On the lighter side… Here’s some government-related humor forwarded to us by Karen Reedstrom:
1. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
–Mark Twain
2. We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
–Winston Churchill
3. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
–George Bernard Shaw
4. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
— G. Gordon Liddy
5. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
–James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
6. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
–Douglas Casey
7. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
–P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian
8. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
–Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
9. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
— Ronald Reagan (1986)
10. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
–Will Rogers
11. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.
–P.J. O’Rourke
12. If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate. If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist.
–Joseph Sobran, Editor of the National Review (1995)
13. In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
–Voltaire (1764)
14. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.
–Pericles (430 B.C.)
15. No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
–Mark Twain (1866)
16. Talk is cheap-except when Congress does it.
–(Unknown)
17. The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
–Ronald Reagan
18. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
–Winston Churchill
19. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
–Mark Twain
20. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
–Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
21. There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
–Mark Twain
22. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
— Edward Langley, Artist 1928-1995
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Marilyn Monroe at the Brooklyn Museum
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.
Industrialist Don Bentley
If you like the thought of hearing an unpretentious 80-year-old industrialist reflect on his accomplishments, contemporary politics, and the importance of Ayn Rand’s ideas, check out the article “Bentley still innovating after all these years” in Nevada’s Record-Courier.
Ayn Rand and The Incredibles
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'
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
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.
Movies: Shattered Glass and The Cooler
Robert Hessen (who wrote several essays for The Objectivist in the 1960s) forwards us the following two mini-reviews:
Two movies, new on DVD. One is wonderful, the other dismal. Shattered Glass is the story of Stephen Glass, a young writer at The New Republic who, in 1998, was exposed as a fabulist who invented the people and events in his widely-read non-fiction stories. Hayden Christensen plays Glass, whose panic is palpable as his forgeries are about to revealed; Peter Sarsgaard plays Charles Lane, the editor who ferrets out the facts; and Chloe Sevigny is the staff writer who wants to believe Glass is a victim because she finds him so charming and vulnerable. It is a great drama, so the DVD rental fee carries my money-back guarantee.
The other film is The Cooler, which garnered great reviews for William H. Macy’s performance as a man with such bad luck that his touch or mere presence can end a winning streak for high-rollers in the Las Vegas casino where he works to pay off his gambling debts to the casino boss, gangster Alec Baldwin. Fed up with his loveless life, Macy resolves to quit and move away, so Baldwin arranges for a beautiful cocktail waitness, Maria Belli, to seduce him and thus entice him to stay. Unexpectedly, they fall in love, etc. The whole story is preposterous; the plotholes would fill up Grand Canyon. You could better spend the two hours cleaning out your garage or alphabetizing your recipes.
Note also that Shannon Ringvelski wrote a full-length review of Shattered Glass a few months ago for the Atlasphere.
Notable Ayn Rand Fan: Carlos Garcia
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
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
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.