• • Former Woodbridge student pens suspense novel 
Alicia Lopez, Orange County Register (CA) Leonard Peikoff  | [Novelist Kira] Peikoff got a bit of a boost from a supportive father. She told him she had an idea for a book and hoped to get it out in 10 years. Her father, Leonard Peikoff, who lives in Irvine, told her she should do it now and arranged for her to take a year off to write. Leonard Peikoff, who writes non-fiction and is an expert on Ayn Rand, said he had seen the talent in his daughter from a young age.   Published: 2012-02-29

• • Choosing a Candidate After the Michigan and Arizona Primaries 
Courtney Crass, Yahoo! News As a history major in college, I studied Ayn Rand and the conservative movement. I am now two years out of college and was rooting for Ron Paul to win the nomination.   Published: 2012-02-29

• Who Stole the American Dream in Broad Daylight? 
Mark Karlin, Truthout Alan Greenspan  |Capitalism  | Donald Goldmacher: It is really important for Americans to understand that attacking the very idea of government being there for the working-class family was a critical first step in undermining what many people felt was the American dream. This opened the door to advocates for free-market fundamentalism, with Alan Greenspan (who was himself a devotee of Ayn Rand) as their high priest, who are no different than any other religious zealots.   Published: 2012-02-29

• ‘Masters of Comic Book Art’ Documentary Reemerges from the VHS Ether [Video] 
Andy Khouri, Comics Alliance Masters of Comic Book Art is a documentary film that offers insightful on-camera remarks from some of the medium's most gifted artists [...]. [....] Spider-Man and Doctor Strange co-creator Steve Ditko is the only participant who doesn’t appear on camera, but he offered an audio recording of a statement concerning his comic book character Mr. A. and its roots in the philosophies of Ayn Rand and Aristotle. It’s a protracted speech that is deeply fascinating but doubtlessly objectionable to some people.   Published: 2012-02-29

• Ethics™: The newest political growth industry 
Erika Shaker, rabble.ca Atlas Shrugged  | Given the response of even some our staunchest media allies to this latest telemarketing glitch, I have no doubt that a number of you feel like curling up with your favourite copy of Atlas Shrugged, wondering how to restore our image as a beacon of accountability to Canadians weary of political shenanigans.   Published: 2012-02-29

• • ‘Act of Valor’ and an alternative movie culture for Red America 
Michael Warren, Washington Times Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  | Consider last year’s “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” which grossed less than $2 million, despite its adaptation from a source novel with a vast, intensely loyal following that, owing to American economic distress under a liberal Democratic president, was surging at the time of the film’s release. Critics and audiences, including many from the right wing, agreed that “Atlas Shrugged” just wasn’t any good. The movie’s producers have no one to blame but themselves.   Published: 2012-02-29

• • Should We Vote for Mitt Romney for His Business Acumen Alone? 
Marvin Meadors, Huffington Post Capitalism  | If we want to worship at the altar of free market determinism, we may as well elect its high priestess Ayn Rand to the Oval Office, that is, of course, if she were still alive and a natural born U.S. citizen.   Published: 2012-02-29

• • Bad Business: 10 Outrageous Company Image Busters 
Diane Bullock and Kathleen Culliton, Minyanville Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | Many yoga enthusiasts have been confused and turned off by the capitalistic streak that drives Lululemon’s famously cultish corporate culture. Most recently, the store’s new shopping bags, featuring the slogan “Who is John Galt?”, have raised many the yogi eyebrow. According to Wilson, Galt, the fictional protagonist of Ayn Rand’s capitalist manifesto Atlas Shrugged, is a major source of inspiration. Some might think that the pursuit of yoga and its ideals exists as an alternative to consumerism, but for Wilson, it’s all great.   Published: 2012-02-29

• • Google’s Woes and the Right to Be Pixilated 
Denis Pombriant, Enterprise Irregulars Capitalism  | There is a big brother threat from all sorts of things in our culture, some driven by computer. For example, bank foreclosures accelerated by robo-signings and lost paper work, but no one thinks about this in a big brotherly fashion. Why? Just as Ayn Rand’s economics is fictional, so is Big Brother.   Published: 2012-02-29

• The role of gold 
The Economist - Buttonwood's Notebook Atlas Shrugged  | The most intriguing section is on the role of gold as an economic indicator. Here the taskforce decrees that “there appears to be no consitent and reliable correlation between bullion and a large number of key economic variables that could be employed to inform policy decision-making more effectively.” There is not much in the actual report to back up this assertion and Chatham House points to a paper on its website by John Gault (an in-joke for Ayn Rand fans?)   Published: 2012-02-29

• • Dangerous Pedagogy in the Age of Casino Capitalism and Religious Fundamentalism 
Truthout Capitalism  |Egoism  | What must be challenged at all costs is the increasingly dominant view, propagated by neoliberal gurus such as Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, that selfishness is the supreme value in shaping human agency, profit-making is the most important practice in a democracy and accumulating material goods the essence of the good life.   Published: 2012-02-29

• • • Ayn Rand Worshippers Should Face Facts: Blue States Are the Providers, Red States Are the Parasites 
Sara Robinson, AlterNet Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Going Galt  | If you’re a conservative who thinks Ayn Rand called it true with this producers/parasites thing, then by all means: let’s go there. All the way there — and then some. But fair warning is in order: you may not like where we end up. By way of a modest proposal, I hereby declare the birth of a new Progressive Objectivism — a frankly producerist personal-responsibility crusade aimed at getting these whiny red leeches off our collective blue hide. If they think they can get by without us, let’s not stand in their way. What these people need from us, at minimum, is some tough talk — the kind of stern, grown-up verbal whoop-ass the conservatives wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to unload on us if the roles were reversed.   Published: 2012-02-29

• • Senate race will be ‘wild ride’ 
Jim Miara, Needham Times (MA) Atlas Shrugged  | I was collecting signatures at the RTS (AKA the dump), arguably the best place for the task on a Saturday. Judging from the reactions I received, the race for the U.S. Senate will have more passion than a Telemundo novela. Many Warren supporters asked if they could sign twice (they can’t), and the few Brown supporters simply said no and continued separating their trash. One said absolutely no and advised that I read “Atlas Shrugged,” the Ayn Rand novel that has become the bible of the Republican Party. I told him I’d read it and loved it, thought it was hilarious. We both moved on.   Published: 2012-02-28

• Jawing about gum prices 
Larry Parsons, Monterey Herald (CA) Atlas Shrugged  | How do restless young girls in old movies, yearning to get out of “this dump of a town,” indicate their freedom-loving ways? By talking out of the side of their mouths while snapping gum. You know these independent young women will soon be absorbed in copies of “Atlas Shrugged.”   Published: 2012-02-28

• GOP’s appalling silence 
Jack Lessenberry, Metro Times (Detroit) Atlas Shrugged  | Well, the presidential primary is over, and the various roving bands of locusts have left our state for the next tent show. The packs of journalists have gone too, trailing after the throngs of campaign functionaries and toadies. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum, Former Mitten State Mitt and Ron “Atlas Shrugged” Paul took off too.   Published: 2012-02-28

• • Defending The West: Stop Apologizing and Start Carpet-Bombing! 
Pamela Geller, WorldNetDaily Individual Rights  | As Ayn Rand noted, “It took centuries of intellectual, philosophical development to achieve political freedom. It was a long struggle, stretching from Aristotle to John Locke to the Founding Fathers. The system they established was not based on unlimited majority rule, but on its opposite: on individual rights, which were not to be alienated by majority vote or minority plotting. The individual was not left at the mercy of his neighbors or his leaders: the constitutional system of checks and balances was scientifically devised to protect him from both. This was the great American achievement – and if concern for the actual welfare of other nations were our present leaders’ motive, this is what we should have been teaching the world.” Yes   Published: 2012-02-28

• More Bookings & Signings 
Peter Caranicas, Variety Atlas Shrugged movie  | Montana booked producers Grace Gilroy on CW’s “First Cut” and Paul Marks on an untitled Jeff Eastin project for USA; exec producer Tim Coddington on an R&D period for Disney’s “Matterhorn”; co-producers Debbie Cass on John Putch’s “Atlas Shrugged Part Two” and Darren Demetre on Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring”; and UPM’s Cecilia Kate Roque, on CBS’ “Golden Boy,” Michele Greco on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and Buddy Enright on Mikael Hafstrom’s “The Tomb.”   Published: 2012-02-28

• Hong Kong’s Basement-Gate Points to Shaky Future 
William Pesek, Bloomberg Capitalism  |Syndicated  | The way the laissez-faire crowd gushes over Hong Kong has always been a bit surreal. It’s routinely ranked the freest economy anywhere thanks to its low taxes, unrestricted entry of foreign capital and rule of law. The Ayn Rand set has tended to ignore some of Hong Kong’s other qualities, including a pegged currency, a state-backed Disney theme park, an oligarch economy ruled over by a handful of billionaires like Li and a leader anointed by officials in Beijing.   Published: 2012-02-28

• • • Author: Pro-choice Ayn Rand ‘would have hated Ron Paul’ 
Eric W. Dolan, Raw Story Alan Greenspan  |Atheism  |Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Capitalism  |Egoism  |Individualism  |Video  | Gary Weiss, the author of Ayn Rand Nation, said Tuesday that despite some overlap between their political philosophies, the novelist Ayn Rand would have hated Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Many conservatives, most notably Glenn Beck, have renewed interest in the novels and philosophy of Rand. The Russian-born atheist author espoused the virtues of rational self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism in novels like Atlas Shrugged and numerous other writings.   Published: 2012-02-28

• • • Camden County College to present free screening and discussion of ‘Atlas Shrugged: Part I’ film 
Jessica Driscoll, Gloucester County Times (NJ) Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  | Camden County College’s Center for Civic Leadership and Responsibility will present a free screening and discussion of the 2011 film “Atlas Shrugged: Part I,” which was produced by Camden County native John Aglialoro, at 7 p.m. March 29.   Published: 2012-02-28