• • Where are the Real Entrepreneurs? 
Matt McCaffrey, International Business Times Capitalism  | Even supporters of the market economy often think of taxes and regulations only as something that government does to business, and they miss the deeper problem of the things government does for business. The result of this sort of thinking is that people adopt the mistaken idea (propounded by writers such as Ayn Rand) that businessmen are a persecuted minority, when in fact certain groups of businessmen are the very people agitating against new entrepreneurial endeavors.   Published: 2012-01-31

• Penguin Launches ‘Artist’s Way Toolkit’ App 
Dianna Dilworth, mediabistro.com - eBookNewser Atlas Shrugged  | Penguin has been making their mark in the app space over the last year by creating interactive eBook apps for classic books. [....] The company [...] released an app edition of Ayn Rand‘s Atlas Shrugged.   Published: 2012-01-31

• • 32 Inspiring, Funny, and Smart Quotes about Money 
Miranda Marquit, Moolanomy Below are some money quotes that can help you learn more about finances, and perhaps even inspire you to better habits: [....] “Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” – Ayn Rand.   Published: 2012-01-29

• Road to the IGF: Expressive Intelligence Studio’s Prom Week 
Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra [Mike Treanor:] I've previously made games about Ayn Rand, marriage legislation and observing animal behavior.   Published: 2012-01-31

• • Voting reform: A progressive voting scheme 
Diane Rufino, Beaufort Observer (NC) Individual Rights  | Ayn Rand, author and philosopher, wrote: “Just as man can’t exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one’s rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property.”   Published: 2012-01-30

• • Should Ron Paul Accept Matching Funds? 
Walter E. Block, Psychology Today Atlas Shrugged  | Ragnar Danneskjold, one of the heroes of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged [....] knew full well and so should we, that the state (in my view, any state, in his view, any government that exceeded its proper limited bounds) is a thief, and should forthwith be relieved of its ill gotten gains.   Published: 2012-01-30

• How BioShock: Infinite’s Elizabeth Controls The Fate of Columbia 
Andrew Dyce, Game Rant BioShock  | The differences between BioShock: Infinite and the game that spawned the series are fairly evident, with sunshine and politics replacing the gloom and Ayn Rand philosophy of the original BioShock.   Published: 2012-01-30

• Rundle12: no one understands how utterly unconservative Newt Gingrich is 
Guy Rundle, Crikey (Australia) [Newt Gingrich’s] Americanism is not that of Jefferson or Hamilton still less of Calhoun or Rothbard, and not even of Ayn Rand – it is the America of Buckminster Fuller, of Norbert Weiner, of a more aggressive Bill Gates, and a smarter Jack Welch. Gingrich sees the US as the manifest destiny of humanity, but he sees that destiny as unrealised. He doesn’t want to balance the budget and get on the gold standard. He wants the private sector to go to Mars.   Published: 2012-01-30

• • An Open Letter to President Barack Obama Concerning Recent Tyranny 
Marc Barnes, Patheos - Bad Catholic You are a Tyrant. Now, I know: Tyrant? (Quick, label the man an ultra-super-neo-conservative Tea Partier and ban him to the ranks of old men holding Ayn Rand signs so we don’t have to engage in rational debate.)   Published: 2012-01-30

• • The end of ‘compassionate conservatism’? 
Amy Sullivan, The Christian Century Syndicated  | The Tea Party movement has embraced what political writer Jill Lawrence calls “Darwinian conservatism.” You could also call it “Ayn Rand conservatism,” after the libertarian philosopher whose work many congressional Republicans praise. In 2010, Republican Senate candidates attacked programs such as Social Security, student loans and unemployment benefits, saying they made Americans lazy.   Published: 2012-01-30

• Gingrich campaign is back on the ropes 
Anna Fifield and James Politi, Financial Times (London) [Gingrich supporter Neil] Matheson said he had been involved in Republican politics since he “read a book by Ayn Rand” and predicted that Mr Gingrich would “slide by” and win the Florida primary, despite recent weakness in the polls, which he blames on “money and those horrible ads”.   Published: 2012-01-30

• Reasonable Profits Board for Oil Harms Teachers, Police Officers, Firefighters 
Nicolas Loris And Rachael Slobodien, The Foundry (The Heritage Foundation) Atlas Shrugged  | The mere suggestion of a Reasonable Profits Board means only one thing: We’ve officially reached Atlas Shrugged territory.   Published: 2012-01-30

• • Contrasting Visions Of 2112: Gail Collins v. Neil Peart 
Dave Bry, The Awl Anthem  |The Fountainhead  |Individualism  |Rush  | If we have learned anything from Peart’s work on the subject, a man like Gingrich, a visionary comparable to say, the light-bringing electrician Equality 7-2521 or the rapist architect Howard Roark, would have no place in the “cold and empty life” brought about by the Federation’s social engineering.   Published: 2012-01-30

• • County’s wealth 
Rick Fausset, Ventura County Star (CA) Atlas Shrugged  | With our current president and governor both vilifying success, it is easy to see why the most liberal factions of our society are looking to add their weight to the backs of the ever-shrinking population of individuals who carry the burden for society. Maybe Ayn Rand was a visionary after all?   Published: 2012-01-30

• • Why Bruce Lee Has More Kick Now Than Ever 
Jeff Yang, Wall Street Journal - Speakeasy Egoism  |Individualism  | Though Lee was a firm believer in the power of the individual, he was if anything the inverse of the Ayn Randian self-interested superman, contemptuous of the lesser beings around him.   Published: 2012-01-30

• In Florida, Romney could lead Republicans out of the wilderness 
John Stoehr, Al Jazeera English That [Ron Paul is] running at all suggests an incredible realignment of the stars and planets so that voters who are to the extreme right of the Strom Thurmond and Ayn Rand have a fantastic shot at taking hold of the heart of the Republican Party. [....] What liberals don’t see is that Paul’s platforms are rooted in pre-modernity.   Published: 2012-01-30

• • • Books reflect today’s reality 
Lee Parsons, The Coloradoan (Fort Collins, CO) Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | If you haven’t read the 1957 classic “Atlas Shrugged,” or seen the movie, now is the time. The brilliant author, Ayn Rand, emigrated from Russia in 1926 at the age of 21. In this novel, she explores a dysfunctional United States where society’s productive citizens are suffering from crushing government regulations and increasing taxation. She describes a world in which a bloated government asserts more and more control over individuals and industry, leading to the collapse of society.   Published: 2012-01-30

• • Obama denounces richly deserved wealth, but not that of rich jocks 
Janet DeNigris, TCPalm (FL) Ayn Rand, one of the most influential leaders of the libertarian movement in this country, predicted in the 1950s that the greatest threat to our democracy, after the defeat of communism, was the environmentalists, who represent a direct assault on business. She also stated that our population would become obsessed with sex and sports and would not pay attention to much of what was happening. Even though I do not agree with much of Rand’s philosophy, I think she hit the nail on the head here.   Published: 2012-01-30

• • Monday Medley 
Scott Smith, The Pueblo Chieftain (CO) Novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand’s birth anniversary (1905) is Thursday. The author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead” had some unique views on life — and a lot of people have never been exposed to them. Here’s a start: “To say ‘I love you,’ one must first be able to say the ‘I.’ ”   Published: 2012-01-29

• • The Civilized Man vs. the MTA Savages 
Pamela Geller, American Thinker MTA official Jeremy Soffin’s e-mail on September 21 claims that they “don’t censor based on opinion” and have “run one of each” -- that is, one anti-Israel ad and one pro-Israel ad. But my AFDI ad, which quotes Ayn Rand -- “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.” -- was not acceptable because it “aims to demean and this isn’t okay.”   Published: 2012-01-29