O-Land News Junkie

[stone:] There was a place in the East Village in 1959 that sold peyote buttons, and the guy that ran it was a follower of Ayn Rand. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/stone_warm_sober/

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/

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/

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/

Like so many other hesher kids of his era, former Beardenite Nick Raskulinecz was a Rush freak when he was playing bass and guitar in local Knox rock bands circa 1990. That’s right, Rush, those silly Canuck rockers famous for grandiose prog epics and utopian fantasies, science fiction and musings on Ayn Rand. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/beyond_foo/

Comedian Ron White said "you can't fix stupid" and there is nothing as stupid as war, especially a religious war and those who fight them. You as an individual, however, can fix stupid by understanding what Ayn Rand had to say. She said "when you hear someone calling for sacrifice, run, because this person is not your friend and you are the one being sacrificed." http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/blind_o...ont_fix_stupid/

Re: "You must choose religion or science" (letter, Jan. 5). Letter-writer and Ayn Rand worshipper David Wussler once again rails against the perils of theocratic religion while extolling the redemptive virtues of almighty secular science and objectivism as the utopian saviors of mankind. If only it were so. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/religion_and_science/

Ayn Rand [...] observed a vital relationship between man’s right to life and his right to self-defense: "[....] All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative. If some “pacifist” society renounced the retaliatory use of force, it would be left helplessly at the mercy of the first thug who decided to be immoral." http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/no_subs...otalitarianism/

There are garish paintings galore. On one side of the style aisle, there is much hyperrealist pulp of eyeballs and angels and alpha-male nudes, as if Ayn Rand were featured a tad too prominently on the syllabi of requisite literature classes this term. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/at_surs..._the_befuddled/

"Brink Lindsey suggests a new progressive alliance between liberals and libertarians." http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/liberal...ts_howard_dean/

"Here is an example of what [Junior Scholastic magazine] has devolved into. Force-feeding the barbaric propaganda of Islamic madrassas down the throats of my 7th and 4th graders. Disgusting," a father wrote WND. [....] The concerned parent said he would agree with John Lewis [...] who said America needs to destroy Islam as a political influence. Lewis presented his arguments at the Ayn Rand Institute's OCON conference "The Jihad Against the West" in Boston in October. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/scholas...aign_for_islam/

[Night of January 16th] is an exciting court room drama with many unusual twists and turns, delightful characters ranging from a shady private eye to a loyal housekeeper who would do anything for her boss. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/vernon_...and_production/

It is absurd to accuse Hayek, as [Kevin] Rudd does, of saying that "any form of altruism is dangerous". He never said that and he never believed it. [....] He argued that altruism was an important instinct in days long past when, to survive, people had to co-operate in close, often family, networks. [....] Rudd's accusations are bizarre and serve no purpose. Perhaps he is confusing Hayek with Ayn Rand. There seems no other sensible explanation. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/hayek_w..._bar_of_howard/

The libertarian Right insists that so-called "public goods" and "public interest" are nothing more than simple summations of private goods and interests. Indeed, as Ayn Rand put it, "there is no such entity as 'society,' since society is only a number of individual men... The common good" (or "the public interest") is an undefined and undefinable concept..." ("The Virtue of Selfishness"). In fact, and contrary to libertarian dogma, in numerous identifiable cases [...], the individual pursuit of optimum personal freedom and benefit can be detrimental to society at large. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/the_pub...f_volunteerism/

Bob Barr [former U.S. Representative]: [....] Although Ayn Rand's later novel, Atlas Shrugged, is more widely known, the struggle of her protagonist Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, reflecting the greatness of a free man's intellect and creativity, is perhaps even more relevant to today's world than the struggle of John Galt over the collectivists in Atlas Shrugged. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/books_for_christmas/

At the heart of the debate [about morality and capitalism] will be the works of novelist Ayn Rand. Her books "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" helped outline her view that unrestricted capitalism is best because it lets people trade one-to-one "by free, voluntary exchange with mutual benefit." http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/grant_f...iness_morality/

Today [the New York Times and Washington Post] ran feature stories trashing Carter using Kenneth Stein's resignation from the Carter Center as the hook. [....] But like John Galt, many people must have wondered, Who (the hell) is Kenneth Stein? http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/the_med...f_jimmy_carter/

In The Spy Who Loved Me, Fleming’s narrator, a woman, explains: “All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken. It was his sweet brutality against my bruised body that made his act of love so piercingly wonderful. That and the coinciding of nerves so completely relaxed after the removal of tension and danger, the warmth of gratitude, and a woman’s natural feeling.” Ayn Rand was a big admirer, unsurprisingly. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/casino_...ames_bond_film/

As Ayn Rand once said: Don't bother to examine a folly – ask yourself only what it accomplishes. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/boris_b...bizarro_effect/

The Atlas Society has announced the location and dates for the 18th Annual Summer Seminar conference. The seminar will be held in the second week of July, 2007 (July 8-15) at Towson University near Baltimore, Maryland. Make special note of the change in this year’s schedule. The seminar will start on a Sunday, rather than on a Saturday as in past years, and continue through Saturday night, rather than Friday as in past years. More information at The Atlas Society/Objectivist Center website. http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/592.php

Posted on Randex Jeremy: Ayn Rand?? Pierce: Oh yeah, I love this book. Link: Zits - Washington Post Well, I thought it was cute.... Kat

When [the new generation of capitalists] give away [their] collected earnings, they apply the same discipline of capitalistic efficiency. The best example is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which watches its money closer than an accountant on a fixed income. Microsoft Corp. is doing just as much, and probably way more good -- and profits remain a motive (am I starting to sound like an Ayn Rand rehash?). http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/saving_...line_at_a_time/

A new play, Paul Rudnick’s Regrets Only, is reviewed by The New York Times ( 11/16 ) as a “light comedy of drawing-room manners that asks, simply, ‘what if?’“ It seems to have grabbed part of its plot from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, of all things: The story line has “... every hairdresser, florist, dressmaker, party planner” in New York City going on strike to foil the marriage of an anti-gay marriage proponent. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/media_watch/

Whether one is a fan or a detractor of Ayn Rand, the issues raised by this book are manifold and provocative. This book should force a debate of renewed vigor about what we mean by egoism, whether and how the egoism / altruism dichotomy should be applied within eudaimonistic ethical theories, and what our ethical theories imply about our political outlook. Smith provides us with a version of egoism that will need to be argued against by those who find it distasteful or misguided, rather than simply dismissed. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/ayn_ran...irtuous_egoist/

Libertarians are a diverse lot spanning the gamut of world views from Ayn Rand’s humanistic, free sex agenda to the legally based Christian Reconstructionist outlook of regular columnist Gary North. http://randex.org/index.php/weblog/economic_divinity/