• •Night Waves: Undercurrents 
Philip Dodd, BBC Radio 3 (Audio link, expires 6 July 2005). "Make Poverty History is the latest manifestation of the rich helping the poor. But what lies behind the urge to do good to others while expecting nothing in return? In Night Waves: Undercurrents, Philip Dodd and guests deconstruct the philosophy, morality and practicality of altruism." Guests include Onkar Ghate of the Ayn Rand Institute. 10:11 PM    View blog reactions

•Developer wants hotel on Justice Souter’s land 
Newsmax Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel 'Atlas Shrugged.' 08:48 AM    View blog reactions

•Supreme Court justice faces boot from home? 
Ron Strom, WorldNetDaily On a bid to build a hotel on the land currently occupied by Supreme Court Justice David Souter's home.Instead of a Gideon's Bible in each room, guests will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel 'Atlas Shrugged.' 08:39 AM    View blog reactions

•Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda — Batman 
Phillip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Review of Batman Begins.Burton’s Gotham City is Dickens’ London as it might have existed in the narrow mind of Ayn Rand, simultaneously grand and claustrophobic. 08:34 AM    View blog reactions

•Freedom, rebellion, and romance 
Deanna Forbush, LewRockwell.com Review of The Black Arrow, a novel by Vin Suprynowicz.Succinctly stated, the book is a highly readable 'call to arms' written in a Harlequin meets Ayn Rand style. 08:32 AM    View blog reactions

•DVD report 
Tom Russo, Boston Globe Capsule review of the DVD release of "My Father the Genius," a documentary about architect Glen Small.Howard Roark from 'The Fountainhead' he's not, but as Small grumbles indulgently in a bonus interview, 'There's never any kids in Ayn Rand's novels.' 09:27 AM    View blog reactions

•Roll with it 
Phillipe & Jorge, Providence Pheonix (RI) Kudos & congrats to the BeloJo editorial board, for its lead editorial on Monday, June 20, questioning the wisdom of Dubya Bush’s nomination of US Representative Christopher Cox (R-California) to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ever since a front-page story in the New York Times announced that Cox was Bush’s choice as SEC head, we’ve been looking into Mr. Cox’s record. (The fact that Cox was described in the Times’ story as an ardent follower of Ayn Rand pretty much tipped us off.) 09:25 AM    View blog reactions

•College scholarships for the average student 
Barbara Whelehan, Bankrate.com If your college student lists 'reading' as an activity she enjoys, chances are good that she'll run across the Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest at one or more of the scholarship search sites. The book by Ayn Rand was originally written in 1957 and runs more than 1,000 pages in length 09:23 AM    View blog reactions

• •Objectivists benevolent 
Joe Kane, Charlotte Observer (NC) Letter to the Editor. Response to June 19 commentary by Rev. Mike MacDonald.Objectivists are sincerely benevolent because when one has achieved his own happiness, it often becomes desirable to share it with others. 09:13 AM    View blog reactions

• •Attack not surprising 
Nigel M. Duckworth, Charlotte Observer (NC) Letter to the Editor. Response to June 19 commentary by Rev. Mike MacDonald.It's absurd that Macdonald, who feels no need to justify his assertion that 'we are our brother's keeper' and who takes the moral obligation to sacrifice for 'the common good' as an article of faith, levels the 'rationalization' charge at a champion of reason who took scrupulous care to define, validate and apply concepts. 09:13 AM    View blog reactions

• •Column uninformed 
Andy Clarkson, Charlotte Observer (NC) Letter to the Editor. Response to June 19 commentary by Rev. Mike MacDonald.Abandoning injured human beings is a hideous thought. Rev. Macdonald should read Ayn Rand's 'The Ethics of Emergencies' and visit The Ayn Rand Institute Web site before embarrassing himself again. 09:13 AM    View blog reactions

• •Columnist confused 
Jack Crawford, Charlotte Observer (NC) Letter to the Editor. Response to June 19 commentary by Rev. Mike MacDonald.I would urge anyone who is looking for a scientific morality to actually read her novels 'Atlas Shrugged' or 'The Fountainhead.' There they can see how her ethics works out in practice in exciting and unusual stories. Her books still sell a half-million copies each year, more than 20 years after her death. 09:05 AM    View blog reactions

•Batman Shrugged 
Jason Pramas, Boston Independent Media Center Movie review.What if Ayn Rand and Mussolini got together to write a Hollywood movie? The result would look something very like Batman Begins--the new blockbuster prequel to the Batman screen franchise. 08:58 AM    View blog reactions

• •Dear Aynnie 
Alan Bisbort, American Politics Journal Satire.'Dear Aynnie,' a semi-regular advice column, derives its name from Rand, whose Objectivist credo made a virtue of selfishness and whose fiction fawned over powerful 'Individualists' like architects, capitalists, war-mongers, defense contractors, Joint Chiefs of Staff, flyboys with codpieces, white collar criminals and other cheery human-monsters bearing resemblances to Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. 08:55 AM    View blog reactions

•Ideas that take life 
Gaby Wood, The Australian Profile of novelist Nicole Krauss.She grew up on Long Island, where, she says, 'the houses were pretty far from each other. I didn't really know my neighbours.' She immersed herself in reading 'crumbly yellow paperbacks', a biography of Henry Miller, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, all by the age of 12. 08:52 AM    View blog reactions

•Better stay our of federal court 
Donald Kaul, Topeka Capital-Journal (KS) Commentary critical of newly-confirmed U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit judge, Janice Rogers Brown.She is said to write poetry, read widely and her speeches are peppered with quotations by such as Cicero, Ayn Rand, Samuel Beckett and Chris Rock -- that crowd. She is, in short, a practically perfect candidate for an important judicial appointment. She has but a single flaw; hardly worth mentioning, but I'll mention it anyway. She's nuts. 06:51 AM    View blog reactions

•It usually ends with Murray Rothbard 
Joseph T. Salerno, LewRockwell.com "My long and winding road to libertarianism and Austrian economics."My conservatism was reinforced by reading Goldwater’s book Conscience of a Conservative and his biography, Barry Goldwater: Freedom Is His Flight Plan by Stephen Shadegg. A voracious reader of science fiction and political fiction, I also discovered the novels of Ayn Rand and read Anthem and Atlas Shrugged at about the same time. 06:45 AM    View blog reactions

•A fascinating case 
Bryan Rourke, Providence Journal (RI) On the auction of a collection of books with cases handmade by George and Patricia Sargent.The 425-book Drapkin collection, which includes about 350 Sargents' cases and numerous author inscriptions -- from Ayn Rand, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and J.D. Salinger, among others -- is expected to fetch between $1.5 million and $2 million at Wednesday's auction.  06:40 AM    View blog reactions

•Liberty at the movies 
David Boaz, Cato Institute Daily Commentary A list of "all-time favorite libertarian movies."The Castle was produced in Australia in 1997 but reached the United States in 1999. It's a very funny film about a character who thinks that living near the airport is just great. He even likes looking up at the massive power lines near his house because they remind him of what man can accomplish. Shades of Ayn Rand! 07:20 AM    View blog reactions

• •The medical world’s Howard Roark 
Gennady Stolyarov II, Enter Stage Right Noble Vision by Gen LaGreca is a contemporary novel in the Randian tradition, whose substance and style are perhaps the greatest reflection of the ideal of the founder of Objectivism since the latter's death in 1982. The characters are designed to carefully reflect their chosen value premises, while the plot is at the same time comprehensible and complex, logical and multifaceted. 07:16 AM    View blog reactions

• • •Philosophy of Objectivism denies the existence of common good 
Mike MacDonald, Charlotte Observer (NC) A United Methodist Church pastor argues against the idea that there is no obligation to help others.Those of us who believe God reveals his will to humanity through the Bible also believe that all of our humanity has been marred by sin, including our rationality. It's not for nothing that 'rationalize' means 'to devise superficially rational, or plausible, explanations or excuses for one's acts, usually without being aware that these are not the real motives.' Objectivism rationalizes the choice to be selfish. 08:32 AM    View blog reactions

• •Investing: A novel approach 
Conrad de Aenlle, International Herald Tribune The most attractively priced stock markets are often in countries that subject businesses to the most onerous taxation and regulation. What's a capitalist to do? Consider building an 'Atlas Shrugged' portfolio. 08:29 AM    View blog reactions

• •The great manipulator 
Peter Hartcher, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Profile by Peter Hartcher, author of Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan & The Missing 7 Trillion Dollars.Greenspan's public image is one of dour dryness. His one-time idol, the libertarian proselytiser Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, nicknamed Greenspan, then her gangly young clarinet-playing acolyte, 'the undertaker' for the lugubriousness of his looks. 08:21 AM    View blog reactions

•Don’t tell me ‘may’ or ‘could’ 
Charley Reese, Sanford Herald (NC) One of the illusions we in America all have at one time or another is the belief that if we can just create the right system, everybody can be prosperous and healthy. Sadly, that is not so. Some people just have bad luck....Our choice is either to follow Ayn Rand's path and let them perish while we pursue our own selfish interests, or to follow the path of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam and feed the hungry, clothe the naked and minister to the sick. 09:57 PM    View blog reactions

•Laws aim at creating felons, not liberty 
Curtis Cope, Daily Press (Victorville, CA) Letter to the editor.As Ayn Rand said in her book, 'Atlas Shrugged' (1957): 'Did you really think we want those laws observed? We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against ... We're after power and we mean it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them.' 09:54 PM    View blog reactions