For a good Monday afternoon chuckle: Scholarship opportunities from the Koch Brothers

[FSogol]

My son has been applying for scholarships lately and gets a lot of scholarship spam. This one came from Koch-funded group called the "Bill of Rights Institute."

"- Win up to $10,000 in The Fountainhead Essay Contest! All you need to do is read The Fountainhead and write 800 - 1600 words on one of three topics."

http://essaycontest.aynrandnovels.com/TheFountainhead.aspx?theme=blue

[haele]

1. Hmmm - Let's see how well I can Poe an essay -$10K would pay for the last quarter's tuition -

for my BS degree in Business with a minor in Emerging Technologies. (No, really - it's a bachelor's of Science)
Of course, I'm going to a university with a known liberal bias, but still. Or perhaps it can pay for the three weeks extra-study abroad courses in Scandinavia (sustainable business practices), Costa Rica (eco-business), or some of the other emerging market locations.

The only problem would be 1) If I could make it through the Fountainhead - I couldn't in high school and even my parents couldn't make it through that dreck for their college courses. (I feel sorry for the sap who had to write the Cliff Notes for that novel)
2) Do they check for plagerism? Due to the simplicity of the Randian Objectivism "theories", the actual substance is scant, so the meat of any argument for those subjects have already been written a long time ago by the Birchers and others of that ilk as justification. It would be hard to come up with something new that hasn't already been written.
and 3) - would I need vinegar or bleach to clean out my brain after I read it if I could make it through and write the essay.
Or on second thought, should I just collar and listen to a six year old or a sullen 13-year old and transcribe his or her babblings on "ownership", "creativity" and "privacy rights" to submit as an essay without even reading Ms. Rand's long-winded screed?

Haele

[FSogol]

2. Yeah, they run the entries thru plagiarism software. In case you don't remember the

themes in the Fountainhead, they are:

Rape = Love
Demolition = Architecture
Good = Evil

Someone should offer a scholarship for whoever can answer this essay question: Why should scummy Ayn Rand fans need to suck up to her insane works to win a free $10k for college? Shouldn't they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps?