O-Land News Junkie

C-SPAN will be broadcasting the “Atlas Shrugged and Business” panel discussion from the Atlas Society’s recent 50th Anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C. Of this discussion, moderator Robert Bidinotto writes “It’s a fascinating hour-long overview of the appeal and applicability of Rand’s ideas to the world of business.” I lead off with brief remarks on the reasons for the widespread hostility toward business and businessmen, and how Rand’s philosophical ideas not only repudiated that popular view, but led her to romanticize businessmen in Atlas Shrugged. Younkins gives a superb presentation on the brilliant economic insights that Rand incorporated into her visionary novel. Ed Snider reads revealing correspondence between himself and Ayn Rand, in which he first approached her with the idea of setting up a new organized effort to promote her ideas. Rob Bradley takes on modern university teaching of “business ethics,” as seen through the filter of Rand’s own ethical thinking, and then demonstrates exactly what ideas led to the collapse of the Enron corporation, where he used to work. It’s scheduled for broadcast on Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 3:00 pm Eastern time, and on Sunday, October 21 at 3:00 am Eastern. See Bidinotto’s full announcement for more information. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/685.php

An interesting piece in Stamford’s The Advocate begins: NEW YORK - Grand Central Terminal provides visitors with frequent train service, dining and shopping options, and to some, the meaning of life. Some Metro-North Railroad employees say one of mankind’s greatest achievements lies in New York City’s deepest basement - a rotary power converter that once provided electricity to the entire railroad and to the historic train terminal. Recently, nine Grand Central visitors got to see the converter close up to compare it with its literary equivalent - John Galt’s motor in novelist Ayn Rand’s 1957 magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged.” To celebrate the book’s 50th anniversary, the visitors, who dubbed themselves “Friends of Atlas Shrugged,” a subgroup of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif., went to Grand Central for an exclusive tour in hopes of seeing some of the philosophical and technological inspirations for the novel. “I have never been down in the bowels of a train station before,” said Jean Binswanger of New York, one of the terminal’s visitors, who included former Ayn Rand Institute board Chairman Peter Schwartz, a Danbury resident. “I think this is a fitting way to celebrate the anniversary.” Keep reading for more. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/681.php

From Robin Orenbuch: On October 13, 2007 there will be an Atlas Shrugged Symposium on Book TV at 12 noon (presumably Eastern time, since Robin is on the East Coast). http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/679.php

Here are two new movies in the theaters that seem potentially very interesting to fans of Ayn Rand’s uncompromising novels: The Brave One (starring Jodie Foster) and 3:10 to Yuma (starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale). Tomorrow we’ll be posting an excellent review of Yuma by Atlasphere columnist Allison Taylor. Judging from her review, it’s an absolute must-see. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/663.php

From the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Rand-o-rama” post of two days ago: This week The Chronicle features three articles about the intellectual legacy of Ayn Rand. (The intro is here; to get to the main courses, follow the links in the right-hand column.) In this 2004 interview, the Ayn Rand Institute's director, Yaron Brook, briefly describes his "plan to help [objectivist] graduate students get placed in top-level philosophy departments around the country. The program is still in its infancy. It is very ambitious, and we will not know its success for many years." Is that kind of talk creepy and messianic? Or is it the commendable behavior of a group that believes it has a true and important set of ideas to bring to the world? That was one of the debates that occupied faculty members this spring at Texas State University at San Marcos, as they considered whether or not to accept a Rand-related donation. See the full post by David Glenn for (much) more Rand-related coverage at the Chronicle. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/650.php

Earlier this week my wife and I watched The Lost City (June 2006), starring Andy Garcia, who also produced and directed the movie. It’s was best movie I’ve seen in months. The film is Garcia’s own personal love letter to Cuba — the Cuba that existed before Fidel Castro’s “revolution.” It is a pulsating world of lively music, palpable sensuality, and tight-knit families. The writing and acting are excellent throughout, and the cinematography is spectacularly beautiful. The movie is highly stylized — the opposite of naturalism, you could say. Fidel Castro really takes it in the chin in this film. Predictably, mainstream movie reviewers panned the movie for its failure to conform to Hollywood’s preferred version of Cuban history, i.e., that Castro was leading a “people’s revolution,” etc. Humberto Fontova — who was born in Cuba, like Garcia — wrote an article for NewsMax characterizing the left’s reaction to the movie: Earlier, many film festivals refused to screen it. Now many Latin American countries refuse to show it. The film’s offenses are many and varied. Most unforgivable of all, Che Guevara is shown killing people in cold blood. Who ever heard of such nonsense? And just where does this uppity Andy Garcia get the effrontery to portray such things? The man obviously doesn’t know his place. And: Andy Garcia and screenwriter Guillermo Cabrera Infante knew full well that “the working poor” had no role in the stage of the Cuban revolution shown in the movie. The anti-Batista rebellion was led and staffed overwhelmingly by Cuba’s middle and, especially, upper class. To wit: In August of 1957 Castro’s rebel movement called for a “national strike” against the Batista dictatorship — and threatened to shoot workers who reported to work. The “national strike” was completely ignored. Another was called for April 9, 1958. And again Cuban workers blew a loud and collective raspberry at their “liberators,” reporting to work en masse. “Garcia’s tale bemoans the loss of easy wealth for a precious few,” harrumphs Michael Atkinson in The Village Voice. “Poor people are absolutely absent; Garcia and Infante seem to have thought that peasant revolutions happen for no particular reason — or at least no reason the moneyed 1 percent should have to worry about.” What’s “absolutely absent” is Mr. Atkinson’s knowledge about the Cuba Garcia depicts in his movie. His crack about that “moneyed 1 percent” and especially his “peasant revolution” epitomize the cliched idiocies still parroted by the chattering classes about Cuba. While political upheaval drives the movie’s plot, the movie itself is valuable and enjoyable on multiple levels — many of which have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with “life as it might be and ought to be.” I recommend it highly. The movie is available for purchase . You can watch the trailer — which doesn’t really do the movie justice — at Apple. And you may also enjoy NPR’s interview with Garcia about the movie. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/649.php

From a new op-ed by Ed Hudgins, executive director of The Atlas Society, published in the Washington Times and elsewhere: On July 4, 1776, America’s Founders declared the country’s independence from Britain, largely as a revolt against excessive and unfair taxation. So in our nation, which is much more overtaxed than it was over two centuries ago, it would be fitting if, in recognition of our Founding principles, federal, state and local governments made July Fourth a totally tax-free day. Many cities already suspend sales taxes for a few days a year on items such as clothing and school supplies, usually to garner the favor of overtaxed parents struggling to raise kids and to give mom and pop an incentive to frequent overtaxed downtown enterprises struggling to make profits. So wouldn’t it be appropriate for all of us who struggle every day to be allowed to keep our money on that day on which we celebrate our freedom? The total direct tax burden on Americans - not counting the indirect taxes of regulations - is estimated at about 35 percent of our $13 trillion gross domestic product, or $4.5 trillion. That works out to more than $12 billion we would keep in our own pockets if we were truly independent on Independence Day. We wouldn’t have to pay taxes on the hotdogs, beer and barbecue we purchase for Fourth of July picnics. And since for most of us this is a paid holiday, for that day we would receive our paychecks without income tax, Social Security taxes, unemployment insurance taxes and the like taken out. Such a tax-free day would be the time to fill up large SUVs and save $10 a tank in various fuel taxes. Malls would soon see Christmas-season sized crowds as shoppers seek to stretch their dollars. Continue reading on The Atlas Society website. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/648.php

From Atlasphere member Noah Rusnock: I am not sure how much the Atlasphere community is involved with video games, but in the next few months a highly-anticipated, main stream video game with an Objectivist base will hit the market. The game is called BioShock and you can read about it , here, and here. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/643.php

<p><img align="right" alt="joe-eros.jpg" id="image630" style="border: 1px solid black; margin-left: 5px" src="http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/joe-eros.jpg" />If you’re into Ayn Rand’s writings and also like rap music … but have always longed for more inspiring lyrics … check out the Rand-influenced hip-hop artist (Atlasphere profile <a href="http://www.theatlasphere.com/directory/profile.php?id=6863">here).</p> <p>I met Joe on Sunday at an informal Atlasphere get-together in Santa Monica. Great guy, and shares my strong admiration for the newly-assembled <a href="http://www.myspace.com/wetheliving">We the Living</a> band.</p> <p>Also at our get-together was of <a href="http://www.thefenwicks.com/">The Fenwicks — surely the best Objectivist “Afro-Celtic Yiddish Ska” band you’ve ever heard. (Despite intense competition!) </p> http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/629.php

ARI’s David Holcberg has penned a compelling letter to the editor submitted to hundreds of newspapers, radio stations, and web sites: With 2 million homeowners defaulting on their mortgage payments, we are increasingly hearing denunciations of lenders for having loaned money to people who had no means of paying it back. But these denunciations reveal a disturbing double standard. For years, politicians pressured lenders to not discriminate against those with poor credit history and shaky finances. Now we have the despicable spectacle of politicians accusing lenders of not having discriminated enough and of having made too many risky loans. Lenders are damned if they lend — and damned if they don’t. Whatever lenders do, politicians seem to always find their practices objectionable, and will take advantage of any excuse to call for more regulations and increased political power over lending. Politicians should leave lenders alone, and instead of damning them, they should acknowledge their crucial role in making home ownership possible for so many people. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/623.php

The Atlas Shrugged movie now not only has its own page in the Internet Movie Database (which has probably been the case for a while), but their IMDB page also offers this update, as of 30 Jan 2007, on the movie’s status: Status: Announced Comments: The screenplay is nearly complete, and production is scheduled to begin this year (2007). Status Updated: 30 January 2007 Note: Since this project is categorized as being in production, the data is subject to change; some data could be removed completely. Hope springs eternal. I also see that , of Braveheart and Pearl Harbor fame, is now listed as the screenwriter — rather than the previously-cited James Hart. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/621.php

Questions about why we published this-or-that column come up not infrequently at the Atlasphere. Below is a letter I wrote to a new Atlasphere member who had questions about how we decide what to publish, in general, and about Jessica Bennett’s most recent column, “Rationally Green,” in particular. Perhaps others will be interested to hear this information. * * * In general, we strive to publish lively, stimulating content of likely interest to fans of Ayn Rand’s novels (who may or may not consider themselves Objectivists). Feel free to peruse our writers guidelines, if you’re curious. Occasionally one of our authors skirts the lines of what we find philosophically acceptable and we definitely try to keep things relatively Objectivist-ish, in that regard. At the same time, we don’t devote a lot of time to enforcing intellectual “purity.” We trust and encourage our readers to think for themselves, and we’re more interested in providing stimulating material than in providing philosophically exact content. To provide an analogy, within the Rand-admiring community, we strive to be more of an Atlantic Monthly than, obviously, an academic journal. If you’re looking for scholarly or philosophically scrubbed material, there are others that do this much better than us. If, on the other hand, you are interested in casual worldly discussions of this-and-that, we seem to be a good place to go. At least, that’s the conclusion I reach from the number of people who’ve signed up for our columns announcements. We’ve had well over 4,000 members sign up (and more new ones sign up every day) to receive an e-mail notification each time we publish a new column. Fewer than five percent of the people who request these announcements have ever turned them off — meaning they happily keep receiving three new column announcements from us every week — which never ceases to amaze me, personally. I truly never thought our columns would be quite so popular, but they seem to be meeting some kind of need, out there. Regarding Jessica’s most recent column in particular, I think Jessica is advocating more of the “conservationist” position, which was the old name for environmentalism, before it became a political cause and a religion for some people. Conservationists were people who loved nature and wanted to help protect it. You can kind of sense that Jessica’s groping toward a free market solution to the problem of how to protect nature. I don’t think this is hard to see. I actually didn’t see this particular column before it was published. Our editor, Carol Brass, handles all that, for which I am eternally grateful. She and I both have full schedules, and the Atlasphere actually doesn’t get paid for the time she and I invest in these columns. On the contrary, I pay our editor and writers a small amount of money to create this content, and I receive no direct compensation in return. So if, in the rush of day-to-day life, something slips by that one of us regrets for some reason — I don’t see it as a big deal, usually. If it is a big deal, I’ll edit or pull the column post-publication, and send the writer an explanation. But I’m disinclined to do that for this particular column, because I think it’s just a matter of whether readers are willing to entertain a position that’s fairly understandable, all things considered. You probably wouldn’t know this, but Jessica is actually one of our more popular columnists; she has her own following at the Atlasphere. Usually she doesn’t write about topics with a strong political charge. Something about her thoughtful (”poetic” as you called it) style of writing resonates with many readers — including me, I should say. She’s stylistically different than our other writers, and she’s got a gift. She really does make you want to think things over, which I think is great. You might be interested to browse the archives (on the search page you can enter an author’s name to view all their columns) and read some of her earlier columns, if her style appeals to you. You asked how you could submit a reply to her column. If you’re a paid Atlasphere subscriber and you’d like to reply to her personally, you can send her an e-mail via her Atlasphere profile (linked from the bottom of any of her articles). Or, if you’re interested in publishing a column on the subject, we do welcome submissions that present alternate perspectives on a subject as long as they don’t read like a response to an earlier column. Any column you submit should stand well enough on its own, without needing to quote-and-reply to earlier content. I should also mention that we have published other columns, like this one by Walter Williams, taking a firm stance against environmentalism. So I don’t think there’s any reasonable way to infer that the Atlasphere is endorsing environmentalism per se by publishing what Jessica wrote. Ultimately, I think, Jessica is expressing an understandable tension between her own natural pro-nature sentiments and the wacky global-warming environmentalist Kool Aid that so many people seem to be selling these days. I hope that answers your questions. I welcome your thoughts. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/618.php

From today’s New York Post: March 14, 2007 — Carlos Slim, the Mexican tycoon just a hair from being the world’s richest man, scoffed yesterday at Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for “playing Santa Claus” to cure poverty’s ills. Slim climbed on his meanie soapbox just days after his $49 billion fortune was ranked by Forbes as the third-richest behind that No. 1 Gates and No. 2 Buffett - only a few billion shy from eclipsing them both. “Poverty isn’t solved with donations,” he said at the unveiling of his own health care initiative. Slim continued that building good businesses do more for society than “going around like Santa Claus.” Slim wants to build huge hospitals in northern Mexico where the U.S. can ship tens of thousands of Medicare patients for health care that can be delivered at much cheaper costs. Slim was unimpressed at how Buffett and Gates vowed late last year to combine their entire fortunes into the world’s largest foundation to do good works. “Our concept is more to accomplish and solve things, rather than giving,” Slim said. Slim, 67, has expanded his empire of telecom and energy assets faster than any of the other top billionaires of the world, growing at 64 percent last year. Interesting. And very Randian-sounding. Could he be a celebrity Ayn Rand fan? http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/614.php

Mark Skousen has penned a new (and ultimately disappointing) article called “Atlas Shrugged - 50 Years Later” for the Christian Science Monitor. Seems he digs the novel’s capitalist politics but can’t quite stomach its ethic of enlightened self-interest. Still choosing between sadism and masochism, as Miss Rand would say. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/611.php

Brain Doherty, senior editor at Reason Magazine, will be discussing his new book Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement on C-SPAN2’s “After Words”. Readers of Ayn Rand will recognize the title, taken from Rand’s description of her political viewpoint. From the C-SPAN Booknotes email announcement: Insightful author interviews Saturday 9 PM, Sunday 6 PM and 9 PM ET Brian Doherty is a senior editor at Reason magazine and the author of This Is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground. He discusses his latest book, Radicals for Capitalism: A History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement, with Doug Bandow, former senior fellow at the Cato Institute and current vice president of policy at Citizen Outreach, a limited-government public policy organization. Mr. Bandow’s latest book is Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/607.php

Next month, critically acclaimed author and speaker Bob Burg, who is also an Atlasphere columnist, will be co-hosting a two-day business seminar in Orlando called “Extreme Business Makeovers.” Burg is the author of The Success Formula, — all well-regarded in the business coaching industry for providing practical principles for maximizing business growth. His business columns at the Atlasphere include the “Success Formula” series (parts , two, and ), his “Winning Without Intimidation” series (covering Belief Concepts, , How You Say It, , Allowing Yourself to Win, and The Power of Questions), and many others. He has also authored several political columns for the Atlasphere, including “,” “Re-Framing the Immigration Debate,” and, most recently, “Default Settings to Big Government.” For information about attending Burg’s two-day seminar, visit the Extreme Business Makeover web site, which describes the event, the bevy of business authorities who will be presenting there, and how to register. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/604.php

On my way to learn Spanish, almost a decade ago, I picked up Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand in Barcelona airport. I read the first sentence – “Who is John Galt?” â€“ and hardly put down the 1,100-page book till I read the last. I missed the opening day of my courses, read through the night, missed dinner and slept in my clothes. Nothing has affected me more than that book (unlike Charles Pretzlik’s critical view of it on this page on January 6/7). http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/a_novel...urope_prospers/

My critical piece the weekend before last on [Atlas Shrugged] has generated much anger among Rand devotees in our letters page, on this blog and in online discussion groups. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/smiths_...p_in_aerospace/

“Atlas” was a best seller. Six million copies have been sold over the years, and it remains a popular title, particularly among college students, according to Penguin Group, its publisher. Many of those copies wind up on shelves on Wall Street, where the book has been affectionately referred to as “the Bible of selfishness.” http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/ayn_ran...cript_approval/

Major movements that changed the way Americans felt and acted came about through books, often only one book. Think of Rachel Carson's 1962 error-filled "Silent Spring" that resulted in the pointless banning of the insecticide DDT and many unnecessary deaths. Other books that caused upheavals in our nation were Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," many of Ayn Rand's books and of course "Uncle Tom's Cabin." http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/a_rabbi..._us_christians/

How many of you have read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand? I read the book and The Fountainhead, a number of them. Atlas Shrugged for those of you who haven't read it, I'll give you the basic book report summary. It is basically about the achievers of life quitting, because they're tired of being 1% of the population pulling the other 99% in the cart. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/read_at...shrugged_again/

A former high school English teacher writes, Jan. 10, about the virtue of letter writers being thrifty with their words and cites what she calls the valuable advice of a fictional father to his sons: "Now do it again, but shorter." "Valuable" advice? Not hardly. [....] My goodness, can you even begin to imagine the catastrophic loss to the worlds of literature and philosophy had Ayn Rand been preoccupied with word restraint in her voluminous and incomparable writings. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/dubious_advice/

In the climax, Guru is facing a panel of what Ayn Rand famously described as second-handers (men who do not run the world but impede those who do), he is almost a Howard Roark, a John Galt or the hugely controversial American Aviator Howard Hughes. [....] Guru is a perfect film for our times because it questions why this country is so apologetic about success, why it is so afraid to dream, why so cluttered by people who discourage enterprising individuals. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/a_perfe..._for_our_times/

If we're lucky this is a fiscal re-tuning, and not the beginning of "Atlas Shrugged" from our city's largest employer. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/blog_log/

My critical piece the weekend before last on [Atlas Shrugged] has generated much anger among Rand devotees in our letters page, on this blog and in online discussion groups. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/smiths_...p_in_aerospace/