FARK.com: (6826521) To all of you who wanted to live outside the law in the middle of the desert next door to a donkey-riding hippie named Half-Pint

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		To all of you who wanted to live outside the law in the middle of the desert next door to a donkey-riding hippie named Half-Pint (latimes.com)		45
		More: Weird, Slab City, religious services, moths, Salton Sea, deserts, Imperial Valley

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45 Comments (+0 »)

Bathia_Mapes

2011-12-18 09:07:36 PM

Laura Ingalls Wilder is a donkey-riding hippie?

Weaver95

2011-12-18 09:08:22 PM

i am intrigued by this story in ways i did not expect.

This About That

2011-12-18 10:21:21 PM

The two comments from the hard-line "conservatives" are very interesting. Having spoken to numerous such folks (that's right, these commenters are "mainstream" in much of Arizona) it seems to me that Arizona is full of folks who are frightened out of their socks by "thuh libruls". When asked specifically what is the problem, the answer is usually "Obamacare" (nearly always accompanied by the specific phrase "jammed down our throats", a propaganda slogan if I ever heard one) and "Illegals" (meaning, of course, Mexicans). Apart from that, these folks are very frightened, but of what they don't really know. For certain they despise Obama, for reasons they also can't identify specifically (apart from "Obamacare"). For certain, there is a big problem with Mexican drug gangs, for which they almost unanimously blame the federal government, specifically Obama. I suspect that racism, religion, and self-serving political entities are the source of this nonspecific but very real terror.

vossiewulf

2011-12-18 10:54:14 PM

Weaver95: i am intrigued by this story in ways i did not expect.

WARNING: This story may sound slightly better than the reality of living with almost zero community services.

AbbeySomeone

2011-12-18 11:11:49 PM

Why not?

JackalRabbit

2011-12-18 11:18:02 PM

do you get a horse with no name upon purchase (squat) of a trailor

MBooda

2011-12-18 11:20:57 PM

unimpressed
www.wackychimp.com

weasil

2011-12-18 11:28:26 PM

Ah, yes, but will you mind much the roving packs of feral dogs and the mountainous piles of garbage?

Not to mention the roving packs of feral humans?

vudukungfu

2011-12-18 11:30:51 PM

White people living like Red peoples problems.
Screw that.
I'm gonna retire to Rock candy Mountain.

theorellior

2011-12-18 11:33:04 PM

Bathia_Mapes: Laura Ingalls Wilder is a donkey-riding hippie?

This comment took me completely by surprise and I LOL'd heartily.

Her daughter was a hardcore libertarian, though, you can look it up.

vudukungfu

2011-12-18 11:33:28 PM

Seriusly, I remember reading just such an article in Life magazine in the 60's.
*adjusts onion*
and this is exactly how the Manson Family lived.
/sans dumpster diving.
//which I'm sure they do.
///Pregnant director's wives mileage may vary.

Sliceablekitty

2011-12-18 11:33:54 PM

A few years back I was really intrigued with the idea of living in this place.

Then I spent some time in the desert. Fark the desert.

But it was a great set for this Shooter Jennings video. So there's that.Link

ban_sidhe

2011-12-18 11:34:24 PM

Sounds kind of like where I live, except with more hippies and fewer cows.

My neighbors continually amaze and alarm me. Pretty sure some colonies of them have been inbreeding for decades.

/Representing from Three Points, AZ.

Bathia_Mapes

2011-12-18 11:39:12 PM

theorellior: Bathia_Mapes: Laura Ingalls Wilder is a donkey-riding hippie?

This comment took me completely by surprise and I LOL'd heartily.

Her daughter was a hardcore libertarian, though, you can look it up.

Yep, I'm well aware that Rose Wilder Lane was a hardcore libertarian.

jdvthejd

2011-12-18 11:40:25 PM

It's a cool place if for no other reason than there's a lot of DIY going on there. There used to be a library on an honor system. There's also a public shower in a hole in the ground. I remember seeing some punk shows where they used a generator to power the PA. However, if the wind gets going in the wrong direction the cattle farms of Niland can really make it stinky. Other than that I'm often surprised the feds haven't shut it down. Anything goes out there.

genner

2011-12-18 11:42:02 PM

This About That: The two comments from the hard-line "conservatives" are very interesting. Having spoken to numerous such folks (that's right, these commenters are "mainstream" in much of Arizona) it seems to me that Arizona is full of folks who are frightened out of their socks by "thuh libruls". When asked specifically what is the problem, the answer is usually "Obamacare" (nearly always accompanied by the specific phrase "jammed down our throats", a propaganda slogan if I ever heard one) and "Illegals" (meaning, of course, Mexicans). Apart from that, these folks are very frightened, but of what they don't really know. For certain they despise Obama, for reasons they also can't identify specifically (apart from "Obamacare"). For certain, there is a big problem with Mexican drug gangs, for which they almost unanimously blame the federal government, specifically Obama. I suspect that racism, religion, and self-serving political entities are the source of this nonspecific but very real terror.

......or you maybe their lives suck and it's easy to blame the guy in charge.

The Irresponsible Captain

2011-12-18 11:43:08 PM

Old and busted: Hoovervilles
The new hotness: Bushvilles.

/also old and busted: this meme

Weaver95

2011-12-18 11:45:28 PM

weasil: Ah, yes, but will you mind much the roving packs of feral dogs and the mountainous piles of garbage?

Not to mention the roving packs of feral humans?

soooo...its kind of like philadelphia, only a lot hotter and sandy?

dewihafta

2011-12-18 11:46:18 PM

illannoyin

2011-12-18 11:50:54 PM

Outside the law?

3.bp.blogspot.com

I am above the law!

cryinoutloud

2011-12-18 11:51:24 PM

Case has put together a small kitchen and cooks for several neighbors. His specialty: quail fajitas, made from the tiny birds that are prevalent in Slab City.

And I'm sure he'll keep right on with the quail fajitas until there are no more quail.

WordyGrrl

2011-12-18 11:55:43 PM

This About That: The two comments from the hard-line "conservatives" are very interesting. Having spoken to numerous such folks (that's right, these commenters are "mainstream" in much of Arizona) it seems to me that Arizona is full of folks who are frightened out of their socks by "thuh libruls". When asked specifically what is the problem, the answer is usually "Obamacare" (nearly always accompanied by the specific phrase "jammed down our throats", a propaganda slogan if I ever heard one) and "Illegals" (meaning, of course, Mexicans). Apart from that, these folks are very frightened, but of what they don't really know. For certain they despise Obama, for reasons they also can't identify specifically (apart from "Obamacare"). For certain, there is a big problem with Mexican drug gangs, for which they almost unanimously blame the federal government, specifically Obama. I suspect that racism, religion, and self-serving political entities are the source of this nonspecific but very real terror.

There's a certain type of person who likes things to be "certain" -- that all matters are clearly divided into simple "right/wrong" or "black/white" categories, that all questions can be resolved with simple answers. When they're smacked upside the head by the fact that life isn't like that, they get askeered and start looking for a boogeyman to blame it on.

Politicians love that type. They're so easy to market to.

James F. Campbell

2011-12-19 12:02:24 AM

cryinoutloud: Case has put together a small kitchen and cooks for several neighbors. His specialty: quail fajitas, made from the tiny birds that are prevalent in Slab City.

And I'm sure he'll keep right on with the quail fajitas until there are no more quail.

Don't be silly. Everyone knows that libertarianism magically makes the tragedy of the commons disappear!

gibbon1

2011-12-19 12:07:14 AM

Weaver95: i am intrigued by this story in ways i did not expect.

Me I horrified that the LA Times ran this because it basically means the end of the place. What was the Hunter S. Thompson quote, "I'd found the most peaceful beautiful place I'd ever seen and I was being paid $25/day to destroy it."

jmsvrsn

2011-12-19 12:13:45 AM

gibbon1: Weaver95: i am intrigued by this story in ways i did not expect.

Me I horrified that the LA Times ran this because it basically means the end of the place. What was the Hunter S. Thompson quote, "I'd found the most peaceful beautiful place I'd ever seen and I was being paid $25/day to destroy it."

Not the first time it's been exposed to the world.
images.productwiki.com

Sliceablekitty

2011-12-19 12:20:54 AM

RastaKins

2011-12-19 12:24:23 AM

The Irresponsible Captain: Old and busted: Hoovervilles
The new hotness: Bushvilles.

Guess I have not been paying attention. Thought there was some new guy in the White House we could blame.

shiattynick

2011-12-19 12:27:29 AM

Sounds great until nature calls. Imagine being the manager of the local fast food place in the mornings, it wouldn't air out until midnight.

fillahbuster

2011-12-19 12:28:07 AM

I think they romanticize Slab City a bit much. It really is a scuzzy place. The inhabitants scrounge the local navy bombing range for scrap metal and wind up blowing their arms off from unexploded ordinance and have to be rescued by the local authorities.

butt-nuggets

2011-12-19 12:29:51 AM

So you got no sewer, no doctor, probably no school or electricity ...

I'm out

Marcintosh

2011-12-19 12:31:17 AM

Wulfhardt

2011-12-19 12:36:05 AM

It sounds like a shiathole to me, but if they're happy to live that way, then who am I to judge? Each to his own, after all.

Gwyrddu

2011-12-19 01:17:55 AM

Might be interesting to go there and set up some services in Slab City. Of course not everyone is going to have money for your utilities, so you would have to work out a barter system for them.

/Who runs Bartertown?

Oznog

2011-12-19 01:23:22 AM

Here's how it is: America got used up, so we made whole new towns, some rich and flush with the new technologies, some, not so much.

Mainstream society waged war to bring everyone under their rule. A few idiots tried to fight it, among them, myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, resident of Slab City. Got a good crowd: a drummer, a guy who grows weed, a drummer, and some old guys. We even picked up an artist and a bona fide hippie. There's a guy who does a drum circle, too.

Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a generator would power the PA, a gas can would help you fill it. You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is.

OscarTamerz

2011-12-19 01:50:07 AM

They made a much better movie with Vincent D'Onofrio, Val Kilmer, Danny Trejo, Peter Sarsgaard and R. Lee Ermey about the place called The Salton Sea. Too interesting to be realistic but since Obama ~~LIED~~ changed his mind about leaving marijuana dispensaries alone there has been apparently a recent exponential growth in the syntheses of various kinds of THC and allegedly a large number of the Breaking Bad kind of glass meth guys have switched to making the not yet illegal THCs in that area.

Now I Is!

2011-12-19 02:05:11 AM

RastaKins: The Irresponsible Captain: Old and busted: Hoovervilles
The new hotness: Bushvilles.

Guess I have not been paying attention. Thought there was some new guy in the White House we could blame.

Rule of thumb is you always name them after the guy who started it. Even if the new guy some how made it worse...

/But I guess if you followed metric exactly you'd have to call them Reagan or Clintonvilles since they wrote the bulk of the regulation killing legislation...

Mock26

2011-12-19 02:14:29 AM

Hippies going camping. Not really news and definitely not new.

Gough

2011-12-19 03:08:08 AM

Sliceablekitty: gibbon1: Weaver95: i am intrigued by this story in ways i did not expect.

Me I horrified that the LA Times ran this because it basically means the end of the place. What was the Hunter S. Thompson quote, "I'd found the most peaceful beautiful place I'd ever seen and I was being paid $25/day to destroy it."

The place isn't exactly a secret.

Is this becoming an annual event on Fark? I'll swear this is a near-repeat from 12-18 months ago.

metric

2011-12-19 03:53:09 AM

Now I Is!: RastaKins: The Irresponsible Captain: Old and busted: Hoovervilles
The new hotness: Bushvilles.

Guess I have not been paying attention. Thought there was some new guy in the White House we could blame.

Rule of thumb is you always name them after the guy who started it. Even if the new guy some how made it worse...

/But I guess if you followed metric exactly you'd have to call them Reagan or Clintonvilles since they wrote the bulk of the regulation killing legislation...

Yes... follow me!!! BWAhHAhaHA!!!

Alonjar

2011-12-19 06:23:56 AM

OscarTamerz: They made a much better movie with Vincent D'Onofrio, Val Kilmer, Danny Trejo, Peter Sarsgaard and R. Lee Ermey about the place called The Salton Sea. Too interesting to be realistic but since Obama LIED changed his mind about leaving marijuana dispensaries alone there has been apparently a recent exponential growth in the syntheses of various kinds of THC and allegedly a large number of the Breaking Bad kind of glass meth guys have switched to making the not yet illegal THCs in that area.

The federal government enacted a ban on synthetic cannabinoids on the 12th, FYI.

bandy

2011-12-19 06:38:44 AM

Gough: Sliceablekitty: gibbon1: Weaver95: i am intrigued by this story in ways i did not expect.

Me I horrified that the LA Times ran this because it basically means the end of the place. What was the Hunter S. Thompson quote, "I'd found the most peaceful beautiful place I'd ever seen and I was being paid $25/day to destroy it."

The place isn't exactly a secret.

Is this becoming an annual event on Fark? I'll swear this is a near-repeat from 12-18 months ago.

Welcome to the news cycle.

/My other mother overwinters there.

Mandapants

2011-12-19 07:10:40 AM

Seven kids? (slideshow link along the left)

East Jesus.

Queensowntalia

2011-12-19 07:21:28 AM

Sounded like an intriguing place until it got to the part about the preacher.

Wonder how they treat gay folk out there.

WeenerGord

2011-12-19 11:31:51 AM

Queensowntalia: Sounded like an intriguing place until it got to the part about the preacher. Wonder how they treat gay folk out there.

I thought the gay people went to Palm Springs.

Lots of people living out of their cars in California.

Isildur

2011-12-19 11:10:15 PM

This won't end well.

i.imgur.com