Thanks for sticking with me after the first half of this monstrous column wrapping up our series on Ayn Rand and her overlong orgy of Objectivism, Atlas Shrugged. I realize…
Political Culture
127 Articles
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
”We do not tell — we show.” So says the mentor of Atlas Shrugged‘s three key ”strikers,” philosopher Hugh Akston … on page 735 of a 1,168-page novel, in a…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
I tried. I tried so hard. You’ve gotta believe me when I tell you how I tried and tried to finish Ayn Rand’s oversize chronicle of obsessive-compulsive capitalism, Atlas Shrugged,…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
I have to admit, I’m a bit conflicted this holiday season. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been going through the motions — spending lots of time at home with my…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Here’s the thing about reading Ayn Rand: She forces you to think the way she does. Once you’ve immersed yourself in her black-and-white worldview — and once you’ve adjusted your…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
When I was a senior in college, instead of prepping for a career as a Rand-ian Master of the Universe with high-level courses in economics or engineering, I chose a…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
A homework pass to the first commenter who can identify what inspired this column’s headline — without resorting to the Google (honor system!) — and can tell us why The…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Objectivism is back, baby! Don’t take my word for it — just check out this cover of the libertarian monthly Reason, which offers up a freaky old Audrey Hepburn-meets-the-wicked-witch photo…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
It was such a simpler time, that summer of 2001. Remember it? That last season of America’s (cyclical) innocence shimmers in the memory, sorta like those gauzy images of lovebirds…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Ever since Al Franken parked his rear end in the Democrats’ 60th U.S. Senate seat, the conventional wisdom has held that no matter how much of a fuss the Republicans…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
We may not have John Edwards to kick around anymore — though that hasn’t stopped us from putting the occasional boot into his backside, has it? — but he did…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
It’s baseball playoff time, which has Jon Cummings venting his annual Yankees rage — and, oddly enough, thinking about public healthcare.
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Now hereÁ¢€â„¢s a fast-moving story: Just a week ago, word leaked that Rush Limbaugh was part of an ownership group hoping to bid on the woebegone St. Louis Rams. Within…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Can liberals and conservatives still see the best in one another, or is intelligent political discourse a thing of the past? Jon Cummings combs through his inbox in search of an answer.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Michael Moore has a new movie out, and you might assume that a proud liberal like Jon Cummings might be filled with rapturous praise for it…but you’d be wrong.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Glenn Beck scored another pelt for his demagoguery-fur coat this week, when Congress voted to cut all federal funding for the community-organizing group ACORN in the wake of those seedy…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
The words were spoken in London, casually, almost flippantly, and were directed at an audience that was sure to treat them in the spirit they were intended. It was not…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Was Ted the best and bravest of the Kennedys? In his latest Political Culture, Jon Cummings looks back at the Lion’s life and times.
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Jon Cummings thought the right wing would smooth down its fringe feathers after the ’08 election. Snake eyes on that roll, Jon!
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
One of them reached the grandest stage in her profession by virtue of her charm and very-good looks, only to be judged harshly upon that stage for her ignorance and…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
(EditorÁ¢€â„¢s note: The author promises there will be no further Sound of Music references in this column.) President ObamaÁ¢€â„¢s been taking it on the chin a lot lately, from both…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
I must admit, I had thought the days were over when Republicans could scare the bejeezus out of the citizenry (and force acquiescence from lily-livered Democrats) with bullshit tricks like…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
When the long-awaited, religiously incendiary sequel to The Da Vinci Code arrives in theaters and the anticipated uproar is reduced to a low roar, you know itÁ¢€â„¢s gotta be a…
Jon Cummings
7 Min Read
Any time now Á¢€” maybe even during the too-few moments between my pressing Á¢€Å“submitÁ¢€ and this column going live Á¢€” President Obama is going to announce his appointee to replace…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
The Republican PartyÁ¢€â„¢s annus became considerably more horribilis this week, with Arlen Specter switching parties, President Obama taking what amounted to a 100-days victory lap (despite the economyÁ¢€â„¢s continuing decline),…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
It may be that only an event like this could have propped up that downward-spiraling phenomenon, the beauty pageant: An out-and-proud celebrity gossip-monger asking a comely Californian how she feels…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Have right-wing evangelicals won their last battle? Maybe not, but Jon Cummings thinks it’ll take them more than three days to resurrect their political fortunes.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Those clunky translation earpieces were nowhere to be found last Thursday night in the United Nations General Assembly, as a multinational assemblage of talent and star power filled the great…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
The original, furiously populist theme of this column, as I envisioned it last weekend, was Á¢€Å“Nationalize the Banks, Now!Á¢€ Well, as of Monday that was taken care of, so, moving…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
In Rod LurieÁ¢€â„¢s first political potboiler, Deterrence, a U.S. president audaciously entered a nuclear confrontation with a newly aggressive (and surprisingly well-armed) Saddam Hussein. While hardly an original concept in…