa. When he set out on his trip last month, he got in touch with Bratz of Des Moines, and the two wound up meeting over breakfast. [....] While their lives are in many ways radically different [...] he said there are some similarities. They're both fans of Ayn Rand, and, "we've both lived boldly."
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Debate continues on this question: Should you marry a career woman?
Donna Wood, The Courier (Waterloo, IA)
Some women geniuses have been surrounded by doting men --- Ayn Rand and Virginia Woolf come immediately to mind.
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Random thoughts
Peter Himmel, Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, WA)
Atlas Shrugged
Letter to the editor.What would Ayn Rand think of the city of Wenatchee banning smoking in public parks? I think this gives us a clue: "Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority." Mayor Johnson shrugged.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
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Americans’ favorite books? Ha! Where is the Danielle Steel?
Rachel Sauer, Palm Beach Post (FL)
Atlas Shrugged
A small but huffy army of [book] snobs has somehow established the rule that the only books we'll publicly admit to reading, let alone loving, are the ones with their stamp of approval. But come on! Atlas Shrugged? Does anyone really love that book?