mixed weekend

Saturday it was snowing a little bit and the wind was blowing HARD. I read my Atlas Shrugged book by Ayn Rand all day. I'm still not finished with the book, had to tear myself away to ride Shade sunday on a much calmer sunny sky and do just a bit of cleaning on Dukes pen --my back was barely up for that. Sitting and reading all day saturday was not good for it.

I should have rode Shade earlier, the wind was picking up some when I got out. Took Mia for a short spin and got a heavier balaclava back at the house, started out, realized I had not put my helmet back on. Decided I should grab one, left Shade grazing in the ditch tied to the paddock fence for a few minutes while I ran back and grabbed one. We ended up not going very far but had a couple of FUN quarter mile SPRINTS up the hill on road 35 and doing a short loop. It spit some sleet on us and I decided I would cut the ride short in case Shade would get wet and chill rather than cooling out gradually.

I haven't finished the book yet, but it got pretty interesting. The book was written before the Marshall plan and assumes communism having crept over all of Europe, but it makes excellent arguments about how envy of the very successful can lead to the destructive desire not to improve ones own situation but to claim a share of their wealth and even to want laws to prevent them from being able to do better than oneself. Also had a chilling but accurate vision of the destructive spirit of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" I cant believe in denying anyone their needs, but the book shows what happens when 'needs' are defined by how effectively one whines to the wealth distributor rather than as a bare survival standard and when abilities are used to demand more of the talented without giving them the reward for their extra production.

I bought the book because I kept reading so many references to it in blogs about our current situation, and sadly it seems that we are perilously close to the faux philosophers preaching that success must be due to climbing on other's backs rather the hard work + talent that it almost always is, our country is too arrogant, is not sensitive enough to the feelings of others and we must make amends .........