Author: s1e2t3u4p5

Marilyn Monroe at the Brooklyn Museum

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

If you share Ayn Rand’s admiration for Marilyn Monroe, you may enjoy this reflective article about a showing of Monroe photographs at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. It begins:

Daryl F. Zanuck, the movie mogul who controlled 20th Century Fox, once observed, ?I didn?t discover Marilyn Monroe. Nobody did. Marilyn Monroe discovered herself.?
She was indeed a self-creation. It is difficult to see the later Marilyn in the photos of the fresh-faced Norma Jeane Baker on the beach (photographer unknown, 1945) taken when she was only 19. By the end of her career ? in the photos of ?The Last Sitting? (1962) taken by Bert Stern ? she looks tired, perhaps drugged and obviously in pain. Just look at the eyes.
They were taken only two days before she died.
After her death, Marilyn became a tabula rasa for thinkers like Ayn Rand, who wrote, ?Anyone who has resented the good for being the good and given voice to it is the murderer of Marilyn Monroe.?

See the full article for more information.

Ayn Rand and The Incredibles

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Everyone seems to be noticing the relevance of Ayn Rand’s ideas to the new movie The Incredibles. From a review of The Incredibles by A.O. Scott for the New York Times:

“They keep finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity,” grumbles Bob Parr, once known as Mr. Incredible, the patriarch of a superhero family languishing in middle-class suburban exile. He is referring to a pointless ceremony at his son’s school, but his complaint is much more general, and it is one that animates “The Incredibles,” giving it an edge of intellectual indignation unusual in a family-friendly cartoon blockbuster. […]
The intensity with which “The Incredibles” advances its central idea ? it suggests a thorough, feverish immersion in both the history of American comic books and the philosophy of Ayn Rand ? is startling. At last, a computer-animated family picture worth arguing with, and about! Luckily, though, Bird’s disdain for mediocrity is not simply ventriloquized through his characters, but is manifest in his meticulous, fiercely coherent approach to animation.
A veteran of both “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill,” Bird was also responsible for “The Iron Giant,” an exquisite and poignant variation on the sensitive robot theme and one of the most dazzling attempts so far by an American filmmaker to match the strangeness and lucidity of Japanese anime. The clean, modernist lines of “The Incredibles” suggest an attempt to bring some of the beautiful flatness of anime into three dimensions. In contrast to the antic busyness of movies like “Shrek 2” and “Shark Tale” ? and even to the kinetic bright colors of other Pixar productions like “Monsters, Inc.” and “Finding Nemo” ? “The Incredibles” is spare and precise.

See the full review for additional information.
Reviewer David Brudnoy sees Ayn Rand connections as well, and gives the movie an A- overall.
Watch the Incredibles trailer for a taste of the actual movie.

Wheeler: Election Signals End of 'Clintonian Perversity'

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Prominent cultural analyst (and Ayn Rand admirer) Jack Wheeler sounds a note of optimism in his latest discussions of current events. Excerpts are included in the article “‘Clintonian childish perversity’ finally dies,” published at WorldNetDaily:

Dr. Jack Wheeler, whose death-defying adventures span the globe and whose achievements have inspired wide-ranging acclaim, has penned a positive, historically relevant analysis of the election, saying the days of “Clintonian childish perversity” are behind us.
On his unique intelligence website, To the Point, Wheeler analyzes the re-election of President Bush and declares the nation is now on a continuing upward trend of moral decency. […]
“The election of 2004 was the last gasp of the left’s attempt to maintain its stranglehold on American popular culture and moral values,” he writes. “George W. Bush leads a finally-maturing Boomer generation that leaves Clintonian childish perversity behind, with America’s youth demanding clear and decent moral standards. […]”

Longer excerpts are available in the full article at WND.

Ed Locke on the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Ayn Rand Institute’s Ed Locke offers powerful reminders about the importance of capitalism in his article “The Fall of the Berlin Wall: 15 Years Later,” published at Front Page Magazine:

The 15th anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall is today. This event is widely taken to symbolize two things: the demise of Communism, and the global triumph of political freedom and capitalism. Unfortunately, the second has not occurred.
The Soviet Union was certainly an evil empire, with mass slaughter, enslavement and poverty as its only legacy. But the destruction of the bad does not ensure the emergence of the good. When a tyrant is overthrown, he may simply be replaced by another one. In fact, much of world history, from ancient Egypt to modern China and Iran, has followed this very pattern, with rebellions leading only to the supplanting of an old system of despotism with a new one.

See the full article for additional information.

Notable Ayn Rand Fan: Carlos Garcia

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Carlos Garcia is owner of Kira, Inc., a construction management and maintenance company serving military facilities throughout the United States. The article “Ace of Base” in Boulder’s Daily Camera provides an inspiring profile of Garcia:

Though he owns homes in both Boulder and Miami, has a Picasso hanging in his den and is constantly crisscrossing the country on planes, Carlos Garcia dismisses the notion that he leads a glamorous life.
“I don’t know of any other Columbia MBAs who unclog toilets on military bases,” Garcia said. […]
A native of Cuba, Garcia was only three months old when his family fled the country after the government took over his father’s sugar farm. He lived with his mother and two sisters in the Bahamas until he moved to Pennsylvania to attend college. In a time when criticism of government and foreign policy is common, Garcia remains thankful for the opportunities afforded in a free society.
“Anyone who was born in a Communist country and had members of their family killed is going to spend a lot more time being grateful to this country rather than criticizing it,” he said. “This is the greatest country in the world.”
The name of his company comes from a character in Ayn Rand’s novel, “We the Living.” Garcia identifies with its heroine, a woman engineer who struggles to escape from Communist Russia to America. Like Rand, Garcia believes there is much to appreciate about America.
“I am definitely an optimist,” Garcia said. “I see the beauty in life and try to appreciate it as I can.”
While freedom and individuality rule his personal philosophy, hard work and quality are equally vital when it comes to Garcia’s business doctrine. His drive for excellence is well known to those who work around him.

See the full article (registration required) for additional information about this highly successful fan of Ayn Rand’s novels.

Atlasphere Nuptials

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

We get e-mails regularly from happy couples who’ve met through the Atlasphere, but this week we received our first notice of an Atlasphere wedding, from a woman who, needless to say, no longer needs her dating profile:

Thanks to the Atlasphere dating service, I met my match! We are now happily married and living in California. Thank you beyond measure for creating this website! It has changed my life for the better!

We’re thrilled, and offer our heartfelt congratulations to the bride and groom. Building and maintaining the site takes a lot of work, and stories like this keep us going. (Plus, er, the paid subscriptions!)
The lucky lady has promised to give us further details for the next edition of our “In the Atlasphere” monthly newsletter.

Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th in New York City

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Forwarded to us by the play’s director:
Watchdog Theatre Company Presents

Night of January 16th

by Ayn Rand
A Stage Reading
directed by Christopher Conant
November 16th & 17th @ 8:00 PM
78th St. Theater Lab
236 W. 78th St.
Tickets: $10. Call 917-407-9313 to reserve.
Equity Approved Showcase
www.watchdogtheatre.org
Ayn Rand’s gripping courtroom melodrama puts the audience in the jury box, as Karen Andre stands trial for the murder of her lover. Before this trial is over, tears will be shed, tempers will flare, and each revelation will be more shocking than the last. At the end, Ms. Andre will go free or die, and only the audience can decide her fate.

Richard Salsman on the Secret of Reagan's Success

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Forwarded by Atlasphere member Robert Begley:

The Secret of Reagan’s Success

Lecture by Richard M. Salsman
Was U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) a hero? Why did he once describe himself as an ?admirer of Ayn Rand?? Were Reagan?s ?supply-side? policies pro-capitalist? Did those policies truly revive the U.S. economy in the 1980s or instead deliver a ?false prosperity?? What was Reagan?s worst economic policy error – and why did he make it? Why were Objectivst-inspired economists Reagan?s worst domestic enemies? Did Reagan?s foreign policy end the Cold War and dissolve the Soviet Union – or were those outcomes ?inevitable,? regardless of Reagan? What was Reagan?s worst foreign policy mistake – and why did he make it?
In this lecture Mr. Salsman provides answers to these intriguing questions.
DetailsWhen: Thursday, November 11 at 7:00pmWhere: 243 East 34th St. 2nd Floor (Off corner of 2nd Ave.)Admission: $20 regular admission, $15 for studentsRSVP: info@nyheroes.org
Richard M. Salsman is president and chief market strategist of InterMarket Forecasting, which provides quantitative research and forecasts of stocks, bonds, and currencies to guide the asset allocation decisions of institutional investment managers, mutual funds, and pension plans. He is the author of numerous books and articles on economics, banking, and forecasting from a free-market perspective, including Breaking the Banks: Central Banking Problems and Free Banking Solutions (American Institute for Economic Research, 1990) and Gold and Liberty (American Institute for Economic Research, 1995). Mr. Salsman’s work has appeared in The Intellectual Activist, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Barron’s.

George Reisman Answers George Soros

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Socialist billionaire George Soros has invested tens of millions of dollars to help influence the 2004 presidential election. A vocal critic free markets, he now helps lead (and fund) American liberals’ campaign to bring more socialism to the United States.
Wouldn’t it be nice to hear one of capitalism’s most consistent defenders take him on head-first? George Reisman, author of the seminal Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, does just this in an essay for the Ludwig von Mises Institute titled “Is Laissez-Faire a Threat to Freedom? An Answer to George Soros.”
The essay begins:

Back in 1997, George Soros, a multibillionaire stock and commodities speculator, wrote an essay titled “The Capitalist Threat” (The Atlantic Monthly, February1997. The essential substance of this essay is the claim that the main contemporary threat to a free society is a fully free society–i.e., a society of laissez-faire capitalism. It is a claim that has grown more prominent in the years since his article first appeared.
The obviously self-contradictory nature of this claim may have escaped Soros because he does not use the term “free society,” but the ambiguous expression “open society.” Yet is clear that insofar as the “open society” is to be considered as something desirable, it represents a free society, as when Soros writes: “The Declaration of Independence may be taken as a pretty good approximation of the principles of an open society….”

Read the full article.

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