Originally published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged, one of the most controversial novels in American fiction, recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Annual sales have been growing for years and may grow even faster when the film adaptation is released. Atlas Shrugged is routinely included on “favorite books”
In its usual capacity as scholastic trend-setter, Harvard University unleashed a strange phenomenon on academia last year: amid the marble halls and ivy thickets, visiting professor Tal Ben-Shahar attracted a record population of Harvard students to a class about "squeezing lemons into lemonade." In the
Whatever their views of President Bush's new "surge" of 20,000 soldiers, both liberals and conservatives continue to claim that they support our troops. Liberals say they support our troops by criticizing or opposing "Operation Iraqi Freedom," which they claim has unnecessarily killed 3,000 soldiers. Conservatives
This September, in a speech at the University of Regensburg in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI quoted an ancient source that identified Muslims as violent. "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new," wrote the 14th century Byzantine emperor quoted by the Pope, "and there
Illegal immigrants are pouring into the United States. Pro-immigration rallies and anti-immigration rallies alternated with equal fervor this spring, while the number of illegals living in the country continued to grow towards 10 million. Pending legislation threatens to make illegal immigration a felony and to
The Left is losing the abortion battle on all fronts. In politics, once militantly pro-abortion Democrats like Hillary Clinton are toning down their positions for the sake of popular appeal. In the courts, after more than thirty years of relative stability, Roe v. Wade faces
It is a common view that the quest for truth breeds misery-as echoed lately in viewer responses to House, MD. Raking in four Emmy nominations, including Best Dramatic Series, House has emerged as the most popular show on primetime TV. Its title character, Dr. Gregory House,
We at The Undercurrent are writing in defense of the freedom of speech. The violent response to the Jyllands-Posten Mohammad cartoons has placed that freedom under attack. The American media has surrendered to the pressure. We will not. On this special edition flyer, we have printed
Religion is becoming a political issue in the culture at large. Abortion, stem-cell research, euthanasia, homosexuality, intelligent design--even the "war on terror"--each of these debates is linked to religious beliefs. With the conservatives strengthening ties to the Christian religion and a Supreme Court that has
The ongoing controversy over the teaching of creationism in public schools is portrayed by some as a battle between superstitious ignorance and scientific enlightenment. So far, from this perspective, the race has gone to the swift and the battle to the strong: in the '80s,