My late Uncle “Boots” Van Pelt was almost killed 70 years ago. He went ashore on Omaha Beach with the 29th Infantry Division on D-Day....
In another skirmish in the GOP’s civil war, Ken Blackwell recently linked mass killings with same-sex unions. This is why, in spite of the..
After eleven years of farming near Hutchinson, Minnesota, Kathy Prellwitz and her husband decided to invest in the community in which they
I’m a big fan of the Cosmos reboot series, just as I was of the Carl Sagan original. But the host Neil deGrasse Tyson recently stumbled very
Craig Zucker, the Buckyballs CEO who fought back irreverently when the Consumer Product Safety Commission went after his product, has
This 10-part video lecture series presents the essentials of the Objectivist view of knowledge. It explains why reason is an absolute; why emotions are not tools of cognition, despite their psychological importance; and why mysticism is a cognitive dead-end. It presents Ayn Rand's innovative theory of concepts and objectivity, including the role of sense-perception, logic, and axioms, as well as the nature of certainty. The course shows why a rational approach to life is a vital human need.
In Ayn Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, John Galt is a hero, a revolutionary, a scientist, an inventor, a thinker, and a leader. Where
The main feature at the Atlas Summit on the evening of Friday, June 20 will be our Friday, June 20 Dinner Event: A First Look at Atlas
In the last week, we’ve added a few extra speakers and events to the 2014 Atlas Summit program . I’m pleased to say that one of the new
In early April, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Manhattan’s federal trial court spoke at the University of Southern California law school. His topic.
When Israel declared its independence 66 years ago, pursuant to a UN resolution, David Ben Gurion promised the new state “will ensure
The ATF is being sued for a decision only slightly more reasonable. Gun maker Sig Sauer created a product called a “muzzle brake,” which
Bitcoin is a digital money sweeping the world and offering some degree of freedom from government currencies. It imitates the scarcity of...
Pope Francis’s Easter message included a prayer to “Help us to overcome the scourge of hunger, aggravated by conflicts and by the immense
If the lawsuit over keeping disabled people waiting at Disney theme parks has merit, it should have been won already. The courts have kept
Two scenes from Atlas Shrugged Part 1 illustrate Ayn Rand’s principle that when people engage in voluntary trade, exchanging value for value, they are treating each other not “as masters or slaves, but as independent equals”—the highest form of human respect.
In a dramatic scene from Atlas Shrugged Part 2 , Hank Rearden tells a pragmatic young bureaucrat, “Try pouring a ton of steel without rigid principles.” His remark expresses Ayn Rand’s profound insight about the role of principles in human life, from science and technology to ethics and politics.
This scene, in which Dagny Taggart confronts her brother James about the need to upgrade a rail line, illustrates the difference between her rationality and his second-hand thinking. Dagny is focused on facts as she deals with the reality of a train wreck; James is focused on the opinions of other people.
In the famous “money speech,” Francisco d’Anconia responds to of the Biblical statement "money is the root of all evil" by explaining the real essence of money. Money is a medium of exchange, the means by which people trade value for value. And it represents the fact that wealth must be created by production.
Early in Atlas Shrugged Part 1 , Hank Rearden has two conversations that illustrate the conflict between makers and takers. Hank made his wealth by creating value in his business. His dependent brother Phillip is a taker, self-righteously asking for charity; as are the politicians and crony capitalists who seize wealth by force.