• • Oh the yellow rose of Free Texas… 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Syndicated  | SOMEWHERE IN THE FREE STATE OF TEXAS — It was Cormac McCarthy cold, the wind rushing through deserted and dark buildings, whipping at loose trash on the rutted streets. So the man threw another book on his fire. A big, fat book that should last a while. He let out a big Rebel yell that echoed through the urban canyons. [....] The man reached into his pile of books, picked out one called "Atlas Shrugged" and threw it on the fire. Freedom, he thought. Freedom.  

• • • Remembering Rand, Bud and Lou 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Individualism  | Who’s on first? It’s been obvious the past few years, as anti-collectivist, screenwriter-turned novelist Ayn Rand returned to vogue among many who want profound answers in incredibly thick doorstops of fiction. The signs were everywhere, often in the hands of nebbish protesters and painted on the sides of public buildings. Who is John Galt? the signs said, referencing the hero engineer of Rand’s heaviest (speaking avoirdupois-ly) book, “Atlas Shrugged.” I figure Galt would have played, briefly, on his college team, the Patrick Henry University Mighty Individualists, or Mighty Egos, as they were known to their cultish and devoted fans.  

• Jawing about gum prices 
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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.”  

• Cort’s resignation noble, moral 
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Atlas Shrugged  | I do not wish to see Dan Cort resign from his post as Pacific Grove mayor. However, I recognize his act as the most rational and objective choice. This is a choice that only a moral man could make. I applaud Mr. Cort for this heroic “Atlas Shrugged” action, rather than continuing to wallow in the quagmire of inefficiency created by a small, vocal group of second-handers.  

• Government bailout not such a good idea 
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Atlas Shrugged  | Letter to the editor.
Don't worry everybody, Barack Obama and John McCain plan on using the effective hand of the government to control the problem and fix the economy. Oh wait, that's right. The government can't even run Congress' private restaurant without losing a few million dollars a year. What to do? Who is John Galt?  

•There’s no place like home(s) 
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There's one house that stands out as the one I think of as home. [....] I lived there between the ages of 8 and 18, so a lot of firsts in my life happened while I lived there. I got my first bike, saw my first major league game, [...] read my first important books by Cozzens, O'Hara, Updyke, Ayn Rand, Marquand and Koestler.