Free Republic

Production ends 30-year trek to bring pic to screen The long-brewing feature version of author Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" has begun shooting in Los Angeles as a $5 million indie produced by John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow. Cameras began rolling over the weekend on a five-week shoot for "Atlas Shrugged Part One" with Paul Johansson directing from Brian Patrick O'Toole's script. Aglialoro would have lost the feature rights if the film wasn't in production by Saturday. A spokesman for Aglialoro -- the CEO of exercise equipment producer Cybex -- said there will be at least one more "Atlas Shrugged" shot...

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."— Ayn Rand Author and objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand was born in Russia just before the Bolshevik Revolution. She literally witnessed the slaughter and the dismantling of her country from the window of her father's pharmacy—which was subsequently seized by the Leninist state. As a young woman, she fled to the United...

My granddaughter sent me this of a young conservative lady defending libertarianism and John Galt, and this person was saying that Jesus can't go along with Atlas Shrugged. I want to know what a true conservative view is on the two things.

Recent headlines seem lifted directly out of an Ayn Rand novel. President Obama decries the “fat cat bankers on Wall Street”. Harry Reid attacks insurance companies for making too much profit. House Democrat leaders call Tea Partiers “Racist, Nazi, Gun Nuts”. How about this nauseating statement made by Army General George Casey after the Muslim terrorist attack on Ft. Hood? "As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well"Each of these headlines might well have been uttered by an Ayn Rand character.(snip)An epic demonstration of the inverted morality that...

The classic textbook example of the fallacy is a stadium full of seated people. When one person stands up, he gets a better view -- which he acquires at the expense of the people behind him. But if everyone stands up, then nobody's view is really improved. The fallacy is commonly committed when you conclude, after seeing that one person can live better at someone else's expense, that everyone can therefore live better at everyone else's expense. If a scheme relies on shifting costs to somebody else, then it will only work as long as someone exists to absorb the...

From Rush Limbaugh to President Obama, Ayn Rand and her book 'Atlas Shrugged' are recalibrating America.From Fox News to the passenger sitting next to you reading “Atlas Shrugged” on your commute to work, Ayn Rand seems to be everywhere. Since the economic collapse of 2008, the controversial novelist and philosopher has emerged as a leading intellectual on the right – and she’s been dead for nearly 30 years. Rush Limbaugh touts Rand as a prophet of sorts. “Ayn Rand, she wrote ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ ” he told his listeners. “The sequel, ‘Atlas Puked,’ we’re in the middle of it.” At the...

In the new Star Trek, Cadet James Tiberius Kirk finds himself standing before the Academy's review board. During his third attempt at a computer simulation no one had ever passed, Kirk installed a subroutine in the simulator's programming which allowed him to win. He was accused of this by Spock, the creator of the simulation.Here's part of the exchange, starting with Kirk's justification for his actions:Kirk: [to Spock] The test itself is a cheat, isn't it? I mean you program it to be unwinnable.Spock: Your argument precludes the possibility of a no-win scenario.Kirk: I don't believe in no-win scenarios. (Source)...

Is the New IRS Wealth Squad Coming for You? Smart Money, Oct. 27, 2009 Being wealthy has its downsides, chief among them the higher risk of an IRS audit. Now, amid the continuing debate over whether the government is doing enough to combat financial fraud, comes news that gives the uber-wealthy – or maybe even the “merely” wealthy – yet another reason to fear Uncle Sam’s attention. In a speech before the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, or AICPA, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman announced the recent formation of a new unit, dubbed Global High Wealth Industry Group, which will focus on the...

... Most recently the worldview that I am describing has colored much of the conservative outrage at the prospect of health care reform, which some have called a "redistribution of health" from those wise enough to have secured health insurance to those who have not. "President Obama says he will cover thirty to forty to fifty million people who are not covered now--without it costing any money," fumed Rudolph Giuliani. "They will have to cut other services, cut programs. They will have to be making decisions about people who are elderly." [...] In these disparate comments we can see the...

On July 30 conservatives plan to 'go Galt,' named after Ayn Rand's character John Galt in her book Atlas Shrugged. On that day millions plan to 'call in conservative,' refusing to go to work or to spend any money. Washington needs a serious, in-your-face wakeup call as citizens continue to grow increasingly angry over the government's socialist agenda that they seem determined to shove down our throats.

This idea that we'll all just grin and bear it has to be proven dead wrong, this year. But what can we do? With only 2% of the population, we can hardly hold big rallies. Even if we did, a march involving $250k+ earners protesting high taxes would only feed into their "greedy bastards who don't want to pay their fair share" rhetoric. So what can we do? Stop paying taxes over $250,000 income. WAIT, I AM NOT A NUT! No, no, stick with me on this. I'm not one of those loony people who argue income taxes are unconstitutional....

The number are in, and paleo-capitalist Ayn Rand’s hot again. “Atlas Shrugged” is selling at a pace not seen since the novel was published in 1957. Sales of her other major novel, “The Fountainhead,” are up as well. It’s clear that the recession and a very liberal political leadership have caused the renewed interest. Economist Stephen Moore recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the Obama strategy mirrors the plot of “Atlas Shrugged. “The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you,” Moore said. I recently re-read “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”...

Over a year ago, Mitt Romney was losing primaries to John McCain, and conservative pundits from Ann Coulter to Rush Limbaugh predicted the end of the GOP – Coulter went as far as promising she would campaign for Hillary Rodham Clinton if McCain became the party's nominee. By November 2008, the GOP had embraced a nominee who had considered switching parties twice, had opposed tax cuts, and had failed to advance an aggressive shift in a foreign policy that left the GOP discredited in an area it had always trumped in. It's not that McCain's willingness to reach across the...

Going Galt!! “Tea parties.” “Going Galt.” You’ve probably seen a growing number of references to these in the media, online, and on signs at rallies reacting to new government spending and controls. The Boston Tea Party was a rebellion against excessive government. Today’s “tea parties” say “no” to spending without limit and the government takeover of our lives. “Going Galt!” If you’ve read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, you appreciate the parallels between today’s disintegrating world and the events depicted in that prophetic novel. Atlas Shrugged is the story ofhow productive people went on strike, withdrawing their services in protest against...

All readers of Ayn Rand's masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, know its central question, "Who is John Galt?" Written over half a century ago, it is clearly the greatest and most influential novel of the 20th century. Over six million copies have been sold, averaging 77,000 copies per year in the 1980s, 90,000 in the 1990s, 137,000 in the 00s - until recently. 200,000 copies were sold in 2008, and sales so far this year are at triple those of last year. This is because, according to the Ayn Rand Institute, "there are uncanny similarities between the plot-line of the book and...

For the past two weeks, with a big hat tip to Dr. Helen Smith who diagnosed the phenomenon last fall, we’ve had a fascinating and spirited discussion here about the “Going Galt” movement that’s catching on nationwide. There’s now even a Twitter hashtag for the phenomenon: #goinggalt. My email box (especially after publication of my recent syndicated column on the subject) continues to fill up with letters from readers choosing in large and small ways to go Galt. Reader Ron Ruffer of Pa. e-mails: Dear Ms. Malkin, First I would like to say that I very much enjoy your commentary...

"What kind of revolution appeals most to you?" read the now-deleted poll question on Sean Hannity's message board: "Military Coup, Armed Rebellion, or War for Secession?" The next four to eight years are gonna be some fun! Barely two months into the Obama administration, wing-nuts across the land are frothing at the mouth, talking feverishly of secession, violent revolution, tax revolt, "going Galt," and national divorce. It would be hilarious if it weren't so creepy. We all had a good laugh this past December when Igor Panarin, dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats, predicted that the...

My syndicated column today spotlights two related phenomenon: the Tea Party revolt on the streets and the “Going Galt” revolt with our wallets. For new readers who are just learning about the protest movement and want to join, the best organizational resources are Tax Day Tea Party (nationwide April 15 events), Twitter #teaparty, PJTV’s list of upcoming protests, Re-TeaParty (send teabags to Washington and find July 4 events), and TCOT Report. And one more good one: New American Tea Party. Some tinfoil-hatted kooks are still pimping their conspiracy theories about the movement. The latest: Aha! Malkin once gave a speech...

Conservatives have ZERO power until the 2010 Elections. You can't win on Defense. Time to GENERATE CONSERVATIVE POWER. TAKE IT TO EM with OFFENSE. BOYCOTT. BOYCOTT the DEMOCRAT POWER BASE.   SHUT THESE LEECHES DOWN.   HELP THE STRONG GET STRONGER. BOYCOTT the next BUSINESS that ASKS for a BAILOUT. Don’t buy their PRODUCTS Don’t buy their SERVICES Transfer your POLICIES Sell their STOCKS Shift your DEPOSITS AND INVESTMENTS BOYCOTT the BUSINESSES that WASTED their BAILOUTS. BOYCOTT the BUSINESSES that NEVER REPAID their BAILOUTS. BOYCOTT every BUSINESS that GOES UNIONIZED. Our government already has. Make Card-Check a Bankruptcy Declaration.  ...

What is the breaking point? Where will the resistance form? Heavy questions, but unavoidable in the current political climate. The productive members of society can only be pushed so far, some say. What they envision is not defiance of law or a reversal of the election. It is people's growing disengagement from a new economic order that punishes effort and rewards envy — the creepy future that Bill Ritter and Barack Obama intend for us. Columnist Michelle Malkin calls that withdrawal "going Galt." Malkin was the first speaker last weekend when several hundred Coloradans gathered for a free-market leadership conference...