Kommentar

April 28, 2004--Although the government of North Korea now spins a different story, both initial Korean reports and American satellite photographs suggest that the devastating explosion on April 22 in Ryongchon, North Korea, was an eerie replay of the Taggart Tunnel train crash in Ayn Rand 's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged . In Rand's novel, an incipient fascist dictatorship in America is stopped in its tracks when the “men of the mind,” the intelligent businessmen, go on strike. In Atlas Shrugged , as in Ryongchon, the hobbling of human minds by dictatorship brought about a return to the ancient technology of open-fire steam locomotives. In both, the immediate cause of the explosion was the collision between an open-fire steam locomotive and a train carrying explosive materials. In Rand 's novel, the diesel engine that could have prevented the explosion was diverted to pull the private train of politician Chick Morrison. In Ryongchon, the diesel engine was used to pull the private train of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.

Mar 12, 2010

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Question: I notice that Objectivism defends a lot of the big corporations. I have no problem with that, but I am having a hard time relating to those types of scenarios. Any stories of working-class American capitalist heroes? Answer: Objectivism does not regard heroism or morality as issues of wealth, "class," or level of achievement. What is important is acting in accordance with one's values, and productive achievement to the extent of one's ability. As far as fictional heroes, Romantic fiction by its nature has to deal with larger-than-life issues, and so fictional heroes are more likely to have achievements on a grand scale (see Rand's Romantic Manifesto for more details). But if you feel that you can relate better to a hero who is not wealthy, you will still get that from the quintessential Objectivist hero, Howard Roark in The Fountainhead.

Mar 11, 2010

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Eyal Mozes

Q: What's in Objectivism for me? A: Objectivism has offered different things to different people, usually based on what they were looking for at the time. It has provided spiritual inspiration, philosophic wisdom, intellectual stimulation, political advice, and more. Frequently it even has provided a blend of these values. However, there are two values that Objectivism offers that are of particular significance, not only because they are infrequently found elsewhere, but also because they involve fundamental issues that shape people's entire lives.

Mar 11, 2010

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Editor's Note: This sidebar is part of " The Problem with ObamaCare ." June 2009 --“Comparative effectiveness” is another “hot” trend in health care policy circles. The economic stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in February included about $1.1 billion in funding for “comparative effectiveness” research. Part of that money will be used to set up a “Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.” In theory, the government would fund comparative effectiveness research for the purpose of determining which treatments work best. This would both improve health care quality and save money by reducing the use of less effective treatments.

Feb 27, 2010

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Dec 7, 2009

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The United States of America, a nation that was founded on principled individualism, seems poised to expand government intervention into the health care sector. A rowdy debate has been joined in newspapers across the country: one side condemns the failure of the free market to provide Americans with affordable care, while the other warns against Canadian-style waiting lists and doctor shortages. The American health care system, however, is far from a free market. As I wrote here three months ago , its problems are exaggerated and are actually due to high costs brought about by sundry government interventions. As for the other side of this debate, the Canadian system does have some serious problems. Despite what Michael Moore claimed in his “documentary” Sicko, Canadians often do wait many long hours in emergency rooms, and many long months for diagnostic tests and treatments. Practically every Canadian knows someone who has skipped across the border to pay out of pocket for a more timely MRI or surgical procedure in the U.S. At the same time, claiming that the Canadian system’s very real problems are inevitable ignores the far better results achieved in certain European countries. Of course, the best of these systems, such as France’s and Sweden’s, are more successful than Canada’s precisely because they do a better job of imitating the free market. But then, if imitating the free market delivers better results, why not let the free market provide health care directly, the way it provides clothing, cars, computers, and countless other goods and services?

Jul 24, 2009

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Bradley Doucet

Sidebar to: Fashion Forward betsy fisherMy husband Lyle handed me a copy of The Ayn Reader in 2002. The essays were searing. The clarity and logic of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism cut through contradictions and dissatisfaction in a way that psychotherapy could not and did not. A copy of Atlas Shrugged had adorned my parents' book shelves, but I read the novels only after exposure to Objectivist metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics had provided a very necessary and new way to grasp reality.

Jun 1, 2009

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If you want to know what to expect from the Democrats’ plans for total government control of health care—and government control of everything else for that matter—consider the case of Terry Kaide, 87, and her husband Sidney, 89, both of Hawaii, Barack Obama’s state of origin. For two years this couple was not allowed to live together in the same residential care home. Why? Because government regulations allow two patients paid for by Medicaid but only one privately-paying patient to reside in that facility at the same time. This rule was meant to ensure that there are enough beds for poorer patients, who require government Medicaid funds. (Note here the moral mentality of the politicians who made this rule: If you can pay your own way, the government should limit your choices, to make the situation “fair.”) For two years officials tried to figure out a way to get around their own stupid, tangled, and inexcusable rules. Finally, the Hawaiian state legislature passed a bill that created exemptions for married couples and others. So the good news is the Kaides are back together again. And perhaps it’s also good news that this case could alert Americans to what their lives will be like if they further surrender their freedom to run their own lives to elites in Congress and the White House.

May 8, 2009

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Edward Hudgins

Tune to (channel #130, POTUS) Thursday, February 7 at 6:00 PM Eastern to hear TNI's Robert Bidinotto speaking on Super Tuesday's anointing of the "new progressives." (Click to listen) The show is rebroadcast at 11:00 PM Eastern the same day. The show will be posted and archived, and we'll pass that link along as soon as it becomes available. This Saturday managing editor Sherrie Gossett will participate in the taping of a panel discussion on jihad and the nature of morality, to be broadcast later on cable. Broadcast times to be announced soon. Webmaster's note: TNI ceased publication in 2011.

Feb 7, 2008

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Editor's Desk, March 2006 Raw panic. That’s what I felt after we’d published the previous two issues. How, I wondered dismally, could we ever top those amazing covers—the infamous “Muhammad cartoon,” followed by the notorious “BraThe New Individualist cover ngelina”? I should have had more confidence in the creative talents of art designer David Sims, who produced the stunning “Muhammad” cover. This time, to showcase Stephen Green’s lighthearted tribute to “ B-Movie Individualis m,” David takes a nostalgic trip back to the ’50s with images inspired by such cheesy classics as “Earth Versus the Flying Saucers” and “Them!” Okay, maybe the imagery doesn’t have much to do with individualism, but even Steve loved the cover. And in his article, he finally offers philosophical rationalizations for loving movies that feature the visual splendors of exploding spaceships and Elle MacPherson.

Feb 5, 2008

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Robert James Bidinotto

BOOK REVIEW: Edwin S. Rockefeller, The Antitrust Religion (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2007), 123 pages. $9.95 (hardcover). When Ayn Rand published Alan Greenspan’s criticism of the antitrust laws in 1966, there were relatively few critics of antitrust, and certainly few lawyers and economists among them. Now there are many: mostly university professors, Austrian School economists, and writers for libertarian think-tanks. However, there are very few critics who are pillars of the U.S. antitrust bar. So it is quite significant to hear a rejection of the entire notion of antitrust from someone who is a former chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law with more than fifty years of practice in the field. Edwin S. Rockefeller is a venerable member of the antitrust establishment. For this, if for no other reason, his critique, The Antitrust Religion, is significant.

Oct 13, 2007

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Eugene C. Holloway

Under the “fuel canning” agreement, American nuclear experts assisted North Korea in canning spent fuel rods from the Yongbyon reactor and transferring them from cooling ponds to “dry storage.” The rods were placed in steel containers suitable for shipment out of the country. The U.S. taxpayer-financed process began April 27, 1996 and was finished in April 2000, almost three years after the projected finish date. Under a subsidiary 1995 agreement, the containers were supposed to be taken out of the country to prevent the fuel from being reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium suitable for creating nuclear bombs. ( Supply Agreement KEDO-DRPK 1995, Annex 3, Point 9 ). So why, after billions were spent on diplomatic “rewards,” were the canisters left behind?

Dec 1, 2006

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When Congress declared Labor Day a national holiday in 1894 it marked not only a celebration by workers but a division of Americans into groups often seen as opposed to one another. The day grew out of a desire to get governments to force employers to offer certain terms of employment to workers. The first Labor Day parade took place in 1882 in New York and was organized by Peter McGuire who helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. The "labor" involved were salaried and industrial workers and tradesmen. Not included were employers, owners, investors, managers, professionals and farmers; the latter for the most part owned their own means of production: their farms.

Sep 1, 2006

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Edward Hudgins

Let's do a tax day thought experiment. Let's pretend that you rather than politicians and unelected government bureaucrats controlled how you spend your own money. If you are in an average American family the federal government takes around 25 percent of your income for various taxes. Check out your W-2 form. You’ll also see that your state and possibly your city and country take their cut, probably another 10 percent. If you own land you pay real estate taxes. Every time you go to the store you pay sales taxes. When you fill up your vehicle you pay 18 cents per gallon of gasoline in federal taxes and another quarter in state taxes. Add to that the extra costs of tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers that mean you pay more for everything from shirts to shoes to sugar. Once you add it up we pay perhaps 40 percent or more in taxes, tens of thousands of dollars.

Apr 16, 2006

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Edward Hudgins

Fraud. Though I hadn’t really planned for that to be the unifying subject of this issue, it’s a theme that seems to run through most of the articles. This month’s contributors probe many forms of fraud—criminal, political, cultural, and intellectual. And though it may not an inspiring survey, it’s certainly a revealing one. Exposing spiritual charlatans, scientific quacks, and philosophic irrationalists is a central preoccupation of contemporary skeptics and secular humanists—people who share with rational individualists a basic commitment to reason over faith. Ed Hudgins recently attended a conference of skeptics , trying to determine if that mutual commitment might provide opportunities for broader collaborations. In his report on the event, Ed explains why he found grounds for optimism—albeit cautious optimism.

Apr 1, 2006

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Robert James Bidinotto

Our Winter 2006 issue earned considerable attention as the first magazine in America to reprint, on its front cover, one of those now-notorious Danish cartoons of Muhammad. In the same issue, I editorially lambasted the rest of the Western media for surrendering to militant Islamists, and for refusing to publish these cartoons as a matter of principle. But the contagion of craven capitulation has spread faster than the bird flu. Shortly afterwards, the Comedy Central cable TV network blacked out a cartoon image of Mohammad on an episode of its popular animated show, “South Park”—an episode which, ironically, satirized the media for its cowardice on that very issue! Then the Borders Books retail chain publicly announced that it was banishing from its shelves an issue of a magazine, Free Inquiry (yet more irony), which had reprinted the Muhammad cartoons inside.

Mar 1, 2006

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Editor’s Desk, Jan-Feb, 2006 Okay, folks—lighten up, now. I’m sure that when you first saw the cover, you wondered if you had received People or Us by mistake. Or, if we had suddenly “sold out” and decided to join the gossip press, simply in order to increase circulation.the new individualist magazine celebrity ayn rand fans Relax. Our cover is just a lighthearted parody of celebrity magazines, and their breathless headlines about the private lives of the rich and famous. But in this case, the parody is meant to underscore to a serious point: Ayn Rand has become part of the cultural mainstream. When A-list, p.r.-savvy movie stars like “Brangelina,” Rob Lowe, and Jim Carrey are no longer afraid to publicly associate their names with Rand and her ideas, you know that something significant has happened. And they aren’t alone. That’s the phenomenon that this special issue of The New Individualist explores in depth.

Jan 5, 2006

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Robert James Bidinotto

“I’ve been very into Ayn Rand …” -Angelina Jolie, in a 2004 interview “When somebody breaks out and completely shatters the mold, it’s inspiring.” -Sandra Bullock on The Fountainhead “The writing is so beautiful” -Christina Ricci “By far the most incredible books I have read.” -Mayim Bialik “It had a profound effect on me.” -Hugh Hefner “The last book I read was the book I’ve been rereading most of my life— The Fountainhead .” -Vince Vaughn “What woman, living or dead, would you love to meet?” “... Ayn Rand .” -Rob Lowe, in an interview with Elle magazine “Self-confidence, rational, ambition, and lovability. Oh, and he has to be an Ayn Rand fan.” -Eva Mendes describing what she looks for in a man.

Jan 1, 2006

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Robert James Bidinotto

On January 27, Frank Quattrone told an appeals court that his case "illustrates what can happen when a routine e-mail is dissected out of context in the harsh glare of a courtroom." The statement was made in an appeal filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Quattrone was convicted in May 2004 for obstructing a federal investigation into the distribution of initial public offerings (IPOs) by his employer, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). Allegedly, his obstruction took the form of sending an e-mail that seconded a colleague's suggestion that the CSFB staff clean up their files in accordance with standing company policy, even though he knew or should have known that documents in the files had been subpoenaed. (See my article "The Case for Frank Quattrone" in the July-August 2004 Navigator.) In September, Quattrone was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, although the federal probation department had recommended a sentence of only five months. The judge in the case, Richard Owen, also refused Quattrone's motion to remain free on bail while his appeal was pending, but the appeals court ruled that he could remain free while pursuing his challenge to the conviction.

Jun 1, 2005

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Apr 20, 2005

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