Being of Greek decent, I'm aware of Atlas and carrying the world etc.
I think you have your libertarian credentials a little skewed, as libertarians believe the Federal government should have little to no rold in running the country - which, of course, is the job of the states (at least per the Constitution). The Fed can only perform those duties as strictly outlined in the Constitution, which includes running the military, but has nothing to do with dictating social polices to the states.
Your definition leads to the Federal Government restricting the rights of some for the good of the many, which is, no offense, the main tenant of socialism.
My wife read the book and she says the movie is loyal to the book. Her interpretation of the book was that it promoted self determination with the Federal Government staying as much out of the picture as possible. Part 1 of the movie depicts crooked politicians conspiring with greedy business men [Edit Added:] to insure that only they win and everyone else gets screwed [End Edit Added]. Something eerily akin to what is currently happening to our economy now. From Hoover, Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter, and now Obama.... pushing for a society that is "fair". I'm telling you, you could take the speech out of the end of the movie and it would sound just like Obama talking
Life ain't fair, and penalizing the successful to take care of less fortunate destroys the foundation that Capatalism is based on. This coming from a guy who's been unemployed for a year
(don't even THINK of touching my unemployment pay
: )
Part II isn't out until Fall of 2012 so as soon as I finish the book I'm reading now I'm going to read Atlas Shrugged. If you read it too, we could have an online debate
