Desert Dog Blog

Remember Dezert Magazine?

The 1937 edition of The Desert Magazine

Remember the old Desert magazine?  It’s publication ran from 1937 all the way to 1985, when its management decided to close up shop.

The original Desert Magazine was published from 1937 to 1985 by a man named Randall Henderson.  In 1958 he passed the torch, and other editors kept the magazine afloat until 1985.  Since then, efforts have been made to resurrect Desert magazine in print and as an online magazine.  The latest, and most promising, effort is www.dezertmagazine.com.

This online magazine is founded by John Grassom.  Grassom said Dezert Magazine is “a quarterly online publication dedicated to all things southwest. This includes archeology, anthropology, history, 4×4ing, travel, wildlife, botany, rock hounding and treasure hunting.”

Grassom added, “We are simply moving forward with the same commitment and passion as the first.”

The first Desert Magazine focused on archaeology, wildlife, human interest stories, history, geology, and anything desert-related.  And that’s what Dezert Magazine is going to be about.

Grassom invited the Desert Dogs to participate in providing content to their magazine, with the first issue coming up on October 1. We hope that this will be the beginning of a long and enduring friendship.

I’ll finish with this last bit, written by Mr. Henderson himself, in the very first edition of Desert Magazine, waaaaay back in 1937.  He wrote that there’s the desert that poets and authors dredge up – a purely imagined world, and then there’s the real desert. 

“The other Desert—the real Desert-—is not for the eyes of the superficial observer, or the fearful soul or the cynic. It is a land, the character of which is hidden except to those who come with friendliness and understanding. To these the Desert offers rare gifts: health-giving sunshine—a sky that is studded with diamonds—a breeze that bears no poison—a landscape of pastel colors such as no artist can duplicate—thorn-covered plants which during countless ages have clung tenaciously to life through heat and drought and wind and the depredations of thirsty animals, and yet each season send forth blossoms of exquisite coloring as a symbol of courage that has triumphed over terrifying obstacles. To those who come to the Desert with friendliness, it gives friendship; to those who come with courage, it gives new strength of character. Those seeking relaxation find release from the world of man-made troubles. For those seeking beauty, the Desert offers nature’s rarest artistry. This is the Desert that men and women learn to love.”

Let the new Dezert Magazine forge its own trail, but we let it also keep alive the tradition of giving the desert its due respect and homage.

Victorville lays off 20 workers – a story that is being repeated across California

Photo from http://ci.victorville.ca.us

Victorville’s Concrete Repair Team.  (No one knows who’s being laid off, I just found this photo on Google)

Victorville lays off 20 workers, a story that is being repeated across California- As the new fiscal year 2010-2011 approaches in July, many cities are facing massive budget cuts and layoffs in order to be fiscally responsible in the face of the bad economy and the State’s own raids on city governments.

According to the Victor Valley Daily Press, 12 of the positions are going to be full-timers, and the rest part-timers.  There is currently no information available on what positions are being laid off,  so please don’t take the photo I chose as meaning anything.  Last year, 50 employees were laid off because of the budget crisis.

A fiscal crisis is a problem being faced in just about every city in California.  On the one hand, economic problems mean sales tax isn’t being generated to help cities conduct business, and on the other hand the State of California is raping the cities for their funds – often Redevelopment, with no regard for how large the city is or their financial situation.  And so, California cities are often found in a precarious situation.

Of all the levels of government – city, county, state, federal – cities are the ones that are the most fiscally responsible and able to balance budgets.  This is especially the case for smaller cities.  Of course, there’s exceptions but as general rule, this is true.  Think about how large the deficit is for the United States as a whole, then think about the deficit of California, and on down to the county and city levels.

Too bad that the higher levels of government don’t operate with the same level of fiscal responsibility as local governments.  Sometimes, when I’m wandering the desert and I’m not dodging rattlesnake strikes or being skewered by a Joshua tree, I wonder what would happen in a world where the local government had more power than the feds?   What if people paid more taxes to their local government, and created their own little regional socialist/libertarian utopias with their own municipalities?   What if the federal government was responsible, as it was originally intended, for the nation’s defense and keeping a national currency, etc.?

I know.  It sounds a little too Thomas Jeffersonish, doesn’t it?  I admit that I am an admirer of Jefferson’s agrarian philosophy.

New cross erected, then removed by park officials

New cross erected, then removed by park officials – A month ago, a cross in the Mojave National Preserve made national headlines when the Supreme Court ruled that it can be displayed because “the constitution does not oblige government to avoid any public acknowledgment of a religion’s role in society.”  That, and the government has decided to transfer the land where the cross is displayed (Sunrise Rock) into private hands.

Shortly after that on May 8 or 9, and much to the dismay of the nation, the cross was stolen by some greedy fools looking to bag an icon.  Then, on May 20 someone replaced it in the early morning, and park officials removed it, in concordance with a Supreme Court injunction that it not be displayed until the federal land has been transferred.

Is it really necessary, since the land is supposedly being transferred to private owners, to remove the new cross? I also wonder if this begins a trend of people placing a cross, and then someone removing it.

The cross was originally erected in the 1930s as a war memorial for the soldiers and sailors of World War 1.  It has been vandalized a few times in the past, even stolen.