Author: s1e2t3u4p5

Why the Atlasphere isn't like Match.com

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

We’ve had more than 100 140 new members join in the last 24 hours, on the strength of this mention in the NY Times Book Review.
One of our new subscribers just sent us the following feedback, which highlights a key aspect of the Atlasphere’s business model that most members probably aren’t aware of:

…Speaking of credit, I’d like to “credit” the Atlasphere for not requiring that both boy and girl be subscribed in order to communicate through the dating site. As you know, Match.com and others require both parties to subscribe before communcation can occur, and so a large percentage of the “available” women (and men, I’ll guess) on these sites are not truly available because they haven’t subscribed. This is borderline fraud in my opinion, and I’m glad to see that at least one site has the integrity to be fair to its customers…but I shouldn’t be surprised, because this is exactly what one would expect from an Objectivist-affiliated business. 🙂 Keep up the good work!

Couldn’t have said it better myself. When the person you’re writing to must have a paid subscription to respond, and less than 1% of the members have subscriptions (which is quite common on mega-sites like Match.com), that means you’re 100 times less likely to be able to strike up a conversation — and your subscription has 1/100th the value you thought it would.
The Atlasphere’s policy, here, is beneficial not only for subscribers, but for free members as well — because even if you don’t have a subscription yourself, you can still meet people on the Atlasphere by simply replying (for free) whenever a subscriber contacts you.
And neither of you must figure out stealthy ways conceal your e-mail address in your message.

Sometimes it's the Howard Roark problem

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

New York Times writer Rachel Donadio explores the “It’s not you, it’s your books” problem in romantic love — a problem very familiar to many admirers of Ayn Rand’s novels.
From her perspective, though, it’s the like (rather than dislike) for Rand’s novels that indicates middlebrow tastes:

Pity the would-be Romeo who earnestly confesses middlebrow tastes: sometimes, itâ??s the Howard Roark problem as much as the Pushkin one. â??I did have to break up with one guy because he was very keen on Ayn Rand,â? said Laura Miller, a book critic for Salon. â??He was sweet and incredibly decent despite all the grandiosely heartless â??philosophyâ?? he espoused, but it wasnâ??t even the ideology that did it. I just thought Rand was a hilariously bad writer, and past a certain point I couldnâ??t hide my amusement.â? (Members of theatlasphere.com, a dating and fan site for devotees of â??Atlas Shruggedâ? and â??The Fountainhead,â? might disagree.)

Indeed.
Sounds like they both dodged a bullet. Two cheers for being unable to hide your own literary tastes!
And I’ll second Donadio’s suggestion to fall in love with someone who shares your taste in art. It makes a lot of other things go more smoothly.

We The Living band on PerezHilton.com

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Regular readers of the Ayn Rand Meta-Blog may remember a singer named John Paul Roney, about whom I’ve blogged before.
John Paul RoneyRoney and his sister, Sarah Saturday, are huge fans of Atlas Shrugged. (In fact, we interviewed Sarah on the subject a few years ago.)
He’s also the remarkably talented lead singer of a new band called We The Living. The band’s name is, of course, a top o’ the hat to their favorite novelist.
I am mid-way through writing a detailed review of their music — including their latest album, the fantastic Heights of the Heavens.
(Their earlier album, from when they still called themselves “The Profits,” is titled Far from You and Your Everyday Noise — and appears to be available only in used copies.)
Today, to my surprise, I learned that the little-known band received a raving plug in — of all places — the celebrity gossip site PerezHilton.com:

If you like Lifehouse or OneRepublic, then you will love this band!
Their name is We The Living and their hail from Los Angeles. [Actually, they’re from Wisconsin.]
The song we’ve been obsessing over is this really pretty ballad of theirs called Best Laid Plans.
It should be the theme song to the new Beverly Hills, 90210 spin-off!!!
Such a pretty song.
Enjoy it below!

I would have to agree … together with “75 and 17,” “Best Laid Plans” is one of the finest songs on their new album.
And PerezHilton.com?? Wow, what a great break for a great band. I hope this helps bring them the attention they deserve.
Like I said … check it out. If you like music in the vein of John Mayer, U2, David Gray, and the like, this album is a pretty good bet.
And how often do you get to buy music by a fellow admirer of Atlas Shrugged?
Incidentally, be sure to buy the version of Heights of the Heavens with the white cover, which is remastered, rather than the one with the black cover.
I just received my remastered copy in the mail today, and it’s a significant improvement over the original recording.

Objectivist Web Site Trivia

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Q: What do the web sites for (a) The Atlasphere, (b) Ayn Rand protégé and novelist Erika Holzer, (c) the American adaptation of the Italian We the Living movie, (d) Ayn Rand biographer Barbara Branden, and (e) Objectivist philosopher Stephen Hicks’s Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship all have in common?
A: They were created by Zoom Strategies.
I’m one of the founders of Zoom. We just launched a sleek new web site with our updated portfolio and testimonials from many of our happy clients:

Zoom Strategies

If you know someone who may be in the market for a top-notch web site, please spread the word.

Jamie Clay Speaks (and He's Not John Galt)

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

It looks like IMDB is still listing an unknown actor named “Jamie Clay” as having been cast for the role of John Galt in the upcoming Atlas Shrugged movie.
While it is true that Lionsgate will probably cast an unknown for the role of John Galt, it won’t be Jamie Clay.
At least, not if this is true, from someone who claims to be the Jamie Clay in question and says his friends supplied the erroneous information to IMDB as an inside joke:

Let me start with a simple background profile. Iâ??m first generation born to objectivism. Was raised on the Brandon lectures, Fountain Head and of course Atlas Shrugged. Prof. Tibor Machan is a dear friend (who I grew up with calling Uncle) and Brandon was council to one of my brothers during less stable times. Note if you donâ??t know who Tibor is, itâ??s your loss but google him + Rand.
Iâ??ve always been a Galt like character and when I had my special effects company, my crew would sometimes tease me in comparison. Sometime near the end of last year, one of them thought it would be a funny joke to put my name is for Galt on IMDB, and yes itâ??s very much like Wikipedia only with a larger delay before the change occurs. They also thought it was funny because I was a big Angelina Jolie fan (and that we both share a common birth DAY â?? not year, obviously).
Needless to say when they â??pulled the prankâ??, we all had a good laugh and I didnâ??t think anything of leaving it there, fully expecting IMDB to eventually get the word that it was erroneous. They did and my name was removed.
Then it returned â?? and THEN I noticed these message boards where my name was coming up. (not much of a message board surfer, at least for this sort of topic)
Anyway – I theorized the studio may have liked that there was this buzz about this nobody guy playing “Galt” â?? and maybe thatâ??s why someone put my name back. Iâ??ve made no attempt to resolve this because Iâ??m confident it will resolve itself. If youâ??re offended by my lack of concern on this issue, Iâ??m sorry, take a deep breath and enjoy knowing that your hero is still safe and no doubt will be played by some formula hunk that fits what youâ??ve imagined. (oh sure, as if)
At this point you would have to torture me to play Galt.
PS: part of me does like the foolish, erroneous and biting speculation that has come from this â?? itâ??s made the original prank all the more glorious. Thank you internets.

Actually, that is a pretty funny prank… (Say, can I be next? Maybe we could take turns every week. And by the time the movie comes out, no one will know who John Galt is!)

HBO's "John Adams": Definitely Worth Watching

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Bob Hessen forwards the following, from a friend in NYC:

If you haven’t already watched the first two back-to-back episodes of “John Adams” on HBO, you must. It’s gripping drama. It is being shown repeatedly, all this week.
The first episode is about the Boston Massacre and the second is on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I read the book by David McCullough, and it is very faithfully done. Plus, the production values, backgrounds and settings, including the use of Colonial Williamsburg makes it very realistic, visually.
What’s best about it is that the decision to pursue independence was made in the midst of great fear for their lives and property, and the steps were taken in spite of that. They were taking a giant leap into a dangerous unknown. When they finally take the vote on independence and it passes, there is this long silence as they grasp the enormity of what they have done. It’s a great choice by the director.
I’m hoping you get HBO. You don’t want to miss it.
I found that I had this slight anxiety at seeing something so nakedly and unabashedly pro-liberty. As if the overwhelmingly socialist powers that be might see this and do something to stop it or attack it (I don’t know what).
I guess it’s just that seeing it, I’m so taken by the contrast with today’s society. Here is a many-part drama where the characters disagree so vehemently with each other — about the best way to get human freedom. There’s no one thinking about giving anybody a free ride, no one thinking about the poor or homeless, no one talking about universal health care or some such hand-out from the government paid for by taxing us. It’s ALL about liberty.
That’s a bit obvious, but I can’t help being amazed by seeing it. You almost expect Bill Maher, or Al Franken or someone to come on at the end with a commentary that dismisses the whole thing as no longer relevant, but they don’t. I can’t get over it.

Looks like this mini-series may become available from Netflix at some point, for those of us who don’t get HBO.

Kelley to Speak in NYC on "Is Islam Compatible with Capitalism?"

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

This announcement from The Atlas Society:

On Tuesday, March 18, Atlas Society founder and senior fellow David Kelley will debate Mustafa Akyol, editor of Turkish Daily News, on the question “Is Islam compatible with capitalism?” The event will be hosted by The Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation, one of a series it has sponsored since 2001.
The debate will be at 6:30 p.m., at the Donnell Public Library, 20 West 53rd St., in New York City. Attendance is free. For more information and to register, go to http://w ww.thesmithfamilyfoundation.org/.
For Kelley’s related articles and lectures, hyperlinked below, see:
The Assault on Civilization
The War against Modernity
The Ideas That Promote Terrorism
Islamic Philosophy: The Good, the Bad, and the Dangerous, on MP3.

Atlas Society on Spitzer Scandal

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Edward Hudgins of the Atlas Society wrote the following about the Eliot Spitzer prostitute scandal:

It is ironic that New York Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer has had his undeserved reputation for high moral standards tarnished by his sexual escapades which, while perhaps sleazy, did not harm any of us. In fact he deserved our moral scorn for his assault on productive individuals and flouting of the rule of law when he was New York attorney general, done arrogantly in the name of “morality.”

Hudgins also directs readers to Roger Donway’s article,”Eliot Spitzer: Ayatollah General,” in the April/May 2005 issue of The New Individualist.

Bloomberg News: "John Galt Plan Might Save U.S. Financial System"

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Thanks to Johann Gevers for forwarding this fantastic citing of Ayn Rand in the media:

John Galt Plan Might Save U.S. Financial System
Commentary by Caroline Baum
March 10 (Bloomberg) — Let’s face it: The Federal Reserve must be scared to death as it watches the financial system unravel.
Unravel would appear to be the operative word as leverage proves to be as toxic on the way down as it was intoxicating on the way up.

And later:

Galt’s Solution
The following day, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke encouraged mortgage servicers to write down a portion of the principal on home loans, which would give owners some equity and discourage foreclosure. He advocated a bigger role for the Federal Housing Administration, a Depression-era agency that insures mortgages. Congress envisions an even larger role for the federal government.
Any day, I expect some government official to unveil the John Galt plan to save the economy.
Galt, the hero of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged,” stops the world by going on strike. He and the “men of the mind” literally withdraw from the world after watching their wealth confiscated by the looters (the government).
Toward the end of Rand’s 1,000-plus page novel (or polemic), the economy is in shambles. Desperate, the looters kidnap Galt and prod him to “tell us what to do.”
Galt refuses, or rather tells them “to get out of the way.”
Road Is Cleared
You probably can sense where I’m going. Today’s economic and financial crisis would resolve itself more quickly and efficiently if the government got out of the way. Yes, there would be pain. Some banks would fail. Others would clamp down on credit to atone for the years of lax lending standards. Homeowners-in-name-only would become renters. Housing prices would fall until speculators found value.
That’s not going to happen. The bigger the mess, the more urgent the calls for a government solution, the more willing government is to oblige.
We want laissez-faire capitalism in good times and a government backstop against losses in bad times. It’s a tough way to run an economy.

See Baum’s full commentary for more.

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