• 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). 07:36 AM    View blog reactions

• • 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. 07:34 AM    View blog reactions

• 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.' " 07:29 AM    View blog reactions

• 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?) 08:02 AM    View blog reactions

• Unpaid internships? No such thing 
Business Week Ayn Rand Institute  Yaron Brook  No one forces [students] to pursue internships. They’re generally not a graduation requirement. “These students must perceive some value in these internships,” says Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. “Otherwise, they would work at Starbuck’s for $10 an hour.” 07:54 AM    View blog reactions

• 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. 07:51 AM    View blog reactions

• 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. 07:49 AM    View blog reactions

• 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. " 07:40 AM    View blog reactions

• The right to protest? 
Callum McPetrie, Scoop Atlas Shrugged  Egoism  As I've said many times before, isn't the idea of us all pitching in to make a collective effort for the good of the planet and future generations just lovely? Perhaps not for us selfish Objectivists, or anyone else who can look behind all the environmental rhetoric, but for the common Joe New Zealander, who has already been brought up with such principles during NZ's socialist era, they sound great.  07:34 AM    View blog reactions

• 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. 10:18 AM    View blog reactions

• • • 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. 08:03 AM    View blog reactions

• 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. 07:59 AM    View blog reactions

• 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”. 08:14 PM    View blog reactions

• 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. 08:04 PM    View blog reactions

• 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. 08:01 PM    View blog reactions

• 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. 08:00 PM    View blog reactions

• 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." 07:55 PM    View blog reactions

• • 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. 08:46 AM    View blog reactions

• • • Object lesson 
Brooke Gladstone, NPR - On The Media Altruism  Atheism  Atlas Shrugged movie  Ayn Rand Institute  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Egoism  Personal life  Audio  Audio. “Think you know reality? Ayn Rand did, and through her novels and nonfiction she gave legions of followers a practical philosophy by which to live. Brooke looks at the enduring legacy of the original Objectivist.”

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Ayn Rand thinks that people who raise money for other people or provide services for other people in an organized way are weak and deluded. JEFFREY BRITTING: Absolutely not. That is a flat-out distortion of Ayn Rand from A to Z. And if you wish to see the evidence for that, please consult her novels and please consult her views on charity, and please consult her views on scholarships and please consult her views on friendship and giftgiving and Christmas and good cheer. [CLIP] PHIL DONAHUE: You don't like altruists. AYN RAND: I disapprove of them. I regard them as evil. 08:29 AM    View blog reactions

• 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." 08:25 AM    View blog reactions

• 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.  08:23 AM    View blog reactions

• • 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. 08:17 AM    View blog reactions

• Gas tax suspension? 
Glenn Beck, CNN Headline News Atlas Shrugged  Video  (Link does not work in all browsers.) Excerpt from the Glenn Beck show on proposals to temporarily suspend the gas tax. Reference occurs at approximately 6:15.America, please read Atlas Shrugged. I know it’s like 4000 pages, but, I mean it’s — everything is happening that she talked about. 07:54 AM    View blog reactions

• • A toxic media environment 
Joseph A. Palermo, Huffington Post Ayn Rand Institute  Yaron Brook  [Glenn Beck’s] guests [on a recent edition of his CNN Headline News show] were two right-wing crazies: Yaron Brook from some Social Darwinist outfit calling itself the “Ayn Rand Institute,” and Jonah Goldberg, who has recently come out with possibly the worst book written since Gutenberg invented movable type. All three of these far-right charlatans agreed, as if it were common sense, that 1). America can drill its way out its current energy woes; and 2). The oil companies are on the side of the angels in this thing and their obscene profits are wonderful indicators of the miracle of American capitalism. Yaron Brook advocated drilling for oil everywhere, even in “your living room.” 07:46 AM    View blog reactions

• • 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? 07:43 AM    View blog reactions