It's official: Angelina to star as Dagny in "Atlas Shrugged" adaptation

Well, it appears offical, Angelina Jolie will star as Dagny Taggart in the film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged, according to Variety.

No word about Brad Pitt yet... but that may come some time later. Both Pitt and Jolie had expressed a desire to star in the movie back in April.

HOT OFF THE WIRES! Pitt & Jolie to be Galt & Taggart?

27 April 2006

Jolie and Pitt linked to movie of Rand book

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been linked to the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's bestselling novel 'Atlas Shrugged'.

Variety reports that the couple are rumoured to be considering starring as lead characters Dagny Taggart and John Galt.

'Atlas Shrugged' tells the story of the economic collapse of the US in the future when American industrialists go on strike and retreat to a hideaway in the mountains.
The book espouses Rand's philosophy of objectivism, which the author described as: "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

Both Pitt and Jolie are fans of Rand's work.

CAPITALISMGEAR'S SPRING LINE IS COMING

The Under Current

The Under Current is a student newspaper run by Objectivists who have authored and are distributing a great piece regarding the muslim violence surrounding the Mohammed cartoons. It is a PDF flyer that can be downloaded, printed and distributed. However, before doing so, The Under Current asks that you notify them. For more information, be sure to visit http://www.the-undercurrent.com.

Some days...

Some days are just boring...
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As usual, flights were delayed going to and returning from Pittsburgh.
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Pittsburgh is such a fasciniating place. Once one of the birth centers of our modern industrial might, it is now a city longing for its past, its glory days....And the United Steelworkers union bosses sit in their skyscraper looking over the wasteland that they helped create, blaming everyone but themselves. But, hey!At least they still have Linden Hall (pictured here)--the country club bought with their members' dues.

The old Homestead Works has been razed and is now a mall, filled with all the requisite chain stores and restaurants and a movie theater. The Homestead Works (for those non-labor historians) is the site of the late 1800s infamous battle between steel strikers and Pinkertons that resulted when strikers seized the property of Andrew Carnegie. .

Oh well...like I said, another boring day of travel, typical flight delays and meanderings.

THE OSCARS...AND THE WEINER IS...

Okay, maybe I'm just completely out of touch...BUT last night's Oscars were just plain BAAaaad

Never mind that I only saw two of the movies that were nominated for anything: Wallace & Gromit and Walk the Line...and both of those only the night before purely as a coincidence.

Was it my imagination or was John Stewart (the host) as boring as the rest of the show? The only interesting part was when Reese Withersoon won for Best Actress...but that's only because Johnny Cash was the first concert I ever saw.

Politics were kept minimal and there were no Susan Sarandon blasts. In fact, it seems that the entire underlying theme to the entire gala was Brokeback Mountain...and its courageous attempt at showing two men 'at home on the range.' [Didn't see that one...]

In fact, fortunately or unfortunately, I 'crashed' before 'Crash' was announced as winner of Best Picture. [Didn't see that one either...]

Maybe next year, there'll be something to watch [or maybe not].

Chavez: The Venezuelan Boor

Sitting in airports and flying around the country occasionally gives me some time to get caught up on world events other than the snapshot news at the top of the hour that one views on airport terminal TVs or in the early am.

While travelling to and fro the not-so-lovely City of Pittsburgh earlier this week, I read two interesting articles about our latest little Latin nemesis, Venezuelan 'president' Hugo Chavez. And, while not being completely ignored in the major media in the U.S., it would seem that the American media is more fascinated by Islamo-fascists rioting over cartoons than the threat that this little socialist poses to the Western Hemisphere.

The first article that piqued my interest was a brief article entitled "Chavez turns up heat in tit-for-tat battle with Bush" that was found on page six of Tuesday's Financial Times.

In sum, this article described how Chavez is insulting Condoleeza Rice by blowing her a kiss on his national TV, calling George Bush "Mr. Danger," spreading his influence throughout Latin American and threatening to cut off its oil supplies to the U.S.

Ironically, however, the article also stated that Venezuelan oil can only be processed in US-based refineries owned by Citgo, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.

After explaining how the Venezuelan autocrat expelled the US naval attache, essentially accusing the US of spying--and the US responding in kind by expelling Venezuela's embassy chief of staff in Washington, the article quotes Adolfo Salguiero, an international relations analyst in Carcas as saying:

"Relations with the US are deteriorating and they are going to get worse. At some point this year we could wel face a grave diplomatic crisis as Chavez attempts to rally nationalist sentiment ahead of [his re-] election."

As always, for every one of society's parasitic ticks to thrive today, the enemy must be the US (or capitalism).

The second article is from Foreign Policy magazine and brilliantly describes Chavez's rise to power, his tactics in demonizing America to keep his population's focus away from his own totalitarian tendecies, even has he faces opppostition. In sum, the article describes, the modern-day, democratically-elected dictator.

It is an excellent article and well worth the read. You can link to it here:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3332

As you read the article about Chavez, you may find (as I sadly did) similarities between his tactics and those of the political parties in America.