Category: The Atlasphere

All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.

Joe the Plumber: Atlas Contemplates Shrugging

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

From a new article at American Thinker, written to “Joe the Plumber” from a fellow businessman:

I wish you well, guy. You might just have the genius and persistence to pull this off. I really do hope so. As for me, I have had enough. I have fought creeping liberalism and managed more wins than losses over 17 years. We have progressed to where our business, now a corporation, is big enough so that Obama and his ilk now have their own ideas about “what larger businesses can afford” and what “corporations can afford.”
Well I’ve got news for him. I cannot afford what they think I can afford, so I am breaking her up and giving her away to some key employees. I wish them well too. They are like you, tough and smart. Perhaps if they stay small enough and never can carry forward more than 250 thou to the next year, they will be allowed to keep their businesses through a downturn.

See the full article for more.

Economic crisis caused by social engineering

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Excellent commentary by Michael Malone on the bailout mess:

From where I sit, the United States government has embarked on two pieces of social engineering in the last few years. One was to make oil as expensive as possible to drive people to greater use of alternative energy sources — because anything less would be irresponsible and destructive to the environment. The other was to enshrine home ownership (i.e., easy-to-obtain mortgages) as a new American right — because anything less would be unequal and racist.
None of us voted on these decisions — indeed, neither was even spoken about directly, much less debated. But nevertheless, both became national policy … and both have sparked national, now international, crises. Then, once they became crises, both were blamed on â??greedy capitalismâ??, instead of what they really were: legislative interference into market forces…. To my mind, what makes this economic crisis different from ones in even the recent past is that it has exposed the fact that there are, apparently, no real leaders left in Washington — that the intellectual capital in the National Capitol has fallen to a new low — if thatâ??s possible. Most of all, it shows that we can no longer look to D.C. for leadership into the rest of the 21st century.

See his full article for more. (via Instapundit)

Authors needed: The Cases for Obama and Barr

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Much as we did for the 2004 election, this month the Atlasphere would like to publish a series of articles called “The Case for John McCain,” “The Case for Barack Obama,” and “The Case for Bob Barr” — laying out the pro-Rand arguments for each of the candidates in this year’s election cycle.
We have an excellent candidate for the McCain piece, and would like to receive submissions for the Obama and Barr pieces.
If you’d like to be considered for the slot, please review our writers guidelines and send your draft article to us (editors AT theatlasphere DOT com) in MS Word format.
Thank you!

Colorado's Amendment 48: Fertilized Egg = Person

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

From Diana Hsieh:

Reproductive rights in Colorado are under attack by the religious right. Amendment 48 — the ballot measure that would define a fertilized egg as a person with full legal rights in the Colorado constitution — threatens not just legal abortion but also the birth control pill and in vitro fertilization.
The Coalition for Secular Government just published an issue paper on the threat posed by Amendment 48 by Ari Armstrong and myself (Diana Hsieh) entitled “Amendment 48 Is Anti-Life: Why It Matters That a Fertilized Egg Is Not a Person.” It’s available for download at:
http://www.SecularGovernment.us/docs/a48.pdf
It shows that Amendment 48 is deeply hostile to human life:
* Given existing criminal statues, Amendment 48 would subject women and their doctors to life in prison or the death penalty for abortions, even in cases of rape, incest, and fetal deformity.
* It would prevent doctors from properly treating non-viable ectopic pregnancy until the woman’s life and health was in serious danger, thereby causing needless deaths.
* It would force thousands of women each year to bear unwanted children, whatever the cost to their own lives and happiness.
* It would ban popular and effective forms of birth control, including the birth-control pill, thereby increasing unwanted pregnancies.
* It would outlaw the fertility treatments responsible for the birth of hundreds of Colorado babies to eager parents each year.
Amendment 48 would do all that based solely on the faith-based fiction that a fertilized egg is the moral equal of a born infant. Our paper shows that the biological facts support the opposite conclusion: that only the pregnant woman, and then the born infant, are persons with rights. It shows that Amendment 48 is deeply hostile to the requirements of a rational, responsible, and moral life.

Buy the complete Firefly series today for $17.99

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

For some reason, today Amazon is offering the entire first season of Firefly for $17.99.
If you’re not familiar with Joss Whedon’s Firefly yet, well, get with the program.
I’ve heard certain Ayn Rand fans call it “probably the best television show” they’ve ever seen. I would tend to agree. It’s also one of those programs you can re-watch every year, and not get tired of it.

D.C. discussion about Ayn Rand and Objectivism

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Atlas Society has announced the following upcoming event:

The Atlas Society, the center for Objectivism, along with the Cato Institute, Institute for Human Studies, and Students for Liberty, will sponsor “An Evening Discussion about Ayn Rand and Objectivism.”
The event will be held on Wednesday, July 30, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at Cato. The address is 1000 Massachusetts Ave N.W., Washington, D.C., 20001. Refreshments will be served.
David Kelley, founder and senior scholar of The Atlas Society, and William Thomas, director of programs, will be speaking in the F.A. Hayek auditorium to Koch Fellows and other interns who are in Washington for the summer. But our friends and supporters in the D.C. area or any who happen to be in town that day are welcome to attend as well.
If you’d like to register–we’d like to get a count for the refreshment order!–you can call us at 202-AYN-RAND (296-7263) or email us at tas@atlassociety.org.
The program will be:
David Kelley, Moral Individualism
Individualism is the belief in the primacy of the individual rather than the group. It is the morality of independence, autonomy, and the pursuit of happiness-as against the collectivist demand for conformity and sacrifice. Kelley will discuss Ayn Rand’s innovative analysis and defense of moral individualism.
William Thomas, Objectivism for Liberty
Libertarianism is a political coalition based in the political defense of individual rights and the economics of laisser-faire. But politics and economics depend on more foundational issues in ethics and epistemology. How can you respond economically to environmentalists deeply committed to the intrinsic value of untrammeled nature? How can you respond politically to police-state advocates who hold that the President’s judgment on matters of national security is authoritative? Thomas will argue that the core ethical and epistemological ideas of Objectivism (reason and rational-self-interest) need to take solid root in the culture if we are to win the battle for individual liberty.
TAS Executive Director Ed Hudgins will moderate and the presentations will be followed by a question and answer session.

Presidential Candidate Barr Speaks at The Atlas Society

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Libertarian presidential candidate and former Republican U.S. Representative, Bob Barr, spoke on Sunday at The Atlas Society’s Summer Seminar 2008 in Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian reported on Barr’s talk:

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, now running for president on the Libertarian ticket, told a Portland crowd today he got into the race to offer an option for those who want less government intrusion in their lives.
“There is absolutely no reason for them to feel bound to the artificial constraints of the two-party system,” Barr said. “Those are their only two choices: big government and really big government.”
Barr, who served four terms in Congress as a Republican, switched parties after becoming disenchanted with what he called the high-spending ways and increasingly Big Brother policies of the Bush administration.
He spoke to about 150 at an annual conference of The Atlas Society, a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes Ayn Rand’s libertarian principles.
Rand, the author of “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” founded a philosophical movement called objectivism, which focuses on individual rights and achievements as the cornerstone of a great society. Barr said he agrees entirely with that outlook.

Read the rest of the article.

So both Penn AND Teller are Ayn Rand fans!

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

We’ve noted before that Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) is a fan of Ayn Rand’s ideas.
Now Ed Hudgins confirms that the same is true of Teller:

[The Atlas Society] had a display table at the “I, Skeptic” meeting in Las Vegas, put on by the James Randi Educational Foundation, June 19-22. Penn and Teller were on the program. Teller stopped by the Atlas Society table, said he was a Rand fan and took a copy of my new book, An Objectivist Secular Reader. In the Q&A session with P&T, Penn was asked whether, as a critical thinker, there were blind spots he had to watch out for in himself. He said that he is a strong libertarian and mentioned Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand and that tries to keep a critical perspective on his ideas or words to that effect.

And check out the amusing shirt Penn wore when Hudgins met him.
Thanks to Atlasphere member Stuart Hayashi for the tip.

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