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BSO

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Rand TV Special

Stossel to Host



TV journalist John Stossel, formerly of ABC News and now with Fox, has announced that he is featuring the explosion in the popularity of Ayn Rand in a segment of his new show to air on January 7th at 8:00. Stossel explains in this interview with The Hill:



You’ve chosen Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged as the topic of one of your first episodes. Why?

Of the first three episodes, one will be on Atlas Shrugged, one will be on global warming and one will be on healthcare.
Rand’s book is a best-seller even though it’s 50 years old. It’s outselling [my book] Give Me a Break. People are touched by something in it. She predicted 53 years ago the explosive, repulsive vomit of government growth that we are experiencing under Obama and which began under Bush and the presidents before them.

Who are some of your dream guests?

Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Freidman, Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises. Unfortunately, they’re all dead.

You’ve been very open about your libertarian views. How did you form those views?

Four years of consumer reporting eventually taught me that government regulation failed.

FAT Chance

I laughed to come upon this cartoon about the Springfield band FAT in an old copy of the Springfield Technical Community College newspaper. It accompanied an unflattering review in which the band was criticized for abandoning its psychedelic roots and becoming more of a bluesy dance band. Note the slogan on the FAT beer can: The Beer that Made Springfield Throb and also dig the old fashioned tab opener.



And whatever musical changes they've been through, FAT still has Springfield throbbing to their music to this day. Every year FAT does a reunion show in downtown Springfield that is one of the main biker events in the Valley, as seen in this video:



Around Amherst

A newly opened restaurant.



This time of year Bart's has to downplay the ice cream and focus on burgers and hot drinks.



In Amherst they drive funny cars.



Today's Music Video

Crystalline Roses in Holyoke earlier this month.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

FAT RULES!

Clay Barham said...

Self-interest or self-centered seems to be the main concern with most who do not understand Ayn Rand. Those who admire and criticize Ayn Rand’s beliefs about people who stand on their own feet often say she promoted selfishness, thereby greed, which is self-centered and anti-individual creativity. That is anti-Rand. Rand admired the creative individual, people like railroad builder James Jerome Hill, on whom she was reputed to have based her character Nathaniel Taggart in Atlas Shrugged. If we look at Howard Roark’s summation to the jury, from Fountainhead, we do not see a self-centered individual destroying his work. If he was greedy he would have simply accepted his payment. We see an other- and outer-centered individual in love with his own dreams and creations, as one would love a spouse, child or family and refuse to allow them to be assaulted. That is the kind of self-interest that built America. Though love for anything spiritual may be missing, a great idea or vision also measures up to that which is spiritual, beyond self, and that view is not that inconsistent with Christianity. Claysamerica.com.