Author: Adam Lee

Atlas Shrugged, part III, chapter I As we’ve seen previously, the supercapitalists hiding out in Galt’s Gulch call Dagny a “scab”, a grave insult for a worker who crosses a union picket line. Given that the word was coined by labor organizers, one might think Rand’s heroes were using it ironically – but it turns…

You can make a bad argument in support of a good conclusion. That’s how I felt reading this column “The Cross and the Confederate Flag“, written by Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention in the aftermath of the Charleston massacre. Unlike his predecessor Richard Land, who was an all-culture-war-all-the-time partisan, Moore has shown some…

By now, you’ve heard about the massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina where nine people were murdered, including Clementa Pinckney, the pastor and a state senator. The alleged shooter, Dylann Storm Roof, wore the patches of white-supremacist regimes, told police that he wanted to start a race war, wrote a virulently…

In spite of all our technology crafted to isolate us from the natural world, human beings feel the call of the seasons, the axial pull of gravity and sunlight. We gather across the millennia, drawn by the same deep impulse that first inspired the ancient builders to rear these stones. Image: Summer solstice gathering at…

Atlas Shrugged, part III, chapter I Dagny’s first day in John Galt’s secret capitalist valley, and her whirlwind tour of its inhabitants, ends with a dinner party at Midas Mulligan’s house later that night: Midas Mulligan met them at the door. She noticed that his grim, square face was not as harshly expressionless as she…

In the eyes of the religious conservative movement, America’s best days are always in the past. They bemoan the modern era of activist government, heightened sensitivity, and moral complexity, and look back fondly to an imaginary golden age where the wealthy could do as they pleased, the state bowed down to the church, and men…

My latest column on the Guardian is up: “We atheists can use growing clout to beat evangelicals at their own political game“. Trying to organize atheists politically is often compared to herding cats. The conventional wisdom is that, while evangelical Christians and other religious groups march in lockstep and can be counted on to vote…

PBS’ “Blank on Blank” web series animates and dramatizes classic interviews conducted with famous names. They contacted me this week to let me know that they’ve just released a new episode centered on Ayn Rand’s 1959 interview with Mike Wallace, about her philosophy of moral selfishness. As she always did, she claimed that it was…

It’s Secular Students Week, when we old folk interview the next generation of secular activists and share stories of the fantastic work that they’re doing. The Secular Student Alliance has a goal to get 500 donations this week, and if they reach this goal, they’ll unlock a $20,000 challenge grant! Donate and help them reach…

Florence + the Machine has just released How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, their first new album in almost four years. Florence Welch is in full form, singing about love lost and heartbreak with all the storm and fury that magnificently tempestuous voice is capable of. Alanis Morrisette only wishes she could get this much…