The greatest/truest Randian, I just realized after reading this, was the fascist leader of the "surrogate band" in Pink Floyd's The Wall, who pulls different types out of the crowd and then finally - honestly - declares "if I had my way, I'd have all of you shot." Rand's passively murderous/genocidal ethos was a public mask for her active murder fantasies (as seen in her avid fascination with serial killer William Edward Hickman, to whom she referred as a "Superman" - no joke).
HarperCollins is part of the Murdoch News Corp octopus. Would it be any surprise if its employees acted unscrupulously?
I mean that, though I'm myself highly critical of the major newspapers & network news orgs, I was a bit surprised to look back and see how e.g. NBC covered that attempted bombing of 3 years ago. I was particularly surprised to see network reporters using the term "domestic terrorism"; because I don't think it was used much by journalists after the terroristic acts of Eric Frein in Pennsylvania, last year.
Nah - I don't think Huck could ever be "normalized" like that. He's Natty Bumppo through-and-through. You can't ever take that kid from his foraging adventures, his obliviousness to materialism, clean him up and sit him upright in a job-job.
Hey, that's not fair at all: Star Trek *is* shark-jumping. The original show ranged all over the standing sets on the Paramount lot, and just kind of became what was affordable. (I guess a later show like Quantum Leap follows from that model?) I suspect that The Next Generation was just as up against it re budget as the original Desilu/Paramount one...
I can't even tackle that quesiton right now - I'm still trying to figure out the mystery of the thermos: It keeps things hot...it keeps things cold...
I agree - look at the Discovery institute, the progenitors/organizers of the "intelligent design" industry: that outfit was founded by educated men with establishment connections; and they pimped the field of science denialism as efficiently as possible. Though it might be news to the profoundly ignorant, provincial wingnuts who've bought the D.I. propaganda, denying evolution has made an already-elite class of right-wing professionals very rich...
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Greg Little 
Experiment