Searching for God in nature, photography, whiskey, books and art…. whatever rant I am compelled to voice

Posts tagged “Nevada Commission on Ethics

LIVING IN PAHRUMP…RUN LIKE THE HOUNDS OF HELL ARE CHASING AFTER YOU!!!! (EDITED AND REVISED) (once again)

Latest Update:

I originally posted this over two years ago and it is  the most read and searched post on my blog. Not a day goes by without someone searching living in Pahrump or retiring in Pahrump. It is quite controversial, while some people understand what I have written others become irate….and unhinged! When I originally wrote it I tried to interject some humor but was beside myself… scared, exhausted filled with turmoil….stress….fear….I have since come to better grips with the situation in Nevada. While the lack of services in the State of Nevada continues to confound me….the lack of empathy and compassion from some of the people commenting equally amazes me and reflects the dispassionate, unwillingness to help, at the Sheriff’s office. Human services almost always reflect the sentiment of the surrounding community.

Recently someone opposed to my post left a well written comment (you have to click on comments and scroll down to the bottom) At first glance it seemed C.L. made some good points….but then I started to think about all of the stuff she avoided. I may be completely wrong but my hunch is that C.L. is a woman. If she works then it is not  in the capacity of being a person of responsibility towards others, unless of course C.L. is a  sociopath. The more I think about C.L. the more annoyed I am by what “she” wrote….the only thing of substance or problem solving was the suggestion of checking the internet for sex-offenders.In these times where secure futures are precarious jobs hang by a thread…many a retirement portfolio wiped out …loss of health insurance….the sheer uncertainty of these times….the utter lack of empathy for others plight is astounding. Of course this person lacks empathy….wakes up every single day to look out her HOUSE on ONE ACRE at her THOUSAND FOOT GARDEN and TWO HORSES…DUCKS, CHICKENS and TWO DOGS.  Now I have no idea who this person is or how well she takes care of her horses says her sons do it. But…I cannot tell you how many times I have seen horses in Pahrump and Las Vegas day after day in a small enclosed area with no shade…day after day in 100+ weather feeling every bit as miserable as they look. Heads hung low…Selfish owners….can only think of themselves…their immediate gratification…Wild horses in the desert don’t stand in the hot sun they look for what ever shade they can a tree the outcropping of rocks….ANYWHERE! Now maybe she does have a barn…but horses need to graze….the less vegetation the more space they need. In Elko, Nevada the law is two horses per acre and I’m sure they mean a WHOLE acre…not one with a thousand square foot garden and a house! Plus ducks and chickens and two dogs…Can you imagine the hubris of worrying about my cursing when God has to look down on that mess?? And the hubris of this person who exclaims “Darn it”….as if she wasn’t thinking “Damn it”….honestly  its like the EMPEROR WITH NO CLOTHES….lets all pretend!! Truth be told I envy the complete ignorance of some people….either you are asleep or pretending to be asleep so you can remain oblivious while others sweep up the mess or try to mend the fence…but damn it all once in awhile I would love the ability to be oblivious to the plight of those surrounding me!! Even for an hour or so…..

Oh and speaking of the phase “DARN IT” here’s what the URBAN DICTIONARY has to say:

It means damn
Gall darn it
A way for ‘religious types’ to say damn without offending others of their ilk.

More importantly, its a way of releasing anger when something happens, but unlike the originator – “Damn”, it doesnt roll off the tongue so easily and would appear to repress the repressed ‘religious types’ even more so than if they had gone all out and said the word “Damn”

Darn it, I just killed my wife and two children crashing into a tree. I’m such a Darn fool! I’ll be damned to hell, DARN it!

I woke up this morning knowing I had to update this post so I hope it helps someone who is, or has a family member considering moving there. I think it would be a good town to move to if you are fairly young, independently wealthy and have a love for the desert!

#1 There are no jobs in Pahrump and if you are lucky to find one it will be minimum wage. (with the exception of government jobs and top management in the few casinos….but you will have to wait for someone to be fired or who moves before one becomes available. I hear you can now apply at the prison that was just built in town!) There are jobs in Vegas but it is a minimum 67 mile drive one way. The economy in Vegas is one of the worst in the United States and I am sure that the job market there is not doing as well as when I was there.

#2 You have to drive to Vegas for EVERYTHING unless you can shop Walmart 365 days a year. They do have a Home Depot in now….Oh I forgot they are building a prison there too!!!! In town no less not on the outskirts as any other sane town that is trying to encourage business. As I said before you have to drive to Las Vegas for pretty much everything. The main road to Vegas is Blue Diamond Hwy or 160 and it is dangerous. The road is mostly  a straight line so why so many accidents??? Because everyone speeds or falls asleep there are only shoulders going one way and they do not have enough space to correct yourself if your car wanders.(I was there recently and they have now put a shoulder on both sides of the road this should prevent many accidents) . Nevada itself is famous for people running red lights. Never trust a light when it turns green ALWAYS look to see if traffic has stopped. Even that is not a guarantee.  Pahrump only has about 2 lights although I think that they have acquired a third so as you drive everyday you take your life in your own hands. I am a very good defensive driver so none of this effected my life until I was rear ended while stopped at a stop sign. Oh and did I tell you about the time I was driving down a main road with the rightaway for miles and some elderly person pulled right in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes and the Sushi I had just picked up went flying all over my car! I saw more accidents the year I lived there than I have seen in my entire life. If the above is not enough to scare you please keep reading…

#3 Many of the health care professionals live and have offices in Vegas and only visit their offices in Pahrump a few days a week or every other week.) There is an emergency clinic and a hospital. But neither is prepared to handle a real emergency. If you do have an emergency you better have the best health care in the world because do you know how much an ambulance to Las Vegas costs from Pahrump and that is the cheap alternative. If it is a REAL emergency than they fly you by helicopter and you might as well file for bankruptcy unless you are Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. Or you can purchase special insurance in case you need to take the helicopter. If you are looking to retire there…let me be blunt no matter the good health you are in currently shit happens! …And your health is not getting any better it is declining and dare I say when you are looking to buy a retirement home you are looking for a place that you would like to die in, maybe it will take 20 or 30 years but that is the end result. Still want to hear more??

#4 So you want to move to Pahrump, because you do not want to pay income tax??? They charge taxes for everything else and guess what???? NO INCOME TAX NO SOCIAL SERVICES!!!  First of all Nevada as a state is fiscally irresponsible and the nice socialist state of Oregon with all of its wonderful social programs has had a rainy day fund. What does this mean to an elderly person in Nevada? Let us put it this way I had a family emergency not long ago. I drove 15 hours went straight to the Sheriff’s office 11:30 at night and they basically told me to go fuck myself. Actually what they said is that I was wasting their time….guns involved….too bad!!! What they told me was this: There is an elderly woman in Pahrump who believes that there are people living in the walls of her home so she has been making holes in her walls and destroying them…..the sheriff’s office can do nothing because it is her house and she has the right to tear down her walls!! If she has guns and her neighbors are naturally nervous the sheriff’s office can do nothing….she has her rights. The only circumstances that they would interfere is if she had NO food in her cabinets. This is what happens to many elderly people when they suffer from something as simple as a lack of vitamin b. Even the public officials  in Virginia were shaking their heads at the lack of services provided for the elderly in Pahrump and Nevada (yes I got more help from the State of Virginia! And to top it off they weren’t rude!!!)….THERE IS NO SAFETY NET!!!! I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH TO YOU THAT I HAVE NEVER EVER LIVED IN A STATE….ANYWHERE THAT YOU COULD NOT CALL OR GO TO THE POLICE AND THEY WOULD WANT TO HELP YOU. Need an escort out of a scary area??? call the police!! Been away from home for a week and notice an open window???call the police!! In most cities they will bend over backwards to help you for these simple situations. It makes them feel good as there are so many times that people are not appreciative of their services. Haven’t heard enough yet???

#5 The money that you will save not paying taxes will go straight to the electric company unless you buy a home installed with a swamp cooler instead of air conditioning. Most houses in Pahrump were built with air conditoning. It is ridiculous the amount of electricity that people use in Pahrump…they move there because the heat is supposedly good for their arthritis and then they live in their air conditioned homes….and complain about how hot it is. And by the way I hear that even the electric company is corrupt. Here’s some more…

#6 Pahrump is the home to meth production, legalized prostitution and a soon to be built prison. They are already starting to have a gang problem wait until the prison gets built did I mention THEY ARE BUILDING IT IN TOWN??? They say it will be a nice prison that will only have soft criminals… immigration issues…hurry up do these people think that the people busted for immigration violations are just women who are working as housekeepers???NO! They are usually people who have committed more serious crimes! In addition to all of this the elected officials are always under investigation for corruption…you name it…If you want to know more about what goes on in Pahrump they have 2 newspapers and the one that is not afraid to tell the truth is THE MIRROR which is owned by brothel entrepreneur Joe Richards. Yes the most reliable newspaper in Pahrump is owned by a man who makes his living off of renting out women by the hour!!! Before you consider moving there I recommend that you faithfully read his paper for 6 months and if that doesn’t deter you… rent for a year. If you are considering buying a home in Pahrump I emplore you to spend the money to fly in an independent home inspector from another state.

#7 The town itself is ugly. Butt ugly.

#8 Just in case you think I have nothing positive to say about Pahrump. The hills surrounding Pahrump have Joshua trees and I love them all! Mt. Charleston looms in the background and it is beautiful. Pahrump has beautiful sunsets! It is located about an hour from Death Valley. Death Valley is very beautiful…but there is a reason it is called Death Valley carry lots of water with you when traveling in the desert. Also there is an interesting Opera House in Armagosa that a ballet dancer from New York City has been running for ages. There is also Red Rock Canyon outside of Vegas. If you are a UFO buff AREA 51 is close by. And finally one of my favorite places is the China Ranch Date Farm in Tecopa.

#9 I love visiting Pahrump but wouldn’t want to live there.

#10  Not far from Pahrump is Yucca Mountain where the United States will soon be storing nuclear waste. We have to store it somewhere!

I hope this helps even one person in life!

UPDATE!!

Because of the nasty comment I thought I would look up and see what is going on in Pahrump these days and I found this:

Tweaker town

Pahrump fights a never-ending battle against meth cooks and speed freaks

I sympathize with anyone who has a drug problem it is devastating not only to the individual but to friends and family and the community but this is something that I would also consider when looking for a place to retire.

I went back to Pahrump a few months ago and here are more reasons for not moving there if you are a lover of books the largest book store in town is..

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Nothing against sex at all but not a Borders, or Barnes and Noble in sight!…then I thought that maybe there was a section of town that I was not aware of…that perhaps I had missed…so I turned to the Yellow Pages!

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Now Music Mind & Matter is a nice little “New Age” store that used to be owned by the folks that did OUT THERE T.V. (now called MATRIX NEWS  NETWORK). They do have a very good selection of  UFO, New Age, 2012 books.  Nothing wrong with a Christian book store but its not my sort of thing. Someone told me that the used book store is mostly paperback top 10 and historical romances but since I have not been there you have to check it out for yourself. There was a fairly good used book store by the post office but it went out of business due to health issues. If you move to Pahrump your best bet is Amazon or the 60 mile drive to Henderson where they have both Barnes & Nobel and Borders although when I was in Borders a few months ago they had taken out most of their music and were rearranging I was shocked at how low the stock levels were. Not a good sign! They did still have a good magazine selection!

OK now for the brothels…its funny that there are so many because Pahrump is a Mormon town…run by Mormon’s. The reason it is so underdeveloped is because most of the land is owned by a few people who want top dollar for their property….so it is VERY expensive to open a business there. Wal-Mart could afford it and now there is finally a HOME DEPOT. This is not a town that is trying to preserve its integrity or develop into a nice retirement community…everything goes to the highest bidder. It’s not like Santa Fe, or Boca Raton…the landscape that you see in the photo of the Adult Superstore is what the whole town looks like. There are pockets of nice landscape around the casinos and there are the whack job homeowners who landscape like they are in Florida with green lawns…wasting the precious resource of water!

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There is an ongoing battle with the brothel owners, town commissioners and who ever else involved in such things. Heidi Fleiss the Hollywood Madam was rumored to be opening a brothel that catered to women or partnering up with Joe Richards…but because of the politics instead opened a laundry shop

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Now as I said I am no fan of prostitution but either its legal or not…the politics involved with who is allowed to have a brothel and who isn’t is ridiculous and motivated by some higher moral issue but greed and politics. I forgot to take a photo of  The Kingdom which is a building that looks like a castle and is owned and operated by Joe Richards. It is a strip club that is the first building heading to Pahrump from Las Vegas he opened it in retaliation for the denial of building a brothel. Even I have to take Joe Richards side in this case….in the  ideal world that I dream of there would be no prostitution!!

Here are several articles on the subject

THE LAS VEGAS MERCURY

PAHRUMP VALLEY TIMES….the FBI arrests Joe Richards

THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL…Joe Richards is convicted.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES…weighs in. The person commenting at the bottom has it right the commissioners are the ones that need to be investigated!

STATE OF NEVADA COMMISSION ON ETHICS…just in case you think Candice Trummel is a sweet moral politician who has not been corrupted by greed. Apparently the whole family is greedy and corrupt!! This seems to be the norm in Pahrump!

THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL…an piece on some series on brothels in Pahrump that aired on the Sundance channel.

And in recent news here is info on two more corrupt commissioners Liakopoulos and Neth.

PAHRUMP VALLEY TIMES Liakopoulos is a whack job who had his own talk show every week pretending to be a veteran and bilking people out of money the people elected him as a commissioner so his corruption could be more widespread. (Glad I wrote this article it seems the sob lists his address as Florence, Oregon…time to warn those good citizens!) Neth bilked investors.

PAHRUMP VALLEY TIMES…more on Liakopoulos.

NEVADA ETHICS COMPLAINT ….just in case you think Laurayne Murray who testified about Liakopoulos is free of corruption you can read this complaint.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL…more on Henry Neth

I could do this all day long…..

My personal thoughts on prostitution are scattered through out this post…another personal opinion of mine surrounds the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS who have spent who knows how much money against gays but who has built an empire off of peoples addictions, SEX, GAMBLING  and ALCOHOL. For those of you who do not know the second highest concentration of Mormons is  Las Vegas…if the church were true to its teachings every single person who works for or runs a casino, serves alcohol would be excommunicated or at least deemed not worthy of Temple….nor would the church accept their tithing from these people…but as we all know churches are corrupt and will take blood money anyway they can get it….IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST no less!!

CHOOSE CAREFULLY BEFORE RETIRING TO THIS TOWN!!!