But stick the name "Koch" on the outside of the package, and even in Silicon Valley, a region so often described as a hotbed of libertarian values, and you have yourself a controversy.

Last Thursday, BuzzFeed's Justine Sharrock reported that intramural political warfare broke out at one Silicon Valley start-up after employees learned about plans to host a Koch-funded "Liberty Hackathon" in the company's offices.

The goal of the hackathon: "promoting liberty with the use of technology ... Whether promoting individual privacy or protecting economic freedom, this event will be the first of its kind to hack on various sources of data for a chance to win $5000 in cash."

That kind of talk might play well in Texas, but in Silicon Valley, where voter registration overwhelmingly skews Democratic, just the announcement of the event proved toxic.

Continue Reading...

Who is John Galt?

John Galt (as written in said novel) is a deeply flawed, sociopathic ideal of the perfect human. John Galt does not recognize the societal structure surrounding him that allows him to exist. John Galt, to be frank, is a turd.

However, John Galt is also very close to greatness. The only thing he is missing, the only thing Ayn Rand forgot to take into account when writing "Atlas Shrugged," is empathy.

John Galt talks about intelligence and education without discussing who will pay for the schools, who will teach the teachers. John Galt has no thought for his children, or their children, or what kind of world they will have to occupy when the mines run out and the streams dry up. John Galt expects an army to protect him but has no concern about how it’s funded or staffed. John Galt spends his time in a valley where no disasters occur, no accidents happen, and no real life takes place.

Continue Reading...

Perhaps Ayn Rand never anticipated the impact of unregulated greed on a productive middle class. Perhaps she never understood the fairness of tax money for public research and infrastructure and security, all of which have contributed to the success of big business. She must have known about the inequality of the pre-Depression years. But she couldn't have foreseen the concurrent rise in technology and globalization that allowed inequality to surge again, more quickly, in a manner that threatens to put the greediest offenders out of our reach.

Continue Reading...

Raised mostly in Texas and New Mexico by bohemian parents who’d escaped anti-Semitic violence in Europe, he’s been a young disciple of Richard Feynman, an employee at Atari, a scholar at Columbia, a visiting artist at New York University, and a columnist for Discover magazine. He’s also a longtime composer and musician, and a collector of antique and archaic instruments, many of them Asian.

His book continues his war on digital utopianism and his assertion of humanist and individualistic values in a hive-mind world. But Lanier still sees potential in digital technology: He just wants it reoriented away from its main role so far, which involves “spying” on citizens, creating a winner-take-all society, eroding professions and, in exchange, throwing bonbons to the crowd.

Continue Reading...

Tennessee starves what little government it has, ranking dead last in per capita tax revenue. To fund its minimalist public sector, it makes sure that low-income residents pay as much as possible through heavily regressive sales taxes, which rank 10th highest among all states as a percent of total tax revenues. (For more detailed data see here.)

As you would expect, this translates into hard times for its public school systems, which rank 48th in school revenues per student and 45th in teacher salaries. The failure to invest in education also corresponds with poverty: the state has the 40th worst poverty rate (15%) and the 13th highest state percentage of poor children (26%).

Continue Reading...

We’ve all had the feeling:  You fall into conversation with some stranger on the subway or bus.  Or perhaps you are seated beside him at a concert or some other event.  Whatever the venue or circumstance, the conversation goes pleasantly for a while.  Your interlocutor makes various interesting observations about this subject or that.  He shows himself to experience the world much as do you and most others you’ve known.  He might even say something arrestingly perceptive or thoughtful at some juncture during your chat.  Then, without warning, it happens:  In the middle of a perfectly good sentence he throws in, as a sort of throwaway line or aside, some such observation as, ‘like that time the Venusians performed those experiments on me up on Telos Nine, before taking me back to the Bryant Park carousel and then flying home.  (They still call me, you know.)’

Continue Reading...

It's likely a story that rings truer than ever for the team behind the film adaptation, who have seen a seemingly huge prospective audience of Rand readers refuse to come out and see their two-part opus. ("Atlas Shrugged: Part I" made $4.6 million, on a budget of $20 million, in 2011; "Part II" made $3.4 million in 2012.)

But the team behind the films, producers John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow, have announced that they will be funding a third installment, scheduled for release in 2014. (Aglialoro is a CEO of the fitness-equipment company Cybex and a poker player; Kaslow is a producer of horror films including "Night Train," "Autopsy" and "Boo.")

Continue Reading...

John Aglialoro, the producer of the series, says he hopes to have the third installment ready for a release in the summer of 2014, Politico reports, adding that he is looking to make this version “something closer to the book." The second movie, Aglialoro says, was rushed so that it would be ready by October 2012, before Election Day.

"I wanted to get some things in that Ayn Rand said of her characters,” Aglialoro said. “I want to take the time so that the screenplay can say things, so that it’s a conversation.”

The first film, released in April, 2011, was pushed by Tea Party groups like Freedomworks, natural fans of Ayn Rand, whose original work mirrors Tea Party lines about individual responsibility, capitalism, and opposition to big government.

Continue Reading...

Now Republicans have a plan to try to recapture the youngest voters out there: Take over the curriculum in public schools, replace education with a bunch of conservative propaganda, and reap the benefits of having a new generation that can’t tell reality from right-wing fantasy.

How well this plan will work is debatable, but in the meantime, these shenanigans present the very real possibility that public school students will graduate without a proper education. To make it worse, many of these attempts to rewrite school curriculum are happening in Texas, which can set the textbook standards for the entire country by simply wielding its power as one of the biggest school textbook markets there is. With that in mind, here’s a list of 11 lies your kid may be in danger of learning in school.

Continue Reading...

And, like most other professional gatherings, there is a dress code. As a helpful reminder, there is a Pinterest board to advise you on what will -- and won't -- fly while you're taking in panels like "Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You're Not One?"

Let's discuss.

DO's

Go ahead and channel your inner Tracy Flick: Cardigans, tweed skirts -- the whole nine yards. And feel free to add a little flair to your attire. Nothing says "I might think the United Nations is an anti-American conspiracy, but I still know how to have fun" like a little ruffle around your collar.

Continue Reading...

I have an almost infinite number of books that I recommend people to read at one point or another, but Ender’s Game is on that very short list of novels that I feel is truly universal. Every aspect of the novel revolves around a nuanced exploration of what empathy really is and why it matters. From Peter’s use of empathy as a weapon, to Valentine’s uncontrollable sympathy for those around her, to Ender’s devastating tension between the two. This is a novel for those who think and feel too deeply.

Continue Reading...

February has been a banner month for truly silly and anti-intellectual bills in state capitals across the country. Well, mostly across the South and Midwest. Some of these bills are based on the idea that birth control is poison, and that students should not fail for arguing in biology class that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. Others would stop gun control efforts by making it a felony to try to enact gun control.

This is not the Onion: Here are some of the actual proposals.

1. Let corporations vote!

In Montana, state Rep. Steve Lavin introduced a bill that would allow corporations to vote in local elections, taking the idea that "corporations are people" to new heights.

Think Progress reports that the bill was tabled earlier this month. But under the proposal, "if a firm, partnership, company, or corporation owns real property within the municipality, the president, vice president, secretary, or other designee of the entity is eligible to vote."

Continue Reading...

From the Idaho Spokesman-Review:

[Sen. John Goedde] said he doesn’t plan to press forward with the bill, but it was formally introduced in his committee Tuesday on a voice vote. He said he was sending a message to the State Board of Education, because he’s unhappy with its recent move to repeal a rule requiring two online courses to graduate from high school, and with its decision to back off on another planned rule regarding principal evaluations.

“It was a shot over their bow just to let them know that there’s another way to adopt high school graduation requirements,” Goedde said after the meeting. “I don’t intend to schedule a hearing on it.”

Goedde, who chairs the Idaho Senate’s Education Committee, explained that he chose that particular book because it "made my son a Republican," though he later added: “Well, he’s not a practicing Republican. But it certainly made him a conservative.”

Continue Reading...

That tax cut took effect this month, and as the New York Times reports, it’s the largest reduction in Kansas history. It’s also only the beginning; this week, Kansas Republicans introduced a bill that would pare taxes further, and eventually eliminate the state’s individual income tax.

Continue Reading...

Since I first met Objectivists (read: libertarians) in college, my Unified Theory of Rand Groupies posited that they all probably fit into at least one of three groups: those who 1) never grew out of the usual "the world is persecuting me and doesn't see my true genius" phase that momentarily afflicts the typical high schooler 2) think saying "Ayn Rand" in any context makes them sound intelligent, even though they've never actually read her work or 3) have read Rand's work, don't genuinely believe in her ideology as evidenced by their lifestyle/politics, but still say they love her because it serves to make them feel good about their own avarice.

Continue Reading...

And what's he cooking up in that dream factory right now? Planned community-theme park hybrids, that's what. Beck's "Independence, USA" is a community built on the "principles of the free market" where families can "find happiness, inspiration, courage and hope."

According to Beck's website:

Glenn believes that he can bring the heart and the spirit of Walt’s early Disneyland ideas into reality. Independence, USA wouldn’t be about rides and merchandise, but would be about community and freedom. The Marketplace would be a place where craftmen and artisan could open and run real small businesses and stores. The owners and tradesmen could hold apprenticeships and teach young people the skills and entrepreneurial spirit that has been lost in today’s entitlement state.

There would also be an Media Center, where Glenn’s production company would film television, movies, documentaries, and more. Glenn hoped to include scripted television that would challenge viewers without resorting to a loss of human decency. He also said it would be a place where aspiring journalists would learn how to be great reporters.

Across the lake, there would be a church modeled after The Alamo which would act as a multi-denominational mission center. The town will also have a working ranch where visitors can learn how to farm and work the land.

Independence would also be home to a Research and Development center where people would come to learn, innovate, educate, and create. There would be a theme park for people to recharge and have fun with their families.

People would also have the option to live in Independence, with a residential area where people of different incomes could all come together and be neighbors.

Continue Reading...

The incurious political press' answer to that query can be seen in a quick Google News search of her name. As you will see, she is one of the most oft-quoted, and therefore influential, "experts" in the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations. Most often, she is simply described by Washington reporters as the president of the "nonpartisan" Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and, in that role, as the lead coordinator of the so-called "Fix the Debt" coalition.

Though words like "nonpartisan" are designed to cast both groups, and MacGuineas herself, as apolitical and ideologically dispassionate, the boards of both organizations (which you can see here and here) are teeming with business executives and lawmakers-turned-corporate lobbyists. That is, they are teeming with precisely the kind of hyperpartisan, ideologically driven Big Money interests that have a financial stake in balancing the budget in a way that at once prevents tax increases on the rich and cuts or privatizes social programs.

Continue Reading...

Q: What do you think Paul Ryan's obsession with her work would mean if he were vice president?

Obama: Well, you'd have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we're only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we're considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity – that that's a pretty narrow vision. It's not one that, I think, describes what's best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a "you're on your own" society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party

h/t Buzzfeed

Continue Reading...

To understand why, it’s first necessary to understand what sort of numbers we’re talking about here.  NFL owners chose to lock out the sport’s referees because they’re trying to squeeze an extra $4,000 in revenues per game  out of their cozy little $9 billion per year cartel arrangement. Now, to a normal human being $4,000 is real money, but NFL owners are not normal human beings.

Continue Reading...

For all the mockery, for all the liberal gloating about box-office numbers, the first "Atlas" film accidentally cast too many successful actors. Taylor Schilling, the original Dagny Taggart, went on to co-star in "The Lucky One" and the upcoming Ben Affleck movie about the Iran hostage crisis. “She’s a bona fide movie star now,” says Aglialoro. So she’s been replaced by Samantha Mathis, a ’90s star who’s been mounting a kind of comeback. The rest of the cast is also new. It’s libertarian cinema by way of "Doctor Who."

Continue Reading...