Free Republic

...Perennial presidential candidate, Ron Paul is the standard bearer of the Libertarian movement in this country and a Conservative Republican Congressman from Texas. His first official run for President occurred in 1988 on the Libertarian ticket. Since then, he ran again in 2008 as a Republican and is now officially seeking the Republican nomination in 2012. Even with this assumed notoriety, at this point, Paul is still not that well known (although that may be changing) and as such, is considered a ‘dark horse’ candidate. And, this is why I ask: Who is Ron Paul and really, what does he...

Lately, there have been duelling stories in the entertainment press about the future of ”Atlas Shrugged.” With disappointing box office returns, the producers have been asked if they will go ahead and complete the franchise and in one interview we’re being told there will be no trilogy and in another we’re being told that there will. To clear the air, I reached out via email and “Atlas” producers John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow were both good enough to respond with exclusive quotes that should help to calm fears of “Atlas” fans everywhere. Most surprising, though, was the revelation CNN, CNBC,...

Twelve days after opening "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.

With the release this past weekend of Hollywood's version of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," the country is abuzz with paeans to the the philosophy Rand espoused, even from some people who call themselves "conservative" and "Christian." The book has once again gone to the top of the best-sellers' lists. So, this would be a good time to examine just what Ayn Rand believed.An old friend was online today urging conservatives to go see the movie, because, and I quote: ...the folks behind it are not contributing to the corruption of our culture... My reply? "Well, besides spreading the godless, materialist,...

Let me get one thing out of the way: I have never read Ayn Rand. In fact, until recently I was one of those uneducated boors who thought the author's first name was pronounced Ann. A few of her readers have corrected me over the years, but for some reason, I assumed they were joking — which is also what I assumed when they told me they'd just read a great book about government intervention in the railroad industry. (That book is now a movie, Atlas Shrugged: Part I, opening Friday, April 15, in the U.S.) But then my editor...

Let me get one thing out of the way: I have never read Ayn Rand... I did what any self-respecting journalist would do: I called up a friend. "Quick, can you explain Ayn Rand's personal philosophy to me in one sentence?" I asked Fahad Siadat, a professional musician who'd just finished reading Atlas Shrugged... "Think of Kanye West," he said. "He's a total douche bag, but he writes good music. According to Rand, that's what counts." And isn't everyone who follows Rand supposed to be selfish? "They are selfish," Siadat said. "To become the best, you have to do what's...

Tomorrow's release of the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged" is focusing attention on Ayn Rand's 1957 opus and the free-market ideas it espouses. Book sales for "Atlas" have always been brisk—and all the more so in the past few years, as actual events have mirrored Rand's nightmare vision of economic collapse amid massive government expansion. Conservatives are now hailing Rand as a tea party Nostradamus, hence the timing of the movie's premiere on tax day. When Rand created the character of Wesley Mouch, it's as though she was anticipating Barney Frank (D., Mass). Mouch is the economic czar in "Atlas...

I just finished reading Ayn Rand’s, The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution which is a compilation of articles she wrote in the late sixties and early seventies. In these articles she takes dead aim at the drug induced hippie movement and dissects them with her unique philosophy, objectivism. While she was recounting the debauchery and horrors of Woodstock, I was left wondering; did America’s greatest generation give birth to America’s worst generation? Tom Brokaw coined the term for those who came of age during the Great Depression and then went on to fight in World War II in his book...

Atlas Shrugged part 1 - movie trailer

You may have heard of the trend of businessmen “Going Galt,” i.e., self-confidently declaring that until the government loosens the burdens of backbreaking taxes and onerous regulations, they will scale back their productive efforts rather than work as virtual serfs. (The phrase “Going Galt” is a reference to Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged.) Other businessmen, however, have decided to “Go Guilt,” i.e., to sign Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge,” vowing to give away most of the wealth they have earned. The recent news that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has signed the Pledge is making headlines.

It was called Operation Iraqi Freedom but it should have been called Operation Iraqi Self-Rule. "Autonomy" and "self-rule" are the political values which largely dominate the US and the world. Certainly more so than "democracy." And almost infinitely more so than "liberty." After over 7 years, $700 billion, and 4000 killed, a fairly-bad, socialist, shariaist dictatorship (headed by Saddam) was replaced by a moderately superior one (headed by Maliki). Was this death-agony of effort worth it? Did this unending exercise in nation-building and self-sacrifice profit us? Consider all the resultant violations of civil liberties at home, and support for friendly...

When it comes to politics, economics, and sociology -- as well as individual happiness and greatness -- freedom is 100% good in theory, and 100% good in practice. How is it people don't understand this? Freedom, free enterprise, free trade, capitalism, laissez-faire, live-and-let-live, voluntary social cooperation, unfettered personal interaction, socio-economic libertarianism, and other such similar ideas and lofty goals, are all flawless, and without conflict or contradiction, in both philosophic principle and real-world application. All are end-of-history correct and ideal, both intellectually and pragmatically. How can anyone not know this?

A glimpse of the analysis in Dr. Leonard Peikoff's forthcoming book, The DIM Hypothesis. At the 2010 Objectivist conference/OCON, Dr. Leonard Peikoff was presenting material from his forthcoming book, The DIM Hypothesis, in which he analyzes Western culture and history from the perspective of the epistemological process of integration. I was surprised to learn that, according to Peikoff’s analysis, Barack Obama is not, as I and others have been saying, a socialist or communist. Socialists or communists are examples of what Peikoff calls “misintegration,” or integration by non-rational means. Obama, Peikoff thinks, is anti-ideological, and as such has no...

Yes, there will be an “Atlas Shrugged” movie. Well, at least a part one. ”The movie is based on Part 1 of the book (the book has 3 parts) … so the film is based on about 27% of the book.” This is the first I’ve heard that this production is only the first of three films, and while I haven’t read ”Atlas Shrugged,” those who have tell me a trilogy is the perfect way to tell the story on screen. Like “Lord of the Rings,” the natural breaks in Rand’s novel practically demand it be told in three parts,...

No philosopher ever proposed a more simple and straightforward view of life than the one Ayn Rand urges upon us. "Yes, this is an age of moral crisis … Your moral code has reached its climax, the blind alley and the end of its course. And if you wish to go on living, what you now need is not to return to morality …. but to discover it."Thus spake, not Zarathustra, but Ayn Rand's philosophical mouthpiece, John Galt, the protagonist of her principal novel, Atlas Shrugged. The "moral crisis" to which he refers is the conflict between altruism, which is...

John Aglialoro has gone public with his latest project to film Atlas Shrugged: an independent production set to begin filming June 11. Aglialoro decided to go forward on his own after the latest venture with Lionsgate Studios collapsed early this year. After 17 years of working with major studios, only to see projects peter out from studio delay, unworkable scripts, and balky stars, Aglialoro has taken the entrepreneurial helm. Working with screenwriter Brian Patrick O’Toole, he has completed a script covering the first part of Rand’s novel (through the run of the John Galt Line and its aftermath). Aglialoro expects...

The bigger the government, the worse the government. The more powerful the government, the worse the government. The more the government taxes and regulates -- the more it spends and controls -- the worse the government. That government which guides and directs us -- unifies and leads us -- is that government which destroys us. All these recent government "bail-outs," "rescues," "recovery packages," and "stimulus programs," are machetes thrust directly into the heart of the economy. All are heartless and brutal backstabs of the society and the nation. All of them devastate our businesses, finances, lifestyles, and civilization. It's almost...

It's sloppy and incorrect to call Obama and his radical leftist allies "socialists." A handful are, no doubt. But most of them don't want to nationalize anything. Not even health care! They do, however, seek to significantly expand the size and power of the state. They do quietly seek to have a friendly, European-style Leviathan monitor and control business and the Individual a great deal more than currently. And it's all for our own good. The Obamanites fundamentally think they know more than the citizenry who elected them, and whom they theoretically serve. And, of course, they're morally superior. So...

Tea Partiers should be wary of the ideology underlying a novel popular within the movement. Signs reading “Who is John Galt?” became a common sight at rallies last year. They reference Atlas Shrugged, a novel by Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand, which is considered an affirmation of individual rights and the free market. However, according to a central advocate of Rand’s worldview, there is a deeper message within the novel which the Tea Party must embrace if it hopes to affect libertarian change. On February 23rd, in a lecture hall at the University of Minnesota, Rand advocate Craig Biddle, editor of...

The key to highest quality and lowest cost in doctoring is this: No Welfare State mandates on health care. No "helpful" regulations on doctors, medicines, medical procedures, or overall treatment plans. Let people buy any kind of drugs, health care, or medical insurance they want, from anyone they want, from anywhere on earth. It's called freedom. Case closed. Nothing else to discuss or debate.