Randex Online Database on Rand and Objectivism

Launched in February 2005, Randex is an online database of media references to Rand and Objectivism. The entire database of articles may be searched by text, date, and amount of relevant content. The purpose of Randex is:

To provide an indication of the impact of Ayn Rand’s ideas in today’s culture. This impact can be measured by the frequency with which the ideas are discussed or mentioned, the level of understanding shown, and also by the attitude taken by writers to Rand’s ideasâ??be it positive, negative, or neutral. As the database of references grows, it becomes a source for analyzing longer-term trends in these areas.

To be listed on Randex an item must appear online as a dated article at a news, information, or opinion website. Interestingly, the three new items listed today are repsectively negative, positive and neutral.

 

Major Media Interviews with Tal Ben-Shahar

We’ve mentioned here before that Tal Ben-Shahar‘s positive psychology class was getting a good deal of coverage in the Harvard Crimson.
Ben-Shahar founded the Harvard Objectivist Club in the 1990s and is currently an instructor at Harvard, where he teaches the largest class on campus, positive psychology.
Now his class is getting coverage in major media outlets, including Fox News (Four Happiness Tips from Tal Ben-Shahar), NPR (Finding Happiness in a Harvard Classroom), and the New York Post (C’mon, Get Happy).
He was also interviewed on Boston’s “Good Morning Live,” the video of which is available online (scroll down to “Harvard Psychology Professor Tal Ben-Shahar” on 3/16/06).
The central premise of positive psychology — the importance of personal happiness — is one that Ayn Rand understood and appreciated in her writings and in her philosophy of Objectivism.
Positive psychology, as a field, has elevated the importance of personal happiness to a science, allowing people to study the empirical precursors of happiness rather than relying on folk psychology remedies.
There is a lot of good work being done in this field, and professor Ben-Shahar has probably done more than anyone recently to bring that information into the public eye.

"Just War Theory vs. American Self Defense" Available Online

The Objective Standard announced that Yaron Brooks’ talk “Just War Theory vs. American Self Defense” is now available online free of charge. The talk was delivered at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., March 14th, 2006. From the summary of the talk:

The Bush administrationâ??s pseudo-war is a self-sacrificial disaster. Nearly five years after President Bush declared â??war on terrorism,â? victory is nowhere in sight. American soldiers continue to die in Iraq for no clear self-defense purpose, while enemy regimes such as Iran and Saudi Arabia continue to sponsor Islamic terrorism and spread anti-Americanism without fear of reprisal.

The listen to the talk click here.

Glenn Reynolds on Newspaper Reform

Glenn Reynolds has published a terrific article in TCS Daily about what conventional newspapers can do about their shriveling influence.
It starts with the bad news for papers:

Moody’s is looking at downgrading the New York Times’ credit rating. The Times’ stock is doing badly. And other newspapers are in trouble, too — the staff of the San Jose Mercury News has resorted to launching a “save our paper” website.

See the full article for more.

A Fun Question to Answer

Most of the support requests we receive at the Atlasphere are pretty mundane: can you help with my forgotten password, can you accept payment by mail, can you update my e-mail address, etc.
But once in a while we get a question that leaves us smiling from ear to ear. This was one of them. It’s from someone who isn’t a member of the site … yet:

Many (many) years ago I read a chapter (I think) about the “20th Century Motor Car Company” in a book written by Ayn Rand. I still remember some of the details vaguely and now would like to read that story again. Can you tell me what book it is in?

Now isn’t that just the funnest question in the world to answer? Right outta the ballpark. C’mon, gimme another! Keep em comin’… 🙂

South Park Declares War on Scientology

Anyone with a carefully-cultivated derision for Scientologyâ?¢ will surely enjoy this bit of news:

“South Park” has declared war on Scientology. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the animated satire, are digging in against the celebrity-endorsed religion after a controversial episode mocking outspoken Scientologist Tom Cruise was yanked abruptly from the schedule Wednesday — with an Internet report saying it was covert warfare by Cruise that led to its departure.

Keep reading
Note to Scientologists: Never do battle with anyone who has the means to create a movie like Team America. …You could be next. Then you’ll be always be ronery and sadry arone.
UPDATE: Now you can see the scrapped Scientology episode online. …Complete with John Travolta and Tom Cruise impersonations.

Holcberg: FCC Fining CBS Violates Free Speech

ARI’s David Holcberg has published a spot-on letter to the editor for use in newspapers around the country:

Indecency Fines Against CBS Are an Ominous Attack on Free Speech
Friday, March 17, 2006
By: David Holcberg
Dear Editor:
The $3.6 million in “indecency” fines levied by the FCC against CBS are an ominous attack on the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.
Just as the government doesn’t fine newspapers that publish cartoons that Muslims deem indecent, it shouldn’t fine broadcasters that air shows that viewers deem indecent. Viewers are free to change the channel or turn off their TV set if they do not like what they see. They can’t be forced to patronize a station they find indecent.
Moreover, it is the parents–not the government–who should be responsible for determining what their children are allowed to watch on TV.
David Holcberg

How to Help Wafa Sultan

Wafa Sultan — the woman who spoke out so bravely against the roots of radical Islam on al Jazeera last month — is currently in hiding, in response to the Fatwa put on her head by crazed Islamofascists. Find out how you can help.
Hat-tip: Atlas Shrugs.
UPDATE: Some interesting background about Ms. Sultan, from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Sultan grew up in a large, traditional Muslim family in Banias, Syria, a small city on the Mediterranean about a two-hour drive north of Beirut. Her father was a grain trader and a devout Muslim, and she followed the faith’s strictures into adulthood.
But, she said, her life changed in 1979 when she was a medical student at the University of Aleppo in northern Syria. At that time, the radical Muslim Brotherhood was using terror to try to undermine the regime of President Hafez Assad. Gunmen of the Muslim Brotherhood burst into a classroom at the university and killed her professor as she watched, she said.
“They shot hundreds of bullets into him shouting, ‘God is Great!’ ” she said. “At that point, I lost my trust in their god and began to question all our teachings. It was the turning point of my life, and it has led me to this present point. I had to leave. I had to look for another god.”

Later in the same article:

An angry essay on that site by Sultan about the Muslim Brotherhood caught the attention of Al-Jazeera, which invited her to debate an Algerian cleric on the air in July.
In the debate, Sultan questioned the religious teachings that prompt young people to commit suicide in the name of God. “Why does a young Muslim man, in the prime of life, with a full life ahead, go and blow himself up?” she asked. “In our countries, religion is the sole source of education and is the only spring from which that terrorist drank until his thirst was quenched.”
Her name began appearing in Arabic newspapers and Web sites. But her fame grew exponentially when she appeared on Al-Jazeera again last month, saying she was not a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew but a “secular human being.”
The appearance was translated and widely distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute, known as MEMRI, which said the clip had been viewed more than a million times. A link to the videotape and translated excerpts can be found at http://memri.org/index.html.
Sultan said she has received numerous death threats on her telephone answering machine and by e-mail: “Oh, you are still alive? Wait and see” and “If someone were to kill you, it would be me.”
Sultan said her mother, who lives in Syria, is afraid to contact her directly, speaking only through a sister in Qatar.

See the full article for more.

Bank Won't Lend When Eminent Domain Is Involved

A terrific AP article in this morning’s San-Antonio Express News:

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — On its face, it appeared to be an odd decision for a banker, to turn down business on a principle that most people don’t think much about.
And so far, the banking giants haven’t seen fit to follow the lead of BB&T Corp.’s John Allison, who declared in January that the nation’s ninth-largest bank would no longer make loans to developers who plan to build commercial projects on land seized from citizens through the power of eminent domain.
“We happen to believe in the fundamental concept of individual rights, and one of those is property rights,” Allison said. “If that is jeopardized, our entire financial system is also in jeopardy.”
The prospect of losing out on a few loans, or taking a stand alone, hasn’t shaken Allison’s resolve and has only added to his reputation as a banker whose thoughts routinely stray to the philosophical.
Colleagues probably should have seen it coming from an executive known to quote Aristotle during board meetings.

Later in the article:

“John has a pretty unshakable moral compass, and frankly I think he is right on this,” said Charles Moyer, dean of the business school at the University of Louisville. “The potential for abuse is great, and someone needs to stand up for it. I was not surprised it was John and BB&T.”
Allison is an executive who mixes in re-readings of the works of Thomas Aquinas and John Locke into a book-a-month habit.
“My absolute favorite writer is Ayn Rand,” he said, referring to the Russian American philosopher and advocate of capitalism.
Allison’s reasoning against eminent domain is based in part on a strong belief in property rights, one of Locke’s cornerstone values, and one shared by the farmers in rural North Carolina.
“To these people, property rights are the single most important thing,” he said. “It’s the basis of economic freedom in this country, so they take it very seriously.”
Slipping into the role of college professor, a job for which Janeway said he’d be well-suited, Allison asks rhetorically why there is a need to use the power of government to force people from their homes. The answer sounds like one that would please a banker focused on shareholder value and the next quarter’s results, but that doesn’t hold sway with Allison.
“They really want to use it as lever to drive down the price,” he said, adding there have already been abuses of eminent domain rules, with the victims mostly among the poor, minorities and the elderly.

There’s lots more. Keep reading