Maggie's Farm

Last weekend was emptying a storage closet.  95% of what was in there ended in the trash. Even some good stuff, but never needed.

As in Babar, we found an old Father Christmas in there, and, stuffed in the furthest back under the eaves, two boxes of Christmas decorations and ornaments. Forgot we had them, but we do less-decorated Christmases these days. 

Yesterday's project was the kitchen drawers. Just for a few examples, we found my wife's grandmother's walnut pasta rolling pin, her mother's rolling pin, and of course, ours. I think we have enough kitchen tools for three households. And I found two sets of meat-injectors (I guess I couldn't find the other one so bought a new one), and three basters. One steel, two plastic.  Clearly, could not find a baster so got new.

And you know those great tongs you use to take pasta out of the pasta pot and dump directly into the sauce? We had three. The thing with cooking tools is that there are many of them that you use rarely, like meat thermometers or meat injectors, so they end up invisible in the backs of drawers, so you say the heck with it and just make do without.

Virus projects. We are not on any sort of phobic lockdown, but there aren't many places to go except for hikes and horses. Have we been home-cooking more? You betcha. Twice/week takeout from our favorite places, but otherwise, more. 

Are our readers doing similar? 

There have been times in my life when I would have preferred being a serf safely working a lord's cabbage fields instead of taking on all of the risks and responsibilities that I have done.

I tend to do most of my thinking in the morning shower where there are no welcome distractions. This morning, some of my thoughts had to do with virus panic and the desire for a risk-free life, if not a death-free life. Most of all of our ancestors were serfs, slaves, or something similar, for thousands of years.

Maybe it's dreams of childhood, or dreams of Eden, or some vision of utopia or Heaven that inspire.  One thing diseases do is to remind us to be humble in the face of nature. Two days ago an asteroid passed close to earth, which could have eliminated much of civilization not to mention millions of humans. 

Are governments supposed to have the powers to do the job of an all-powerful, merciful, and loving God?  I kind-of thought so, or hoped so, in my youth, but no more. Life, even as a peaceful serf with others well-armed to protect me, was no free life. Relatively safe, but no freedom or opportunity.

Fears of injury, damage, financial ruin, or death?  Most of us have those. Rightly so. But there is probably a Bell Curve (as with most things) of fearfulness and risk-aversion amongst humans. An ordinary pandemic, like the Hong Kong flu of 1968, or another Chinese bug of 2020, highlights that as you can probably see in the people you know. There is such a range of fear.

There is prudence of course, but in the end there is no safety in life if one lives with energy and adventurousness.  The most dangerous things I do in life is to drive my car and tractor, ride my horses, and to invest. 

If you want a risk-free life, try another planet or become a timid mouse. 

Ever since I graduated from grad school I have kept a major medical plan. Yes, it it portable.

Over my lifetime, medical costs have expanded enormously, mainly because of what medical science in the the US is able to do. Miraculous things. All worth doing? I do not know, but the USA has the best medical options in the world, however expensive. Among many other problems with Obamacare (a stalking horse for government medical care) was the absence of a regular cheap major medical plan like the one I still have.

Shop around. These policies still exist. 

Speaking personally, I am not afraid of dying if I am in bad shape, but I think life is a kick and I'd be glad to stick with it for a while, working, making a living, and having an interesting life. 

Two links:

 EMPLOYER PROVIDED HEALTH INSURANCE DELENDA EST

Coronavirus: One thing that makes job loss in US so painful

Making political hay out of an epidemic is shameful, but there is a point. 

Also this:  Hillary Clinton on Coronavirus and Universal Health Care: 'This Would Be a Terrible Crisis to Waste'

WTF? 

Via a commenter at Schneiderman:

I think Voltaire should have a say in this matter, just as he did when that lunatic, Rousseau, sent him a copy of the "Discourse of the Origin of Inequality."

"I have received, sir, your new book against the human race, and I thank you for it. You will please people by your manner of telling them the truth about themselves, but you will not alter them. The horrors of that human society--from which in our feebleness and ignorance we expect so many consolations--have never been painted in more striking colors: no one has ever been so witty as you are in trying to turn us into brutes: to read your book makes one long to go about all fours. Since, however, it is now some sixty years since I gave up the practice, I feel that it is unfortunately impossible for me to resume it: I leave this natural habit to those more fit for it than are you and I. Nor can I set sail to discover the aborigines of Canada, in the first place because my ill-health ties me to the side of the greatest doctor [1] in Europe, and I should not find the same professional assistance among the Missouris: and secondly because war is going on in that country, and the example of the civilized nations has made the barbarians almost as wicked as we are ourselves. I must confine myself to being a peaceful savage in the retreat I have chosen--close to your country, where you yourself should be."

Via Prof Boudreaux:

 Yet creationism in government shows no sign of fading. To this day, despite the resurgence of liberal values that came after the Second World War, and especially after the Cold War, the knee-jerk assumption on the part of much of the intelligentsia is still based on planning rather than evolutionary unfolding. Though politicians are regarded as scum, government as a machine is held to be almost infallible.