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Entrepreneurs emerge from the population on demand, and become leaders because they perceive opportunities available and are well-positioned to take advantage of them. An entrepreneur may perceive that they are among the few to recognize or be able to solve a problem. Joseph Schumpeter saw the entrepreneur as innovators and popularized the uses of the phrase creative destruction to describe his view of the role of entrepreneurs in changing business norms. Creative destruction encompasses changes entrepreneurial activity makes every time a new process, product or company enters the market.
There is a complexity and lack of cohesion between research studies that explore the characteristics and personality traits of, and influences on, the entrepreneur. Most studies, however, agree that there are certain entrepreneurial traits and environmental influences that tend to be consistent. Although certain entrepreneurial traits are required, entrepreneurial behaviours are dynamic and influenced by environmental factors. Shane and VenKataraman (2000) argue the entrepreneur is solely concerned with opportunity recognition and exploitation; however, the opportunity that is recognised depends on the type of entrepreneur which Ucbasaran et al. (2001) argue there are many different types dependent on their business and personal circumstances.
Psychological studies show that the psychological propensities for male and female entrepreneurs are more similar than different. Perceived gender differences may be due more to gender stereotyping. There is a growing body of work that shows that entrepreneurial behavior is dependent on social and economic factors. For example, countries which have healthy and diversified labor markets or stronger safety nets show a more favorable ratio of opportunity driven rather than necessity-driven women entrepreneurs. Empirical studies suggest that women entrepreneurs possess strong negotiating skills and consensus-forming abilities.
New research regarding the qualities required for successful entrepreneurship is ongoing, with work from the Kauffman Institute forming the statistical basis for much of it.
Social entrepreneurs act within a market aiming to create social value through the improvement of goods and services offered to the community. Their main aim is to help offer a better service improving the community as a whole and are predominately run as non profit schemes. Zahra et al. (2009: 519) said that “social entrepreneurs make significant and diverse contributions to their communities and societies, adopting business models to offer creative solutions to complex and persistent social problems”.
Category:Business and financial operations occupations Category:Entrepreneurship Category:French loanwords Category:French words and phrases Category:Management occupations
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Name | Thomas Szasz |
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Caption | Thomas Szasz |
Birth date | April 15, 1920 |
Birth place | Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary |
Residence | |citizenship = |
Nationality | Hungarian |
Field | Psychiatry |
Work institutions | State University of New York Upstate Medical University |
Author abbrev bot | |author_abbrev_zoo = |
Religion | |footnotes = |signature = |
Thomas Stephen Szasz (pronounced Saas) (born April 15, 1920) is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990 he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He is a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism. He is well known for his books The Myth of Mental Illness (1960) and The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement (1970), which set out some of the arguments with which he is most associated.
His views on special treatment follow from classical liberal roots which are based on the principles that each person has the right to bodily and mental self-ownership and the right to be free from violence from others, although he criticized the "Free World" as well as the Communist states for its use of psychiatry and "drogophobia". He believes that suicide, the practice of medicine, use and sale of drugs and sexual relations should be private, contractual, and outside of state jurisdiction.
In 1973, the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year.
In 1962 Szasz received a tenured position in medicine at the State University of New York. Szasz had first joined SUNY in 1956.
Szasz's views of psychiatry were influenced by the writings of Frigyes Karinthy.
In 1961 Szasz gave testimony before a United States Senate committee in which he argued that the use of mental hospitals to incarcerate people defined as insane violated the general assumptions of patient and doctor relationships and turned the doctor into a warden and a keeper of a prison.
Since theocracy is the rule of God or its priests, and democracy the rule of the people or of the majority, pharmacracy is therefore the rule of medicine or of doctors.
Szasz consistently pays attention to the power of language in the establishment and maintenance of the social order, both in small interpersonal as well as wider socio-political spheres:
"The struggle for definition is veritably the struggle for life itself. In the typical Western two men fight desperately for the possession of a gun that has been thrown to the ground: whoever reaches the weapon first shoots and lives; his adversary is shot and dies. In ordinary life, the struggle is not for guns but for words; whoever first defines the situation is the victor; his adversary, the victim. For example, in the family, husband and wife, mother and child do not get along; who defines whom as troublesome or mentally sick?...[the one] who first seizes the word imposes reality on the other; [the one] who defines thus dominates and lives; and [the one] who is defined is subjugated and may be killed."His main arguments can be summarised as follows:
The myth of mental illness: "Mental illness" is an expression, a metaphor that describes an offending, disturbing, shocking, or vexing conduct, action, or pattern of behavior, such as schizophrenia, as an "illness" or "disease". Szasz wrote: "If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; If you talk to the dead, you are a schizophrenic." Psychiatry actively obscures the difference between (mis)behavior and disease, in its quest to help or harm parties to conflicts. By calling certain people "diseased", psychiatry attempts to deny them responsibility as moral agents, in order to better control them.
People who are said (by themselves or others) to "have" a mental illness can only have, at best, a "fake disease." Diagnoses of "mental illness" or "mental disorder" (the latter expression called by Szasz a "weasel term" for mental illness) are passed off as "scientific categories" but they remain merely judgments (judgments of disdain) to support certain uses of power by psychiatric authorities. In that line of thinking, schizophrenia is not the name of a disease entity but a judgment of extreme psychiatric and social reprobation. Szasz calls schizophrenia "the sacred symbol of psychiatry" because those so labeled have long provided and continue to provide justification for psychiatric theories, treatments, abuses, and reforms. The figure of the psychotic or schizophrenic person to psychiatric experts and authorities, according to Szasz, is analogous with the figure of the heretic or blasphemer to theological experts and authorities. According to Szasz, to understand the metaphorical nature of the term "disease" in psychiatry, one must first understand its literal meaning in the rest of medicine. To be a true disease, the entity must first, somehow be capable of being approached, measured, or tested in scientific fashion. Second, to be confirmed as a disease, a condition must demonstrate pathology at the cellular or molecular level.
A genuine disease must also be found on the autopsy table (not merely in the living person) and meet pathological definition instead of being voted into existence by members of the American Psychiatric Association. "Mental illnesses" are really problems in living. They are often "like a" disease, argues Szasz, which makes the medical metaphor understandable, but in no way validates it as an accurate description or explanation. Psychiatry is a pseudo-science that parodies medicine by using medical sounding words invented especially over the last 100 years. To be clear, heart break and heart attack, or spring fever and typhoid fever belong to two completely different logical categories, and treating one as the other constitutes a category error, that is, a myth. Psychiatrists are the successors of "soul doctors", priests who dealt and deal with the spiritual conundrums, dilemmas, and vexations — the "problems in living" — that have troubled people forever.
Psychiatry's main methods are those of conversation or rhetoric, repression, and religion. To the extent that psychiatry presents these problems as "medical diseases," its methods as "medical treatments," and its clients — especially involuntary — as medically ill patients, it embodies a lie and therefore constitutes a fundamental threat to freedom and dignity. Psychiatry, supported by the State through various Mental Health Acts, has become a modern secular state religion according to Thomas Szasz. It is a vastly elaborate social control system, using both brute force and subtle indoctrination, which disguises itself under the claims of scientificity. The notion that biological psychiatry is a real science or a genuine branch of medicine has been challenged by other critics as well, such as Michel Foucault in Madness and Civilization (1961), and Erving Goffman in Asylums (1961).
Separation of psychiatry and the state: State government by enforcing the use of shock therapy has abused Psychiatry with impunity. If we accept that "mental illness" is a euphemism for behaviors that are disapproved of, then the state has no right to force psychiatric "treatment" on these individuals. Similarly, the state should not be able to interfere in mental health practices between consenting adults (for example, by legally controlling the supply of psychotropic drugs or psychiatric medication). The medicalization of government produces a "therapeutic state," designating someone as "insane" or as a "drug addict".
In Ceremonial Chemistry (1973), he argued that the same persecution which has targeted witches, Jews, Gypsies or homosexuals now targets "drug addicts" and "insane" people. Szasz argued that all these categories of people were taken as scapegoats of the community in ritual ceremonies. To underscore this continuation of religion through medicine, he even takes as example obesity: instead of concentrating on junk food (ill-nutrition), physicians denounced hypernutrition. According to Szasz, despite their scientific appearance, the diets imposed were a moral substitute to the former fasts, and the social injunction not to be overweight is to be considered as a moral order, not as a scientific advice as it claims to be. As with those thought bad (insane people), those who took the wrong drugs (drug-addicts), medicine created a category for those who had the wrong weight (obeses).
Szasz argued that psychiatrics were created in the 17th century to study and control those who erred from the medical norms of social behavior; a new specialization, drogophobia, was created in the 20th century to study and control those who erred from the medical norms of drug consumption; and then, in the 1960s, another specialization, bariatrics, was created to deal with those who erred from the medical norms concerning the weight which the body should have. Thus, he underscores that in 1970, the American Society of Bariatic Physicians (from the Greek baros, weight) had 30 members, and already 450 two years later.
Death control: In an analogy to birth control, Szasz argues that individuals should be able to choose when to die without interference from medicine or the state, just as they are able to choose when to conceive without outside interference. He considers suicide to be among the most fundamental rights, but he opposes state-sanctioned euthanasia. In his 2006 book about Virginia Woolf he stated that she put an end to her life by a conscious and deliberate act, her suicide being an expression of her freedom of choice.
"Because we have a free market in food, we can buy all the bacon, eggs, and ice cream we want and can afford. If we had a free market in drugs, we could similarly buy all the barbiturates, chloral hydrate, and morphine we want and could afford." Szasz argued that the prohibition and other legal restrictions on drugs are enforced not because of their lethality, but in a ritualistic aim (he quotes Mary Douglas's studies of rituals). He also recalls that pharmakos, the Greek root of pharmacology, originally meant "scapegoat". Szasz dubbed pharmacology "pharmacomythology" because of its inclusion of social practices in its studies, in particular through the inclusion of the category of "addictiveness" in its programs. "Addictiveness" is a social category, argued Szasz, and the use of drugs should be apprehended as a social ritual rather than exclusively as the act of ingesting a chemical substance. There are many ways of ingesting a chemical substance, or drug (which comes from pharmakos), just as there are many different cultural ways of eating or drinking. Thus, some cultures prohibit certain types of substances, which they call "taboo", while they make use of others in various types of ceremonies.
Szasz has been wrongly associated with the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He is not opposed to the practice of psychiatry if it is non-coercive. He maintains that psychiatry should be a contractual service between consenting adults with no state involvement. In a 2006 documentary film called released on DVD Szasz stated that involuntary mental hospitalization is a crime against humanity. Szasz also believes that, if unopposed, involuntary hospitalization will expand into "pharmacratic" dictatorship.
"Dr. Szasz co-founded CCHR in the same spirit as he had co-founded — with sociologist Erving Goffman and law professor George Alexander — The American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization... Scientologists have joined Szasz's battle against institutional psychiatry. Dr. Szasz welcomes the support of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and any other religious or atheist group committed to the struggle against the Therapeutic State. Sharing this battle does not mean that Dr. Szasz supports the unrelated principles and causes of any religious or non-religious organization. This is explicit and implicit in Dr. Szasz's work. Everyone and anyone is welcome to join in the struggle for individual liberty and personal responsibility — especially as these values are threatened by psychiatric ideas and interventions."
The effectiveness of medication has been used as an argument against Szasz’s idea that depression is a myth. In a debate with Szasz, Donald F. Klein, M.D explained:
“It is that elementary fact, that the antidepressants do little to normals, and are tremendously effective in the clinically depressed person, that shows us that this is an illness”But as the New England Journal of Medicine reported on January 17, 2008, in published trials, about 60 percent of people taking the drugs report significant relief from depression, compared with roughly 40 percent of those on placebo pills. But when the less positive, unpublished trials are included, the advantage shrinks: the drugs outperform placebos, but perhaps only by a modest margin and for a brief period.
In the same debate Frederick K. Goodwin, M.D asserts :
"The concept of disease in medicine really means a cluster of symptoms that people can agree about, and in the case of depression we agree 80% of the time. It is a cluster of symptoms that predicts something.” and Ménière's disease (a disorder of the inner ear) are similarly defined." There is also the criticism that many physical diseases were identified and even treated with at least some success decades, centuries, or millennia before their etiology was accurately identified. Diabetes is one notable example. In the eyes of Szasz's critics, such historical facts tend to undermine his contention that mental illnesses must be "fake diseases" because their etiology in the brain is not well understood.
See also
Antipsychiatry Libertarian perspectives on suicide
Writings by Szasz
Bibliography of Szasz's writings.
Books
(First published in 1976 under the name: Karl Kraus and the Soul-Doctors: A Pioneer Critic and His Criticism of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. — Louisiana State University Press, 1976.)
Secondary literature
Vatz, R. E. (2006). Rhetoric and psychiatry: A Szaszian perspective on a political case study. Current Psychology, 25'''', 173. Schaler, Jeffrey A. (Editor). 2004. Szasz Under Fire: The Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces His Critics. Chicago: Open Court Publishers. Powell, Jim, 2000. The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,000 Year History Told Through the Lives of Freedom's Greatest Champions. Free Press. Vatz, R. E., and Weinberg, L. S., eds., 1983. Thomas Szasz: Primary Values and Major Contentions. Prometheus Books. Vatz, R. E. (1973). The myth of the rhetorical situation. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 6, 154_161.
References
External links
The Szasz Site published and owned by Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. The Web Site of Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. The Foucault Tribunal. April 30 — Mai 3, 1998 in the Volksbuehne Theatre in Berlin, Germany (video of the Foucault Tribunal on foucault.de) "Diseases are malfunctions of the human body, of the heart, the liver , the kidney, the brain." Audio on youtube The Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility The Case Against Psychiatric Coercion, by Thomas S. Szasz Mental Disorders are not Diseases, by Thomas S. Szasz Interview: Curing the Therapeutic State Liberty and the Practice of Psychotherapy: An Interview with Thomas Szasz (Psychotherapy.net) Thomas Szasz Quotes Thomas Szasz's OISM Honorary Membership Website Thomas Szasz's Manifesto RealPlayer Video (or chose audio only) of Thomas Szasz YouTube Szasz interview 26:44 audio (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) Thomas Szasz "Psychiatry as an Arm of the State"; Lew Rockwell show podcast, Nov 19, 2008 A Conversation with Thomas Szasz, University of Birmingham, October 2007: Preview Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Category:1920 births Category:Living people Category:American academics Category:American libertarians Category:American humanists Category:American psychiatrists Category:State University of New York faculty Category:Hungarian immigrants to the United States Category:Hungarian psychiatrists Category:People from Syracuse, New York Category:American people of Hungarian descent Category:American Jews Category:Scientology and psychiatry
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Name | Peter Sunde |
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Caption | Sunde at The Pirate Bay trial |
Birth name | Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi |
Birth date | September 13, 1978 |
Birth place | Uddevalla, Sweden |
Other names | brokep |
Known for | Co-founder of The Pirate Bay Founder of FlattrCo-founder of Kvittar |
Nationality | Norwegian-Finnish}} |
Segments of an interview with Sunde talking about copyright, the Internet, and culture are featured in the 2007 documentary Steal This Film.
Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:The Pirate Bay Category:Intellectual property activism Category:Copyright activists Category:Norwegian vegans Category:Finnish vegans Category:Swedish people of Norwegian descent
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Name | Eduardo Saverin |
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Birth date | March 19, 1982 |
Birth place | São Paulo, |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Net worth | $2.5 billion (2011) |
Eduardo Saverin (born March 19, 1982 in São Paulo, Brazil) is an American of Brazilian descent who is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Facebook, along with Mark Zuckerberg and others. He owns a 5% share of Facebook, worth $2.5 billion USD as of January 4, 2011.
Category:Facebook employees Category:Chief financial officers Category:Brazilian businesspeople Category:Brazilian expatriates in the United States Category:Brazilian Jews Category:People from São Paulo (city) Category:Harvard Business School alumni Category:1982 births Category:Living people
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Caption | Palin at the 2010 Time 100 Gala |
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Name | Sarah Palin |
Order1 | 9th |
Office1 | Governor of Alaska |
Term start1 | December 4, 2006 |
Term end1 | July 26, 2009 |
Lieutenant1 | Sean Parnell |
Predecessor1 | Frank Murkowski |
Successor1 | Sean Parnell |
Office2 | Chairperson of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission |
Term start2 | 2003 |
Term end2 | 2004 |
Governor2 | Frank Murkowski |
Predecessor2 | Camille Oechsli Taylor |
Birth place | Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S. |
Ethnicity | English, Irish and German |
Alma mater | University of Hawaii at HiloHawaii Pacific CollegeNorth Idaho CollegeMatanuska-Susitna College |
Spouse | Todd Palin (m. 1988) |
Children | Track (b. 1989)Bristol (b. 1990)Willow (b. 1994)Piper (b. 2001)Trig (b. 2008) she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party, as well as the first female vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party. |
Title | Sarah Palin succession and navigation boxes |
State | collapsed |
List1 |
Category:1964 births Category:21st-century women writers Category:Alaska city councillors Category:Alaska Republicans Category:American broadcast news analysts Category:American broadcasters of Irish descent Category:American evangelicals Category:American fishers Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American politicians of Irish descent Category:American television sports announcers Category:American women mayors Category:American women state governors Category:American women writers Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Beauty pageant contestants Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Converts to evangelical Christianity from Roman Catholicism Category:Female United States vice-presidential candidates Category:Governors of Alaska Category:Living people Category:Mayors of Wasilla, Alaska Category:National Rifle Association members Category:Palin family Category:People from Sandpoint, Idaho Category:Republican Party (United States) vice presidential nominees Category:Tea Party movement Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 2008 Category:University of Idaho alumni Category:Women in Alaska politics Category:Writers from Alaska Category:Writers from Idaho Category:Fox News Channel people
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Name | Rachel Kum |
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Photo | |
Birth name | Rachel Janice Kum |
Title | Miss Singapore Universe 2009 (Winner) |
Birth date | April 08, 1985 |
Birth place | Singapore |
Height | |
Weight |
Rachel Kum is an entrepreneur and a beauty pageant titleholder who won the Miss Singapore Universe 2009 title. At the Miss Singapore Universe 2009 pageant, Rachel won Miss Body Beautiful and Miss Personality as well. She represented Singapore as one of the 84 competing contestants in the Miss Universe 2009 pageant, which was held at the Atlantis Paradise Island, in Nassau, Bahamas on August 23, 2009.
Rachel was featured in an article on Power Women in Urban Straits Times for her entrepreneurship, featured as a cover model for international lifestyle magazine, Adoh, for her charity work in Sri Lanka in November 2009, advertised for Windows commercial in AXN Asia television, featured as a cover story model for Club Med in Maldives throughout South East Asia, made multiple appearances in RazorTV lifestyle, featured in Hong Kong Channel V with Lisa S. and a guest in a local entertainment talk show program, Entertainment on 5. Rachel K Cosmetics launch was held in late August 2010 which was filmed by Channel News Asia which featured her special guest and friend, Eduardo Saverin (Co-founder of Facebook). The Rachel K Mineral CC cream collection is the only exclusive range available in a limited market that is formulated with pure minerals, making it suitable for all skin types including highly sensitive ones as the mineral ingredients do not irritate or damage the skin. Rachel K Mineral CC cream collection has had good product reviews and was strongly recommended by Hong Kong based prominent makeup artist, Zing (makeup artist), who is the appointed personal makeup artist for singers and actresses such as Zhang Ziyi, Shu Qi, Faye Wong, Sammi Cheng, Kelly Chen, Angelababy and many more. In late September 2010, Rachel K Cosmetics was the main sponsor for 9 special contestants from Miss Universe 2009 for a promotional event for Formula 1 and Rachel K Cosmetics in Singapore, supported by Singapore Grand Prix and Resorts World Sentosa. These beautiful ladies were the first to try the full range of Rachel K Mineral CC Colllection right after a morning of skin rejuvenation and pampering sponsored by Sloane Clinic where they underwent the latest Thermage CPT treatment. Rachel K Cosmetics is now selling online and in selected retail outlets in Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany and Singapore.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | John Roberts |
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Office | 17th Chief Justice of the United States |
Nominator | George W. Bush |
Term start | September 29, 2005 |
Predecessor | William Rehnquist |
Office2 | Judge for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit |
Nominator2 | George W. Bush |
Term start2 | June 2, 2003 |
Term end2 | September 29, 2005 |
Predecessor2 | James Buckley |
Successor2 | Vacant |
Birth date | January 27, 1955 |
Birth place | Buffalo, New York, United States |
Spouse | Jane Sullivan |
Alma mater | Harvard CollegeHarvard Law School |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Roberts grew up in northern Indiana and was educated in a private school before attending Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. After being admitted to the bar, he served as a law clerk for William Rehnquist before taking a position in the Attorney General's office during the Reagan Administration. He went on to serve the Reagan Administration and the George H. W. Bush administration in the Department of Justice and the Office of the White House Counsel, before spending fourteen years in private law practice. During this time, he argued thirty-nine cases before the Supreme Court.
In 2003, he was appointed as a judge of the D.C. Circuit by President George W. Bush, where he served until his nomination to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. When Chief Justice Rehnquist died before Roberts's confirmation hearings, Bush renominated Roberts to fill the newly vacant center seat.
Roberts attended Notre Dame Elementary School, a Roman Catholic grade school in Long Beach, and then La Lumiere School, a Roman Catholic boarding school in LaPorte, Indiana, where he was an excellent student and athlete. He studied five years of Latin (in four years),
In 2000, Roberts traveled to Tallahassee, Florida to advise Jeb Bush, then the Governor of Florida, concerning the latter's actions in the Florida election recount during the presidential election.
Notable decisions on the D.C. Circuit include the following:
"No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation," Roberts wrote, and noted that the policies under which the girl was apprehended had since been changed. Because age discrimination is evaluated using a rational basis test, however, only weak state interests were required to justify the policy, and the panel concluded they were present. "Because parents and guardians play an essential role in that rehabilitative process, it is reasonable for the District to seek to ensure their participation, and the method chosen — detention until the parent is notified and retrieves the child — certainly does that, in a way issuing a citation might not." The court concluded that the policy and detention were constitutional, noting that "the question before us... is not whether these policies were a bad idea, but whether they violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution," language reminiscent of Justice Potter Stewart's dissent in Griswold v. Connecticut. "We are not asked in this case to say whether we think this law is unwise, or even asinine," Stewart had written; "[w]e are asked to hold that it violates the United States Constitution. And that, I cannot do."
# the military commission had the approval of the United States Congress; # the Third Geneva Convention is a treaty between nations and as such it does not confer individual rights and remedies enforceable in U.S. courts; # even if the Convention could be enforced in U.S. courts, it would not be of assistance to Hamdan at the time because, for a conflict such as the war against Al-Qaeda (considered by the court as a separate war from that against Afghanistan itself) that is not between two countries, it guarantees only a certain standard of judicial procedure without speaking to the jurisdiction in which the prisoner must be tried.
The court held open the possibility of judicial review of the results of the military commission after the current proceedings have ended. This decision was overturned on June 29, 2006 by the Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision, with Roberts not participating due to his prior ruling as a circuit judge.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died on September 3, 2005 while Roberts's confirmation was still pending before the Senate. Shortly thereafter, on September 6, Bush withdrew Roberts's nomination as O'Connor's successor and announced Roberts's new nomination to the position of Chief Justice. Bush asked the Senate to expedite Roberts's confirmation hearings to fill the vacancy by the beginning of the Supreme Court's session in early October.
:"I think it remains to be seen, in subsequent decisions, how rigorous a showing, and in many cases, it is just a showing. It's not a question of an abstract fact, does this affect interstate commerce or not, but has this body, the Congress, demonstrated the impact on interstate commerce that drove them to legislate? That's a very important factor. It wasn't present in Lopez at all. I think the members of Congress had heard the same thing I had heard in law school, that this is unimportant — and they hadn't gone through the process of establishing a record in that case."
:"We have gotten to the point these days where we think the only way we can show we’re serious about a problem is if we pass a Federal law, whether it is the Violence Against Women Act or anything else. The fact of the matter is conditions are different in different States, and State laws can be more relevant is I think exactly the right term, more attune to the different situations in New York, as opposed to Minnesota, and that is what the Federal system is based on.’
Here he shows deference for the federal nature of the United States of America. Roberts continues (a defence to his pragmatism) by responding to this 1999 radio show quote given by Feingold, in saying:
:"just because you have a problem that needs addressing, it’s not necessarily the case that Federal legislation is the best way to address it."
:"Now, the Court, of course, has the obligation, and has been recognized since Marbury v. Madison, to assess the constitutionality of acts of Congress, and when those acts are challenged, it is the obligation of the Court to say what the law is. The determination of when deference to legislative policy judgments goes too far and becomes abdication of the judicial responsibility, and when scrutiny of those judgments goes too far on the part of the judges and becomes what I think is properly called judicial activism, that is certainly the central dilemma of having an unelected, as you describe it correctly, undemocratic judiciary in a democratic republic."
In private meetings with senators before his confirmation, Roberts testified that Roe was settled law, but added that it was subject to the legal principle of stare decisis, meaning that while the Court must give some weight to the precedent, it was not legally bound to uphold it.
In his Senate testimony, Roberts said that, while sitting on the Appellate Court, he had an obligation to respect precedents established by the Supreme Court, including the controversial decision invalidating many restrictions on the right to an abortion. He stated: "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land. ... There is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent, as well as Casey." Following the traditional reticence of nominees to indicate which way they might vote on an issue likely to come before the Supreme Court, he did not explicitly say whether he would vote to overturn either.
All subsequent Supreme Court confirmation votes have been narrower than Roberts's: Samuel Alito was confirmed by a 58–42 vote in 2006, Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by a 68–31 vote in 2009, and Elena Kagan was confirmed by a vote of 63 to 37 in 2010. The 52–48 vote confirming Clarence Thomas as Associate Justice in 1991 was also narrower.
Roberts took the Constitutional oath of office, administered by senior Associate Justice John Paul Stevens at the White House, on September 29. On October 3, he took the judicial oath provided for by the Judiciary Act of 1789 at the United States Supreme Court building, prior to the first oral arguments of the 2005 term. Ending weeks of speculation, Roberts wore a plain black robe, dispensing with the gold sleeve-bars added to the Chief Justice's robes by his predecessor. Then 50, Roberts became the youngest member of the Court, and the third-youngest person to have ever become Chief Justice (John Jay was appointed at age 44 in 1789 while John Marshall was appointed at age 45 in 1801). However, many Associate Justices, such as Clarence Thomas (appointed at age 43) and William O. Douglas (appointed at age 41 in 1939), have joined the Court at a younger age than Roberts.
Since joining the court, Justice Antonin Scalia has said that Roberts "pretty much run[s] the show the same way" as Rehnquist, albeit "let[ting] people go on a little longer at conference ... but [he'll] get over that." Roberts has been portrayed as a consistent advocate for conservative principles by analysts such as Jeffrey Toobin.
Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Sykes, surveying Roberts's first term on the court, concluded that his jurisprudence "appears to be strongly rooted in the discipline of traditional legal method, evincing a fidelity to text, structure, history, and the constitutional hierarchy. He exhibits the restraint that flows from the careful application of established decisional rules and the practice of reasoning from the case law. He appears to place great stock in the process-oriented tools and doctrinal rules that guard against the aggregation of judicial power and keep judicial discretion in check: jurisdictional limits, structural federalism, textualism, and the procedural rules that govern the scope of judicial review."
On March 6, 2006, Roberts wrote the unanimous decision in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights that colleges accepting federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the Clinton administration-initiated "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay people in the military.
On April 20, 2010, in United States v. Stevens, the Supreme Court struck down an animal cruelty law. Roberts, writing for an 8-1 majority, found that a federal statute criminalizing the commercial production, sale, or possession of depictions of cruelty to animals, was an unconstitutional abridgment of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The Court held that the statute was substantially overbroad; for example, it could allow prosecutions for selling photos of out-of-season hunting.
As Chief Justice, Roberts also serves in a variety of non-judicial roles, including Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution and leading the Judicial Conference of the United States. Perhaps the best known of these is the custom of the Chief Justice administering the oath of office at Presidential inaugurations. Roberts debuted in this capacity at the inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009. (As a Senator, Obama had voted against Roberts's confirmation to the Supreme Court, making the event doubly a first: the first time a president was sworn in by someone whose confirmation he opposed.) Things did not go smoothly. As columnist Jeffrey Toobin tells the story:
Part of the difficulty was that Roberts did not have the text of the oath with him but relied on his memory. On later occasions when Roberts has administered an oath, he has taken the text with him.
The Associated Press reported that "[l]ater, as the two men shook hands in the Capitol, Roberts appeared to say the mistake was his fault." The following evening in the White House Map Room with reporters present, Roberts and Obama repeated the oath correctly. This was, according to the White House, done in "an abundance of caution" to ensure that the constitutional requirement had been met.
The Supreme Court said in a statement Roberts has "fully recovered from the incident," and a neurological evaluation "revealed no cause for concern." Sanjay Gupta, a CNN contributor and a neurosurgeon not involved in Roberts's case, said when an otherwise healthy person has a seizure, his doctor would investigate whether the patient had started any new medications and had normal electrolyte levels. If those two things were normal, then a brain scan would be performed. If Roberts does not have another seizure within a relatively short time period, Gupta said he was unsure if Roberts would be given the diagnosis of epilepsy. He said the Chief Justice may need to take an anti-seizure medication.
In August 2010, Roberts sold his stock in Pfizer, which allows him to participate in two pending cases involving the pharmaceutical maker. Justices are required to recuse themselves in cases in which they own stock of a party.
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Name | Dolores Huerta |
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Caption | Dolores Huerta at the University of Chicago, 2009. |
Birth date | April 10, 1930 |
Birth place | Dawson, New Mexico |
Occupation | Labor leader |
In 1965 Huerta directed the UFW’s national grape boycott, taking the plight of the farm workers to the consumers. The boycott resulted in the entire California table grape industry signing a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the United Farm Workers in 1970.
She has been highly politically active, lobbying in favor of (and against) numerous California and federal laws. The laws that she supported included:
As an advocate for farmworkers' rights, Huerta has been arrested twenty-two times for participating in non-violent civil disobedience activities and strikes. Huerta's organizing and lobbying efforts are often overshadowed by those of Cesar Chávez, who is revered by many (especially Chicanos) as the primary figure of the Chicano civil rights movement. She remains active in progressive causes, and serves on the boards of For the American Way and Feminist Majority Foundation.
On June 5, 1968, Huerta stood beside Robert F. Kennedy on a speaker's platform at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as he delivered a victory statement to his political supporters shortly after winning the California Democratic presidential primary election. Only moments after the candidate finished his speech, Huerta was a safe distance behind Kennedy as he and five other people were wounded by gunfire inside the hotel's kitchen pantry. Only 15 minutes before the shooting, Huerta had walked through that pantry alongside the U.S. Senator from New York while Kennedy was on his way to deliver his victory speech. Kennedy died from his gunshot wounds on June 6.In September 1988 in front of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, Huerta was severely beaten by San Francisco Police officers during a peaceful and lawful protest of the policies/platform of then-candidate for president George H.W. Bush. The baton-beating caused significant internal injuries to her torso, resulting in several broken ribs and necessitating the removal of her spleen in emergency surgery. The beating was caught on videotape and broadcast widely on local television news, including the clear ramming of the butt end of a baton into Huerta's torso by one of the helmeted officers. Later, Huerta won a large judgment against the SFPD and the City of San Francisco, the proceeds of which were used in benefit of farm workers. The assault is credited with starting yet another movement to change SFPD crowd control policies, as well as the manner in which officer discipline is handled.
She was the co-recipient of the 2007 Community of Christ International Peace Award along with Virgilio Elizondo. Dolores Huerta is an Honorary Chair of Democratic Socialists of America.
She is the President of the Dolores Huerta foundation. The Dolores Huerta Foundation is a 501(c)(3) "non-profit organization whose mission is to build active communities working for fair and equal access to health care, housing, education, jobs, civic participation and economic resources for disadvantaged communities with an emphasis on women and youth."
Dolores Huerta is an honorary sister of Kappa Delta Chi Sorority Inc. Ms. Huerta was inducted as an Honorary Member of KDChi by the Alpha Alpha Chapter at Wichita State University on September 30, 2005. KDChi is a nation wide Latina Sorority dedicated to community service for the local and national community and is the most powerful network of Latina leaders.
On May 18, 2007, she announced her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president.Human Rights Leader Dolores Huerta Endorses Clinton, May 18, 2007, Clinton campaign news release. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, she formally placed Clinton's name into nomination.
Huerta has been married and divorced twice, and has eleven children. Her recent pro-choice activities have resulted in criticism from Catholic Latinos in the Central Valley.
She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Equality California . On June 12, 2009, Huerta was awarded the UCLA Medal, UCLA's highest honor, during the UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony.
She is one of the subjects of Sylvia Morales' film, A CRUSHING LOVE, the sequel to 1979's CHICANA.
Pitzer College, in Claremont, California, named one of its student centers the Huerta Learning Circle Room in honor of the organizer.
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Name | Chris Matthews |
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Caption | Matthews at the 2010 Time 100 Gala. |
Birthname | Christopher John Matthews |
Birth date | December 17, 1945 |
Birth place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Education | College of the Holy Cross |
Occupation | News anchor and political commentator |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Spouse | Kathleen Matthews |
Relatives | Montgomery County, PA County Commissioner Jim Matthews (brother) |
Ethnicity | Irish American |
Credits | Hardball with Chris Matthews The Chris Matthews Show |
Url | http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/ |
Christopher John "Chris" Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC. On weekends he hosts the syndicated NBC News-produced panel discussion program, The Chris Matthews Show. Matthews makes frequent appearances on many NBC and MSNBC programs. On March 22, 2009, Matthews renewed the contract for his show on MSNBC through 2012.
Matthews served in the United States Peace Corps in Swaziland from 1968 to 1970 as a trade development advisor.
Matthews is married to Kathleen Matthews, who anchored News 7 on WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C, before accepting a position as an executive vice president with J.W. Marriott. The couple has three children: Michael, Thomas and Caroline. His brother Jim Matthews, a Republican, is a County Commissioner in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
In 2002, Matthews was hospitalized with malaria, which he evidently contracted on one of his visits that year to Africa. He has also had other health problems, including diabetes (which he acknowledged having on the Hardball broadcast of December 7, 2009), and pneumonia.
While discussing proposed healthcare reform on the December 17, 2009 edition of Hardball, Matthews stated: "The Republicans will know they have lost... Let them keep score and it's easy. It's complicated when liberals get to keep score. We're always arguing. Well, I'm a liberal, too."
In 1997, Matthews began his own talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which originally aired on CNBC but is currently on MSNBC. Hardball features pundits and elected officials as guests.
In 2002, The Chris Matthews Show began airing in syndication. The show is formatted as a political roundtable consisting of four journalists and Matthews, who serves as the moderator. He is estimated to earn more than $5 million a year. He also wrote a book called Hardball.
On January 9, 2008, the morning after Hillary Clinton's surprise victory in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, Matthews appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe program and said of Clinton,
The comments were criticized by such disparate media figures as Bill O'Reilly, Joy Behar and Gloria Steinem. They also resulted in protests outside NBC's Washington, D.C. studios, as well as a joint letter of complaint to NBC from the National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority, and the National Women's Political Caucus. Matthews apologized for the comments on the January 17, 2008 edition of Hardball. On November 4–5, he teamed with Rachel Maddow, Eugene Robinson, David Gregory, and Keith Olbermann to cover the presidential election.
During MSNBC's coverage of the Potomac primary, Matthews had this to say about then presidential candidate Barack Obama: }} This led many on the right to assert that both he and MSNBC were biased toward Obama.
On November 6, 2008, he was a guest on the MSNBC television program Morning Joe, where he stated, "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new Presidency work." Host Joe Scarborough asked if that was his job as a journalist. "Yeah, that’s my job. My job is to help this country," Matthews said.
On December 1, 2009, preceding Obama's speech announcing a troop increase in Afghanistan, Matthews critiqued the president for choosing the United States Military Academy as his venue, referring to it as "the enemy camp." Soon after, Matthews apologized for his remarks saying, "[To] the cadets, their parents, former cadets and everyone who cares about this country and those who defend it: I used the wrong words and worse than that I said something that is just not right and for that I deeply apologize."
In January 2010, in Matthews' comments after President Obama's first State of the Union Address, he says "You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour." The next day, on the Rachel Maddow show, Matthews clarified his remarks, saying "I think he’s taken us beyond black and white in our politics, wonderfully so, in just a year."
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In May 2007 he announced he was leaving AOL to devote his time to ComicMix, the comic book publishing company he co-founded with Mike Gold and Glenn Hauman. In June 2007 he and Craig Wood launched a new publishing platform company, Crowd Fusion. Crowd Fusion raised $3 million from Velocity Interactive Group, Greycroft Partners and Marc Andreessen in July 2008.
Brian Alvey was the creator and co-host of the Meet The Makers conference, a series of talk show-style events with Jason Calacanis. He also invented and launched Blogstakes, a sweepstakes application for the blogging community.
Alvey designed the first TV Guide website in 1995 and was the senior technical member of the in-house team that built the first BusinessWeek site later that year. He continued designing and developing database-driven Web applications for companies including BusinessWeek, Intel, JD Edwards, Deloitte & Touche and The McGraw-Hill Companies. His Tech-Engine career center application has powered over 200 online career centers including XML.com, Computer User, O'Reilly & Associates Network, DevShed, and the Cold Fusion Developer's Journal. He has been the art director of three print magazines and the Chief Technology Officer of Rising Tide Studios where he personally developed The Venture Reporter Network.
Alvey has also built publishing systems for sites designed by Jeffrey Zeldman including the Web design magazine A List Apart and the Kansas City Chiefs. He was the architect of the system that powers the redesigned global network of Capgemini websites and the chief architect of Netscape.
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Caption | William Nelson Joy |
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Birth date | November 08, 1954 |
Birth place | Farmington Hills, Michigan |
Nationality | USA |
Ethnicity | Swedish-American |
Alma mater | University of Michigan University of California, Berkeley |
Known for | Co-founder of Sun MicrosystemsJavaSPARCviNFScshBSD and Solaris"Why the future doesn't need us" |
Signature |
William Nelson Joy (born November 8, 1954), commonly known as Bill Joy, is an American computer scientist. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Andy Bechtolsheim, and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003. He is widely known for having written the essay "Why the future doesn't need us", where he expresses deep concerns over the development of modern technologies.
As a UC Berkeley graduate student, Joy worked for Fabry's Computer Systems Research Group CSRG in managing the BSD support and rollout where many claim he was largely responsible for managing the authorship of BSD UNIX, from which sprang many modern forms of UNIX, including FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Apple Inc. has based much of the Mac OS X kernel and OS Services on the BSD technology.
Some of his most notable contributions were the vi editor, NFS, and csh. Joy's prowess as a computer programmer is legendary, with an oft-told anecdote that he wrote the vi editor in a weekend. Joy denies this assertion. Joy's accomplishments have been sometimes exaggerated; Eric Schmidt, CEO of Novell at the time, inaccurately reported during an interview in PBS's documentary Nerds 2.0.1 that Joy had personally rewritten the BSD kernel in a weekend.
According to a Salon.com article, during the early 1980s DARPA had contracted the company Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) to add TCP/IP to Berkeley UNIX. Joy had been instructed to plug BBN's stack into Berkeley Unix, but he refused to do so, as he had a low opinion of BBN's TCP/IP. So, Joy wrote his own high-performance TCP/IP stack. According to John Gage,
BBN had a big contract to implement TCP/IP, but their stuff didn't work, and Joy's grad student stuff worked. So they had this big meeting and this grad student in a T-shirt shows up, and they said, "How did you do this?" And Bill said, "It's very simple — you read the protocol and write the code."
Rob Gurwitz, who was working at BBN at the time, disputes this version of events.
In 1986, Joy was awarded a Grace Murray Hopper Award by the ACM for his work on the Berkeley UNIX Operating System.
Joy was also a primary figure in the development of the SPARC microprocessors, the Java programming language, Jini / JavaSpaces and JXTA.
On September 9, 2003 Sun announced that Bill Joy was leaving the company and that he "is taking time to consider his next move and has no definite plans".
A bar-room discussion of these technologies with inventor and technological-singularity thinker Ray Kurzweil started to set his thinking along this path. He states in his essay that during the conversation, he became surprised that other serious scientists were considering such possibilities likely, and even more astounded at what he felt was a lack of considerations of the contingencies. After bringing the subject up with a few more acquaintances, he states that he was further alarmed by what he felt was the fact that although many people considered these futures possible or probable, that very few of them shared as serious a concern for the dangers as he seemed to. This concern led to his in-depth examination of the issue and the positions of others in the scientific community on it, and eventually, to his current activities regarding it.
Despite this he is a venture capitalist, investing in GNR technology companies. He has also raised a specialty venture fund to address the dangers of Pandemic diseases, such as H5N1 Avian influenza and biological weapons. In 2006, he was awarded the Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award for developing this biosafety venture fund and other actions.
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Rand's political views, reflected in both her fiction and her theoretical work, emphasize individual rights (including property rights) and laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by a constitutionally limited government. She was a fierce opponent of all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and promoted ethical egoism while rejecting the ethic of altruism. She considered reason to be the only means of acquiring knowledge and its advocacy the most important aspect of her philosophy, stating, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."
Rand was twelve at the time of the Russian revolution of 1917. Opposed to the Tsar, Rand's sympathies were with Alexander Kerensky. Rand's family life was disrupted by the rise of the Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin. Her father's pharmacy was confiscated by the Bolsheviks, and the family fled to the Crimea, which was initially under the control of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. She later recalled that while in high school she determined that she was an atheist and that she valued reason above any other human attribute. After graduating from high school in the Crimea she briefly held a job teaching Red Army soldiers to read. She found she enjoyed that work very much, the illiterate soldiers being eager to learn and respectful of her. At sixteen, Rand returned with her family to Saint Petersburg, where they faced desperate conditions, on occasion, nearly starving.
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Following the Russian Revolution, universities were opened to women, including Jews, allowing Rand to be in the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University, where she studied in the department of social pedagogy, majoring in history. At the university she was introduced to the writings of Aristotle and Plato, who would form two of the greatest influences and counter-influences respectively on her thought. A third figure whose philosophical works she studied heavily was Friedrich Nietzsche. Able to read French, German and Russian, at this time she also discovered the fiction writers Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, Friedrich Schiller, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, who became her perennial favorites. Along with many other "bourgeois" students, Rand was purged from the university shortly before graduating. However, after complaints from a group of visiting foreign scientists, many of the purged students were allowed to complete their work and graduate, which Rand did in October 1924.
In the fall of 1925, she was granted a visa to visit American relatives. As her train pulled away she called out to her family, "By the time I return, I'll be famous!" Leaving Russia on January 17, 1926, Rand arrived in the United States on February 19, entering by ship through New York City. She was so impressed with the skyline of Manhattan upon her arrival that she cried what she later called "tears of splendor". Intent on staying in the United States to become a screenwriter, she lived for a few months with relatives in Chicago, one of whom owned a movie theater and allowed her to watch dozens of films for free. She then set out for Hollywood, California.
While still in Russia she had decided her professional surname for writing would be Rand, possibly as a Cyrillic contraction of her birth surname, and she adopted the first name Ayn, either from a Finnish name, as Rand said, or from the Hebrew word (ayin, meaning "eye"). Initially, she struggled in Hollywood and took odd jobs to pay her basic living expenses. A chance meeting with famed director Cecil B. DeMille led to a job as an extra in his film, The King of Kings, and to subsequent work as a junior screenwriter. While working on The King of Kings, she intentionally bumped into an aspiring young actor, Frank O'Connor, who caught her eye. The two were married on April 15, 1929. Rand became an American citizen in 1931. Taking various jobs during the 1930s to support her writing, Rand worked for a time as the head of the costume department at RKO Studios. She made several attempts to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they were unable to get permission to emigrate.
published in 1925. The hero of The Little Street was described as having "the true, innate psychology of a Superman" and was to be based on an idealized portrait of child killer William Edward Hickman, whom Rand described as a "monster." She described him as the "picture of a man with no regard whatever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really stands alone, in action and in soul." Some Rand scholars have interpreted her notes for this book as evidence of her early admiration of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, despite Rand's extremely negative evaluation of Hickman. Rand abandoned the project, and most of these other early projects were never produced or published during Rand's lifetime.
Rand's first literary success came with the sale of her screenplay Red Pawn to Universal Studios in 1932. Josef Von Sternberg considered it for Marlene Dietrich, but anti-Communist themes were unpopular at the time, and the project came to nothing. This was followed by the courtroom drama Night of January 16th, first produced in Hollywood in 1934 and then successfully reopened on Broadway in 1935. Each night the "jury" was selected from members of the audience, and one of the two different endings, depending on the jury's "verdict," would then be performed. In 1941, Paramount Pictures produced a movie version of the play. Rand did not participate in the production and was highly critical of the result.
Her first novel, the semi-autobiographical We the Living, was published in 1936 by Macmillan. Set in Soviet Russia, it focused on the struggle between the individual and the state. In the foreword to the novel, Rand stated that We the Living "is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. It is not an autobiography in the literal, but only in the intellectual sense. The plot is invented, the background is not..." Without Rand's knowledge or permission, We the Living was made into a pair of Italian films, Noi vivi and Addio, Kira, in 1942. The films were soon removed from Italian theatres by the fascist government when it learned of the story's anti-fascist, as well as anti-communist, theme. Rediscovered in the 1960s, these films were re-edited into a new version which was approved by Rand and re-released as We the Living in 1986.
Her novella Anthem was published in England in 1938 and in America seven years later by the Foundation for Economic Education. It presents a vision of a dystopian future world in which totalitarian collectivism has triumphed to such an extent that even the word "I" has vanished from the language and from humanity's memory.
During the 1940s, Rand became involved in political activism. Both she and her husband worked full time in volunteer positions for the 1940 Presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Willkie. This work led to Rand's first public speaking experiences, including fielding the sometimes hostile questions from New York City audiences who had just viewed pro-Willkie newsreels, an experience she greatly enjoyed. This activity also brought her into contact with other intellectuals sympathetic to free-market capitalism. She became friends with journalist Henry Hazlitt and his wife, and Hazlitt introduced her to the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. Despite her philosophical differences with them, Rand strongly endorsed the writings of both men throughout her career, and both of them expressed admiration for her. Once von Mises referred to Rand as "the most courageous man in America", a compliment that particularly pleased her because he said 'man' instead of 'woman'. Later, following the publication of Atlas Shrugged, von Mises wrote to her, praising the novel and inviting Rand to attend his seminar as an honored guest, which she did. Rand also developed a friendship with libertarian writer Isabel Paterson. Rand questioned the well-informed Paterson about American history and politics long into the night during their numerous meetings and gave Paterson ideas for her only nonfiction book, The God of the Machine.
Rand's first major success as a writer came with The Fountainhead in 1943, a romantic and philosophical novel that she wrote over a period of seven years. She began working on the novel in 1935 right after she finished We the Living. The novel centers on an uncompromising young architect named Howard Roark and his struggle against what Rand described as "second-handers"—those who attempt to live through others, placing others above self. It was rejected by twelve publishers before finally being accepted by the Bobbs-Merrill Company on the insistence of editor Archibald Ogden, who threatened to quit if his employer did not publish it. While completing the novel, Rand was prescribed amphetamine Benzedrine by her physician to fight fatigue. The drug helped her to work long hours to meet her deadline for delivering the finished novel to Bobbs-Merrill, but when the book was done, she was so exhausted that her doctor ordered two weeks' rest. Some have speculated that her continued use of the prescribed drug for a number of years may have contributed to what some of her later associates alleged to have been her volatile mood swings.
The Fountainhead eventually became a worldwide success, bringing Rand fame and financial security. In 1943, Rand sold the rights for a film version to Warner Brothers, and she returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay. Finishing her work on that screenplay, she was hired by producer Hal Wallis as a screenwriter and script-doctor. Her work for Wallis included the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated Love Letters and You Came Along, along with research for a screenplay based on the development of the atomic bomb. This role gave Rand time to work on other projects, including the publication of her first work of nonfiction, an essay titled "The Only Path to Tomorrow," in the January 1944 edition of Reader's Digest magazine.
While working in Hollywood, Rand extended her involvement with free-market and anti-Communist activism. She and her husband purchased a house designed by modernist Richard Neutra and an adjoining ranch. There, Rand entertained figures such as Hazlitt, Morrie Ryskind, Barbara Stanwyck, Janet Gaynor, Adrian, Albert Mannheimer and Leonard Read. A visit by Isabel Paterson to meet with Rand's California associates led to a final falling out between the two when Paterson made comments that Rand saw as rude to valued political allies. Despite their break, Rand continued to promote Paterson's The God of the Machine.
Rand became involved with the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Hollywood anti-Communist group, and wrote articles on the group's behalf. She also joined the anti-Communist American Writers Association. In 1947, during the Second Red Scare, Rand testified as a "friendly witness" before the United States House Un-American Activities Committee. Her testimony described the disparity between her personal experiences in the Soviet Union and the portrayal of it in the 1944 film Song of Russia. Rand argued that the film grossly misrepresented conditions in the Soviet Union, portraying life there as being much better and happier than it actually was. When asked about her feelings on the effectiveness of the investigations after the hearings, Rand described the process as "futile".
After several delays, the movie version of The Fountainhead was released in 1949. Although it used Rand's screenplay with minimal alterations, she "disliked the movie from beginning to end," complaining about its editing, acting and other elements.
After the publication of The Fountainhead, Rand received numerous letters from readers, some of whom it had profoundly influenced. In 1951 Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City, where she gathered a group of these admirers around her. This group (jokingly designated "The Collective") included future Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, a young psychology student named Nathan Blumenthal (later Nathaniel Branden) and his wife Barbara, and Barbara's cousin Leonard Peikoff. At first the group was an informal gathering of friends who met with Rand on weekends at her apartment to discuss philosophy. Later she began allowing them to read the drafts of her new novel, Atlas Shrugged, as the manuscript pages were written. In 1954 Rand's close relationship with the much younger Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair, with the consent of their spouses.
Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, was Rand's magnum opus. Rand described the theme of the novel as "the role of the mind in man's existence—and, as a corollary, the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest." It advocates the core tenets of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and expresses her concept of human achievement. The plot involves a dystopian United States in which the most creative industrialists, scientists and artists go on strike and retreat to a mountainous hideaway where they build an independent free economy. The novel's hero and leader of the strike, John Galt, describes the strike as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the minds of the individuals most contributing to the nation's wealth and achievement. With this fictional strike, Rand intended to illustrate that without the efforts of the rational and productive, the economy would collapse and society would fall apart. The novel includes elements of mystery and science fiction, and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction, a lengthy monologue delivered by Galt. Atlas Shrugged became an international bestseller, and in an interview with Mike Wallace Rand declared herself "the most creative thinker alive." Rand's last work of fiction, it marked a turning point in her life, ending her career as novelist and beginning her role as a popular philosopher. After completing the novel of more than one thousand pages, however, Rand fell into a severe depression that may have been aggravated by her use of prescription amphetamines.
In 1958 Nathaniel Branden established Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later incorporated as the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), to promote Rand's philosophy. Collective members gave lectures for NBI and wrote articles for Objectivist periodicals that she edited. Rand later published some of these articles in book form. Critics, including some former NBI students and Branden himself, have described the culture of NBI as one of intellectual conformity and excessive reverence for Rand, with some describing NBI or the entire Objectivist movement as a cult or religion. Rand expressed opinions on a wide range of topics, including literature, music, sexuality, even facial hair, and some of her followers mimicked all her preferences, wearing clothes to match characters from her novels and buying furniture like hers. Rand was unimpressed with many of the NBI students and held them to strict standards, sometimes reacting coldly or angrily to those who disagreed with her. However, some former NBI students believe the extent of these behaviors has been exaggerated, with the problem being concentrated among Rand's closest followers in New York.
A heavy smoker, Rand underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1974. Several more of her closest associates parted company with her, and during the late 1970s her activities within the Objectivist movement declined, especially after the death of her husband on November 9, 1979. One of her final projects was work on a never-completed television adaptation of Atlas Shrugged. She had also planned to write another novel, but did not get far in her notes. Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982 at her home in New York City, and was interred in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. Rand's funeral was attended by some of her prominent followers, including Alan Greenspan. A six-foot floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed near her casket. In her will, Rand named Leonard Peikoff the heir to her estate.
As an atheist who rejected faith as antithetical to reason, Rand embraced philosophical realism and opposed all forms of what she regarded as mysticism and supernaturalism, including every organized religion. Rand wrote in her journals that Christianity was "the best kindergarten of communism possible." Rand argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the only proper guiding moral principle. The individual should "exist for his own sake," she wrote in 1962, "neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself."
Rand held that laissez-faire, free market capitalism is the only moral social system. Her political views were strongly individualist, anti-statist, anti-fascist and anti-Communist. Rand was strongly opposed to many liberal, conservative and libertarian politicians of her time, including prominent anti-Communists. Rand rejected anarcho-capitalism as "a contradiction in terms", a point on which she has been criticized by self-styled "anarchist Objectivists." Philosopher Chandran Kukathas said her "unremitting hostility towards the state and taxation sits inconsistently with a rejection of anarchism, and her attempts to resolve the difficulty are ill-thought out and unsystematic."
Rand acknowledged Aristotle as her greatest influence and found early inspiration in Friedrich Nietzsche, although she rejected what she considered his anti-reason stance. Ronald E. Merrill and David Ramsay Steele have argued that there exists a difference between her early and later views on the subject of "sacrificing" others. For example, the first edition of We the Living contained language which has been interpreted as advocating ruthless elitism: "What are your masses but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?"
Rand remarked that in the history of philosophy she could only recommend "three A's"—Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand. Among the philosophers Rand held in particular disdain was Immanuel Kant, whom she referred to as a "monster" and "the most evil man in history". Rand was strongly opposed to the view that reason is unable to know reality "as it is in itself", which she ascribed to Kant, and she considered her philosophy to be the "exact opposite" of Kant's on "every fundamental issue". and Fred Seddon both argue that Rand misinterpreted Kant. In particular, Walsh argues that both philosophers adhere to many of the same basic positions, and that Rand exaggerated her differences with Kant. Walsh says that for many critics, Rand's writing on Kant is "ignorant and unworthy of discussion". Philosopher Jack Wheeler says that despite "the incessant bombast and continuous venting of Randian rage," Rand's ethics is "a most immense achievement, the study of which is vastly more fruitful than any other in contemporary thought." In 1976, she said that her most important contributions to philosophy were her "theory of concepts, [her] ethics, and [her] discovery in politics that evil—the violation of rights—consists of the initiation of force."
The first reviews Rand received were for her Broadway play Night of January 16. Reviews of the production were largely positive, but Rand considered the positive reviews to be embarrassing because of significant changes made to her script by the producer. Rand believed that her first novel, We the Living, as not being widely reviewed, but Michael S. Berliner says "it was the most reviewed of any of her works," with approximately 125 different reviews being published in more than 200 publications. Overall these reviews were more positive than the reviews she received for her later work. Her 1938 novella Anthem received little attention from reviewers, both for its first publication in England and for subsequent re-issues.
Rand's first bestseller, The Fountainhead, received far fewer reviews than We the Living, and reviewers' opinions were extremely mixed. The New York Times review named Rand "a writer of great power" who writes "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly," and stated that she had "written a hymn in praise of the individual... you will not be able to read this masterful book without thinking through some of the basic concepts of our time." There were other positive reviews, but Rand dismissed most of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications. In the National Review, conservative author Whittaker Chambers called the book "sophomoric" and "remarkably silly". He described the tone of the book as "shrillness without reprieve" and accused Rand of supporting the same godless system as the Soviets, claiming "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To a gas chamber—go! Atlas Shrugged received positive reviews from a few publications, including high praise from the noted book reviewer John Chamberlain,
Rand's nonfiction received far fewer reviews than her novels had. The tenor of the criticism for her first nonfiction book, For the New Intellectual, was similar to that for Atlas Shrugged, with philosopher Sidney Hook likening her certainty to "the way philosophy is written in the Soviet Union" and author Gore Vidal calling her viewpoint "nearly perfect in its immorality". Her subsequent books got progressively less attention from reviewers. A few articles about Rand's ideas appeared in academic journals prior to her death in 1982, many of them in The Personalist. One of these was "On the Randian Argument" by Harvard University professor Robert Nozick, who argued that her meta-ethical argument is unsound and fails to solve the is–ought problem posed by David Hume. Some responses to Nozick by other academic philosophers were also published in The Personalist arguing that Nozick simply misstated Rand's case. Academic consideration of Rand as a literary figure during her life was even more limited. Gladstein was unable to find any scholarly articles about Rand's novels when she began researching her in 1973, and only three such articles appeared during the rest of the 1970s.
On the 100th anniversary of Rand's birth in 2005, Edward Rothstein, writing for The New York Times, referred to her fictional writing as quaint Utopian "retro fantasy" and programmatic neo-Romanticism of the misunderstood artist, while criticizing her characters' "isolated rejection of democratic society." In 2007, book critic Leslie Clark described her fiction as "romance novels with a patina of pseudo-philosophy." In 2009, GQ magazine's critic columnist Tom Carson described her books as "capitalism's version of middlebrow religious novels" such as and the Left Behind series.
Serious attention to both the literary and philosophical aspects of Rand's novels is given by numerous academics and scholars in such recent volumes as Professor Robert Mayhew's collections, Essays on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Among novelists, Ira Levin was an admirer of Rand's fiction, Robert Heinlein praised Rand in the text of his novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and James Clavell called Rand "one of the real, true talents on this earth." Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry has described the influence of Rand's theory of art on his own work, and novelist Erika Holzer has credited Rand, whom she knew personally, as the leading influence on her fiction writing. Other writers and artists who have cited Rand as an important influence on their lives and thought include Marvel Comics artist Steve Ditko, novelist Terry Goodkind, and Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for the musical group Rush.
The Fountainhead has been cited by a number of architects as an important inspiration for their work. Architect Fred Stitt, founder of the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, has referred to Howard Roark as his “first architectural mentor,” and noted architect Frederick Clifford Gibson has named the novel as his major inspiration. Nader Vossoughian has written that "The Fountainhead... has shaped the public’s perception of the architectural profession more than perhaps any other text over this last half-century.” According to renowned architectural photographer Julius Shulman, it was Rand's work that "brought architecture into the public's focus for the first time," and he believes that The Fountainhead was not only influential among 20th century architects, it "was one, first, front and center in the life of every architect who was a modern architect."
In Hollywood, actors Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Christina Ricci, Rob Lowe and Eva Mendes have all spoken positively about her work. Actress Raquel Welch, who met Rand, has referred to her as one of the "all-time great human being[s]... certainly one of the extraordinary people of the century," and Farrah Fawcett, another actress whom Rand hoped would play Dagny Taggart in a 1978 TV version of Atlas Shrugged, declared the author a "literary genius."
In the business world, John Allison of BB&T; has actively promoted Rand's work through the "Moral Foundations of Capitalism" program, while Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and John P. Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, among others, have said they consider Rand crucial to their success. Ed Snider, the CEO of Comcast Spectacor helps to fund the advocacy of Rand's ideas, and Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Systems, reports that Atlas Shrugged is the "one" book which has "stayed with me over the years... It's a powerful story about the importance of individuality, originality and the social value of intellectual freedom." Other "avowed Rand fans" include Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. Baseball legend Cal Ripken and women's sports pioneer Billie Jean King have both said that they found Rand's novels an inspiration. Magician and social commentator, Penn Jillette has repeatedly expressed his agreement with and admiration for Rand and Atlas Shrugged.
Rand and her works have been referred to in a variety of media. References to her have appeared on television shows including animated sitcoms, live-action comedies, dramas, and game shows. Two movies have been made about Rand's life. A 1997 documentary film, , was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The Passion of Ayn Rand, an independent film based on her life, was made in 1999, starring Helen Mirren as Rand and Peter Fonda as her husband. The film was based on the book of the same name by Barbara Branden, and won several awards. Rand's image also appears on a U.S. postage stamp designed by artist Nick Gaetano.
Rand or her works have been referenced on such television shows as Mad Men and Frasier, animated series such as Futurama, South Park and The Simpsons, Rand herself, or characters based on her, figure prominently in novels by such authors as William F. Buckley, Mary Gaitskill, Matt Ruff, J. Neil Schulman and Kay Nolte Smith. The references to Rand in these works are not always positive. Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason, has remarked that "Rand's is a tortured immortality, one in which she's as likely to be a punch line as a protagonist..." with "jibes at Rand as cold and inhuman, run[ning] through the popular culture."
carries a sign referring to John Galt, the hero of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged|alt=In a large outdoor crowd, a man holds up a poster with the words "I am John Galt" in all capital letters]]
Although she rejected the labels "conservative" and "libertarian," Jim Powell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, considers Rand one of the three most important women (along with Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson) of modern American libertarianism, and David Nolan, one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, stated that "without Ayn Rand, the libertarian movement would not exist." Conversations with Rand in the early 1960s, for example, moved John Hospers, the first presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, to his libertarian views.
Rand has had continuing influence on right-wing politics, especially libertarianism. In his history of the libertarian movement, journalist Brian Doherty described her as "the most influential libertarian of the twentieth century to the public at large," and biographer Jennifer Burns referred to her as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right." Burns describes differences between Rand and conservatives, alleging that "whereas traditional conservatism emphasized duties, responsibilities, and social interconnectedness, at the core of the right-wing ideology that Rand spearheaded was a rejection of moral obligation to others." Burns also notes that libertarian Murray Rothbard was introduced to the "whole field" of natural rights through his discussions with Rand.
Chinese dissident Liu Junning has stated that he is among Rand's admirers.
Despite Rand's untraditionally Republican stance as a pro-choice atheist, Martin Anderson, chief domestic policy adviser for President Ronald Reagan, identifies himself as a disciple of Rand, and Reagan described himself as an "admirer" of Rand in private correspondence in the 1960s. "In 1987, The New York Times called Rand the 'novelist laureate' of the Reagan administration. Reagan's nominee for commerce secretary, C. William Verity Jr., kept a passage from Atlas Shrugged on his desk, including the line "How well you do your work . . . [is] the only measure of human value."
Conservative and libertarian talk show hosts such as Glenn Beck, John Stossel, Neal Boortz and Rush Limbaugh have recommended Atlas Shrugged to their audiences. U.S. Congressmen Bob Barr, Ron Paul, and Paul Ryan have acknowledged her influence on their lives, as has Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Clarence Thomas.
The financial crisis of 2007–2010 spurred renewed interest in her works, especially Atlas Shrugged, which some saw as foreshadowing the crisis, and opinion articles compared real-world events with the plot of the novel. Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford wrote a 2009 review for Newsweek where he spoke of how he was "blown away" after first reading The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, while tying her significance to understanding the 2008 financial crisis. Signs mentioning Rand and her fictional hero John Galt appeared at Tea Party protests, while the Cato Institute's Will Wilkinson quipped that "going Galt" had become the "libertarian-conservative's version of progressives threatening to move to Canada."
During this period there was also increased criticism of her ideas, especially from the political left, with critics blaming the economic crisis on her support of selfishness and free markets, particularly through her influence on Alan Greenspan. For example, the left-leaning Mother Jones remarked that "Rand's particular genius has always been her ability to turn upside down traditional hierarchies and recast the wealthy, the talented, and the powerful as the oppressed", Historian Jennifer Burns has identified "three overlapping waves" of scholarly interest in Rand, the most recent of which is "an explosion of scholarship" in the 2000s. However, few universities currently include Rand or Objectivism as a philosophical specialty or research area, with many literature and philosophy departments dismissing her as a pop culture phenomenon rather than a subject for serious study.
Some academic philosophers have criticized Rand for what they consider her lack of rigor and limited understanding of philosophical subject matter. Chris Matthew Sciabarra has called into question the motives of some of Rand's critics because of what he calls the unusual hostility of their criticisms. Sciabarra writes, "The left was infuriated by her anti-communist, pro-capitalist politics, whereas the right was disgusted with her atheism and civil libertarianism."
Academics with an interest in Rand, such as Gladstein, Sciabarra, Allan Gotthelf, Edwin A. Locke and Tara Smith, have taught her work in academic institutions. Sciabarra co-edits the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, a nonpartisan peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of Rand's philosophical and literary work. In 1987 Gotthelf helped found the Ayn Rand Society, and has been active in sponsoring seminars about Rand and her ideas. Smith has written several academic books and papers on Rand's ideas, including Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist, a volume on Rand's ethical theory published by Cambridge University Press. Rand's ideas have also been made subjects of study at Clemson and Duke universities. Scholars of English and American literature have largely ignored her work, although attention to her literary work has increased since the 1990s. In the Literary Encyclopedia entry for Rand written in 2001, John Lewis declared that "Rand wrote the most intellectually challenging fiction of her generation". In a 1999 interview in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra commented, "I know they laugh at Rand," while forecasting a growth of interest in her work in the academic community.
Category:1905 births Category:1982 deaths Category:20th-century philosophers Category:American anti-communists Category:American atheists Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American essayists Category:American novelists Category:American philosophers Category:American screenwriters Category:Anti-Christianity Category:Atheist philosophers Category:Atheism activists Category:Burials at Kensico Cemetery Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:Jewish atheists Category:Libertarian theorists Category:Objectivists Category:Russian atheists Category:Saint Petersburg State University alumni Category:Soviet immigrants to the United States Category:Women philosophers
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Playername | Alyona BondarenkoАльона Бондаренко |
---|---|
Country | |
Residence | Kharkiv, Ukraine |
Datebirth | August 13, 1984 |
Placebirth | Kryvyi Rih, Soviet Union now Ukraine |
Height | |
Weight | |
Turnedpro | 1999 |
Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Careerprizemoney | $2,166,149 |
Singlesrecord | 308–232 |
Singlestitles | 2 WTA, 5 ITF |
Highestsinglesranking | No. 19 (14 April 2008) |
Currentsinglesranking | No. 36 (25 October 2010) |
Australianopenresult | 4R (2010) |
Frenchopenresult | 3R (2010) |
Wimbledonresult | 3R (2005, 2007, 2010) |
Usopenresult | 3R (2007, 2008, 2010) |
Doublesrecord | 177–153 |
Doublestitles | 4 WTA, 8 ITF |
Highestdoublesranking | No. 11 (29 September 2008) |
Grandslamsdoublesresults | yes |
Australianopendoublesresult | W (2008) |
Frenchopendoublesresult | SF (2008) |
Wimbledondoublesresult | 2R (2007) |
Usopendoublesresult | 3R (2008) |
Updated | 10 January 2010 |
Her career high singles ranking was Number 19, achieved on 14 April 2008.
She defeated former World #1 Jelena Jankovic in the third round of the 2010 Australian Open.
She won the 2008 Australian Open women's doubles tournament with sister Kateryna, beating Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Pe'er in the finals.
The following year of 2000, Bondarenko began the year reaching her first ITF finals in Kalamata, Greece, but ended up losing to Russian Ekaterina Kozhokina 7–5 7–5, even though not losing a set before the finals. She was only able to attain good succes in two events a Semifinals in Kedzierzyn-Kozle and quarterfinals in Sopot entering as a qualifier. The rest of the year was not good for Bondarenko as she only managed the second round in Warsaw, Toruń and Odessa, while failing to quaify in other events. 2001 was not a better year for Bondarenko as she failed to qualify in her first three events in Dubai, Caserta and Tallinn. However she was able two reached two Semifinals in Kedzierzyn-Kozle and Tbilisi. She also managed to reach the quarterfinals in Batumi. The rest of the year wasn't good for Bondarenko as she made early exits.
2002 was an inconsistent year for Bondarenko, As she managed to reach the Semifinals in Buchan before losing to Syna Schreiber 2–6 6–4 6–4 and then followed it up by falling in the qualifying draw in Dubai. The following week she was able to reach the second round of Dinan after getting pass the qualifying draw and followed it up by once again failing to qualify now in Tashkent. At her next event in Fontanafredda she was able to qualify for the main draw and win her first ITF title over Italian Mara Santangelo 6–3 6–0. However she again performed badly in her next six tournament managing only to reach one second round, one first-round exit, and failing to qualify in the other four events. She then turned her fortune upside-down once again by reaching her third finals in Batumi but ended up in the losing end. She then made first-round exits in Joué-lès-Tours and Saint Raphael, which were both in France. She ended the year with a semifinals appearance in Poitiers, France, losing to Seda Noorlander 6–2 6–1.
In 2003 Bondarenko tried to qualify for the main draw of the WTA tour, but failed to qualify in each, in the 2003 Moorilla International, 2003 Australian Open, and the 2003 Indian Open. She then made it through her first WTA Tour Event main draw as a direct entry at the 2003, but ended up losing to Flavia Pennetta in the very first round 6–3 6–1. She then went back to the ITF tour after failing to qualify in the 2003 Abierto Mexicano Pegaso but was unsuccessful, only making it through one semifinals in Taranto out of seven events. She also failed to qualify for the 2003 French Open and 2003 Wimbledon. In the middle of the two Slams she was able to make it the quarterfinals of the ITF circuit in Galatina and Fontanafredda. She then once again tried to get through the main draw of the WTA tour but failed each time including the 2003 US Open. However following the US Open she was able to win her second ITF title in Zhukovskiy. The bad fortune continued for Bondarenko as she exited in first round of ITF events in Dubai and Prague and the first round of her second amin draw appearance in the 2003 Volvo Women's Open.
The start of 2004 was similar to the previous year, Bondarenko failed to qualify to the main draws of the WTA tour in the 2004 Moorilla Hobart International, 2004 Australian Open, and 2004 Cellular South Cup. However in the 2004 Copa Colsanitas, she qualified for the first time in the main draw and even claim her first victory in the main draw, when she defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives 6–7(1) 6–1 6–1 before being double bangled by eventual champion Fabiola Zuluaga in the next round. After failing to qualify in the 2004 Abierto Mexicano Telcel, she then went back to the ITF circuit were she won her third ITF title in Bari, Italy prevailing over younger sister Kateryna Bondarenko in the finals 2–6 6–2 6–4. In her next tournaments following the title victory, Bondarenko had a bad run failing to qualify in any of the WTA Tour events she entered while falling early in the ITF events she entered. She then reached the finals of Orbetello, Italy, losing to Catalina Castaño 2–6 6–2 6–3. She then made little progress as she only managed to make two quarterfinal appearance in the ITF circuit and once again failing still to qualify in the WTA events. She ended the year with a runner-up performance in Deauville, France, losing to Květa Peschke 6–0 6–3 and quarterfinal appearances in the ITf events in Poitiers and Bergamo 2.
The following week at 2005 Hyderabad Open, she reached her first tour final as the tournament's ninth seeded player, falling to hometown favourite Sania Mirza, in three tight sets 6–4 5–7 6–3 . Following her loss, she made her first appearance in the women's top 100 rankings. She then followed it up by qualify for her first Tier 1 event in the 2005 Pacific Life Open, and made through the second round before falling to top American doubles player Lisa Raymond 4–6 6–3 6–3. She also qualified in the 2005 NASDAQ-100 Open but lost in the opening round to Russian Alina Jidkova 6–3 6–2. She however failed to qualify in her next two events in the 2005 Bausch & Lomb Championships were she lost to sister Kateryna Bondarenko and the 2005 Family Circle Cup. She then received a direct entry in the 2005 Estoril Open reaching the second round before losing to 3rd seed Gisela Dulko 6–2 6–3. In the 2005 Telecom Italia Masters Rome she fell in the qualifying round. She then received direct entry in the 2005 Istanbul Cup, 2005 French Open, 2005 DFS Classic, all losing in the first round and failed to qualify in the 2005 Hastings Direct International Championships. She however made a shocking performance in the 2005 Wimbledon Championships, claiming her first Slam win and upsetting 20th seed Tatiana Golovin in the first round 6–3 3–6 7–5, before falling to Natalie Dechy 6–1 6–4 in the third round. She then made early exits in 2005 Internazionali di Modena, 2005 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, 2005 Nordea Nordic Light Open and the 2005 US Open. Her last good performance of the year was in the 2005 Wismilak International were she reached the quarterfinals before losing to Li Na after defeating top Australian Player Alicia Molik in the previous round. The end of the year was a bad streak for Bondarenko making early exits and failing to qualify in some events. She ended the year for the first time inside the top 100 at 73.
On the Clay season she made it through the second rounds of top events at the 2006 Bausch & Lomb Championships, losing to Vera Dushevina 6–1 6–4, and the 2006 Family Circle Cup, losing to eventual champion Nadia Petrova 6–1 0–6 6–2, the second set was the least games Petrova won in a set in the whole tournament. She made it through the quarterfinals of 2006 ECM Prague Open, losing to eventual champion Shahar Pe'er 7–5 6–0 and the semifinals of 2006 GP SAR La Princess Lalla Meryem, losing to Martina Suchá 6–3 6–2. Her luck, however, was turned upside-down when she made first-round exits in the 2006 Istanbul Cup, 2006 French Open and 2006 DFS Classic. She then made it through the second round of the 2006 Ordina Open before falling to Jelena Janković 6–4 1–6 7–6(5) and made a first-round exit in Wimbledon.
In her 2006 US Open Series tournaments she lost in the first rounds of 2006 Bank of the West Classic and 2006 Rogers Cup, the second rounds of 2006 Acura Classic and the 2006 US Open, and the Third Round of the 2006 JPMorgan Chase Open. In her first tournament after the US Open, she won her first title in the 2006 Fortis Championships Luxembourg ousting Francesca Schiavone 6–3, 6–2 in the finals, the win meant that she was the second lowest-ranked player ever to win a Tier II title, being ranked a lowly number 62. The record is held by Kim Jones-Schaefer who was ranked number 64. She also made it through the top 50 after her first title. She then failed to qualify in the 2006 Kremlin Cup and the 2006 Zurich Open. She ended the year win a first-round exit in 2006 Generali Ladies Linz after getting pass the qualifying round. She ended the year ranked number 32.
On 7 May 2007 she finished runner-up to Justine Henin at the Tier II J&S; Cup held in Warsaw, Poland, losing 6–1, 6–3. In the semi-finals, she got the first top ten win of her career over then number five Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets 6–2, 7–6(4). The performance saw her rise into the top 30 for the first time, at Number 29.
she then followed it up with third-round appearances at 2007 Qatar Telecom German Open and 2007 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, losing to Serbians Ana Ivanović and Jelena Janković respectively, which both of them eventually captured the title. She followed it by making the semi-finals of the 2007 Istanbul Cup, losing to Elena Dementieva 7–6(5) 6–2, once again the eventual champion, this the fourth time in a row that she has lost to the eventual champion. Despite this good performances she lost to an unseeded and lower-ranked Karin Knapp of Italy in three sets.
She however bounced back with good showings at the grass season, reaching the quarterfinals of both the 2007 DFS Classic and 2007 Ordina Open, losing both to Jelena Janković; this was her fourth loss to Janković in the year. She then hit her career high shortly after Wimbledon, where she made the third round before losing to Patty Schnyder 6–4, 3–6, 8–6 after holding a 4–1 lead in the final set. She then came out with a 3 straight loss in the second round of the 2007 Acura Classic, first rounds of 2007 East West Bank Classic and 2007 Rogers Cup. but she rebounded just before the Us Open with a quarterfinal showing at the 2007 Pilot Pen Tennis, she then eventually reached the third round of the 2007 US Open, losing to Venus Williams. She then lost 3 straight matches in a row, two of them coming from Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.
On 17 October 2007 Bondarenko beat Amélie Mauresmo 2–6, 6–4, 6–1 at the 2007 Zürich Open to reach her first ever Tier I quarter-final, but lost to Nicole Vaidišová there. She also reached the quarterfinals of the 2007 Generali Ladies Linz, losing to eventual champion Daniela Hantuchová. She ended the year at no. 22. On 22 October she passed $1 million in career prize money, the first player representing Ukraine to pass that prize money milestone.
She then again made great showing at the grass when she reached the quarterfinals of 2008 DFS Classic and the semi-finals of the 2008 Ordina Open, losing to eventual champion Tamarine Tanasugarn, she however lost at the second round of the 2008 Wimbledon. She then represented Ukraine at the 2008 Olympics, losing to Serbian Jelena Janković in the second round, in the doubles she partnered with sister Kateryna were they came in fourth place. She then reached the third round of the 2008 US Open, losing to Venus Williams. She then lost in the second rounds of 2008 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and 2008 Zürich Open nad the first round of 2008 Kremlin Cup, this seems like a disappointment for Alona, however she lost to higher rankes players Jelena Janković, Venus Williams, and Katarina Srebotnik respectively. She ended the year competing in the 2008 Generali Ladies Linz were she lost in the quarterfinals to Marion Bartoli.
At the 2009 Madrid Masters, Bondarenko defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round and Anna Chakvetadze in the third before falling to World Number 1 Dinara Safina in the quarter-finals. Bondarenko defeated former world #1 Maria Sharapova 6–2 6–2 in the quarter-finals of the 2009 red clay event in Warsaw and Anne Keothavong 6–2 7–5 in the semi-finals. She fell to Alexandra Dulgheru in the final, 6–7, 6–3, 0–6.
At the 2009 French Open, Bondarenko fell to 20th seed Dominika Cibulková in the first round in three sets. She then performed badly at grass unable to duplicate her performance in the past two years, losing in the second round of the 2009 Ordina Open and first round of 2009 Wimbledon to Elena Baltacha. She then made it to her first Semifinal since the 2007 Istanbul Cup, shich was more than 2 years ago. She then lost to sister Kateryna 6–1 6-3in the first round of 2009 ECM Prague Open breaking the tie between the two as she trails her sister 3–4 in head-to-head now. She then reached the third rounds of 2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships, losing to Sharapova in three and 2009 Rogers Cup, losing to Serena. She then reached the second rounds of 2009 Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open nad 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis. In the first round of the 2009 US Open she beat Alla Kudryavtseva 3–6, 6–3, 6–2. However, she lost to Gisela Dulko in the second round. In her first tournament since the US OPen, she lost in the first round of the 2009 Toray Pan Pacific Open to Vera Dushevina 1–6 7–5 6–1. She lost in the third round of the 2009 China Open to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–3 4–6 6–0 after defeating Ágnes Szávay and Sara Errani both in straight sets. She played her last tournament of the year at the 2009 Kremlin Cup, were she beat Anna Chakvetadze, Nadia Petrova and Tsvetana Pironkova all in straight sets before losing to eventual champion Francesca Schiavone in the semifinals in straight sets as well.
Alona then flew to Madrid to compete at the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. In the first round she came back from a set down to defeat Magdaléna Rybáriková 2–6, 6–1, 6–4. She then gained the biggest win of her career by defeating World No.2 Caroline Wozniacki 6–2, 6–3, signalling her return to good form. But lost to 13th seed Li Na 6–3 6–4 in the third round. She then played in the 2010 Polsat Warsaw Open but was upset by Greta Arn 5–7 6–4 6–4 in the quarterfinals. In the 2010 French Open and 2010 Wimbledon Championships she was able to reached the third round for the first time but lost to Jelena Janković in two sets 6–4 7–6(3) and 6–0 6–3 respectively. She then suffered early loses in the first rounds of 2010 Mercury Insurance Open, 2010 Rogers Cup and 2010 Pilot Pen Tennis and the second round of 2010 Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Women's Open. She currently playing in the 2010 US Open and is set to face 6th seed Francesca Schiavone in the third round after defeating Vera Dushevina and Melanie Oudin. She then reached the second rounds of the Toray Pan Pacific Open and China Open. She then was upset by Roberta Vinci in the first round of Generali Ladies Linz. She also fell in the second round of the Kremlin Cup falling to María José Martínez Sánchez 6–1, 1–6, 6–4.
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="font-size:97%;" |- bgcolor="#eeeeee" |width="80"|Outcome |width="20"|No. | style="width:120px;"|Date | style="width:280px;"|Championship | width="75"|Surface | style="width:200px;"|Opponent in the final | style="width:200px;"|Score in the final |- |- bgcolor="#66CCFF" | style="background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up | 1. | 12 February 2005 | Hyderabad, India | Hard | Sania Mirza | 4–6, 7–5, 3–6 |- |- bgcolor="#CCCCFF" | bgcolor="98FB98"|Winner | 1. | 25 Sep 2006 | Luxembourg City | Hard (I) | Francesca Schiavone | 6–3, 6–2 |- |- bgcolor="#ccccff" | style="background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up | 2. | 6 May 2007 | Warsaw, Poland | Clay | Justine Henin | 1–6, 3–6 |- |- bgcolor="#BF94E4" | style="background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up | 3. | 23 May 2009 | Warsaw, Poland | Clay | Alexandra Dulgheru | 6–7, 6–3, 0–6 |- |- bgcolor="#50C878" | bgcolor="98FB98"|Winner | 2. | 16 January 2010 | Hobart, Australia | Hard | Shahar Pe'er | 6–2, 6–4 |}
Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:People from Kryvyi Rih Category:Ukrainian tennis players Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic tennis players of Ukraine
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