Plains Feeder

Getting Ready to Roll

2009-11-21T07:39:00.005-06:00

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.
---
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

2009-11-17T11:38:00.004-06:00

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

---
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.

Home Entertainment Center Light

2009-11-17T11:24:00.003-06:00

A Boom-Box and a Mini Net-Book

Jean and I have very nearly emptied out her house in Ames Iowa. All that is left is a few more trips to the storage shed and rolling up our oriental rug collection. We need to get the real estate agent on board with our plan to sell the house 'as is' and pronto.

Pictured above is the only entertainment system that we will be taking with us in our two car caravan to the high desert of New Mexico. It still hasn't snowed on our parade.

Cute Video

2009-11-03T21:55:00.002-06:00

Andy Stern

Obama's most frequent White House visitor.

Resisting National Socialism, No. 2

2009-10-19T21:04:00.001-05:00

Seen in Iraq? - click for more

Presented without comment. Two on the old feeder's radar:
Oath Keepers and Three Percenters.
---
See: Las Vegas Review story linked on Drudge Report.
---
Previously: Resisting National Socialism.

Barack Obama

2009-10-17T10:17:00.002-05:00

Dems' Health Care Plan: Pay up now, get benefits years later.....???

Reverend Ike

2009-10-13T21:48:00.002-05:00

Reverend Ike

Remember Reverend Ike? I sure do. Dad Bones sent me news of his death recently. I had been too busy to notice. Reading about his life brought back some old memories.

In the early and mid 1970s, I studied am radio and TV ministries with an eye toward improving my own persuasive skills. The ones I liked best were Jimmy Swaggart and Reverend Ike. I made audio tapes, now in storage, of the best shows.

My favorite sermon has Jimmy Swaggart perpetuating the likely apocryphal story of Voltaire calling out for Jesus from his deathbed. Swaggart pronounced it Vol-tare-ee, and pointed out that folks still read the Bible while Voltaire's works sit on the shelf in "some dusty Me-YOOZE-e-um". All brought to me by the "miracle of tele-VEE-sion."

Impressed by his style, I sent away for a special prayer cloth from Reverend Ike. It turned out to be a piece of red yarn and a big packet of literature asking for donations. I kept the yarn until my last move, though I never found it to be particularly magical.

Reverend Ike was what I like to call a Deuteronomist. He preached that God rewards the faithful in this earthly life. If you say your prayers just right, this view has it, then God will make you rich. Ike called it The Science of Living, or more modernly, Thinkonomics. Its like some sort of creative visualization theory with Godly justification thrown in for effect. Done right, the system should make its practitioners rich. From the NYT story about Ike's death:

“Close your eyes and see green,” Reverend Ike would tell his 5,000 parishioners from a red-carpeted stage at the former Loew’s film palace on 175th Street in Washington Heights, the headquarters of his United Church Science of Living Institute. “Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool.”

This image brings back my childhood fascination with Donald Duck's Uncle Scrooge McDuck. For all my creative visualization of Scrooge, I never got rich, but did become a miserly tightwad. I haven't given up on parts of Reverend Ike's theories. His Washington Post obit piece quotes him: "The best thing you can do for the poor is not be one of them". This quote has been used by trendy motivationalists, so it can't be totally wrong, can it?

If I were to close my eyes right now I'd be at home in the New Mexico desert, breathing hypo-allergenic air and having a ginless gin and tonic with my old partner.
---
I'm actually in Ames, Iowa. Packing her stuff for storage, filling a rented dumpster with her excess baggage and living in a normal neighborhood. It is good.

Feedlot in the rear view mirror

2009-10-13T21:32:00.000-05:00

A few gratuitous photographs of the feedlot. It was a good run.

Early Morning

Front Porch View

Google Earth

From Pacific and Glenn, Elkhorn - long lens

The Old Feeder in Ames, Iowa

2009-09-23T09:13:00.003-05:00

Typical ISU Students - 1972

There have been some changes in the old feeder's plan to escape to the desert. I have acquired a traveling companion. This has required me to move my base of operations to Ames, Iowa, where I am going to stay until my adventurous partner, (who also happens to be an ex-wife) gets her house sold and her household goods secured. I have no idea how long this will take. I lived in Ames from 1965 to 1972.

In the meantime, I'm living out of a suitcase at her house. The feedlot, home for the last 12 years, is abandoned for good. We will get to the high desert in New Mexico soon enough, but for now I will be busy doing the same tasks I have just finished at the feedlot: throwing things away, putting stuff in storage and tying up loose ends. So much for plans.

If any Plains Feeder readers are interested in following my activities, I have been pretty good at keeping a current account on my FaceBook page. Otherwise, I plan to resume regular blogging here as soon as things shake out a bit. I'm still using an old laptop, there being no place to set up anything else.
---
Now that I am safely out of the Omaha, Nebraska area, I plan to give up much of the anonymity that has kept me from getting to know my readers personally. I expect to do this slowly; I've been living in undisclosed locations under assumed names for so many decades that it will be difficult to give up the practice.

I think I'll start by asking you to guess where the feedlot really is. Some of you already know, so please don't spoil the fun. I'd like to see if anyone has guessed the actual location. Clue:

‘And what will ye do wi’ your tow’rs and your ha’,
Edward, Edward?
And what will ye do wi’ your tow’rs and your ha’,
That were sae fair to see, O?’—
‘I’ll let them stand till they doun fa’,
Mither, mither;
I’ll let them stand till they doun fa’,
For here never mair maun I be, O.’

The feedlot has 'towers' and a 'hall' that can be seen for miles. More clues to follow.

Forget? Never!

2009-09-11T08:56:00.003-05:00

Screen grab from a 9/11 video

Take a few minutes today to remember and reflect upon the 9/11 attacks. Never forget.

Food for Thought for Nebraskans

2009-09-04T13:33:00.001-05:00

A Plains Pilgrim's Progress

2009-09-02T05:57:00.004-05:00

Placitas, New Mexico

The old feeder is but a couple of weeks away from quitting the feedlot. Notices have been given, services set to be disconnected, and forwarding arrangements made. I have moved many of my earthly possessions to a storage shed; that which remains here I am kissing goodbye. It is nearly time to move into my car and head off to the New Mexico desert.

The plan is locate temporary living accommodations for the winter somewhere in the high desert. During the Winter, I'll look for better digs if the first place I land isn't entirely suitable. Come springtime, when the Nebraska snows have melted and the grass shows it's green face on the Great Plains again, I will return to arrange for shipment of my books and papers.

I'm taking a laptop computer with me on my pilgrimage, perhaps I'll be able to contribute travel reports to the Plains Feeder. Once situated, I expect to resume regular blogging. No matter where I settle, I will always be a Plainsman at heart.

Govt Healthcare According to Mike Rogers

2009-08-27T18:22:00.001-05:00

I felt this guy did a great job describing what's about to happen if this Healthcare bill in its current form gets passed. We are so screwed.

About that He[A]lthcare Bill

2009-08-25T14:32:00.002-05:00

Feel free to copy it and send it around to your other representatives. Or in this case repost it on your blog if you have one. If you are on Facebook you can repost it as a Facebook note and then tag all of your Facebook Friends.

Stephen Fraser, M.D.
July 23, 2009

Senator Bayh,

As a practicing physician I have major concerns with the healthcare bill before Congress. I actually have read the bill and am shocked by the brazenness of the government's proposed involvement in the patient physician relationship. The very idea that the government will dictate and ration patient care is dangerous and certainly not helpful in designing a healthcare system that works for all. Every physician I work with agrees that we need to fix our healthcare system, but the proposed bills currently making their way through congress will be a disaster if passed.

I ask you respectfully and as a patriotic American to look at the following troubling lines that I have read in the bill. You cannot possibly believe that these proposals are in the best interests of the country and our fellow citizens.

Page 22 of the HC Bill: Mandates that the Govt will audit books of all employers that self insure!!

Page 30 Sec 123 of HC bill: THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get.

Page 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill: YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!

Page 42 of HC Bill: The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC Benefits for you. You have no choice!

Page 50 Section 152 in HC bill: HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise.

Page 58 HC Bill: Govt will have real-time access to individuals finances and a National ID Health card will be issued!

Page 59 HC Bill lines 21-24: Govt will have direct access to you, your banks accounts for elective funds transfer.

Page 65 Sec 164: is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions and community organizations: (ACORN).

Page 84 Sec 203 HC bill: Govt mandates ALL benefit packages for private HC plans in the Exchange.

Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill: Specifications for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration your Healthcare!

Page 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill: Govt mandates linguistic appropriate services. Example - Translation: illegal aliens.

Page 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18: The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Govt HC plan.

Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill: Specifications of Benefit Levels for Plans. AARP members - your Health care WILL be rationed.

Page 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill: Medicaid Eligible Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.

Page 124 Lines 24-25 HC: No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No "judicial review" against Govt Monopoly.

Page 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill: Doctors / American Medical Association - The Govt will tell YOU what you can make! (salary)

Page 145 Line 15-17: An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE!

Page 126 Lines 22-25: Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families.

Page 149 Lines 16-24: ANY Employer with payroll 401k and above who does not provide public option pays 2-6% tax on all payroll.

Page 150 Lines 9-13: Business's with payroll btw 251k and 401k who doesn't provide public option pays 2-6% on all payroll.

Page 167 Lines 18-23: ANY individual who doesn't have acceptable HC according to Govt will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Page 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill: Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay)

Page 195 HC Bill: Officers and employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans finances / personal records.

Page 203 Line 14-15 HC: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax" Yes, it says that!

Page 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill: Govt will reduce physician services for Medicaid Seniors, low income and poor are affected.

Page 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill: Doctors, doesn't matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same!

Page 253 Line 10-18: Govt sets value of Doctor's time, profession, judgment, etc. Literally value of humans.

Page 265 Sec 1131: Govt mandates and controls productivity for private HC industries.

Page 268 Sec 1141: Federal Govt regulates rental and purchases of power driven wheelchairs.

Page 272 SEC. 1145: TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS - Cancer patients - welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151: The Govt will penalize hospitals for whatever Govt deems preventable re-admissions.

Page 298 Lines 9-11: Doctors, treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission - Govt will penalize you.

Page 317 Lines 13-20: PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Doctors what/how much they can own!

Page 317-318 Lines 21-25, 1-3: PROHIBITION on expansion - Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand.

Page 321 Lines 2-13: Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input is required. Can you say ACORN?!!

Page 335 Lines 16-25 Pg 336-339: Govt mandates establishment of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing.

Page 341 Lines 3-9: Govt has authority to disqualify Medicare Advance Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing people into Govt plan.

Page 354 Sec 1177: Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people! Unbelievable!

Page 379 Sec 1191: Govt creates more bureaucracy - Tele-health Advisory Committee. Can you say HC by phone?

Page 425 Lines 4-12: Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life patients.

Page 425 Lines 17-19: Govt will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney. Mandatory!

Page 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3; Govt provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death. (assisted suicide)

Page 427 Lines 15-24: Govt mandates program for orders for end of life. The Govt has a say in how your life ends.

Page 429 Lines 1-9: An "advanced care planning consultant" will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.

Page 429 Line 10-12: "advanced care consultation" may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOVT!

Page 449 Lines 13-25: The Govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

Page 430 Lines 11-15: The Govt will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life!

Page 469: Community Based Home Medical Services = Non profit organizations. Hello, ACORN Medical Services here!!?

Page 472 Lines 14-17: PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORIGINATION. One monthly payment to a community-based organization. Like ACORN?

Page 489 Sec 1308: The Govt will cover Marriage and Family therapy. Which means they will insert Govt into your marriage.

Page 494-498: Govt will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing those services.

Senator, I guarantee that I personally will do everything possible to inform patients and my fellow physicians about the dangers of the proposed bills you and your colleagues are debating.

Furthermore, If you vote for a bill that enforces socialized medicine on the country and destroys the doctor/patient relationship, I will do everything in my power to make sure you lose your job in the next election.

Respectfully,

Stephen E Fraser MD

Dr. John Batter from Canada spoke at our rally against Socialized Medicine

Attention House Blue Dog Democrats and Senate Gang of Six

Attention NE Senators and Congressman

HT: Domestic Divapalooza: Here’s a letter to Senator Bayh about the Healthcare Bill

Why?

2009-08-24T16:02:00.002-05:00

Why does everything have to be about race?

Why is that?

HT: Domestic Divapalooza: Why Is That?

Healthcare Reform Recess Rally in Omaha Nebraska at the Douglas County Courthouse

2009-08-19T21:26:00.002-05:00

PLEASE CONSIDER ATTENDING and LETTING YOUR OPINION BE KNOWN

Congressman Lee Terry Town hall Meeting
DATE: August 25, 2009
TIME: 6:00 PM CST
LOCATION: Millard North High School, Omaha, Nebraska

Senator Ben Nelson Town hall Meeting
DATE: August 19, 2009
TIME: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM CST
LOCATION: University of Nebraska Medical Center's Durham Research
Center Auditorium, near Emile Street & Durham Research Plaza, Omaha, Nebraska
TOPICS: Health care and other issues important to Nebraskans

National Health Care Reform Recess Rally

The Nebraska Chapter of the 912 Project and Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska are joining Michelle Malkin, RedState, American Majority, Smart Girl Politics, Americans for Limited Government, Freedom Works, Sam Adams Alliance, Don´t Go Movement and others to sponsor a National Health Care Reform Recess Rally Join us so our voices can be heard in D.C. Now is the time to stop this socialized medicine bill.

Date: Saturday, August 22, 2009
Time: 12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM
Place: City-County Building Plaza, 18th and Farnam, Omaha
Speakers Include: Congressman Lee Terry, State Treasurer Shane Osborn, State Senator Tony Fulton, Dr. John Heieck, Dr. Britt Thedinger, Dr. John Batter, Glenn Freeman, and Greg Boyle.

All Nebraska federal and state representatives have been invited to
attend, as well as Senator Chuck Grassley and Representative Steve King from Iowa.

Hat Tip: Domestic Divapalooza: Town Hall Meetings and Health Care Reform Recess Rally

Yes, I took that picture of our nation's flag back in July.

Time for some meaningful dialog?

2009-08-19T12:54:00.004-05:00

Talks or Walks?

President Obama said something to the effect that our enemies will grow to understand and even love us if he could get together with their leaders and talk. I realize the President is busy trying to bring the US into socialism, but those enemies aren't going away.

I'm thinking of the enemy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea, not that there aren't others. These folks seem to hate Obama and the US. How come no 'talks'?

Everything goes!

2009-08-18T09:38:00.002-05:00

I'll Keep the Conga Drum

Does anyone still use a serial port on their PC? For a mouse? IDE (parallel ATA) hard drive connectors are almost a thing of the past as well. Out they go.

Offerings to the Spirits

2009-08-14T19:33:00.012-05:00

Buddy, Ritchie & the Bopper

Rock & Roll spirits, that is. My good friend and I were cruising through Clear Lake, Iowa, yesterday and decided to check out the Surf Ballroom, where Buddy Holly played his last concert in 1959 before his plane went down on that cold February night in a north Iowa cornfield. From the outside the Surf was almost innocuous, as if it hadn't changed a bit in the last fifty years.

We weren't that curious, at least not enough to get out of her truck. Driving around back we saw Leon Russell's dark red tour bus parked outside for his concert last night. Tickets at the door were $15. Being an old Leon fan I should have felt a little guilty for not being tempted to go but I didn't.

The woman behind the steering wheel said let's go to the crash site. If you knew her you wouldn't be surprised. After the dance is over we all gotta go somewhere and she's held more than a couple of hands as the person inside them went as far as they could go in this world. We drove five miles north of Clear Lake, parked the truck close to the metal sculpture of Buddy's glasses, and walked a half mile along a fence row in the hot sun to where the young rockers crashed and froze. - I'm up on the tightwire, one side's ice and one is fire. - That's the way Leon put it.

As you can see lots of things were left, from a guitar key chain, poems, coins, to a wallet full of credit cards. Clik the pics to enlarge.

This hat held in place with a plastic banana says it all.

I've been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. Way too commercial. Out on the edge of that Iowa bean field nobody was coerced into giving up money or a guitar key chain they may have liked. They did it because they wanted to.

As for me I hesitate to make too much out of three chords and a back beat, no matter how much fun I've had with it. James Cotton sang Rock and Roll, it ain't no news. It ain't nothin but the boogie woogie blues. - And before the blues there was something else.

I'm up on the tightwire, flanked by life and the funeral pyre. I wonder if Leon sang that last night. Doesn't matter; it wouldn't change a thing. I was listening to the Top Forty on my family's AM radio in 1959 when the DJ announced their deaths. Fifty years seems like a long time ago but others have been around much longer.

It's the last song at the last dance that's on my mind this rainy morning of what looks to be a rainy weekend. I'm not depressed although I know well enough what it's like. I'm just watching the rain come down.

Kitchen Corner

2009-08-12T08:44:00.004-05:00

A Corner of the Feedlot Kitchen - click for big

As you may know, the old feeder is relocating. Health problems and the cost of propane are driving me out of the feedlot. I'm a terrible pack-rat and getting ready to move is an enormous task, one I don't much enjoy.

I usually like to take pictures of places I've lived; pictures with the kind of details that keep memories alive. The photo above is of one corner in the kitchen here. I'm posting it because I'm too busy to do the a crop report post. You will just have to place your futures bets without my input.

As soon as I get my car back from its front end alignment, I will be able to finish transferring my DVD collection from their bulky store packages to small, thin CDROM boxes. This saves a lot of space, but I've run out of the little cases.

Le Boudin

2009-08-10T16:36:00.007-05:00

Voilà - click to hear

Tiens, voilà du boudin, voilà du boudin, voilà du boudin
Pour les Alsaciens, les Suisses et les Lorrains,
Pour les Belges, y en a plus,
Pour les Belges y en a plus,
Ce sont des tireurs au cul.
Pour les Belges, y en a plus,
Pour les Belges y en a plus,
Ce sont des tireurs au cul.

---
Looks like fun, no? A chance for a new life. Get some.

Aedh Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven

2009-08-09T05:34:00.003-05:00

It don't sort out right - click

The old feeder spent the early morning hours reading poems instead of working.

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

WB Yeats

WB Yeats had a fine understanding of unrequited love, gained through his long experience with Maude Gonne. Sometimes I think my dreams have been trampled as thin as tortillas.

For an asshole, I can sure get sentimental. I'm not even Irish.

Plumb Tuckered Out

2009-08-07T18:18:00.005-05:00

I used to clean up nice

The feedlot is turning brown and square. I'm so tired that I can't think of anything to post here.

This old photo of myself is now my profile picture on FaceBook. I'm sporting new gear, even the Randall knife was new. I should have listened to Ben Franklin's advice: “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”
---
Click the pic and the post title to read about Mitchell Werbell III. I was fascinated by the cat when the photo was taken.

Inspiration

2009-08-06T23:57:00.004-05:00

Dismantling the Feedlot

I guess I'll keep this inspirational card. It has been displayed in my offices for many years. The path ahead is unknown, yet I must press forward. Like Miyamoto Musashi.

A Timely Read

2009-08-05T22:15:00.000-05:00

August 6th, 1945

Originally this book was a New Yorker magazine article by John Hersey. The story coolly describes the actual experiences of six people who survived the first wartime use of an atomic weapon. It begins each tale just moments before the blast. The account ends a few weeks after. I try to read it every year at this time. It is well written and free of editorializing. I've mentioned it before.

I recommend the book without further comment. Read and learn.