The Gift

The Gift

Too often Christmas gets swallowed up in the busyness of shopping and sending cards and wrapping presents. As we rush around, we often miss the wonder of what Christmas is all about.

Christmas began with a gift given to the human race two thousand years ago. It was a child, born in a Bethlehem stable and laid in a manger. His birth was announced by wise men guided from the East by a very special star.

It was the gift we needed most: a Savior, the holy Son of God. This is the good news proclaimed by the angel: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

Why was God’s gift of a Savior so important?

There are three reasons:

1. The greatness of the need. The future of the human race was at stake. Sin made havoc of God’s creation and brought estrangement from its Creator (Romans 3:23).

2. The greatness of the gift. Not only was the need great, but the gift was also great! “This is my beloved Son,” God said, “in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

3. The greatness of the cost. Read the inspired portraits of the suffering of Christ in Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and Psalm 69. The cross was only part of the price He gladly paid.

Jesus Christ did not die for His own sins or because He was a victim of circumstances. He came as God’s supreme gift to you and me. The Bible pointedly asks: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3).

Have you overlooked the really important gift of Christmas? Is God prompting you to look through the odds and ends of Christmas?

God’s gift for you is waiting. Don’t miss it. Right now, wherever you are, you can receive the costliest gift, Jesus Christ the Savior.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)

Copyright Good News Publishers. These little brochures are printed in the USA. This little pamphlet was handed out by the Open Door Mission in my mailing this year. I thought it was beautiful and wanted to share it with you.

Merry Christmas!

China time

Sweatin' in the shop

While PT's busy packing I feel compelled to do a China post. A Google search indicates there are people still wringing their hands over horrible conditions in Chinese sweatshops. I'll admit I wouldn't want to work in one even if that woman in the purple bikini was working beside me. However, it should be mentioned that there's well over twenty million workers in China who still can't find a shop to sweat in.

Everyone knows that enterprising Chinese emigrants have historically settled over much of the world in search of opportunity. According to Jim Rogers that's been a blessing for mainland China as over 80% of all investment in the country comes from Chinese living overseas. I suppose it compares to Mexican immigrants in the U.S. sending money home for their families to spend in Mexico.

Jim Rogers is well known for traveling all over the world in search of investment opportunities, and for showing investors that they needn't be traders with nerves of steel to invest in the commodity market. I'll have to take his word for it because I don't have any experience in investing due to a lack of...well that list is too long to get into now. The point is that he sold his house in the U.S. and moved his wife and two daughters to Singapore to be closer to where the action is. He's still an American citizen and still pays taxes here but has found our government to be increasingly hostile to business. (Clik title for a good Rogers interview.)

China's Communist government, on the other hand, likes capitalists and makes it comparatively easy to do well there. After Mao Zedong was buried a new slogan became popular: "It's glorious to be rich." While capitalists appear to enjoy greater freedom in China than here, ordinary Americans are still living with more liberty than their Chinese counterparts, but for how long?

What I'm really wondering is whether there will eventually be an exodus of youthful American entrepreneurs looking for some glorious wealth that they feel could best be created in another country. If that should happen hopefully they - like the Chinese and Mexicans - would send some of their new riches to the "old country" because I think we're going to need it.

I hear Grandma Knutson rolling in her grave

Stieg Larsson - Per Petterson

It was mere coincidence that the last two novels I've read were written by Norski commies. Its no coincidence that both of them stunk. One of the authors was a commie, the other is a commie and a librarian.

The first one was loaned to me by someone who said I didn't need to return it. That should have been a clue. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was at least interesting. It was a bit macabre, but I suppose that the Swedish national psyche is so screwed up by Marxist thought that only an extremely bizarre character can be made to stand out in a murder mystery. Think Dr. H. H. Holmes. The otherwise mediocre read is capped off with a truly disappointing ending.

The second, and by far the worst of the two, Out Stealing Horses by Norwegian writer Per Petterson was so bad I could hardly finish it. The book drips with childish style, all of it badly affected. Maybe its just a lousy translation, but I doubt it. There is some semblance of a plot, but even that is weak and uninteresting. The only good thing about the way the book ends is that one can finally quit reading it.

You just can't trust book reviews any more. I tried to read the highly reviewed My Name is Red by Turkish Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. It was one of the few books I have started and then dropped unfinished. I guess it makes sense. If Barack Obama can get a Nobel Peace Prize, then Orhan Pamuk must be a great writer.

I must find a good book to read before we start out for New Mexico.

Pearl Harbor Day

Don't Forget - Fly your Flag

Remember that the world is still threatened by the same sort of National Socialist thinking that inspired the Japanese attack on this day in 1941. For more links and thoughts, see previous Plains Feeder posts here and here.

Plains Feeder Neglect to End Soon

Beatnik Sleeping Accommodations

It has been a busy Summer and Fall for the old feeder. Fundamental changes have been effected. Blogging has been almost non-existent. I expect to resume daily blogging in a month or so. For those of you that might be interested and don't follow P.T. Gustan on FaceBook, I shall recapitulate the odd adventures that explain the current dearth of feeder posts.

Last Summer, feeling a desire for more personal liberty and a warmer climate, I freed myself of all but a carload of worldly goods. Most of this Karmic luggage I simply gave away, discarded or abandoned. Some of the stickier items had to be tricked into believing I might come back for them some day (maybe I will, maybe not). This trickery means I'll pay a never-ending storage rental, but as Epictetus advised, I try to think of that as the price of a peaceful mind. I was almost ready to relocate my new, lighter self to my schemed-up hideaway in the New Mexico desert when Labor Day rolled around.

Some time before Labor Day I contacted my second ex-wife (we'll call her NeeSmart) to see if she wanted any of the stuff, much of which used to be ours, before I locked up the storage shed and left town. Sure, she said. She made her holiday plans to include a comping trip to a Platte River State Park not far from the feedlot. I ended up joining her for several beautiful sunny days and full moon nights in a nice cabin by the river. We decided almost immediately that we should move to the desert together.

Since then I along with my carload of stuff have been staying at Nee's house here in Ames, Iowa. We went through the same process of streamlining her life and it's worldly attachments as I had done this past Summer. It was a bigger job here. She owns a house, which means she couldn't simply abandon her accumulated furniture and junk as I did when quitting the old feedlot. Its been a great deal of work, but we are nearly finished.

The house in Ames is so empty we are living like beatniks, sleeping on the floor and eating Chinese take-out. We need to get rid of a few awkward pieces like a full-sized treadmill that we are going to have to hire professionals to get out of Nee's basement. There are a few more legal niceties before we hand over the sale of the house to our realtor and one of Nee's brothers. We will hire a cleaning service to shine up the house before it gets shown. We want to visit a bit with family and friends in these parts. Then we will hit the road for New Mexico. Target departure date: the middle of this month.

The plan is to hole up in a modest rental somewhere near Placitas, New Mexico, live like Spartans and look for more permanent digs. Next Spring we will consider returning to our two storage facilities, mine in Gretna, Nebraska and Nee's here in Ames for such stuff as we'd like to have for our new home in the desert. We plan to call this our retirement.

As a retired old feeder (who will always be a Plainsman at heart), I should have plenty of time to engage in blogging. First I'll patch things up around here; I did a heap of damage when I deleted the domain where the Plains Feeder's images reside. I need to work up a new blogroll, including the old stalwarts from blogrolls past along with some new ones. If I'm feeling up to it, I might even spiff up this old blog. I have a couple of other blogs I'd like to revive as well.

This should start happening soon, in the coming months. God willing and the creek don't rise.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks for Everything

I thank the creator for giving me a chance to be a part of it all.

Getting Ready to Roll

Ready to Roll

Roll up our carpet collection, that is. We have quite a number: Herekes, Kulas, Yacibedirs, Sumaks, Kilims, Kars, Konyas, Taspinars, etc. They are mostly Turkish village carpets made of naturally dyed wool. All of them are hand-knotted. We even have one Hereke silk on silk with gold threads.

I have a feeling that these rugs will keep their value better than dollars. Unlike gold, they become more valuable with age. The only problem is liquidity, but who cares? We think they are beautiful, and walking on them barefooted is a pleasure. It is also fun to remember our rug hunting expeditions in Turkey.

We will put them in storage, hope the mice and moths don't eat them, then retrieve them as soon as we find a home in New Mexico. The Turks use them even on dirt floors. The designs often have archetypal patterns not unlike Southwest Red Indian rugs, so they'll be "in style" even if we end up living in a dirt floored hogan.
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Soon we will be packing up our computers, but we will try to keep our friends updated on our progress either here at the Plains Feeder or on FaceBook for you 'social network' types. My FB page is here. I'll be happy to add Plains Feeder readers as FB Friends.

Political Cartoon

I keep thinking we should include something in the Constitution
in case the people elect a fucking moron.

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Thanks to the kid that used to live across the street from Jean and me who grew up to become a man with his head screwed on straight.