•Symposium: Can universities be fixed? 
Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com Changing the liberal climate of universities will require a full-court press: technology and better information for students attending schools; on-line alternatives for those who don't need the "Charlotte Simmons" personal experience; AP classes to move instruction out of the hands of leftist college profs; new conservative books such as Patriot's History of the United States or Star Parker's Uncle Sam's Plantation or classics such as Atlas Shrugged. 09:06 AM    View blog reactions

•One more reason for NYers to act anti-social 
Michael Kane, New York Post Lamenting the iPod's impact on conversation between strangers.First came the Sony Walkman, the grandfather of it all. It was big and bulky as a paperback copy of "The Fountainhead" and offered two headphone jacks so you could share the tunes. 09:01 AM    View blog reactions

• •Columnist suggests reads for break 
Sukhmani Khalsa, Daily Beacon (University of Tennessee) “The Virtue of Selfishness,” by Ayn Rand: For most of my life, I’ve been a liberal. It’s only been relatively recently in my life that I’ve not been a liberal. Did I convert overnight? Of course not. But even though I can’t pin down the moment of my conversion, I can pinpoint when it started. One day a friend of mine lent me this book and I was instantly repelled by the horrible title. 08:49 AM    View blog reactions

•“Who is Henry M. Galt?” 
Edward W. Younkins, Le Québécois Libre Review of Garet Garrett's novel, The Driver.It is certainly not in the same class as Atlas Shrugged but what is? 08:40 AM    View blog reactions

•Reading tastes reflect life changes 
Ann Leonard, South Bend Tribune (IN) The reading habits of Dagny Diamond, 78.Other favorites are "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen, "Gift From the Sea" by Anne Morrow Lindberg, "John Brown's Body" by Stephen Vincent Benet and "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. 07:35 AM    View blog reactions

•Super kid: Andrew Clark 
Arlington Herald (WA) Profile of 17-year-old high school student.Favorite authors: R.A. Salvatore, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ayn Rand, George Orwell, William Shakespeare and Stephen King. 07:32 AM    View blog reactions

•A conversation with Jim Dunn 
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) Interview with Jim Dunn, general manager of the Palm Springs Convention Center.What books are on your nightstand? "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand and a stack of business-related reports, such as building contracts budgets." 08:28 AM    View blog reactions

• •‘Night’ takes audience into courtroom 
Julie Halpert, Ann Arbor News (MI) Review of local production of Night of January 16th.In this play, some members of the audience decide her fate audience members are selected to be part of the jury before the show begins. They render their verdict at the play's conclusion, with the possibility of a differing ending each night, depending on the decision. 08:26 AM    View blog reactions

•The hot seat: Brad Bird 
Lou Lumenick, New York Post Interview with Brad Bird, winner of an Oscar for directing The Incredibles.A: The idea that "The Incredibles," a mainstream animated feature, was thought of as provocative was wonderful to me. I was very gratified, though I thought some of the analysis was really kind of goofy. Q: Such as? A: Some pieces compared the viewpoint to the objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand. I thought that was silly and the writers were humorless. I was into Rand for about six months when I was 20, but you outgrow that narrow point of view. Some compromise is necessary in life. 08:21 AM    View blog reactions

•Greed not motivation 
Jesse Cahill, Western Courier This viewpoint of greed as somehow virtuous is often traced back to objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand, who argued that greed drives individuals to greatness while charity (which she labeled as a vice) only prohibits the full fruition of society.  01:31 PM    View blog reactions

•‘The Corporation’: No Mr. Nice Guy here 
Mark Hinson, Tallahassee Democrat (FL) Review of film documentary.I'm sure many what's-in-it-for-me Ayn Rand devotees and Ronald Reagan acolytes will find plenty to be annoyed at in "The Corporation," but any open-minded viewer will find this exploration into the pathology of global commerce sobering. 01:28 PM    View blog reactions

•Stop feedin’ off me! 
Garnet Fraser, Toronto Star Constitutionally speaking, Ontarians have long had a martyrdom complex, convinced that it's our noble and little-noticed sacrifices that keep the whole megilla together. Now the narcissism behind this threatens to take on an Atlas Shrugged-like quality, as we, the folks who consider ourselves productive, begin demanding that everyone else — in the words of Cool Hand Luke — "stop feedin' off MEEE!" 11:48 AM    View blog reactions

•Oscar without glamour 
Scott Holleran, Box Office Mojo Mr. Eastwood, like other conservatives, appeared content to have gained the approval of others, especially liberals. His Best Picture winner, Million Dollar Baby, seems to have dragged even producer Albert S. Ruddy—who produced Mario Puzo's The Godfather and once sought to make Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged—into what Miss Rand called "the cult of moral grayness," which in Mr. Eastwood's case means a bleak world drained of color, purpose and life. 11:45 AM    View blog reactions

•America’s one-sided campus media 
Garin Hovannisian, The American Enterprise Online A typical college student can go to class and hear the professor say (as mine did), "Capitalists are swine.... They're bastard people." As he leaves class, he is handed political pamphlets from the "diversity center," which is funded by his own student fees. In his college bookstore, he finds more books by Noam Chomsky than by all the major capitalists of the last millennium--from Adam Smith to Ayn Rand--combined. And when he picks up his college paper, it is all reaffirmed one more time. 07:07 PM    View blog reactions

•Let freedom bleed 
John Ziebell, Las Vegas Mercury Review of The Black Arrow, a novel by Vin Suprynowicz.Out of the darkness comes a very lethal sort of superhero, a Batman hybrid with a compound bow, and the truncated rape attempt launches a 700-page fantasy...well, it's a love story, and pays some homage to Objectivism, but it's basically a near-future tale about the triumph of the common American over an oppressive culture of mediocrity, a society rendered impotent by the misdirected efforts of politicians, courts, bureaucrats and other tyrants. 07:01 PM    View blog reactions

•Building a library with shelves full of memories 
New York Times Using the Internet to build a book collection.If you're looking for a popular 20th-century first edition, like Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" (Item 6949564171 at eBay), you should know that it's worth considerably less without a dust jacket. 08:44 AM    View blog reactions

•Capitalism not the ideal we want 
David Solana, Daily Illini (U of IL, Urbana-Champaign) Why Amtrak should be bailed out by the government.Sure, it's nice to believe Ayn Rand was on to something when she wrote about the benevolence of capitalism in The Objectivist and Atlas Shrugged, but capitalists never seem to demonstrate that compassion in reality. Somewhere along the line people lose their heads, strive simply for ever-greater profit margins and forget their employees. Rand was an emphatic believer in the good those employees received from their capitalist employers. But when that good doesn't exist, there is nothing left for the workers except the government.  08:40 AM    View blog reactions

•The Agony and the Ecstasy 
Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant DVD review.Michelangelo can't do anything unless his heart and soul is in it. He becomes a fugitive at one point, doing the same thing that Ayn Rand's he-man Howard Roarke did in The Fountainhead: work off his frustrations in a marble quarry. (Perhaps Rand modeled her character after the real Michelangelo?) 08:40 PM    View blog reactions

• •Classic drama to be staged this weekend 
Charlie Kondek, Ypsilanti Courier (MI) Coverage of a local production of Night of January 16th.Rand first wrote the play and staged it in 1935 and worked on revising it up until her death in 1982. It's an early expression of her self-reliant, often anti-authority "Objectivist" philosophy and illustrates the often interpretive nature of right and wrong. 08:36 PM    View blog reactions

•Family fun with ‘Robots’ 
Christy Lemire, MSNBC Review of the movie Robots.By now it’s easy to take for granted the startlingly detailed realism CGI technology can create: the lighting and shadows, the subtle contours, the human expressions. The film’s art-deco industrial design scheme suggests an Ayn Rand book brought strikingly to life, with flashes of ’50s-era futurism. 08:33 PM    View blog reactions

• •‘Night’ audience has day in court 
Jenn McKee, Ann Arbor News (MI) Story on a local production of Night of January 16th.Rand, of course, is primarily famous for her novels ("The Fountainhead," "Atlas Shrugged," etc.), through which she communicated a philosophy called objectivism. And although "Night" preceded the writing of her novels, hints of this self-centered - in the literal sense - approach to life can be found within the play. 08:28 PM    View blog reactions

•The bear’s lair: Thank you, Mr. Greenspan 
Martin Hutchinson, Washington Times Greenspan began his career as a disciple of the Objectivist philosopher/novelist Ayn Rand, who believed in the minimum possible government, and regarded economist Friedrich von Hayek as a backsliding socialist. 07:40 PM    View blog reactions

•Four stations plan to join WGBH in lecture video net 
Steve Behrens, Current The wide selection of topics permits pure narrowcasting, thrilling people who have strong and particular interests. Pleased listeners send links to people of like mind, which may explain how December’s most popular talk came from philosopher Leonard Peikoff, a follower of Ayn Rand, and this month’s is an appearance of two gay athletes.  10:25 PM    View blog reactions

•Marxism not Stalinism 
Andrea Lavigne, Metro Times (Detroit) Letter to the Editor.I think that you should encourage the public to think on their own by reading, not just hand-me-down political information, but original sources, such as Karl Marx, who supports unselfish individuality, in contrast with Ayn Rand’s selfish individualism. 10:22 PM    View blog reactions

•Debate continues on matters of life and death 
Elaine Kolodziej, Wilson County News (TX) Criticism of an Ayn Rand Institute op-ed by Thomas Bowden.Using Bowden’s logic, if suicide is permitted, where will we draw the line? How do we determine when life is devoid of joy? We all know that even those whom we would consider perfectly healthy individuals can wish to commit suicide. 10:18 PM    View blog reactions