Welcome to the November 5th, 2009 edition of the Objectivist Roundup. This post presents insight and analyses written by Objectivist bloggers over the past week. Objectivism is the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and Atlas Shrugged. As she explained:

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. (“About the Author,” Atlas Shrugged)

Without further ado, here is the roundup:

Noah Stahl presents From Guilt to Good posted at The Undercurrent, saying, “Guilt is often portrayed as a healthy emotion–is it?”

Rational Jenn presents More from Ayn Rand about Childhood posted at Rational Jenn, saying, “Still believe that Ayn Rand viewed children negatively? This post includes two examples to the contrary from Atlas Shrugged.”

Grant Jones presents Again With This Degenerate and Herbert Hoover: The Progressive Interventionist posted at The Dougout.

John Cox presents Attacking Capitalism? posted at John and Ansley, saying, “Jeb Bush recently stated that Obama is using the presidency to attack capitalism. While that statement is undoubtedly true, Republicans have been attacking capitalism with their deeds, if not their words, for years. Sadly, they have conned the rest of the country into believing they are defenders of the free market. That is simply not the case.”

Ari Armstrong presents Rosen 0, Longo 0 posted at FreeColorado.com, saying, “The problems with pragmatic and dogmatic strains of libertarianism.”

Paul Hsieh presents PJM OpEd — “ObamaCare: A National Version of RomneyCare” posted at We Stand FIRM, saying, “My latest PajamasMedia OpEd discusses three things Americans should know about Congress’ plan to impose a Massachusetts-style health care system on all of America.”

Daniel presents Red Bull for Your Soul, Cont’d posted at The Nearby Pen, saying, “Here’s a great poem that poetically states the importance of being true to yourself and of living in such a way that you can judge what you have done as unquestionably good–by the standards you yourself have set.”

Amy Mossoff presents A Different Audience posted at The Little Things, saying, “An experience with the difficulties of blogging for both a general audience and Objectivists at the same time, and what I learned about fiction writing from it.”

Rational Jenn presents On Children, Parents, and the Use of Force posted at Rational Jenn, saying, “This post describes the principles I use for setting rational limits for children and how (and when) to enforce them, without using parental-imposed punishments and reward systems.”

Diana Hsieh presents NoodleCast #21: Design Arguments, Part 3 posted at NoodleFood, saying, “In this podcast, I present William Paley’s classic design argument for the existence of God.”

Stella presents Praying won’t make it so posted at ReasonPharm, saying, “If Congress has its way, we’ll soon be paying for prayer.”

C. August presents The Essence of the Thing posted at Titanic Deck Chairs, saying, “Under the guise of attacking the “sin” of homosexuality, an archbishop clearly states the essential conflict of altruism vs. egoism. And in the process he cheers Islamist fundamentalists, saying, “any culture that is able to produce wave after wave of suicide bombers… is a culture that at least knows how to value self-sacrifice.”"

Greg Perkins presents Libertarian vs. Objectivist Thinking posted at NoodleFood, saying, “Libertarians seem mystified by Rand’s flat refusal to be classified as libertarian in her politics, even though she obviously fits their definition. Here is an explanation that goes to the epistemological roots of the issue and underscores the dangers of the libertarian way of thinking about politics.”

Stephen Bourque presents Too Big to Fail – Addendum posted at One Reality, saying, “When a company accepts money from the government, is it henceforth beholden to that government?”

Adam Reed presents Life on the Edge of Implosion of Democracy posted at Born to Identify, saying, “I’m posting this because the sudden silence from my end of the wire may have made some readers of this blog uncomfortable, and I don’t want anyone to think that I have a problem beyond serious overwork. I’m typing this as an otherwise-I-would-go-insane break from grading 100 midterm exams.”

Doug Reich presents The Thyratron posted at The Rational Capitalist, saying, “Sometimes it takes a thyratron to remind us of a simple and wonderful truth.”

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