• • • Enough lies about Ayn Rand 
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Egoism  |Objectivist author  | As regular readers of the Clifton Journal’s letters page know, I admire author Ayn Rand’s philosophy and objectivism. Frequently, Rand’s critics claim - falsely - that she advocated “thinking only about yourself.” But she did not. What she did advocate was every adult acting in his or her rational self-interest. The difference is enormous.      View blog reactions

• • • It’s time to read Ayn Rand 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Egoism  |Objectivist author  | People who fear Ayn Rand frequently mischaracterize her as advocating “thinking only about yourself.” For example, in a recent interview of (Barack) Obama published by Rolling Stone magazine, Obama was asked about Rand. Obama responded in part that he read Rand many years ago, and that “as we get older, we realize that a world in which we’re thinking only about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else... that’s a pretty narrow vision.” But of course Rand does not advocate “thinking only about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else.”      View blog reactions

• • • Obama like a Rand villain 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Objectivist author  | Ayn Rand understood the pure hatred that anti-capitalists seethe with for individuals who are able to achieve peaceful financial success, years before the anti-capitalist Obama was even born. No wonder her novels are selling at greater levels than ever before.      View blog reactions

• • From fiction to fact 
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Atlas Shrugged  | Democrats such as [Dennis] Kucinich and their ongoing War on Prosperity show that there are real-life versions of the villains from Ayn Rand novels. In fact, the version of the Reasonable Profits Board in Rand’s classic “Atlas Shrugged” is called the Anti-Greed Act. (Only an Ayn Rand villain - whether from one of her novels, or from real life - would label as “greed” or as “unreasonable” the desire of peaceful, productive individuals to keep what they alone have earned.)      View blog reactions

• • Who is John Galt? 
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Atlas Shrugged  | Adman Jerry Della Femina was named one of the “100 most influential advertising people of the century” by Advertising Age magazine. He also ran a highly successful restaurant on Long Island, but decided to sell it recently. Why? [....] “I’m just not ready to have my wealth redistributed. I’m not ready to pay more tax money than the next guy because I provide jobs and because I work a 60-hour week and I earn more than $250,000 a year. So why am I dropping out? Read a brilliant book by Ayn Rand called ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ and you’ll know.”      View blog reactions

• • Some of it has to do with envy 
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Atlas Shrugged  | Why do leftists want to impose a socialist health insurance scheme on those individuals who don't want it? Simple: They would much rather see everybody suffering equal amounts of misery than enjoying unequal amounts of happiness. The root cause of this is envy. That is what “Atlas Shrugged” author Ayn Rand defined as "hating the good for being the good."      View blog reactions

• • Obama, Paulson have the minus touch 
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Atlas Shrugged  | Letter to the editor.
As regards the next four years, I suggest as author Ayn Rand wrote, "be as unreassured as you have the wits to be."      View blog reactions

• • Pursuit of happiness not always a selfish act 
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The Virtue of Selfishness  |Egoism  | Letter to the editor.
Barack Obama wonders "when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness." That would be July 4, 1776, in our country's founding document, the Declaration of Independence. The virtue in question is not bad-mouthed as selfishness, but instead identified as the unalienable right to pursue happiness. Choosing to exercise this right is a profoundly moral endeavor. Open-minded folks who seek to learn more should read "The Virtue of Selfishness" (a deliberately provocative title) by Ayn Rand.      View blog reactions