• Be different, rise above mediocrity 
K Vijayaraghavan, Times of India Egoism  Ayn Rand talks of [enlightened self-interest] powerfully. 08:42 AM    View blog reactions

• • • Book review: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, by Ayn Rand 
Tom Butler-Bowdon, CityWire Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  Personal life  Excerpt from 50 Prosperity Classics: Attract it, Create it, Manage It, Share It – Wisdom from the best books on wealth creation and abundance, by Tom Butler-Bowdon.The power of the book rests on Rand’s surprising contention that capitalism is a system morally superior to any other, built on personal freedom and delivering astounding wealth – and yet that it remains the most misunderstood system of political economy. 10:45 AM    View blog reactions

• Why Twitter is the only thing in the world that can save the world 
Brian Carter, The Inquisitr Egoism  Humor.The second biggest danger to the world right now is selfishness. [....] Buddhists are against it and everyone knows Buddhism is really cool, because there’s no god or anything, you just sit around and light incense and say cool chants. Even Jesus didn’t like selfishness. Pretty much the only people that embrace selfishness are jerks, Capitalists, and Ayn Rand fans. Selfishness is a big problem, because when people act in their own self interest, they tend to go to work, keep working, and buy stuff. 10:34 AM    View blog reactions

• • Talk of the town 
The Statesman (New Delhi) Night of January 16th  This Friday, Theatrecian will stage its new production ~ Ayn Rand’s The Night Of January 16th. 10:33 AM    View blog reactions

• Beyond apology? 
Binoy Kampmark, On Line Opinion (Australia) Ayn Rand Institute  Members of such libertarian organisations as the Ayn Rand society believe that [a "national apology" for slavery] would actually perpetuate racism. 10:17 AM    View blog reactions

• Move over, Harry! 
Janet Jones Kendall, Atlanta Business Chronicle Capitalism  A book series about business ownership aimed at preteens made perfect sense to [author] Jennifer [Boudani], who wanted to teach business values to her daughter, who was born in 2005. “I had finished reading ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand and I went out looking for a children’s book series that taught business. 10:14 AM    View blog reactions

• Review: ‘The Cheetah Girls: One World’ 
Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Atlas Shrugged  TV movie review.Telling kids over and over that to be good people they must continually bow to the power of the collective -- Troy, how could you choose a pick-up game with a college team over the employee baseball tourney?!? -- will not only send parents running for junior editions of "Atlas Shrugged," it will make kids laugh, and not in the good way. 10:11 AM    View blog reactions

• • Top things to do Aug. 22-24 
Matthew Ralston, Orange County Register (CA) Night of January 16th  'The Night of January 16th' - Ayn Rand's courtroom drama is based on the 1932 death of Ivar Kreuger, the Swedish "Match King." The jury is pulled from the audience each night, determining the outcome of the trial. 10:06 AM    View blog reactions

• Too big to fail, too big to bail 
Morgan Housel, Motley Fool Capitalism  I'm all for free markets, but I also think it's possible to take Ayn Rand too seriously. 10:02 AM    View blog reactions

• We can’t afford four years of Obama 
Rush Limbaugh, RushLimbaugh.com Atlas Shrugged  Radio show transcript.[Caller]: Yes, I just wanted to tell you I've been listening to you since I was a junior in high school back in 1992. RUSH: A Rush Baby. CALLER: Ohhhh, yeah. So thank you very much, and you actually introduced me to one of my most influential books, too: Atlas Shrugged. 09:58 AM    View blog reactions

• A literary look at nine to five 
Saul Rosenberg, Wall Street Journal Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Book review: Minding the Store. Robert Coles and Albert LaFarge, ed.The anthology's view of business is sometimes neutral, often oppositional, but never straightforwardly positive. That its selections tend leftward is not, in itself, evidence of editorial bias. Except for some works of Dreiser (hard to excerpt) and Henry James (impossible), writing that makes heroes of capitalists is not of the first rank. Who would campaign to see excerpts from William Dean Howells's "The Rise of Silas Lapham," Frank Norris's "The Pit" or Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"? That said, if one is to include lesser pieces at all -- as this book certainly does -- why not include some that make capitalism the hero rather than the villain of the piece? 09:54 AM    View blog reactions

• City Lights: 50 years on the cutting edge of publishing 
Megan Walsh, The Times (London) On San Francisco independent bookstore City Lights.“We’re able to take chances on writers and we hope that when we put books on our shelves it means something,” says bookseller Paul Yamasaki, “It’s important to make a very clear political statement.” This means no bestsellers, no Ayn Rand (too conservative) and no ‘three for twos’. Good to know that there are still publishers looking for more than profit.  09:54 AM    View blog reactions

• • Economic evils: Capitalism and profits provide cheap political points 
James H. "Smokey" Shott, Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV) Capitalism  “Contrary to the vulgar belief that men are motivated primarily by materialistic considerations,” as the philosopher Ayn Rand said, “we now see the capitalist system being discredited and destroyed all over the world, even though this system has given men the greatest material comforts.” 09:51 AM    View blog reactions

• New Orleans: Neighborhoods, some still in ruins, mourn, resist parish closures 
Eileen Markey, National Catholic Reporter In the Ninth Ward and Central City the talk is of a plan by the city fathers to rid New Orleans of poor people, to capitalize on Katrina to build an Ayn Rand city: privatized schools, starved municipal services and urban planning by a disparate network of nonprofits. 08:53 PM    View blog reactions

• Cold new world 
Kevin O'Donnell, Rolling Stone The Fountainhead  On rock band Cold War Kids.[Band member Nathan] Willett says his biggest inspirations came from the philosophies of two radically different thinkers: The Fountainhead author Ayn Rand and her theories of individualism, and California-born idealist Josiah Royce, who taught at Harvard and Berkeley in the late 19th century. The latter expounded on the necessity for humans to remain loyal to one another. 08:47 PM    View blog reactions

• Burnin’ with the ‘American Dream’ 
Dave Frank, Nevada Appeal (Carson City) Cameron Atkins [...] met [Matthew] Welter at the [Burning Man] festival last year and has worked with him on other projects. He said they spent a lot of time talking about politics, author Ayn Rand and the wonders and possibilities of Burning Man, which organizers describe as an “annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.” 08:41 PM    View blog reactions

• • A message heard years before Solzhenitsyn 
Dana Honeycutt, San Diego Union-Tribune We The Living  Letter to the editor.Alexander Solzhenitsyn first to expose Soviet depravity? Not quite. Ayn Rand did it 26 years before Solzhenitsyn's “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” in her novel “We the Living,” published in 1936. Unlike Solzhenitsyn, she did not merely expose the specific horrors of Soviet Russia. She attacked communism and collectivism at their roots, showing the life-destroying essence of any ideology that demands man must live for the sake of the state. 08:37 PM    View blog reactions

• Before mailing a resume 
Casey Seiler, Times Union (Albany, NY) Here's a few of [the questions asked of potential federal prosecutors] — with suggested answers that, combined with a prominent flag lapel pin and a firm handshake, are guaranteed to make your resume stand out from the pack. [....] Q: "Tell us about your political philosophy. There are different groups of conservatives, by way of example: Social Conservative, Fiscal Conservative, Law-and-Order Republican." Good answer: "Jeez, do I really have to choose just one?" Better: "Which one gets most of the Ayn Rand fans? 'Cause that's me all over." 08:35 PM    View blog reactions

• • Act of faith 
Martin Kent, Montreal Gazette Atheism  Egoism  Letter to the editor.Atheist Elspeth Dowell writes that normative morality "should mean having love and compassion, and having the ability to see things from another person's viewpoint." [....] In fact, Ayn Rand makes a far more convincing case that all morality should be based entirely on self-interest. Rand would no doubt dismiss Dowell's contention as sheer sentimentality and an unfortunate hangover from Christianity. [....] Those of us who find compassion abominably difficult and not at all rewarding need stronger meat than Dowell's good feelings to resist Rand's more tempting analysis. The god I worship might be an illusion, but the strength he gives me to overcome my many weaknesses is as real and as hard as granite. 10:36 PM    View blog reactions

• • Bob Barr, the master of a curious universe 
Libby Copeland, Washington Post Atlas Shrugged  At the University of Southern California, [Barr] briefly joined a group of campus Democrats, at which point his Republican parents threatened to pull him out of school; shortly after, at their suggestion, he read Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." 10:21 PM    View blog reactions