• • Flipside: CEOs need to shut up when it comes to politics 
Stuart Varney, FOXNews.com Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  TV show transcript.Stuart Varney: A Dixie Chick said she was "ashamed" of President Bush. Soon after, the popular all-female group went from hot to hated. Many fans boycotted them and some sponsors even dropped them. It's a lesson the CEO of Whole Foods didn't learn. He's dealing with a boycott of his own after writing a critical op-ed about national health care. [....] Jack Gage: It reminds me of Ayn Rand's famous protagonist John Galt. I think there is a reason he didn't mix with politicians. It's because he was too busy printing money. If you're the CEO of a company, you have to be concerned with competing and with out going your competition. Not with out lobbying them or trying to outsmart them in a policy debate. Stick to your guns. Stick to your business. Take care of the shareholders. That's a CEO's job.     Share on Facebook

• Ingo Bischoff on land tax, Austrians and real bills, and Henry George 
Scott Smith, Right Side News Capitalism  Like Ayn Rand, we would like to see a society that runs fully on a free market.     Share on Facebook

• 13.0: Legacy of heavy breathing woman 
Gyasi Ross, Indian Country Today The Fountainhead  On this conference call, there was a woman who just kept on talking. Wow! – I once watched “The Fountainhead,” where Gary Cooper made a six minute speech – that’s kind of how this lady talked. Incredible.     Share on Facebook

• More evidence of the Brussels racket, as Irish Euro-enthusiasts turn to business leaders 
Daniel Hannan, The Telegraph (London) Atlas Shrugged  Why [...] did Michael O’Leary [of Ryanair], who once described the EU as “the evil empire”, reverse his position [on the Lisbon Treaty]? His four stated reasons for recommending a “Yes” vote make no sense at all: all are defences of the status quo, and none has anything to do with Lisbon (see here). [....] O’Leary’s problem is that Ryanair depends on the EU for its survival. It was the Commission’s decision to block his airline’s grants from small airports and business consortia that provoked his “evil empire” remark in the first place. His current plans to take over parts of Aer Lingus will also require EU approval. He would be a brave man indeed to risk alienating Brussels. (Not that his supposed Euro-enthusiasm will necessarily save him: he should read Atlas Shrugged).     Share on Facebook

• Politics between the 45-yard lines 
David R. Henderson, Antiwar.com [Said John Abizaid,] “We don’t want to control the Middle East, but we want to shape the outcome.” How do you “shape the outcome” without exercising control? Blank out (i.e., no answer), as the late Ayn Rand would have said.     Share on Facebook

• • Essential sounds logging on… 
Irish Independent (Dublin) Despised or adored, there's no doubting the fact that libertarian Ayn Rand (aynrand.com) had a lot to say about the primacy of the individual and the crushing tyranny of the conformist masses. Sample quote: "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." As you can imagine, she's not for everyone, but remains one of the most important thinkers of the last 100 years.     Share on Facebook

• • The return of the welfare queen 
Ed Kilgore, Salon Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  CNBC financial reporter Rick Santelli became a right-wing folk hero for a rant about the injustice of being asked to help the "losers" who took out mortgages they should have known they couldn't pay. This was at about the same time as Republican members of Congress began handing out copies of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," with its prophecy of a dystopic society in which socialist "looters" and Christian "altruists" had brought the United States to its knees, and some conservative agitators began urging "productive" Americans to emulate Rand's plutocratic heroes by "going Galt" and refusing to contribute to the welfare state. The "tea party" movement that ramped up in opposition to Obama's economic stimulus proposals was heavily freighted with this sort of revolt-of-the-producers attitude.     Share on Facebook

• Fox News alert: How to make Glenn Beck stew 
Oliver Miller, The Faster Times Here’s a couple of possible explanations for the “oligarhy” snafu: [....] Maybe oligarhy is a secret Fox News code; a signal for the revolution that can only be received by Ayn Rand fanatics and mouth-breathers.     Share on Facebook

• Footnote 
Rachel Lee Harris, New York Times The consumer advocate, author and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader has written his first novel, “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!” Variety reported. The story about 17 wealthy figures, including Warren Beatty and Warren Buffet, trying to turn around the economy in 2006, is to be released by Seven Stories Press on Sept. 22. Mr. Nader calls the book his “answer to Ayn Rand.”     Share on Facebook

• • ‘The book was brilliant, beautiful and bitter’ 
Marina Correa, DNA (India) The Fountainhead  Fashion designer Krishna Mehta counts The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand as her all-time favourite novel. "There is immense strength portrayed with equally strong emotions which have been written brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly," says the lady who read it thrice so far. The fashion designer selected the book herself as she does with most of her choices, "seldom going by hearsay", she clarifies. She first read this book about 30 years ago but says that she can still relate to the characters and the circumstances. "They are amazingly captured in the most fluid language," says Krishna.Excerpts from her favourite passage reads: 'She tried to demonstrate her power over him. And he defeated her by admitting her power, she could not have the gratification of enforcing it...'     Share on Facebook

• Marion company’s smoked meat snacks are for fundraisers only 
Star-Banner (Ocala, FL) Atlas Shrugged  Profile of Country Meats executive Paul Geatches.[Q:] What is your favorite business book? [A:] "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand.     Share on Facebook

• The long-distance runner 
Sasha Issenberg, Boston Globe Profile of Mitt Romney.When Mitt Romney strode onstage just past noon on Thursday, February 7, 2008, many of those attending CPAC did not know that he was no longer a candidate for president. The basement of Washington’s Omni Shoreham hotel is deep out of cellphone range, and so the news that had popped up on blogs 20 minutes earlier -- that Romney would use his speech to withdraw -- barely moved the ballroom, then featuring a panel discussion on books by Barry Goldwater, Russell Kirk, and Ayn Rand.     Share on Facebook

• • 2,800 come for tea 
Mike Reuther, Williamsport Sun-Gazette (PA) Atlas Shrugged  Among those attending the [Williamsport Tea Party] was Wayne Simpler of Montoursville, who was carrying a sign bearing the words, "Atlas Is Shrugging." Simpler acknowledged the sign was in reference to the novel, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, a philosopher who believed greed is a virtue.     Share on Facebook

• • ‘Going Galt’ gaining on Google 
Garry Reed, The Examiner Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Going Galt [...] refers to the main character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged who leads the nation's best and brightest business brains into a work stoppage against the political species. They simply walk away from their firms, allowing them to fail, leaving nothing for the tax-gobbling government-huggers to gorge themselves on.     Share on Facebook

• • • Who isn’t John Galt? Part 2 
Robbie Gennet, Huffington Post Altruism  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Egoism  Rand's Atlas/Fountainhead world was imaginary and it worked in black and white to elucidate her philosophical points. It was as much pro-Capitalism as it was anti-Communism/Socialism, a product of her Russian upbringing and direct experiences. But Rand's philosophies are only as good or bad in action as the moral and ethical underpinnings of the person practicing it. Objectivist ethics may be based on rational egoism but still are driven by good or evil impetuses.     Share on Facebook

• • Vaults: Mirren goes from ‘Hussy’ to ‘Queen’ 
Gary Arnold, Washington Times Personal life  In the title role of "The Passion of Ayn Rand," [Helen Mirren] claimed adulterous rights to a young admirer played by Eric Stoltz.     Share on Facebook

• • Inside the Beltway 
Jennifer Harper, Washington Times Atlas Shrugged  There are plenty of suggestions for President Obama's beach reading list beyond the five titles he toted up to Martha's Vineyard, which incidentally amounted to 2,300 pages worth of fiction and nonfiction. Inside the Beltway readers have their own ideas, however. [....] Among the suggestions: [....] "Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged.' It shows what happens when the government makes all of the business decisions and the country slowly grinds to a halt. It's a long book, but a super-intelligent man like Obama should finish it within two days on the beach." - Steve Deery.     Share on Facebook

• • Philosophy with a sense of humor 
Jennifer Lloyd, Express-News (San Antonio, TX) Interview with actor John Poole on a production of “Action Philosophers!”[Q:] Which philosophers are represented in the work? [A:] We chose the philosophers that we thought would be the nicest spread of thought. Karl Marx is a perfect one to do since a lot of people talk about socialism. So what exactly did Karl Marx say? There you go. We’re doing Ayn Rand, who is a very popular woman philosopher. Not a lot of women in philosophy…. Bodhidharma, Plato and John Stuart Mill.     Share on Facebook

• • Defend your quest 
Clare Levison, Roanoke Times (VA) Atlas Shrugged  Your homework this week is to read "Francisco's Money Speech" from Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged." This passage is by far the most eloquent presentation of the virtues of money I have come across. You, too, must believe in the virtues of money in order to be successful with it. Money is a tool you can use to make wonderful things happen for you, your family and others who are deserving.     Share on Facebook

• The dangers of libertarian radicalism 
Spencer Jayden, Nolan Chart There is a reason why most Supreme Court justices grow more liberal in their decisions over time. It's because relativism that favors the left. Ayn Rand explained this quite thoroughly.     Share on Facebook