"It Still Begins with Ayn Rand" is a worthy (if belated) successor to the acknowledged classic of productive self-mockery: Jerome Tuccille's "It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand."

The book kicks off with a nocturnal visitation by the disembodied founder of Objectivism, but the largest portion of it covers Tuccille's abortive campaign for the governorship of New York.

Free-Market.Net's beloved News Updates editor, J.D. "Tooch" Tuccille, makes a cameo appearance as the author's young son (a role for which he is, or at least was, uniquely suited), wandering the beaches of New Jersey for the camera during a typically screwed up commercial shoot. Tuccille Senior and his accomplices had some unique and still moving ideas -- for example, "fishing for votes" in front of Chester A. Arthur's house, in commemoration of the late and lamented president's style of leadership, which consisted of staying the hell out of Washington on fishing trips as much as possible.

Of course, the campaign came to nought ... a result that we couldn't expect the Libertarian Party firebrands of the early 70's to predict, but which has become an all too familiar one in the years since. So Tuccille moves on with witty, incisive commentary on the state of the union since, and ideas on where to go from here. The ideas carry a certain truthful pungency, without ever losing the author's irrepressible, quirky ability to get a laugh.

As a side note, "It Still Begins with Ayn Rand" as a consumer product is a testament to the "do rather than say" school of libertarian environmentalism. It is published by J. Neil Schulman's Pulpless.com. While the leftist environmental lobby churns out its tracts on (recycled) paper and pollutes the Earth with the toxic processes inherent in the publishing industry, Pulpless follows through on the libertarian promise that the market is competent to solve such problems. The book is available in HTML or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. Naturally, this means that it is also cheaper than "101 Things to Do With This Book While You Moan About How the Earth is Dying." Check out the extensive Pulpless catalog of worthy fiction and non-fiction, most of which belongs on any freedom lover's reading list.

"It Still Begins with Ayn Rand" is also available in a print version, via Amazon.com.

Additional Links:

• Purchasing information from Amazon.com
• Purchasing information from Pulpless.com

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March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand

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