The definitive Atlas Shrugged movie review

You won’t be surprised if I tell you that I’ve read more Atlas Shrugged movie reviews than I should have. The professional reviewers, almost to a person, despised it. The vast majority of ordinary people who saw it and wrote comments liked it.

Hard-core Rand fans also generally seem to like it. Now, from self-described “Ayn Rand freak”, libertarian science fiction author L. Neil Smith, comes what I’ve been waiting for – the most interesting and spot on review that I’ve seen. He also explains the reaction of what he terms the bedwetting liberal critics.

If you haven’t read any Atlas Shrugged reviews, I suggest you read this one. It’s almost as entertaining and informative as the movie itself.

Cascade helps bring Atlas Shrugged to Portland

The movie Atlas Shrugged Part 1 was not going to open April 15th in Portland, Oregon, probably because the producers know that it's a town with a particularly anti-individualist ambiance.

But, having read the book decades ago, and having waited all those decades for the movie, I wasn't about to let that decision stand if I could help it. So I contacted the producer to convince him that even liberal Portland had enough freedom-loving movie goers to justify showing Atlas Shrugged here.

I got support from the Oregon Tea Party PAC and Americans for Prosperity - Oregon to promote the film to their members. I started a Facebook event page and encouraged fans to "Demand" the movie open here.

And it worked. Last week I booked producer Harmon Kaslow on the Victoria Taft talk radio show and his opening statement on the show was, " Steve Buckstein and Cascade Policy Institute gave us so much support that we had no choice but to open in Portland on Tax Day."

The distributor has booked the movie into two Portland-area theaters; Fox Tower downtown and Regal Bridgeport Village in Tigard. Both will run the film from April 15th through April 21st five times a day. As of now, the 7:25pm showing at Fox Tower is already sold out.

You can purchase advance tickets at both theaters here.

No part of the country needs to see this movie more. Get your tickets soon, and please click “Attending” at my Portland Facebook movie event page to show your support.

Remembering Tiananmen 20 years later

Twenty years ago this week the Tiananmen Square Massacre unfolded in Beijing, China. Perhaps the most memorable image of that week was the man in the white shirt who stopped a line of tanks heading to the square. He didn't stop the eventual massacre, but he did take a stand, and he helped focus the attention of the world on what was happening.



Our plight in America is not comparable, but sometimes I imagine free-market, limited government types being men (and women) in white shirts. The tanks represent our current political establishment.

In the last year a lot has "changed." In response, more "white shirts" seem to be taking stands, namely at tea parties.

Watch the video and remember that those who forget history may be doomed to repeat it.

Smart - the poem

My dad was a WWII Vet. On this Veterans Day I came across a poem from cartoonist Shel Silverstein whose work appeared in copies of the Pacific military newspaper Stars and Stripes that my dad brought home from the war.

As I read the poem, I formulated a simple question for future readers. Of the father and son in the poem, if one went to public school and the other went to private school, which went to which?

Smart

by Shell Silverstein

My dad gave me one dollar bill
‘Cause I’m his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
‘Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes—I guess he don’t know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just ‘cause he can’t see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head—
Too proud of me to speak!

Thoughts on voting

As Americans await the results of today's historic presidential election, I'm reminded of a poem written by libertarian educator Sy Leon. I never met Sy, who died in 2007, but I was influenced by his writings, including his book None of the Above which makes the case for letting us vote for NOTA, which would leave an office empty if it won over the human candidates on the ballot.

Sy founded an apparently short-lived organization, The League of Non-Voters, and penned a poem which I'll never forget. It could have different meanings to different people, but everyone might gain some insight into our election process by thinking about it today. Here it is:

How could the man have done the deed,
I’m sure he never willed it.
He stepped into the voting booth,
and loving freedom, killed it.

The fallacy of good intentions

Research has suggested that slashing the holes on salt shakers from the traditional 17 to five could cut the amount people sprinkle on their food by more than half. According to a June 28th Daily Mail online article, some city councils in the UK have now begun purchasing five hole salt shakers to give away, at taxpayer expense of course, to fish and chip establishments in their areas.

This suggests that Oregonians might get healthier (at least politically) if we limit the number of legislators who can sprinkle new laws down on our heads by the same ratio - from the current 90 down to just 26. Maybe we can let all 90 current lawmakers bid for those 26 slots – with the winning bids payable in kicker-type checks to taxpayers.

Unfortunately, the fallacy here is pretty obvious. Reducing the number of holes in a salt shaker won’t necessarily cut down how much salt we use; we will just have to work harder, or longer, to get our sodium chloride fix. Same with laws; any 26 lawmakers are likely just as capable of generating the same number of rules we have to live by as are 90. But those winning bid checks would at least be a nice byproduct of this flawed attempt to shield ourselves from too many “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” public servants.
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Disclaimer: Nothing stated here should be construed as casting aspersions on any of our current or future public servants. They certainly have the best of intentions. It’s just that good intentions aren’t enough when it comes to making decisions that affect other people’s lives.

When CNN calls...

With presidential candidates trying to one-up each other on every front, the idea of a summer gas tax holiday has been getting lots of attention. On Tuesday I became, “the expert” in a two-minute CNN segment in which Obama and I disagreed with McCain and Clinton.

Watch the clip and decide for yourself who’s right.

Will a gas tax holiday help?

For a longer, "reasoned” discussion of this issue, see

McCain's gas tax holiday is a bad joke