If You See Only One Movie Sequel This Year. . .

Well, chances are it's going to be 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

But if you want to see two movie sequels this year, keep your calender open on 10/12/12 when 'Atlas Shrugged Part II' hits theaters.

Video: The Debate Of The Decade; Candidate Obama VS. President Obama

Can't these two ever find common ground?




Via Insty, who-- in case you couldn't get enough of the drama from last night-- has this poll. I pulled a Barack and voted 'Present'.

Ronnie Bryant Goes Galt

I can't add anything more to this:

My name’s Ronnie Bryant, and I’m a mine operator. I’ve been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people…. [pause] Nearly every day without fail — I have a different perspective — men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just … you know … what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.

Thanks to Truman.

Video: Andrew Klaven And Bill Whittle, Together

Talking about Ayn Rand.

A little palate cleanser after the Blogger issues that happened last night.

Via Insty.

Movie Clip: Atlas Shrugged

Henry Rearden Comes Home.



To help put the clip into context, Rearden has been working on a new metal alloy to that would help revolutionize the steel industry. His first major pour of it was done that day.

Ten years of blood, sweat and failed formulas went into the planning of Rearden Metal and his wife and family scoffs at his gift to his wife. Calling it "Bondage" and effectively, driving Hank emotionally away.

If they were able to get this scene right, there are hopes for the movie yet. I wasn't quite sold on the trailer for it.

New Survey Showing That Doctors Will Work Part Time Or Quit Altogether If ObamaCare Goes Through

This came out last week but I just saw it a few days ago.



Both Ayn Rand and Ronald Reagan talked about the consequences of this.

Rand in the book, Atlas Shrugs:

Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward.

And Reagan in his speech against socialized medicine:



Can't say we weren't warned.

One More Video For The Night

Trying to do some more about how the Republicans took over the House but having trouble keeping my eyes open. I was up way too late last night and the screen is splitting in two right now as I type this.

From Ayn Rand herself, what compromise really means.



In short, "Sell out".

A Real Life Example Of The Moratorium On Brains

This was a constant theme throughout the book, Atlas Shrugs. The people in charge of the railroad that should know what to do, don't. The same with the people in charge of the government. The chapter is an amazing study into human nature.

And in real life, the Moratorium on Brains gets people killed.

It's Atlas Shrugged Day

"A white rectangle hung over the city, imparting the date to the men in the streets below. In the rusty light of this evening's sunset, the rectangle said: September 2."

Happy Atlas Shrugged Day!

Behind The Name Of This Blog

It was a phrase straight out of the book, Atlas Shrugs. When I read the passage in the book, it struck me as a terrific name for a blog.

And the following part of the book is no less relevant today as it was then.

The part in question:

"I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago," said Dr. Hendricks. "Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward.

“I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything—except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.

“That a man who's willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards—never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind—yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it—and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn't."

Who Is Taylor Schilling?

To answer that Rand-esque question, she is the actress who will be playing the role of Dagney Taggart in the long awaited adaptation of Atlas Shrugs.

I can see her at Dagney.

I was halfway through the book when I heard that it was Angelina Jolie who wanted to play her in the movie. After that, whenever I read a line by Dagney, it was Angelina in my mind saying them. But I'm open to Taylor in the role. Too many times the name gets in the way of the movie. See Knight and Day with Tom Cruise for an example.

I shamelessly lifted this video from Donald Douglas. He tipped me off to the news of it being made into a movie. It was about Atlas Shrugs, what would you expect? It's too good not to pass by.



Besides, I still owe him an answer to this and I'm woefully behind on it.

Wow: "Nearly Half Of US Households Escape Federal Income Tax"

I'm overly simplifying it but this would mean that half the country is some sort of producer and the other half is some sort of Moocher.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.
[. . .]
Tax cuts enacted in the past decade have been generous to wealthy taxpayers, too, making them a target for President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress. Less noticed were tax cuts for low- and middle-income families, which were expanded when Obama signed the massive economic recovery package last year.

The result is a tax system that exempts almost half the country from paying for programs that benefit everyone, including national defense, public safety, infrastructure and education. It is a system in which the top 10 percent of earners -- households making an average of $366,400 in 2006 -- paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.

The bottom 40 percent, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.

"We have 50 percent of people who are getting something for nothing," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

Be sure to read the entire thing.

One thing that the article never takes in account is what if a significant amount of that top ten percentile should decide to 'Go Galt'? Creating a revenue vacuum that would need to be filled. The easiest way to do that is move the scale down by making it the top 15% or so of earners to keep the tax revenue flowing.

Thanks to Stacey.

Who Is Indeed

Thanks to Re Tea.

RSM has the sane clip up too, I see.

How About That?

I read a comment somewhere about how Ayn wrote the book for today. It was rather ahead of it's time. Besides, that 'Car Czar' position that Obama nixed recently reminded me of Cuffy Meigs.

Washington, D.C., February 23, 2009--Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.

And speaking of Rand.