Sorry about being less than attentive to the blog or business lately. My wife, after having to pull more than her fair share of the load of 43 years, had to go under the knife for her shoulder. I have been attempting to be a loving caring nurse. Well that nurse role might be an over exaggeration. Fay is doing well. This is day three….. you know what they say… the third day is the worst.
So I get this email telling me to go up to the KCET website that I was personally attacked.
It turns out that the new guy in town author and blogger, Chris Clarke, has been tasked or bamboozled to disseminate the latest propaganda of the “Mojave Land Trust.”
Actually except for the mis-identification of the bad guys as Off Road Enthusiasts it was an interesting article. I’m thinking once Chris gets his bearings and from under the thumb of the most extreme of the local environmentalist at the local coffee shop, he may still come around to the fact that there are two sides to every story. I just want to say Welcome to the High Desert, Chris and family.
One of the comments to his article was a well written retort by a blogger using the handle Mad Machinist. It was soon attributed to either Ken Peil or I. The comment was attacked by one JTukeva with an obvious ad hominem attack not against the content of Mad Machinist‘s blog comment but an open attack on Ken Peil and I. Go figure that. Hundreds of Off Road orientated blogs, magazines, 100s of thousands of articulate off roaders and some dork from JT picks me out as the possible author.
JTukeva says :
Dear MadMachinist,
Are you Dan O’Brien of Mustard’s Last Stand in Joshua Tree, or Ken Piel, of Mission Viejo? Are both of you still part of the same scofflaw ORV organization that has terrorized, harassed and bullied anyone who opposed your self-interests? The same ORV organization that uses the internet to hate monger against opponents, outing purported gays and Jews? The same organization whose 1950′s-era mindset tries to usurp patriotism to itself, accusing any inconvenient opponents of being – gasp! – communists, Joe McCarthy-style? The same organization that allegedly vandalized political opponents’ homes, and legally harassed other low-income opponents by hiring lawyers to spy on them and tattle to county agencies about any residential codes they might violate?
Did you know that the local community banded together against you, to help the people you so viciously attacked? They banded together to raise funds for building supplies, and held work-parties to fix your victims’ properties. I bet you didn’t know that, since they didn’t report it to the media. Your victims are still to frightened to speak out, lest you attack and terrorize them again.
Your ORV organization shelters and promotes hate mongers and terrorists – all to divert attention from the scofflaws among you who you yourselves refuse to stop.
Your actions made the community rally against you, because you proved yourselves to be overaged bullies and cowards – hiding behind anonymity to say or do your worst. Nobody likes a bully – that’s why bullies like you are losers. Your ORV org has become a gang of thugs.
If you’re so proud of yourself, why don’t you post in your own name, Dan, or is it Ken?
What can I say? How do you answer such insanity? I want to thank Chris and KCET for allowing me to give a whimsical response to what has to be a clear example of character assassination.
I always try to keep things like this in perspective. My Grandfather and my Uncle Sam Wall, both Hollywood Public Relations Agents always said, “I doesn’t matter what they say about you, just as long as they are saying it.”
I knew nothing of the article until I was emailed the URL by fans, and now you know about the article. Jump up on the KCET site and read It Takes Minutes to Trash the Desert, but Centuries to Repair.
Lets show Chris respect but lets show him the other side of the story.
The Other Side of the Story,
wow, I don’t comment on here anymore but felt I had to on this one, what a retard this person is JTuvkea, what are you ? an alien ? from another planet ?
As a JT person I’m more than offended by this type of fantasy,,,,and the sad part is the wacko’s in LA (weekenders) think there is truth in this,,,man……
You’re organized???
Good luck to the misses.
LOL… yeah that was my first thought too.
And thanks for the concern.
How do you carry a mattress on a dirt bike?
You cram it in next to the refrigerator.
Carefully Larry, you must wrap the mattress around the refridgerator without haveing the shotgun go off. LOL.
Actually here’s how it works with alot of the articles that are out there defining off roaders. If you are let’s say in a Honda Civic, loaded down with trash and you go out in the desert and dump said trash on an old trail or off an established road on BLM or private property, guess what? You are now an illegal offroader which means the OHVer’s are blamed for it.
This article is about an area 3 miles from the National Park. I went riding a couple of weeks ago on BLM land with designated trails that butts up to the National Park. I found trash dumped within a quarter mile of the National Park. The problem is you could have driven a Honda Civic to the spot and dumped. This problem is not just about the National Park. It is happening all over the desert.
I believe the author could have made the article about illegal dumping and how in monetizing the county dump system the county and State have made illegal dumping of household trash and garbage the only viable option for the poor and downtrodden.
If county dumps were once again free and easily accessible, illegal dumping would soon be a rare thing.
We did not have this dumping problem before this pay by the pound trash scheme.
Beg to differ Dan. Illegal dumping has always been a problem here in the desert. Why drive 10 miles to the dump site when you can go 5 miles and dump it anywhere you want?
Why close a dump that is two miles from town to free dumping.. Then Charge by the pound?
Since property owners get a total of 6 tons free a year in dumping fees, Maybe we should make landlords responsible for the illegal dumping of their renters.. Just a thought.
6 tons a year of very regulated debris/trash
desertrider, As a homeowner in the unincorporated area of 29, I’ve been hauling my trash and using my county landfill card for 11 years and have never been denied, restricted or regulated of dumping household and yard stuff (but for electronics and good reason for that). So it’s not that “very regulated” in my opinion.
I do agree completely that many people who don’t have county landfill cards simply cannot afford to dump at county landfills. That is a real problem. Solve that and the dumping in the desert will go way down but for incorrigibly dirt bags.
I have to disagree with you Larry, while illegal dumping had been an issue before, it was a small one, compared to after the change in policy and regulation.
So taxpayers should subsidize the dumps?
check your tax bill….you have been doing that for decades.
Hard to identify who dumped the mattress unless their name is Simmons
The point was, once these trails are established, they help open up the desert to dumping. I do agree that the article was a bit was a bit construed. Taking a dump truck down an orv trail doesn’t make much sense. Being abandoned private property owned by some obscure bank may be more of the problem. The dumping becomes more of a civic matter, not enforceable by the BLM.
I guess they were at a loss for space, having to wrap two totally unrelated stories into one. Illegal dumping sucks, illegal off-roading sucks. But the two aren’t related. As I said in my response over there, we don’t trash the areas where we go to recreate, matter of fact the majority of duners/off-roaders that I have witnessed, and the several different groups that I go riding with, ALWAYS leave the place better than what we found it.
So why is it that every hike I go on whether it be up at the Monument, the Preserve, or any of our local desert/mountain environs I am cramming my pockets or backpack full of someone elses food wrappers and bottles??? Surely all of these environmentalists hiking in front of me wouldn’t trash their playground. Would they?
This is small compared to illegal dumping and blaming it on OHV, but I was hanging out at the Historic Plaza today and saw a bag of trash with most of its garbage spilling out on to the parking spaces, so I picked the garbage up and walked 15 feet and put the trash in the nearest garbage can. I think people are the problem, not the group they may be identified with. Let’s take personal responsibility for our own actions.
Gee Cora, what a concept. Take personal responsiblility for something. Surely you jest. You have my vote.
Stanley,
Thank you!