• Buckley an entertaining intellectual 
David Harsanyi, Denver Post Atlas Shrugged  [National Review] would continue to purge kooks, as they saw them, for more than 50 years. On hyper-individualist author Ayn Rand, the National Review's Whittaker Chambers famously wrote, "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To a gas chamber — go!' "  10:02 AM    View blog reactions

• Rock of the right 
Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA) Personal life  In 1955, [William F. Buckley Jr.] co-founded the biweekly journal National Review, an oasis for conservatives of many stripes--Southern agrarians, traditional Catholics, free-marketeers--but not all: Anti-Semites were unwelcome there, nor were ultra-libertarians exactly served dates and fanned with palm fronds: After NR printed a harsh review by (Christian) Whittaker Chambers of (atheist) Ayn Rand's classic of social Darwinism, "Atlas Shrugged," recalled Mr. Buckley, "she would walk theatrically out of any room I entered." 09:59 AM    View blog reactions

• Students game for education 
Elizabeth Murphy, Collegian (Penn State U) On an initiative aimed at using video games in the university curriculum.Even though Rock Band might not add to your intellect, [program leader Chris] Stubbs said, there are plenty of commercial games that are educational. He pointed to video game BioShock, which at first glance seems to be a shooting game. But upon further investigation, the entire game is based on the philosophies of famed writer and philosopher Ayn Rand, he said. 09:51 AM    View blog reactions

• Wikia’s weird dream 
Martin Miller, Los Angeles Times Magazine On new search engine Wikia, which was co-founded by Jimmy Wales.[Wales'] fondness for author and philosopher Ayn Rand led him to name his daughter after one of her characters. 09:47 AM    View blog reactions

• Chairman Greenspan’s legacy 
Benjamin M. Friedman, New York Review of Books Review of Alan Greenspan's memoir The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.Acknowledging his intellectual debt to Ayn Rand's radically laissez-faire conception of capitalism, he gives his current views on a wide variety of topics ranging from Adam Smith and the history of capitalism to the economic challenges and opportunities now confronting China, India, and Russia. 09:45 AM    View blog reactions

• Theatre of dreams 
N. Rama Lohan, The Star (Malaysia) Anthem  Theater review.It’s difficult to overlook the similarities of We Will Rock You to Russian-born American novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, which even Canadian prog rock band Rush adopted in its concept album 2112, but this may just be coincidental. 09:42 AM    View blog reactions

• • William F. Buckley Jr: Obituary 
The Times (London) In ferocious clashes [Buckley] separated National Review conservatism from two, at that time influential, factions — the “objectivists”, led by Ayn Rand who preached a doctrine of atheistic selfishness, and the John Birch Society, led by Robert Welch, which was obsessed by the notion of communist conspiracy. Ayn Rand would never afterwards stay in a room with Buckley, and the John Birchers bombarded National Review with hate mail.  12:33 AM    View blog reactions

• William F. Buckley, Jr., 82, godfather of modern conservatism 
Stephen Miller, New York Sun Catholic in both the capital and small c sense, [Buckley] welcomed many flavors of conservatism into the National Review tent. But he insisted that Ayn Rand, and the John Birch Society's anti-Semites, had no place in his magazine or his movement. 07:30 PM    View blog reactions

• Having a beer with William F. Buckley Jr. 
John Bogert, Daily Breeze (Los Angeles) Atlas Shrugged  Personal life  After [Buckley's] magazine published a review of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" in 1957, the author became so enraged that, "For the rest of her life, she would walk theatrically out of any room that I (Buckley) entered."  07:27 PM    View blog reactions

• • • MU divided on BB&T grant conditions 
Veronica Nett, Charleston Gazette (WV) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Although some Marshall University professors are concerned about a $1 million grant from BB&T that requires the use of a specific book - Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" - the professor who will teach the course said he is comfortable doing so. "The university was free to accept or reject the grant," said Cal Kent, vice president for business and economic research at Marshall. "I was free to accept or reject teaching the course." 07:20 PM    View blog reactions

• • BioShock’s creator, Ken Levine, on Ken Levine 
Joe Blancato, The Escapist Interview.[Levine:] People have these certainties. Ayn Rand had a certainty. If you listen to her talk, she talked like Dr. Doom. She had this absolute certainty about how she spoke. Writing Andrew Ryan, reading her was very helpful, because he also has that certainty. And I'm also incredibly attracted to it, while there's some huuuge flaws in objectivism, as an artist, as a businessperson, you know, hey, sign me up. With a lot of philosophies, I think there's that whole level of 'I buy everything about it, hook, line and sinker.' And that's what a lot of philosophies ask you to do is buy everything, or buy nothing. And there's nothing where I'm going to buy everything. 07:17 PM    View blog reactions

• • My bookshelf shrugged 
Daniel Potocki, Newburyport Current (Beverly, MA) Atlas Shrugged  People [...] tend to look at you funny when you carry anything written by Ayn Rand. This is understandable as, amongst other things, Atlas Shrugged rails against Altruism. 07:16 PM    View blog reactions

• Rolen willing to lead - by example 
Cathal Kelly , Toronto Star The Fountainhead  Profile of Toronto Blue Jays player Scott Rolen."Shoulder's no problem at all," he said over the top of his cup, arching his eyebrows meaningfully. "Probably not even a topic of conversation at this point." Message received. The quick-wittedness may come from Rolen's love of reading. His favourite book is Ayn Rand's controversial novel of ideas, The Fountainhead. 07:09 PM    View blog reactions

• William F. Buckley Jr., RIP 
Ben Johnson, FrontPage Magazine In the 1960s, [Buckley] read the Radical Right out of the [conservative] movement, expelling the John Birch Society and Ayn Rand cultists from its ranks. 07:07 PM    View blog reactions

• • William F. Buckley RIP 
Thomas F. Roeser, Chicago Daily Observer Atlas Shrugged  Personal life  We’re indebted to [Buckley] for befriending that genius of the West Whittaker Chambers-and among other things, encouraging Chambers to write his great negative review of the “Atlas Shrugged” by the crackpot duenna of selfishness Ayn Rand and her Objectivism. We’re told that whenever Buckley entered a room where Rand was she stalked out because of Chambers. Great tribute to them both. 07:05 PM    View blog reactions

• • William F. Buckley, RIP 
Timothy Noah, Slate Atlas Shrugged  Buckley gathered and sifted through [...] disparate [conservative] groups, spurning the anti-Semites and anti-Catholics [...], tolerating but not joining the racists and the nativists, and embracing the libertarians so long as they didn't disparage religious belief. This last caveat excluded the cultish Rand, whose Atlas Shrugged Whittaker Chambers panned in National Review, taking exception to its atheism and its materialism, which in Chambers' view made it a conservative mirror image of Marxism. 06:57 PM    View blog reactions

• Memories of William F. Buckley Jr. 
Lowell Ponte, Newsmax Buckley revived but also reshaped American conservatism. He purged the movement of anti-Semitic elements and the John Birch Society. He also purged Ayn Rand and her Objectivists. 06:54 PM    View blog reactions

• • • In response to “Text required by MU contributor concerns faculty, administrators” 
Allan Stern, The Parthenon (Marshall U, Huntington, WV) Atlas Shrugged  Letter to the editor responding to an article about objections to a requirement that Atlas Shrugged be taught as a condition of a BB&T grant.If we, as a university, are supposed to be teaching and talking about critical reasoning and thinking, [Ayn Rand's] view points are relevant to today's society and still apply even if people think they apply only to another world that has somehow passed us by. 12:36 AM    View blog reactions

• William F. Buckley, amiable combatant 
David Von Drehle, Time Certainly Buckley could get things completely wrong — including the very important issue of civil rights. But what made him formidable, even more than his energy and charm, was the number of things he got right. Buckley almost single-handedly drove anti-Semitism out of acceptable conservative thought. He championed Whittaker Chambers through the Alger Hiss affair. He was leery of Ayn Rand, Richard Nixon and the Iraq War. 12:30 AM    View blog reactions

• Bucking history 
Investor's Business Daily On William F. Buckley Jr.National Review [...] helped weed out the right's eccentrics; the militant atheism of novelist Ayn Rand and her followers was purged, as were the conspiracy theories of the John Birch Society. 12:28 AM    View blog reactions

• William F. Buckley, Jr., RIP 
Robert Poole, Reason Online I received the news of Bill Buckley's death with a great sense of loss. No, he was not a major intellectual influence on my becoming a libertarian. I have to credit Robert Heinlein and Barry Goldwater and Ayn Rand for that. 12:26 AM    View blog reactions

• ‘Before Goldwater or Reagan, there was Buckley.’ 
Wall Street Journal - Washington Wire Personal life  "A sampling of reactions to the death of writer and conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., at the age of 82."Ken Layne, on D.C. gossip site Wonkette.com: “[....] He was a man of fine character, and nothing proved that more than the fact that Ayn Rand would melodramatically stomp out of the room if she saw Buckley." 12:24 AM    View blog reactions

• Riding profile: Mill Woods, Strathcona and Meadowlark 
Edmonton Journal The Fountainhead  Profiles of candidates running in the Alberta provincial election.CONSERVATIVE. T.J. Keil, 23, government and stakeholder relations associate. [....] Words of Wisdom: "The question isn't who is going to let me; it is who is going to stop me." -- Ayn Rand. 12:21 AM    View blog reactions

• Noir trek 
Bret McCabe, Baltimore City Paper Atlas Shrugged  "In any business, there are things that you buy that keep you open," [rare book dealer Kevin] Johnson says. "It may not be my favorite thing--like [Ayn Rand's] Atlas Shrugged isn't my favorite thing, but every time I get a copy I sell it. It's just one of those things. 12:01 AM    View blog reactions

• Full plate 
Gordon Edes, Boston Globe Profile of Boston Red Sox catcher Zak Farkes.He was picked by the Red Sox, but not until the 39th round, and when he hurt his shoulder in the Cape Cod League, he held off on signing, underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum, and returned to Harvard for his junior year. That decision helped advance him toward his degree in English and American literature (no Sox player has a bigger collection of Ayn Rand's writings), but it did nothing for his baseball prospects.  11:57 PM    View blog reactions