• • The great divide in US politics 
,
Atlas Shrugged  | “It’s a paradox,” says Thomas Frank, author of Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right. “Here’s a movement that seems community-minded. They’re saying ‘let’s all come together.’ But what are they coming together for? To celebrate the survival of the fittest!” Or, the survival of the fattest. “If you look at the Tea Party’s favourite book, Atlas Shrugged, it’s about the strongest people exerting their will-to-power over everybody else, and at the end of the day the strong will crush the weak,” says Frank. “And it’s not just the Tea Party. The Republicans in Congress talk of it all the time. The strong crushing the weak — and forever.”  

• Ron Paul: 2012 witnessing the rise of a guru to the downwardly mobile 
,
And then there’s Paul’s avowed pro-life stance — an exception to the personal liberty mantra in that it does not extend choice to pregnant women. A policy, many note, that would likely come as a shock to the late Ayn Rand, ideological doyenne of libertarianism.  

• • Bestselling authors aren’t always what they seem 
,
Personal life  | Who could have guessed, a decade ago, that J.K. Rowling was a single welfare mum who made up Harry Potter stories to amuse her child at bedtime, or that Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged) was a closet Charlie’s Angels addict?  

• • • Viral: Lululemon bag prompts more than a shrug 
,
Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Egoism  |Individualism  | Athletic clothing brand Lululemon raised some eyebrows this week, and not with its body-hugging yoga gear. The stretchy pants maker got oddly political with its new shopping bag, which features women doing exercise poses on one side (naturally) — and a quotation from controversial author Ayn Rand on the other. [....] “As long as any words from that scourge on political theory and literature remain on Lululemon’s bags, I will stay the f--- out of their store,” wrote blogger Sarah Kurchak.  

• • • A Tea Party buzz kill 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Capitalism  |Image  | Even free enterpriser Ayn Rand would have been tempted to pull the plug on production of Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, the first in a film trilogy based on her influential 1957 novel of the same name. Rand’s weighty story about the glories of capitalism heaps scorn on government interference and seems targeted to Tea Party supporters today, although the story, set in 2016 about a renegade railway magnate and her steelmaking idol, feels decidedly dated.  

• Resting places of the rich and famous 
,
Personal life  | It scarcely seems possible but Lou Gehrig will lie, apparently forever, under a typographical error.The greatest of all first basemen, one of the most tragic figures in sports because of his early death from a mystery disease that would be named after him, is buried under a stone in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, N.Y., that says he was born in 1905. He actually was born in 1903. [....] Kensico is a power-packed place. The office hands out a map with a suggested tour: Ayn Rand lies one grave over from Tommy Dorsey, and Yankee brass, including owner Jacob Ruppert and general manager Ed Barrow, are near Gehrig. Billie Burke, the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz, and her showman husband Florenz Ziegfeld are together in a glade under a large bronze statue, a great place to spend forever.  

• Olive: Carney won’t lead IMF—this time 
,
Alan Greenspan  |Capitalism  | During his long tenure as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, the Ayn Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan, on whose watch the epic U.S. housing bubble got well underway, had an ideological fixation that markets are self-correcting. Which they manifestly are not.  

• • Simpsons-seared: Culture the show changed forever 
,
Altruism  |The Fountainhead  |Egoism  | Once, the late writer Ayn Rand was a figure of fear in my mind, representing the cold, calculating, selfish side of human nature. Then in 1992, came one of my favourite episodes [of The Simpsons], “A Streetcar Named Marge.” Marge lands a lead part in a musical, so Maggie’s sent to the Ayn Rand School for Tots — a daycare with strange posters on the walls that say things to reference her theory of objectivism like, “HELPING IS FUTILE.” Their attendant consults a book called The Fountainhead Diet. After the episode, I realized I could laugh at objectivism, and the fear that she might connect with some dark corner of my soul evaporated.  

• 5 Canadian examples of intangible cultural heritage that the UN should protect 
,
Honestly, where would you rather be – at the “Mystery Play of Elche” (which most of you will not understand) or at a Rush concert on top of the UN building (which you will not understand either, unless you’re a real Ayn Rand weirdo)?  

• Look to grassroots to reinvent Toronto 
,
Toronto is a bottom up, democratic city. No, we're not France, and we shouldn't try to be like New York. We should try to just be who we are. We don't need mega-projects imposed on us by "great men" whose greatest ideas came from an Ayn Rand novel. We need more democratic participation.  

• • Self-expression reigns in BioShock 2 
,
Altruism  |Egoism  | The BioShock universe, for those who've not sampled it, is centred around Rapture, the undersea Objectivist paradise created by mad tycoon Andrew Ryan. [....] BioShock 2 presents Rapture 10 years later, now under the care and control of altruist/collectivist Dr. Sophia Lamb and her Big Sisters – and no less nightmarish for the change in management from Rand to Marx and Mill. "Ryan's philosophy of rational self-interest was so extreme, his political rivals had to be similarly larger than life to pose any real threat to him," Thomas explains.  

• Where to start? Okay, first, remember Hitler? 
,
Q: Do you believe that some people have an ethical obligation to pass on their genes? [....] A: Woo hoo – there's just so much that is offensive about your question, it's hard to know where to begin. When I read the first line, I thought we were going to talk about Sir Isaac Newton, Ralph Nader, Ayn Rand, maybe even Pope John XXIII – all of whom, according to reports, failed to pass on their genetic bits 'n' bites before it was too late.  

• Craigslist MC fans don’t want to miss a thing 
,
Last week [...] I notice someone had organized a [Missed Connections] "event" at a downtown bookstore. "Hope you can all show up and hope you get a Missed Connection written about you," ended the post. This could be my chance! [....] The store held a few dozen shoppers when I arrived. Not knowing where to begin or what I was expecting [...], I figured I'd scope the action from behind a book. But how to send the right message by what I browsed? Every aisle conveyed a different personality. I ruled out the bodice-ripping Romance section (too obvious), sales tables (didn't want to look thrifty) and Self-Improvement (could imply I have problems). Choosing the best title to "read" was also essential: a book by Ayn Rand might subtly suggest that I'm Mr. Right.  

• Inward thinking softens Hardsell 
,
Review of Hardsell, a one-man show by Rick Miller.
[The Arnie character’s] description of sex with Ayn Rand is one of the evening's highlights.  

• • Friedmanite ‘idols’ need toppling 
,
Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | Letter to the editor.
These AIG bonuses are the legacy of the "free-market" fundamentalism of Reagan and Thatcher, which found its culmination in the lawlessness and greed of the Bush-Cheney years. These people adore the superficial economics of Milton Friedman and the philosophy of Atlas Shrugged author Ayn Rand – except these hypocrites have been taking handouts in Himalayan begging bowls.  

• It’s time for a takeover of feckless U.S. banks 
,
Capitalism  | Good grief, even Ayn Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, recently allowed that a "temporary" takeover of troubled banks is an option that must be considered.  

• News quiz: 2008’s highs, lows, inanities and blows 
,
Capitalism  | In the midst of a global banking crisis unprecedented in modern times, and a $700-billion (U.S.) federal bailout of leading U.S. banks and brokerages, a. Alan Greenspan, prime architect of the disaster, with his easy money policies early this decade as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board; b. Alan Greenspan, friend and acolyte of Ayn Rand in his youth; c. Alan Greenspan, lifelong opponent of strict regulation of the financial sector; d. all of the above told Congress: "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief."  

• • Greenspan no acolyte of Ayn Rand’s 
,
Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | Letter to the editor in response to an editorial.
Condemning [Alan] Greenspan and government intervention for the hardship now being felt by many is fair game. Condemning Ayn Rand and anti-interventionist admonitions is not. Were she alive today, her words would be "I told you so."  

• • Greenspan no acolyte of Ayn Rand’s 
,
Capitalism  | Letter to the editor in response to an editorial.
Whether he admits it or not, [Alan] Greenspan abandoned Ayn Rand's philosophy in 1987 when he accepted the job of U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman – i.e., of chief governmental dictator of interest rates. Such a position would not exist in a government that abided by Rand's principles. The financial crisis we are witnessing today is not a refutation of her ideas, but a sadly eloquent confirmation of them.  

• • Twilight of the oracles 

Capitalism  | The world's bankers, lining up for a $3 trillion handout, mocked another voice of laissez-faire capitalism: the late libertarian Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged (1957). Rand impressed Greenspan with views such as this: "The only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off." Today, that counsel of neglect is a cruel joke to millions losing jobs and homes.