BOOKS: CURRENTLY READING And/Or RECOMMENDED

[bluepride]

It took me three months to get through Atlas but it was worth it. I agree with burner that it's one of the best books I've ever read. I won't say it changed my life, but it definitely steered me in directions I haven't traveled before. I'll read it again at some point but I have a lot of other books waiting to be read at this point. Not to open an old wound but while I was reading, I couldn't help (as much as I tried not to...) thinking about the scumbags on the board of GOAL NY. I equated them with the looters and moochers who were destroying everything in their path. I found myself identifying with the main characters in many ways, such as sticking by my beliefs, ambitions and goals in spite of people who would try to use me for their own ends. As the friend of mine who lent me the book says, (about me...) I AM John Galt. About the highest compliment I can think of.

There are plans for a movie version of Atlas Shrugged and Angelina Jolie is slated to play Dagny. This movie should've been made in the 40's or 50's, using some of the great actors we had back then. My fear is that the cast includes some of the less talented pretty boys who currently infect our movie screens. It would be hard for anyone to do this book justice but I'm hoping someone can execute it well. The Fountainhead is another book of Ayn Rand's which I'm planning on reading soon. The movie is great. It was made in 1949 and is currently scheduled to be shown on Turner Movie Classics on May 7th. I wish I had started reading Ayn Rand earlier in my life but I'm doing it now and I'm becoming a follower/fan/devotee. Even though it seems like I thought like her (in some ways) already.

Howard Rourk's speech from The Fountainhead:

[burner]

Bluepride, I'm surprised to hear that plans are in the works to turn Atlas Shrugged into a movie. While YOU may have enjoyed the movie version of The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand HATED it. She rued the day she gave up control of the script, casting, etc. and vowed she would never again allow any of her works to be filmed unless she had a final say in such matters. In fact there were plans underway to film at the time of Rand's death in 1982 (yes, I went to the wake up at Campbell's Funeral Home in Manhattan).

The Fountainhead starred Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal and, having read the book beforehand, I was disappointed with the film and with the casting once I finally got to see it. I'm sure that, like you, I would have enjoyed it had I not gone in with "expectations" of its mirroring the book. I'll bet once you get around to reading the book you'll find it even better than the movie.

Angelina Jolie? Yuk. Far from one I would cast as Dagny. It's always fun to read a book and "cast it" in your own mind for a movie version. I did that with Atlas, back when I read it, but I'd have to do it all over again. Those I casted are now either dead or standing on a banana peel! It'd be interesting to compare with you, and any others who've read the novel, who we'd pick to play the major roles.

[burner]

...and just a little trivia to pass along.

Atlas Shrugged is a novel, a piece of fiction, but one that describes and defends all that Ayn Rand stood for: rational individualism, personal responsibility and laissez-faire capitalism. She abhorred socialism and government handouts and second-raters as she called them. The old Penn-Central Railroad and its Conrail successor epitomized what she viewed with disdain; the Providence & Worcester Railroad (the little railroad that could) eptiomized all she held dear.

The P&W was a shortline between Providence, RI and Worcester, MA. In the late 1800s it became part of J.P. Morgan's empire, through a long term lease, as he assembled pieces to form the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The NYNH&H went belly-up and was merged into the Penn Central in 1968. Two years later PC declared bankruptcy and remained operating but insolvent until the U.S. government forged it and other bankrupts into the Conrail system in 1976. Along the way came this guy named Robert Eder, a definite fan of Ayn Rand and her philosophy.

Eder was president of the Providence & Worcester. Cushy job. Sit back and collect lease payments from the NYNH&H. Why worry? But he did. He saw where the Northeast railroads were headed in the '50s and '60s so, in 1966, he began a legal fight to free the P&W from its lease agreement. He wanted it to break free of the New Haven and operate independently as a shortline railroad. He was successful and in 1973 the P&W resumed independent operations on 45 miles of track between the cities for which it is named.

[All this is nice, Burner, but what the hell does it have to do with the subject at hand??]

I was friends with the chief legal counsel for P&W and was fortunate to be introduced to Bob Eder, a dynamic businessman if ever there was one. It was later, over dinner with my friend the lawyer, that I learned Bob Eder made it a policy for the P&W that anyone hired to work for the railroad was required to read Atlas Shrugged!

I moved from CT to NY, my friend moved to FL and we haven't been that much in touch in recent years so I can only relate what I know to have been conditions back in the 70s and 80s. And back then, while other RR unions were fighting tooth and nail with their employers, the P&W had exceptionally good union/management relations. Eder demanded a day's work for a day's pay, and he got it. And...unheard of in the rail industry...when P&W earned a profit, the employees shared in it.

Eder proved that capitalism could work, that good management and good employee-management relations were key, and that integrity and individual responsibility were traits to be admired, as Ayn Rand admired them. As Penn Central fell, as Conrail fell, as the Boston & Maine fell, Bob Eder and the P&W just truged along, acquiring a line here, a line there. Today the Providence & Worcester Railroad operates over 545 miles of track in the tri-state are of RI, MA and CT.

[bluepride]

<<While YOU may have enjoyed the movie version of The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand HATED it.>>

Yes, I know she hated it but in the long run, it's better that we have some version of it on film rather than none at all. Gary Cooper is stiff as cardboard in his portayal and a lot of the movie isn't as Any Rand would've wanted it. Maybe one day, with a little care, a newer version will be filmed. The movie version of Atlas will be done with input from the Ayn Rand Foundation and people who were close to her. From reading the book, I think a movie of it will have to be a gargantuan undertaking. I can only imagine how long the movie would be. You'd probably need a change of clothes to bring with you to the theater.

[bluepride]

Finallly reading "Coming Out From Behind the Badge". So far, I'm most impressed with Jason and Jon's portions of the book. Not because I'm prejudiced...(Well maybe!) but because they're so real and well written. Jason, you have a future in writing if you want it. Jason and Jon's chapters are written from the heart and are don't seem in any way to be written by rote.

[bluepride]

Currently reading "Murdered By Mumia" and I find it hard to put down. Written by Police Officer Daniel Faulkner's widow, Maureen and Michael Smerconish, it's the story of the struggle of Maureen to preserve the good name of her husband. Most everyone knows of the cold blooded murder of PO Danny Faulkner in 1981.
He was murdered by Wesley Cook aka Mumia Abu-Jamal who is considered some sort of political prisoner/hero by misguided non-thinking ultra liberal left wingers including some of our brain dead Hollywood "stars". It provides excerpts from the trial transcripts which debunk the myths that a lot of ignorant people choose to perpetuate, sometimes knowingly, to further their agendas.

If you have a chance, please read this book if you have any interest in law enforcement and justice.

READ ABOUT POLICE OFFICER DANIEL FAULKNER

[burner]

When the nonsensical argument is raised, suggesting that Mumia Abu-Jamal was railroaded by a "police conspiracy" because of his political beliefs, I simply ask: "What cop in his right mind would intentionaly seek the conviction of an innocent man if to do so meant that the real killer of a fellow police officer remained at large?" No one has an answer, because there is none. The argument is stopped dead in its tracks.

[Deleted]

Down through history, It's quite common for people to be railroaded into prison because of their political beliefs. People like Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandella come to mind. Political incarceration is a fact, not a nonseniscal argument. It's an ugly secret that happens every day, but it has nothing to do with Mumia. The man is a killer plain and simple. He should have been put to death a long time ago, instead of waisting tax payer dollars keeping him alive. He's not in prison for activism, he's in prison for murder.

[burner]

Oh, don't get me wrong. Sad as it is to say, I don't for a minute mean to suggest that police officers have not railroaded innocent people over the years, for political or other reasons. My point was that when it comes to a cop killer I cannot imagine any police officer who would allow to doer to remain at large...which would be the case if an innocent was convicted on trumped up charges. For this reason alone I reject the argument that Mumia was an "innocent," convicted as the result of a police vendetta.

[bluepride]

He was identified by numerous witnesses who had nothing to gain from their testimony. And they all said basically the same thing. That he ran from across the street and shot Danny once in the back, then stood over him and shot 3-4 times more from a distance of less than 9 inches and pumped a few more +P 38 caliber bullets into his face and chest. And his gun which he purchased 2 years before, matched the bullet markings and was recovered from the scene. The dealer who sold it to him in 1979 produced the receipt with "Wesley's" signature on it. Nothing was "made up" and nothing was fabricated. Except some of the things said by Mumia's followers. Everyone in law enforcement should read this book.

[Deleted]

Oh my God. What a monster

[hoosiercop]

Yeah the undisputable evidence is so overwhelming against Mumia, that is is astounding. They need to fry his a$$ already.

For those that don't know, Ben & Jerry's ice cream is a major financial contributor to Mumia's "defense". Many officers have been boycotting that company's products for years to protest their support of a blatant murderer. Many mindless celebrities support the murderer as well, just because they think its hip to have a "cause".

[bluepride]

I finished reading "MURDERED BY MUMIA" last week and now I'm reading "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. Another classic. The Mumia book educated me as to the case far more than I was already and it was great that Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish backed up what they presented as evidence with footnotes, to prove their points. The ENTIRE transcript of the 1982 trial is on the DanielFaulkner.com site. I'm looking forward to getting through "The Fountainhead". It's another lengthy read but it's worth it.

[Deleted]

Hey guys. Sorry I've been missing for a couple of days. I had to go to Orlando with my hubby. We are looking to break into real estate in Florida and he had to take a class on ways to make tons of money!!! Anyway, while we were there, I started The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. So far, It's very good. He talks about reclaiming the american dream.

[burner]

And another piece of revisionist history hits the bookstores. The book, "The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal," by J.Patrick O'Conner asserts that Officer Daniel Faulknew died on December 9, 1981, from shots fired by Kenneth Freeman, a business partner of the brother of the convicted man, Abu-Jamal. [What next? A charge that gays are the cause of Hurricane Katrina? Oh, wait. That's been done already.]

Hugh Burns, chief of the appeals division in the Philadelphia D.A.'s office, dismissed the new accusations, saying, "There is zero credible evidence Freeman was involved."

For the full NY Times story, if you really want it:

www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/us/02philadelphia.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin