SOLO-International Op-Ed: An Open Letter to Glenn Beck

James S. Valliant
April 8, 2010

Dear Mr. Glenn Beck,

As a fierce defender of the American Founding Fathers and the free market, as well as an atheist, I listened intently to your discussion of "faith" and the founding of America today, April 8, 2010, on the Fox News Channel. Despite my views on religion, I have become a regular viewer because, in my estimation, the history lessons you deliver every night are enormously valuable.

Sure, this guy's a psychotic, but he seems to have a better grip on the art of film, dramatic structure and, indeed, basic common sense than the great film-makers of our time.

On another discussion thread, Lindsay Perigo cited an important quotation from Ayn Rand:

Since her death in 1982, Ayn Rand’s ideas have enjoyed nothing short of a Renaissance.

This is a paragraph from the ethics section of Wikipedia's article "Objectivism."

ObjectivistLiving.com, where smearing Ayn Rand is a full-time job, and where Big Opinions don't require a shred of evidence to support them...

More PARC!

So asks the The Wall Street Journal.

The real question, of course: does "required" imply the initiation of force?

More PARC!

Here's a link to an article some of you might find of interest.

Many SOLOists may not be aware that our friend, Casey, is a writer of extraordinary power.

More PARC!

The man who gave us Glengarry Glen Ross and The Verdict is no longer "a brain dead liberal," as David Mamet himself writes in

This is one of my favorite poems. I post it now in honor of Mark and Sandi.

The Marriage
by Yvor Winters (1900-1968)

Incarnate for our marriage you appeared,

The following is an excerpt from The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics. It is the bulk of Chapter 4, The Exploiters and the Exploited, with only a few modifications for publication here at Solo. Unfortunately, this includes the removal of the footnotes. For that, one must still repair to the text of PARC.

Most have focused on the looney 9/11 Conspiracy stuff, but this article from Reason about Ron Paul's friends and supporters will get your skin crawling.

The National Review has long feared Ayn Rand more than anyone else.

There is simply no other way to explain decades of consistently lying about Rand and her ideas by that magazine.

Verily, it was that Most Special Time of Year when commemoration of the humble Nativity of the Prince of Peace, with its gentle echoes of the cooing of the Christ Child, inspires each and every Christ

Happy 100th Birthday to the great Jacques Barzun!

The overused cliche, "a national treasure," actually applies to this guy.

While Mike Huckabee's progress seems to have slowed a bit, his remarkable surge in the polls has put the Baptist clergyman into almost a statistical dead heat with Rudy.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has just given Christians the best Christmas present he could have -- that is, s

The value of a timeline.

I don't even see the Mormons, either.

With all due respect to Hume, values are not a species of mythological beast, arbitrary, whimsical or some kind of religious invention. They are a fact about life itself.

"The Best Drummer All Over The World"

"What do I think of President Reagan?

I hate to rain on everybody's "Atlas Month," but for all the new-found "respect" for Ayn Rand from certain writers and publications being noted around here, we still have a very LONG way to go -- and

This is fascinating!

Thanks to Althouse for the heads up.

Libertarian feminist Wendy McElroy has recently added a new section to her website (look on the left side), as she puts it, "to celebrate 'The Woman -- Ayn Rand.'"

According to its newsletter:

"IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE OF THE TLS (The Times Literary Supplement):"