Today the Winston-Salem Journal has reprinted a Columbia News Service article that prominently features the Atlasphere as an example of a successful niche dating service: “Online birds of a feather are flocking to niche dating sites.”
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Greatest Tax Evader in U.S. History
If you can wade through a vitriolic dislike for Ayn Rand and a cynical misrepresentation of her philosophy, the article “Tax Evader as Super Hero” is rather interesting. It begins with the following story:
Today?s Capitalism Gone Mad story in the general press goes beyond Marx, Engels, Jonathan Swift, Mel Brooks, even the late great Ernie Kovacs. It concerns a man of mystery named Walter Anderson whom a New York Times story calls the greatest tax evader in U.S. history. Since the U.S. has the lowest rate of effective taxation on corporations and wealthy individuals in the developed world, that is quite an achievement. But the fellow, Walter Anderson, appears to be quite a character, to say the least.
First of all he has a penchant, some might say a fetish, for changing his name, which apparently started early, since his mother informed government agents that he had been born Walter Anderson Crump. He apparently developed a series of other aliases to hide his assets, dressed exclusively in Black, and somewhat like the great Chicago utilities swindler of the 1920s and 1930s, Samuel Insull, established so confusing a set of corporate entities even the prosecutors couldn?t figure them out.
But that is only the beginning. Anderson started 15 years ago with MCI, formed his own long-distance phone company, profited apparently from the deregulation and entered the business that really interested him ? space travel. The downfall of the Soviet Union enabled him to buy the rights to the Mir space station for $31 million. He then founded Rotary Rocket, a space travel business that didn?t quite work out, and then continued his telecommunications businesses, setting up “offshore entities” in the British Virgin Islands and Panama to transfer his assets.
Meanwhile, according to the U.S. government, he transferred at least $450 million out of the U.S. between 1995 and 1999. In 1998 for example, he paid only $494 total in federal taxes.
Anybody who makes over $100 million per year by privatizing space travel, while managing to pay less than $500 in taxes, deserves some consideration in our book.
See the full story for more information.
Eminent Domain Before the US Supreme Court
Larry Salzman and Alex Epstein have published their analysis of an important new Supreme Court case, including an impassioned defense of property rights.
From the article in the Naples Daily News:
The case of Kelo v. New London now before the U.S. Supreme Court could determine the future of property rights in America. The central question: Should the government be able to use its power of eminent domain to seize property from one private party and transfer it to another?
The seven property owners on the side of Kelo are the last remaining of more than 70 families whose homes and businesses were targeted for demolition several years ago by the city of New London, Conn., to make room for a 90-acre private development. The story of one of the owners, Susette Kelo, is representative.
Kelo, a nurse, bought and painstakingly restored a home that initially was so rundown she needed to cut her way to the front door with a hatchet. After she had achieved her dream home, she was informed, in November 2000, by the local government that her home was condemned, and ordered to vacate it within 90 days. She and other owners in the neighborhood remain in their homes only by the grace of a court order, which prevents eviction and demolition until their appeals are exhausted.
What justifies this treatment of Kelo and the other owners, who simply want to be free to live on their own property? The seizures and transfers, the government says, are in “the public interest,” because they will lead to more jobs for New London residents and more tax dollars for the government.
This type of justification was given more than 10,000 times between 1998 and 2002, and across 41 states, to use eminent domain (or its threat) to seize private property. The attitude behind these seizures was epitomized by a Lancaster, Calif., city attorney explaining why a 99 Cents Only store should be condemned to make way for a Costco: “99 Cents produces less than $40,000 (a year) in sales taxes, and Costco was producing more than $400,000. You tell me, which was more important?”
To such government officials, the fact that an individual earns a piece of property, and wants to use and enjoy it, is of no importance ? all that matters is “the public.” But as philosopher Ayn Rand observed, “there is no such entity as ‘the public,’ since the public is merely a number of individuals … (T)he idea that ‘the public interest’ supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others.”
See the full article for further details.
Chicago Area Play 'The Cage' Opens
A new play, Dream Theatre’s The Cage, opens this weekend by a Rand-influenced author and actor Jeremy Menekseoglu.
From their web site:
For 23 years Ibrahim has lived in a cage locked in darkness within
the palace walls. When the door suddenly opens, Ibrahim is thrust
not only into a terrifyingly beautiful world he’s never known, but also
onto the throne of the most powerful empire in the world. But Ibrahim
was not the only one kept inside a cage: there is something terrible
within the walls?something that is about to escape. Directed by
Sarah Mostad and Mia Kuziko. Each performance will be followed
by a post-show discussion with the cast
Visit their web site for more information and tickets.
(Thanks to Marsha Enright at NIF for the tip.)
The Atlases of the IT Industry
Writing for ITbusiness.ca, Shane Schick has written a prominent editorial (“IT’s up to you“) analyzing the balance that IT companies have to strike between incentivizing team vs. individual performance, and makes an analogy between the Atlases of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and Atlases of the IT industry. See the full article for details.
Atlas Shrugged Appears on Top 50 Novels for Socialists
Popular fantasy and science fiction writer China Miéville has recently published an online guide to socialist fantasy literature entitled Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read. Why would this be of interest to Rand admirers? Amusingly enough, Atlas Shrugged appears on the list, though it is described in less-than-favorable terms:
Ayn Rand?Atlas Shrugged (1957)
Know your enemy. This panoply of portentous Nietzcheanism lite has had a huge influence on American SF. Rand was an obsessive ?objectivist? (libertarian pro-capitalist individualist) whose hatred of socialism and any form of ?collectivism? is visible in this important an influential?though vile and ponderous?novel.
To view the rest of the recommendations, see the full list. (Though this list would be a much better choice!)
Notable Ayn Rand Fan: Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes, the beautiful co-star of the new movie “Hitch” as well as several other popular films, is a Rand fan — or, at least, she likes her men to be.
In an interview with The Philippine Star, Miss Mendes was asked, “What kind of guys do you find attractive?” and her answer was: “Those who have self-confidence, ambitious and lovable. If he reads Ayn Rand, so much the better.”
Hopefully, Miss Mendes will sign up for the Atlasphere’s Ayn Rand dating service.
Read the full interview…
Los Angeles: Andrew Bernstein on Religion vs. Morality
From Atlasphere member Jason Hoskin:
Religion vs. Morality
by Dr. Andrew Bernstein
Conventionally, most people believe that morality can only be based in religious faith that in a world without God no principles of right and wrong could exist. Related to this, philosophers have long held that no objective, fact-based, rational code of values is possible.
Regarding both points, this talk shows that the exact opposite is true. The purpose of morality is to guide human life on earth and religion is utterly incapable of it. Flourishing life requires a code of secularism, rationality, egoism and freedom. Religious faith clashes with every principle of a proper moral code, and, as such, has led, and can only lead to, hell on earth.
Sponsored by The USC Objectivist Club
Wednesday, March 2 at 8PM
SGM-123 (Seely G. Mudd)
University of Southern California
3667 Mc Clintock
Los Angeles CA 90089
Columns Notification Tops 1,000 Members
Today the Atlasphere’s columns notification feature topped 1,000 members. This is the number of members who have asked to be notified by e-mail each time a new column is published.
Congratulations to Atlasphere Editor Jennifer Iannolo and her predecessor, Andrew Schwartz, on their fine work with the Atlasphere columns!
If you are a member of the Atlasphere and would like to receive columns notifications, you can turn this feature on by going to your member preferences page.
If you are not an Atlasphere member, you can sign up for columns notification by entering your e-mail address in the notification box at the bottom of any column.
Irvine: John Ridpath Lectures on George Washington
From the Ayn Rand Institute:
George Washington: Integrity and the Founding of America
By John Ridpath
The Founders of America all viewed George Washington as their leader, and many of them, including Jefferson, Adams, Madison and Hamilton, held him in awe. Washington was indeed a man of heroic courage and unbending integrity. In this lecture John Ridpath presents the struggle behind America?s founding, the intellectual context of the time and the central role in that struggle–exemplified in the life and career of Washington.
THIS EVENT IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC.
LOCATION and DETAILS:
Hyatt Regency Irvine
17900 Jamboree Road
Irvine, California 92614
$5 for self-parking, $9 for valet
Monday, February 21, 2005
Bookstore opens: 6:30 PM
Presentation: 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM
Q & A: 9:00 PM to 9:30 PM
For more information:
Phone: 949-222-6550
E-mail: events@aynrand.org
Web: http://www.aynrand.org/ari_events