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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A writer for a libertarian group has written perhaps the most scathing attack on pro-life vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin since the Alaska governor was announced weeks ago as John McCain's running mate. Nicholas Provenzo condemns Palin for the birth of her baby Trig, who has Down syndrome.Provenzo, who writes for the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism, not only bashes her for allowing Trig to be born, but says she should have made the so-called morally justifiable decision to kill him in an abortion.The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism bills itself as a...

Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York - March 6, 1974 Since I am a fiction writer, let us start with a short short story. Suppose that you are an astronaut whose spaceship gets out of control and crashes on an unknown planet. When you regain consciousness and find that you are not hurt badly, the first three questions in or mind would be: Where am I? How can I discover it? What should I do? You see unfamiliar vegetation outside, and there is air to breathe; the sunlight seems paler...

Even more relevant than when she said it in 1961. Substitute "Islamists" for "Communists" Hopefully, we will see in our lifetimes a realignment of the GOP in favor of reason and individual rights and away from faith and tradition. Religion is a private matter. With the respective candidacies of Giuliani and Huckabee the split has become even more glaring: the pro-freedom Giuliani (pro-choice, socially liberal, capitalist, anti-regulation- who respects profit and achievement) vs the christian socialist Huckabee (pro-tradition, anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-reason, anti-capitalist, pro-regulation altruist) Interestingly, in Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged (celebrating 50 years in publication) the President is the...

One of the most profound corporate philosophers of modern times was the writer Ayn Rand (1905-1982), whose landmark novel "Atlas Shrugged" is celebrating its 50th anniversary. During her lifetime, Rand's pontifications on individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism, presented under the theory of Objectivism, never touched upon alternative energy issues. Her successors in Objectivism, however, are aware of today's alternative energy industry and believe its heavy reliance on government tax incentives and rebates is hurting the growth and viability of this sector "Government incentive programs for adopting alternative energy are totally corrupt," warns Alex Epstein, business analyst with the Ayn Rand...

Phoenix Objectivists will dedicate their November meetings to the topics of global warming and environmentalism

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. As I write, the book ranks Number 237 at amazon.com. That is phenomenal for a 1,200-page novel that contains philosophical speeches, one of which stretches to 90 uninterrupted pages. The book has sold over 6 million copies. In one survey from 16 years ago, Atlas Shrugged was ranked second only to the Bible as the book that influenced people most. My Ayn Rand craze happened in the late '70s when I was a professor of Biblical Studies at Bethel College. I read most...

For intellectual heft, the capacity to spark debate and controversy, the number of young people inspired by her writing over the decades, the endurance of her ideas as the basis of a philosophical movement, the broad influence of those ideas -- and oh yes, for the number of books sold -- she was the most important American author of the post-World War II era. And on this, the week of the 50th anniversary of publication of her greatest work, "Atlas Shrugged," if you happen to disagree with that assertion, Ayn Rand would not be at all bashful in pointing out...

Two important events occurred in October 1957. First, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, named Sputnik, into orbit, causing many to speculate the West was losing to the superior technology and, possibly, inevitable ideology of communism. Second, the novel "Atlas Shrugged" was published. Its author, Ayn Rand, had fled the tyranny of Soviet communism in 1926 for freedom in the West. Today communism in Russia and its satellite countries is dead. "Atlas" and Miss Rand's other works continue to sell millions of copies. A 1992 Library of Congress survey found it to be the most influential book in...

The famous question remains pertinent a half-century later: "Who is John Galt?" In 1957, Ayn Rand introduced a generation of readers to Galt, the reclusive engineer whose radical pro-capitalist stance brings a socialist government to its knees. Mixing romance, mystery, science fiction and philosophy, "Atlas Shrugged" has since fascinated millions with its epic tale of railroad heiress Dagny Taggart, who struggles against greedy union bosses, incompetent management and corrupt bureaucrats until her encounter with the refugees of "Galt's Gulch" enlightens her to the true nature of the "anti-life" forces that oppose the entrepreneurial spirit. The novel's 50th anniversary will be...

Remember the big question in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: "Who's John Galt?" In the novel, more and more people ask the question, but no one knows the answer, or even where the question came from. Ironically, the same thing now seems to be happening to Ayn Rand and her philosophy of objectivism. Even leading objectivists don't know the whole answer, but one thing is sure: A quarter century after her death, and half a century after the publication of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand is back. The autobiography of former Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan, in which he credits her for his...

It has been half a century since the publication of Ayn Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. That book like no other has inspired millions of readers; motivated individuals to pursue their own happiness and achieve the best within them; influenced philosophy, politics, ethics and aesthetics; and has created the Objectivist movement. The Atlas Society will celebrate this great achievement with an all-day conference and gala concluding banquet in Washington, D.C. and give you any updates on the planned Atlas movie! Our keynote speakers: *John Stossel, ABC News 20/20, author. Dinner Speaker *Charles Murray, author, philosopher and social scientist. Luncheon Speaker....

New York, NY (CNS) - Lionsgate has signed "House of Sand and Fog" director Vadim Perelman to direct the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's iconic novel "Atlas Shrugged." According to trade magazine Variety, Perelman will also rewrite a draft of the script penned by "Braveheart" writer Randall Wallace. The latter will remain involved with the project. The film follows, Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive to be played by Angelina Jolie, who strives to keep her family-owned trans-continental railroad company alive amidst worldwide strike involving industrialists and thinkers. Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray"), who hold the rights to Rand's most ambitious...

"It is taken for granted," said Alex Epstein, a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, "that OPEC, a despicable cartel of tyrannical regimes that coercively limits their oil production to raise prices, can manipulate our energy future on a whim. But such a state of affairs is completely unnecessary; it is a product of U.S. environmental regulations that strangle domestic energy production.

When Ayn Rand wrote about the moral code she originated, the code of rational self-interest, she stressed that morality is a matter of life and death. The right ethics, she held, leads to individual (and societal) survival, prosperity, happiness; the wrong ethics leads to misery, poverty, death. This is true in every field but is especially true in the realm of war, as the present struggle has made clear. We are losing the war on Islamic Totalitarianism because our leadership, political and military, is crippled by the morality of altruism, embodied in the tenets of Just War Theory. The moral...

Egoism is a state of mind where a person values all things in terms of their value to the self. Egoism and selfishness are virtues, in fact the greatest of all virtues, as they enable life. All living beings are selfish. To survive, they must be. Without fulfilling one's basic needs of water, food, or protection, one would cease to exist. Although selfishness is a necessity, many people hold selflessness as their goal in life, and this altruistic thinking is a dominating and corrosive mainstay of today's society. If one were to give all of his money to charity or...

Every Memorial Day, we pay tribute to the American men and women who have died in combat. With speeches and solemn ceremonies, we recognize their courage and valor. But one fact goes unacknowledged in our Memorial Day tributes: all too many of our soldiers have died unnecessarily—because they were sent to fight for a purpose other than America's freedom. The proper purpose of a government is to protect its citizens' lives and freedom against the initiation of force by criminals at home and aggressors abroad. The American government has a sacred responsibility to recognize the individual value of every one...

When Ayn Rand finished writing "Atlas Shrugged" 50 years ago this month, she set off an intellectual shock wave that is still felt today. It's credited for helping to halt the communist tide and ushering in the currents of capitalism. Many readers say it transformed their lives. A 1991 poll rated it the second-most influential book (after the Bible) for Americans. At one level, "Atlas Shrugged" is a steamy soap opera fused into a page- turning political thriller. At nearly 1,200 pages, it has to be. But the epic account of capitalist heroes versus collectivist villains is merely the vehicle...

February 2, 2007 -- Ayn Rand was born on February 2, 1905; in 2007 we celebrate her great achievements and the legacy that she left us all! Rand has had a significant influence on today's world: Her strong moral defense of freedom and capitalism inspired many who have fought over the years for limited government, individual liberty and free markets. Her great novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, show the terrible consequences of the wrong philosophy on both individuals and societies and present the vision of happy, joyous lives in a benevolent society that is the consequence of human achievement,...

A real change in policy for Iraq wouldn't start and end with a collection of vague aspirations. It would start with a clear-eyed, realistic assessment of the facts that explain the chaos in Iraq--the facts that explain why all of the aspirations stated by the Iraq Study Group have not yet been met. The whole ISG report is a spectacular punt. It contains a few broad, vague goals for our policy--and a whole range of specific recommendations for actions that are not in the power of the American government to take. It recommends, for example, that the Iraqi government "accelerate...

Open Letter to Republicans John Lewis There are two things that all Republicans know today: that you lost the mid-term election, and that the loss was a repudiation of President Bush's policies. What you must now figure out is why. Why did Americans vote as they did? What specific policies did they reject? The answer you accept will determine whether you discover a road to victory for your country and your party, or whether you stumble further into defeat. You have heard—and will continue to hear—many explanations for the election results. You have been told, for instance, that Democratic obstruction...

Some people have asked me how an atheist can celebrate Christmas.

OINO True Believers It is easier to believe than to think Almost the entire Objectivist political theory is explicated in Ayn Rand's Capitalism the Unknown Ideal. During a recent discussion, which began with a simple statement I made about that theory (and from which I was promptly banned) a number of mistakes were made that need to be addressed. Here is a little of that discussion. I realize that Regi is no longer allowed to post here, but I'd like to address his last post, because it constitutes a common misconception among anarchists that government, by its nature, requires the...

OINO Death Wish by Reginald Firehammer The Democrats now control the House. Though the claim seems excessive to me, we have been assured we've been saved from a fate worse then death, because all fifteen Peikovian Objectivists have saved our country from becoming a Christian theocracy by voting a straight Democratic ticket. That there might be something worse, and that they have helped make it a reality does not occur to these arrogant academic twits. No, these OINOs (Objectivists in name only) continue to marginalize themselves with their paranoid fear of benign religions while ignoring the only real religious...

OINO's Paranoid Fear of Christians As though to prove the thesis of my recent article, "An Atheist's Defence of Christianity" [also on Free Republic], the usually brilliant and highly respected (at least by me) Leonard Peikoff shocked me with a piece of unobjective illogic that I can hardly believe. From the question and answer piece on his website: "In my judgment, anyone who votes Republican or abstains from voting in this election has no understanding of the practical role of philosophy in man's actual life ..." Why did he say that? Because he believes the US is on the verge...

We all know the basic alternatives that form the familiar "spectrum" of American politics and culture. If a young person is turned off by religion or attracted by the achievements of science, and he wants to embrace a secular outlook, he is told--by both sides of the debate--that his place is with the collectivists and social subjectivists of the left. On the other hand, if he admires the free market and wants America to have a bold, independent national defense, then he is told--again, by both sides--that his natural home is with the religious right. But what if all of...

When: Thursday, August 31, 2006, 6:30 PM Where: Please visit http://aynrand.meetup.com/158/ and sign up for details. There have been location and time changes. Description: This will be our group's August where we will meet to discuss Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. We will listen to a taped lecture and after listening to the it, Ed Carlson will lead the discussion on the issues and points Branden brings up. The time slot has also been moved to up to allow for more discussion after listening to the tape.

Karen and Howard Baldwin spoke at The Atlas Society's recent Summer Seminar about plans for their film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged. The principals in Baldwin Entertainment Group (BEG), producer of the 2004 Oscar-winning "Ray," appeared in a 90 minute panel session on July 7 with TAS board member John Aglialoro, who holds the screen rights to the Ayn Rand novel and will be co-executive producer with Howard Baldwin, the company’s president and CEO. Baldwin and Aglialoro confirmed earlier reports that BEG will collaborate with Lionsgate, the studio that produced last year’s Oscar winner, "Crash”; the final contract was signed just...

Ayn Rand's most ambitious novel may finally be brought to the bigscreen after years of false starts. Lionsgate has picked up worldwide distribution rights to "Atlas Shrugged" from Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray"), who will produce with John Aglialoro. As for stars, book provides an ideal role for an actress in lead character Dagny Taggart, so it's not a stretch to assume Rand enthusiast Angelina Jolie's name has been brought up. Brad Pitt, also a fan, is rumored to be among the names suggested for lead male character John Galt. "Atlas Shrugged," which runs more than 1,100 pages, has faced...

Ayn Rand's most ambitious novel may finally be brought to the bigscreen after years of false starts. Lionsgate has picked up worldwide distribution rights to "Atlas Shrugged" from Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray"), who will produce with John Aglialoro. Angelina Jolie, a longtime devotee of Rand's, and Brad Pitt, also a fan, are rumored to be circling the leading roles of Dagny Taggart and John Galt. "Atlas Shrugged," which runs more than 1,100 pages, has faced a lengthy and circuitous journey to a film adaptation. The Russian-born author's seminal tome, published in 1957, revolves around the economic collapse of the...

The USC Objectivist Club showed controversial cartoons of Muhammad Leland Ornelaz Posted: 4/12/06 The USC Objectivist Club revealed the Danish Caricatures of the prophet Muhammad Tuesday night at Davidson Conference Center - the images have rarely been seen in the West since inciting violent protests across the Muslim world in February. Jason Hoskins, president of the Objective Club, wrote in an e-mail the club revealed the cartoons because they point out that freedom of speech is absolute except when advocating violence. "To say 'I stand up for free speech, except when it offends my group' is not to defend...

Bridging the gap — I first met Bill Bradford close to 20 years ago at one of John Baden's Liberty Fund conferences held at a Montana dude ranch. Before the conference began, I found Bill sitting at a table with another libertarian he had just met. Bill was saying that his magazine did a regular poll of libertarians that showed there had been a shift from people who considered themselves libertarian primarily for ideological reasons to those who were libertarian primarily for pragmatic reasons. The former were influenced by writers such as Ayn Rand and considered freedom an end in...

Selfishness Has Its Value to the EconomyBy Peter Brown Self-interest gets a bad rap these days. It is both the driving principle of capitalism and a fact of human nature. And, it explains so much about many Americans' ambivalence toward Wal-Mart. A survey of attitudes toward the nation's largest retailer among New Yorkers, who might be expected to be among the least supportive of the firm and its practices, explains much about that love/hate relationship. They don't like the company and wish it were operated differently. But in a New York minute they are on their way to shop there....

If the justice is so fond of eminent domain, say protesters, let's seize his ancestral property and develop a charming bed and breakfast on it.Weare, New HampshireLOGAN DARROW CLEMENTS doesn't seem like the sort of fellow who'd go around stealing the houses of Supreme Court justices. He's mild mannered and laughs easily, often at his own jokes. Physically he resembles a less creepy Ralph Reed: He looks like a 36-year-old altar boy whose mom made him scrub up and dress for dinner. An Ayn Rand devotee, he heads an objectivist discussion group back home in Los Angeles. A zippy evening...

The American legal system is in real trouble. Many solutions have been offered-limitations on tort damage awards, restrictions of intellectual property rights, limits on class action suits, increases and decreases in various criminal penalties, and even changes in the Senate confirmation procedure for Supreme Court Justices. Many of the reforms sought do not address the fundamental issues involved, and therefore will ultimately fail. But how does one decide whether a particular reform is appropriate? To establish and preserve a free society, citizens must recognize, as the foundation of that society, the principle of individual rights. Rights are "the concept that...

... Third, complexity does not imply “design.” One of Adam Smith’s most powerful insights, developed further by Friedrich Hayek, is that incredible complexity can emerge in society without a designer or planner, through “spontaneous order.” Hayek showed how in a free market the complex processes of producing and distributing goods and services to millions of individuals do not require socialist planners. Rather, individuals pursuing their own self-interest in a system governed by a few basic rules—property rights, voluntary exchange by contract—have produced all the vast riches of the Western world.Many creationists who are on the political Right understand the logic...

Hi all and happy new year. Here's some humour, in the form of wallpaper for your computer (just right-click to save it). Send it to an anti-capitalist today! Cheers, LBM

Sex, Love, and Marriage by Reginald Firehammer These notes are distilled and reworked from a number of posts to a thread dealing with marriage. It occurred to me that the principles described in those posts are largely unknown or misunderstood, and that a single source for them is needed. This is an attempt to provide that source. In short, this is a defense of marriage, not as it is practiced nor as it is usually understood, but as it ought to be practiced and understood. I regard romantic love as the highest good achievable by man, the ultimate value that...

I HAVE A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE WHO IS READING THIS; PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS. ********************************************************** I have a question for everyone out there. I only hope that a lot of people will answer this question and at least attempt to justify their answer--even if it's a short response. We all know that Adolf Hitler perpetuated the Holocaust against roughly 10 to 11 million people (6 million Jews, 3 million Christians/Catholics, Poles, homosexuals, disabled people, gypsies/Roma, and Jehovah Witnesses). We know that while the Nazi party became quite popular in Germany for different reasons, some obvious, some not, and that some...

Going For Galt's Gulch by David MacGregor Galt's Gulch is a high-tech retreat in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged—a place where all the "disappearing" productive people can meet, relax and recharge. John Galt, the hero of "Atlas", is a brilliant engineer who has decided he will not support a corrupt system. He will not allow his mind, his talent, or his efforts to prop it up. He plans a strike like no other—a strike of all those who are the engine of civilisation, the creative producers in every field. His mission is to persuade each and every one to...

Ayn Rand, Doctors, and a Good Book by Reginald Firehammer Students of Objectivism frequently note the number of things Ayn Rand predicted about society, culture, and the world which have actually happened just as she predicted. It is not what she wanted. She hoped her predictions would not come true, that her writing would serve as a warning that would stop the growth of the anti-intellectualism, altruism, and collectivism that is slowly eating away at western culture and civilization, creating the very horrors she predicted. Then DoctorsIn Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, in the chapter, "Is Atlas Shrugging?" Ayn Rand identified...

Tax Wars Edward Hudgins ehudgins@objectivistcenter.org As we rush to meet the April 15 deadline to file our tax returns, many fail to realize those 1040 forms do more than just make us all personally poorer. The tax code is a principal instrument that creates and sustains the politicized, partisan, uncivil, contentious conflict society so many bemoan. Why can't we all just get along? Here's why. Taxes are meant to pay for the legitimate functions of government, and America's Founders were clear that those functions were to protect the lives, liberty and property of the citizens and otherwise to let us...

By the time you read this, chances are that Terri Schiavo will be dead. In a land of plenty, where her parents are more than willing to feed her, where millions of thoughtful and concerned citizens have campaigned for her continued provision of sustenance, she is nonetheless condemned to wither away, literally, by a method that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment when applied to the worst of serial rapist-murderers: starvation. Private money and time has been volunteered to support her; Bob and Mary Schindler, Ms. Schiavo’s parents, have, in a blatant display of statist intrusion, been denied the...

The Vindication of Ayn Rand A review of James S. Valliant’s The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics: The Case Against the Brandens by Cass Hewitt Who would have thought that within the seemingly sedate and cerebral world of philosophy would be found a history to rival any Hollywood drama for intrigue, passion, seduction, lies, betrayal, black evil, and the ultimate triumph of the good—and which is also a fascinating detective story. Among those who rose to heights of fame in the last half of the twentieth century none was as charismatic as the author-philosopher Ayn Rand. Her electrifying, radical...

Summary: The evidence of the past two decades is unimpeachable: the political right in America no longer stands for individual rights, limited government and capitalism. [www.CapMag.com] The evidence of the past two decades is unimpeachable: the political right in America no longer stands for individual rights, limited government and capitalism. The “rightists” now advocate expanding the welfare state, increasing government intrusion into our intimate private affairs, and sacrificing American lives to foreign paupers. They call it “advancing the cause of freedom.” This is not what the right once stood for. Fifty years ago one could recognize serious problems in their...

Ayn Rand deserves to be taken seriously, because she was right about three things of immense importance: metaphysics, morals and individual liberty. Although many of her characteristic arguments were anticipated by Aristotle, Rand highlighted their relevance to modern life, and made them accessible. And by illustrating key philosophical concepts in superbly titled novels, she has provided millions of readers with arguments, and a vocabulary, that can be used to challenge the errors of conventional morality and collectivist government. The great metaphysical truth that Rand recognised is supremely simple: 'A is A'. This is a shorthand way of referring both to...

A Philosophic Journey A review of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault by Stephen R.C. Hicks Ph.D. by Cass Hewitt Stephen R.C.Hicks' Explaining Postmodernism is really a philosophic history journey—it has a definite start, follows clearly marked guide posts and takes us to a logically unavoidable finish line. In clear simple language, easy to read and often entertaining, Hicks takes us on a guided tour, showing us exactly how and why we have ended up with a culture which is at once blessed by technology and liberal politics—and yet beleaguered by philosophic ideas and related activism...

The Ayn Rand Institute is tasked to advance objectivism, and Peter Schwartz, the chairman, is today is heading the discussion. He's speaking right now. Objectivism is properly represented by this fellow.

Im a conservative...and still struggle with the idea of whether or not to be a Christian. I find more in common with Ayn Rand's view that "rational thinking" is man's only absolute. Is there anything wrong with this thinking?

Ayn Rand at 100: The Moral Defense of Freedom By Edward Hudgins ehudgins@objectivistcenter.org She was born on February 2, 1905, in Russia. At the age of nine she decided she wanted to be a writer. As a teenager she lived through the horrors of the communist revolution, and at age twenty-one she made her way to the United States. She learned English and became a best-selling author; her books still sell hundreds of thousands of copies a year and in 1991, over a decade after her death, a Library of Congress survey found that her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, was...

Born 100 years ago in Holy Mother Russia and educated under the Soviets, Ayn Rand became the quintessential American writer and philosopher, upholding the supreme value of the individual's life on Earth. She herself led a rags-to-riches life, wrote best-selling novels that championed individualism and developed a philosophy of reason that validates the American spirit of achievement and independence. The story of Ayn Rand's life is, in the words of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life," a life more compelling than fiction. Born Feb. 2, 1905, she wrote her first fiction at age 8 when she also...