United Liberty

After posting teasers for the last few weeks, the producers of Atlas Shrugged Part II have released the trailer for the film, which is due to come out on October 12th. Filming began on the movie back in April. Reason stopped back the set in July to give us an idea of what was going on and to let fans meet some of the cast, which has been completely revamped since the first installment.

As noted before, many of us who are fans of Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged, the book for which she is best known, are hoping for a better flick this time around. The first installment wasn’t terrible, but the such as the CGI and some of the actors left a lot to be desired.

Here is the trailer. Enjoy:

Co-produced by Reason.TV and the Moving Picture Institute, ”The Machine” details just how teachers unions and other parts of the K-12 educational “machine” generate money and influence - anything but meaningul results for the kids at the center of the system.

Shortly before voters head to the polls in the fall, the second installment of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged will hit the Silver Screen. There is little coincidence in the time of the film’s release given the themes of class warfare and persecution of society’s producers that we will hear during the presidential campaign.

However, many of us who caught Part 1 are no doubt hoping to see an improvement with this film. As I noted in my review, the chemistry between Taylor Schilling (Dagny Taggart) and Grant Bowler (Henry Reardon) was great, but the rest of the film left a lot to be desired. But Part 2 will, among other changes, see a new cast and a new director. These changes will hopefully be for the better in order to do the book justice, which is indeed hard to go given the low-budget for the film.

Reason.tv recently visited the set to meet with some of the actors and minds behind the film. You can also check out Brian Doherty’s account of his visit to the set from back in April:

If you listen to his critics, you’d think that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is a far-right conservative that has slashed spending and taxes to near apocalyptic levels. Of course, wth a recall election coming early next month in Wisconsin thanks to Big Labor’s outrage at reforms to the state’s collective bargaining agreement, this sort of rhetoric is expected. But Reason has pieced together a view debunking some of the oft-repeated lies about Gov. Scott Walker’s fiscal conservatism:

As a result of the Trayvon Martin shooting, the topic of racism has, unfortunately, been given new life in American politics and culture. As the shooting became a prominent fixture in the news, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and even President Barack Obama jumped into the fray by making statements that pinned the incident as racially motivated. Others have used it to attack the Second Amendment and gun owners.

But in a video at Reason, Kennedy, a former MTV personality, is setting the record straight, noting that race relations are better, according to poll data, and incidents involving gun violence are actually on the decline:

While it’s not a thorough victory for property rights, the Supreme Court did beat back overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a unanimous decision issued on Wednesday that will give property owners recourse when they are threatened with fines for alleged environmental damage:

The Supreme Court has sided with an Idaho couple in a property rights case, ruling they can go to court to challenge an Environmental Protection Agency order that blocked construction of their new home and threatened fines of more than $30,000 a day.

Wednesday’s decision is a victory for Mike and Chantell Sackett, whose property near a scenic lake has sat undisturbed since the EPA ordered a halt in work in 2007. The agency said part of the property was a wetlands that could not disturbed without a permit.

In an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court rejected EPA’s argument that allowing property owners quick access to courts to contest orders like the one issued to the Sacketts would compromise the agency’s ability to deal with water pollution.

“Compliance orders will remain an effective means of securing prompt voluntary compliance in those many cases where there is no substantial basis to question their validity,” Scalia said.

In this case, the couple objected to the determination that their small lot contained wetlands that are regulated by the Clean Water Act, and they complained there was no reasonable way to challenge the order without risking fines that can mount quickly.