Below The Beltway

In case you missed it, here’s a clip from Sunday’s show, which included a pretty funny take on an Ayn Rand classic:

This isn’t the first time the Simpsons have tweaked at Objectivism — remember The Ayn Rand School For Tots ?
         

It’s perhaps understandable that all of the increased attention being paid to Atlas Shrugged has led to another round of speculation about a movie adaption:
Hollywood could soon be going Objectivist.
After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand’s capitalism-minded “Atlas Shrugged” is taking new steps toward the big screen — with one of the film world’s most [...]

In 1980, shortly after her husband’s death, Ayn Rand sat down with Phil Donahue. It’s interesting to contrast this interview from the one more than 20 years earlier with Mike Wallace.
Here’s Part One:

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Part [...]

Here’s a rare gem.
An interview of Ayn Rand from back in 1959,by a young Mike Wallace. This was only a few years after the publication of Atlas Shrugged and before Objectivism descended into it’s more cult-like phase.
Given all of the attention being paid to her ideas today, it’s worth watching:
Here’s Part One:

[...]

Over at The Liberty Papers, Stephen Littau presents the definitive refutation of the conservative appropriation of Ayn Rand’s archetype:
John Galt is not someone who merely caps the limits on his productivity to avoid being pushed into a higher tax bracket. What Galt does in Atlas Shrugged is much more radical: going on strike by refusing [...]

Last week, Stephen Colbert put his spin on the whole “Going Galt” meme:
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Even though I like Rand’s ideas alot, I think Colbert hits the nail on the head. In the [...]

Yaron Brook explains why a fifty year-old novel is still relevant today:
In “Atlas,” Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?
The novel’s eerily prophetic nature is [...]

Brad DeLong reminds conservatives that John Galt’s views on religion probably don’t coincide with theirs:
What is the nature of the guilt that your teachers call his Original Sin? What are the evils man acquired when he fell from a state they consider perfection? Their myth declares that he ate the fruit of the tree of [...]

As Stephen Gordon notes, a meme has arisen among some righty bloggers that purports to echo the spirit of Ayn Rand’s iconic hero:
Michelle Malkin has begun hammering the “Going Galt” theme, and it’s the subject of a long post by Melissa Clouthier today, and Donald Douglas also weighs in. I believe Dr. Helen may have [...]

It’s not selfishness, really, it’s just a rational response to a confiscatory policy:
President Barack Obama’s tax proposal which promises to increase taxes for those families with incomes of $250,000 or more — has some Americans brainstorming ways to decrease their pay, even if it’s just by a dollar.
A 63-year-old attorney based in Lafayette, La., who [...]