Confessions of a Street Pharmacist

"It just works"

2012-01-31T07:38:00.000-05:00

"It just works" is the slogan of Apple's products. The Apple fanboys will go on and on about how the idevices are virus and crash free. Now, I can tell you that I own a windows desktop, an iPad, and an iPhone. Until I bought my iPad last February and my iPhone in December, I had never before owned an Apple product, nor had I used one (with the exception of a former significant other's machine). I had almost exclusively been a windows person. In fact, I had owned a windows machine (or three) since the days of Windows 3.0, when I bought an Intel 286 machine. We go way back.

So after a year of testing, how true is the claim? Not very. I use my iPad for note taking, and it occasionally needs a reboot. Some software compatibility issues require some tweaking, and there ARE viruses out there that affect Apple equipment. However, I have not had a virus on any machine that I have owned (including my Windows and Apple devices) in over ten years, mostly through some common sense web practices, despite not having any virus protection software running. (Spyware is a different story: but I eventually got a handle on that as well.)

With all of that said, the iPhone 4S is not my first smart phone, but it has been the best one I have had, and I have often wondered during the 2 months that I have had it how I ever got along without it. The iPad is great for taking notes during lectures (I use it to write directly on the Professor's Powerpoint slides. There is an app that allows you to highlight, write notes, and mark up the slides on your iPad, using only your finger, but that is a post for another day.

So yes, Apple products are good, but bot the evolutionary leap forward that so many claim it is. They and Windows devices, IMO, are on par with each other.

Defenseive gun use

2012-01-28T22:48:00.000-05:00

One of the lies that is told by anti gun forces in this country is how guns are not used for lawful defense that often, and that your risk of being killed by that gun is higher than your chances of using that firearm in self defense. The flaw with this statement is that firearms are used in self defense millions of times each year without a shot being fired, uses which of course don't make it into any sort of statistics.

Here is one such case.
A man is in custody after Greene County deputies believe he and a companion broke in and ransacked a home... A brother of the homeowner, who lives nearby, interrupted the burglary in progress and held the man at gunpoint until deputies arrived.

Free College

2012-01-28T08:53:00.000-05:00

At first glance, Ohio's Antioch College offer of free tuition for a four year degree sounds like quite a deal. After all, a four year degree from this 160 year old college is worth over $100,000. The problem is that it is a complete waste of four years of your time.
The reason that it is a waste of valuable years of your life is that the school teaches liberal arts. Liberal arts majors have unemployment rates that are higher than the national average. According to the CEO of the Harlem Education Activities Fund, graduates in more practical fields find that their skills are outdated within 5 to 10 years. Of course, that means that you have probably been working in your field for those five or ten years, and are current in your knowledge through your work experience.
Not so with a liberal arts degree. It is outdated from the start. Of course, many will tell you that a degree is better than none, but higher education is supposed to be about creating self-sufficiency through job training so a person won't end up jobless, homeless, dependent upon relatives, or victimized for being in poverty. There is an industry to support here, though. The colleges of this country are peddling snake oil.
The public library's and bookstore's purpose is to increase one's knowledge, ethics, and intellect. If four years or more of a university education is spent on only increasing intellect and morality with no job training, the time that you have spent there has been wasted.
A liberal arts degree is a degree that you earn that has no purpose, other than to allow you to list a college diploma on your resume. This is operating on the assumption that any college degree is beneficial, no matter what the degree was for.
I have a liberal arts degree that I earned by accident while pursuing other academic endeavors. I don't even list it on my resume, nor is that degree hanging on my wall beside the other two. If any four year degree looks good to an employer, why not get a degree that has the added benefit of giving you a job skill in a field where you will actually get a job?
A four year degree at a state college in Florida (where I went to college) only cost me about about $11,000. For that kind of money, you are better off living at home and going to your local college to earn a degree in a field that is actually hiring.

Greedy harpies.

2012-01-25T16:02:00.000-05:00

So I was at school today, and I overheard a conversation between two female grad students, and they were bragging to each other that they were having their school paid for by their ex-husbands, as a part of a "maintenance order." One then bragged to the other, "I told him to take the TV and the shotgun, because he had cheated on me. I told him if he didn't take the gun, I was going to kill him. I got to keep the house, the dog, and the money, and he still has to work two jobs to pay for my school." All of the other women in the area were in agreement.

I brought this up to my friends, and not one of the women saw the double standard. If a man ever threatened a woman like that, he would have a domestic violence order on him, and probably be in jail the next day for domestic violence. He certainly wouldn't be a winner in the lottery.

I'm sorry ladies, but cheating in a marriage does not entitle anyone, man or woman, to free money for the rest of their lives. To claim so reduces women to the class of prostitutes with a payment plan. If women ever expect to be equal in the eyes of the law, they have to be willing to be treated equally in ALL areas of the law.

That is why I cannot believe that there is a popular country music song where the woman talks about all of the violent things she did to her man and his truck because he cheated on her. If this were a song where a man talk about destroying a woman's property, the outrage would be immediate.

Geek humor

2012-01-25T07:23:00.000-05:00

My grad school class is filled with people who have a wide range of degrees: Pre-med, Chemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology, and Psychology degrees are common. So I got a laugh when one of the students, complaining that a professor was rather long winded and boring, said: "I could feel my telomeres getting shorter." Geek humor.

Interesting conversation

2012-01-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

I had a conversation in a bar last night that I found to be interesting. I was sitting in a local beer joint having some wings and IPA with another grad student when the subject of guns came up. He told me that although he is from Illinois, he routinely carries a handgun for protection. That is interesting, I say, because Illinois remains the only state in the USA that does not allow this, and you need a permit to even own a gun, and permits to carry guns are non-existent. He told me that the only way he would get caught is if he had to use that gun to defend his life, and in that case, he would worry about the ramifications then.

Now understand that this particular grad school is not for slackers or troublemakers. The school won't even look at your application if your undergrad GPA is less than 3.3 and your criminal history is a blank slate. Not only that, without giving any of this guy's details away, he is a very upstanding guy, and his resume would certainly not place him in the category of 'troublemaker."

Gun control has failed as a philosophy. Some folks just haven't accepted that, yet.

Mother of the year

2012-01-21T09:38:00.000-05:00

When you are a parent, you get used to saying no to questions like: "Dad, can I juggle chainsaws?" or "Mom, can I go skydiving?" or even "Dad, I know I'm only 14, but we are in love and want to get married." So what do you say to your ten year old when he wants a tattoo?
Not this mom. Maybe mother of the year is a bit premature, since we have about 49 more weeks of people doing stupid things left in the year, but she is probably going to be a finalist.

Update

2012-01-20T17:59:00.001-05:00

Two weeks into Physician Assistant school, and things are going well. We had a quiz today that was an essay form and had only one question: List everything that you know about neutrophils.

I think that I did well, and I recalled a lot more than I thought that I would. I am really happy that I decided to hang up being a medic. It is a chapter of my life that I don't regret, but as with all things, the time for that came to an end.

For now, I am studying on weeknights until 8 or 9, and several hours on Sunday. Friday nights and Saturdays are mine, at least for now. A year of this, a year of clinical internship, and my Master's will be complete.

Nice Try

2012-01-13T08:11:00.000-05:00

There are many people who abuse 911 for various reasons. Some because they are whiney people with minor complaints that want to be seen now instead of in the morning, some because they want a free meal or to get high, some because they are simply stupid, and many because they are mentally ill.

There is a woman who falls into the latter category and is known throughout several states for faking seizures in order to get attention. This woman is well known by nearly every medic in the state of Florida who has more than a couple of years on the job. Chances are, if you are a paramedic in the state of Florida, you have or will run on this woman.

I have met paramedics all over Florida, Georgia, and even as far north as Maryland who have run on this woman. She has been seen on shows like Paramedics and Trauma: life in the ER. More than a few medics have given this woman Valium without realizing who she was. She is very good at faking.

So came the day that we ran on her at 2:30 in the A.M one early morning. Tired of running stupid calls, those of us who were there chipped in and paid her bus fare to Orlando, which was 20 miles away, put her on the bus, and patted ourselves on the back for ridding ourselves of the problem. (Come to think of it, this may explain why she has traveled so extensively.)

Two weeks later, I ran on her again. During the call, she handed me an envelope and told me that the Orlando firefighters had asked her to give it to me the next time she saw me. I opened the envelope, and in it was a note. It read simply:

Nice Try.

That, my readers, is a true story.

Friends gone

2012-01-13T08:03:00.000-05:00

Her name was Angel. I met her when we were just 9 years old, and in the third grade. We were friends, off and on as addresses and life allowed, for over twenty years. She dated my best friend in high school, and I hers. There was many an evening spent during those underage years drinking beer and having fun, in the carefree way that we do as teens. Later, when I was married to my first wife, she was a frequent visitor at my home, and often spent the night on our couch.

I last saw her a week before her thirtieth birthday, just weeks after my divorce was final. She was a little sad that she was turning thirty and not yet married. I told her that I would call her, and that I would listen with a sympathetic ear. That was the last time we spoke, because Angel took her own life 12 days later. That was 13 years ago, and I still think about her from time to time.

Trevor and I used to skip school together. We once skipped and then came back to class bearing McDonald's hamburgers for the entire class, including the teacher. That was in the tenth grade. Later, we both reconnected when we became firefighters in neighboring fire districts. Missing a toe, he was promoted to Battalion Chief, and earned the nickname of "Chief Nine Toes." As a chief, he watched out for and looked after my own son when he became a firefighter. He was a good man, a brave man, and a big man. He towered over others, yet was deathly afraid of small dogs and spiders. He retired less than two years ago.

Trevor, a friend of mine for 28 years, passed away last week of a heart attack at 43 years old. I will miss him. Firefighters often have their lives cut short, the job and its stresses shave years off your life.

Red light revenue generators

2012-01-12T07:45:00.000-05:00

The city of Springfield, Missouri has deactivated their red light cameras, because they found that accidents increased when they were installed. A 10% increase in accidents, caused by automatic revenue generators.

2011

2012-01-11T10:46:00.002-05:00

I am a bit late posting my summary of 2011, but that is because I was busy moving 1200 miles to my new place. There were a lot of changes for me last year, and I had no advance warning of most of it.

The year began with an early January road trip with my son . We left from Florida, north through Georgia and Tennessee, into Virginia, and on to Washington, DC. We spent several days there, and then came south down the I-95 corridor. Good trip. Later that month, I beat my mortgage bank for lying in court and got a big payday.

February was the month when my wife informed me that she wanted a divorce. A week before my birthday.

In March, I took the GRE exam, and pretty much blew it out of the water.

In May, I graduated from one college, and in June beat the mortgage bank in foreclosure court and got a free house.

In July, I graduated from a second college, and applied to PA school. In September I interviewed for graduate school. In October, I was accepted, and in November I retired. December saw me move from Florida to Missouri, ending the year retired, divorced, and in Missouri, after beginning the year as a married firefighter from Florida. Big changes.

History repeats

2012-01-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

In 1940, the Republican party was in disarray. A confused mixture of internationalists, New Dealers, isolationists, and minimal government types, the Republican party had no real direction, no coherent philosophy, and no real platform.

FDR's approval rating hovered around 60%, and he was running for his third term. The Republicans figured that they would nominate Wendell Wilkie, a New Deal Republican who was little different from FDR in policy. Since they were so alike, the Wilkie campaign focused on trying to beat FDR in a personality contest. However, FDR had a compliant press, and no one was going to beat FDR in a personality contest.

There are many parallels to this year: The Republican party is in disarray, and they are appointing an Obama clone as his opponent (Romney). This will be a personality contest, which Obama may well win, to which I say: good. If I am going to have to face four more years of a tax and spend Keynesian in the Whitehouse, I would just assume that he has an unfriendly congress to deal with.

I love this song

2012-01-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

and what guy hasn't experienced this particular situation- the one of being trapped in the friend zone?

Settled in

2011-12-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

I have moved since my last post. I am now several states and over 1,000 miles away, living the retired life. I begin school in two weeks, and I am ready to begin my new life. Two years of school, and I can begin my next career. It will pay more than the $19 an hour I made as a firefighter, I promise you that.

Chickens roosting

2011-12-15T09:29:00.000-05:00

A have a point to make, but first some history:
In 1951, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh, grew tired of the British Empire's monopoly on Iranian oil reserves, and nationalized the oil industry. The Brits needed that oil, so Churchill got Eisenhower to overthrow the Iranian government during Operation Ajax in 1953. This placed Shah Pahlavi in charge as an authoritarian dictator. That's right- the US made the world safe for democracy by overthrowing a democratically elected government and turning it into a dictatorship. Iran was supplied with military weapons by the United States until 1979.

In 1979, the Islamic revolution overthrew the dictatorship and placed Ayatollah Khomeni in charge. In the process, the Iranians raided the US embassy and took the occupants hostage. The American people were outraged. Also that same year, the United States began training and equipping a force to overthrow the Russians in Pakistan and Afghanistan. That force was led by a man named Osama bin Laden.

Iran became a thorn in America's side, and needed to be reined in. A perfect ally was found in Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq. The CIA supplied him with weapons and other aid, so that he could fight Iran. Reagan removed Iraq from the list of terrorist nations, and began selling arms to them. A list of the supplied aid:
Helicopters, intelligence, war planning, machine tools, computers, instruments, and other goods to support missile and WMD development, howitzers, bombs, and other military hardware, along with billions of dollars in foreign aid. This aid continued until 1990.

In 1990, the US sent troops to Saudi Arabia to counter the ambitions of Saddam Hussein. This infuriated bin Laden that foreign troops would be in his country, and he turned his attention to the west.

Terror attacks increased, culminating with the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Our non-stop meddling in the affairs of the middle east led us to this point.

In a way, Reverend Wright had it correct, America's chickens had come home to roost. Ron Paul also has it correct: it is time that we as a nation stop interfering with other nations. This mantra that we have in this nation of never ending war has got to stop.

Why use banks?

2011-12-14T11:20:00.000-05:00

I was reading this article about a young man who had a savings account with less than $5 in it who racked up over $200 in banking fees. With a balance of $4.95, he was charged a $9.95 account maintenance fee, and this caused the account to overdraft, thus triggering a $28 per day overdraft fee. By the time he was notified by mail of the problem a week later, he had racked up $229 in fees.

This got me to looking at my own account. Banks used to be an excellent way to protect your money. You placed your money there for safekeeping, and the bank paid you a small amount of interest for the privilege of being able to lend your money to others. Checking accounts, not being available for lending, typically charged a small fee for the convenience of keeping your spending money safe.

Not any longer. At prevailing interest rates, you are only earning about $1.50 a month on a $10,000 savings account. So at the end of a year, you have exposed your ten grand to the risk of being stolen by the government via inflation, and by the very company that you have entrusted your hard earned money with through the use of fees and charges, all for the token sum of $18. An account of $10,000 earns $18 in interest in a year, but loses hundreds of dollars in value from inflation.

What I have done instead is to leave operating funds in my checking account, which being direct deposited at a credit union, lets me avoid banking fees. I keep one month's expenses in a savings account at the same credit union, which gives me a measure of insurance against overdrafts and small to medium unexpected expenses on short notice, and I invest the rest.

Now remember that gold typically holds it value against inflation. That is, an amount of gold will hold its value when measured against inflation, with the exception of small, short term variation and broker fees. It is those fees and variations that must be accounted for. For example, I bought gold when it was $1370 per ounce in September of 2010. There is a small premium for my preferred form of gold, and along with broker's fees, I paid $5400 for 4 ounces of gold.At today's price, I could sell that 4 ounces for roughly $8900- a profit of $3400, which is an annual return of nearly 200%.

Now today is a down fluctuation time- time to buy more. Gold has fallen almost $150 per ounce in the last 30 days. That is not a bad thing. As I write this, gold is down to $1580 an ounce, as the dollar increases in strength due to the impending collapse of the European Union. This means that we can buy gold at rock bottom prices. I am thinking of grabbing a few ounces this week or next, and catching it near the bottom.

Once the United States crashes in similar fashion (which is inevitable, considering the way we are emulating the out of control spending of Europe) people left with dollar denominated assets (stocks, bonds, savings accounts) will find their savings evaporated by inflation, while those holding assets like metals, oil, and durables will find that they have held their value.

The big downside here is physical security. I have a large, heavy safe, a cell phone connected burglar alarm, motion activated security lights, and numerous other security measures. Add to that the fact that there is an armed guard residing on the premises (me), and this is a pretty secure facility.

Use banks for short term liquidity, hold hard assets for long term savings. So here is my advice:
1 Get rid of all of your debt.
2 Establish a short term emergency fund of 1-2 month's expenses (not income).
3 Have at least one month's worth of food and needed supplies in the house.
4.Go easy on the luxuries like dining out, video games, expensive electronics, etc.
5.Save money in hard assets. (Things that hold their value that you can readily sell or trade for things you need)
6.Pay for a place to live in full. If you are making payments, you don't own the house, the bank does.

Handguns

2011-12-10T11:19:00.000-05:00

I own about two dozen handguns, give or take a couple. While this is a sufficient number of handguns to give members of the antigun coalitions a heart attack, and have the press talk about my "arsenal," there are many avid gunners out there that own far more than I. As a concealed weapons permit holder, I find myself carrying a handgun about 80% of the time when I am out of the house. Now many people will say that this is a large number of guns, perhaps even too many, and to them I say: Each one of my handguns fulfills a unique purpose, and was a needed addition to my collection. Each handgun brings to the table some advantages and some disadvantages. Some examples:

Smith and Wesson J Frame: I own a Model 642, a hammerless .38 Special that I find myself carrying a plurality of the time, as it is easily concealable and very lightweight (16.5 ounces loaded). In Florida, it is frequently difficult to find a comfortable cover garment, and I have found that sliding the J frame into a pocket holster in the right front pocket of my trousers or into a Galco Ankle Glove is a very convenient. I even carry this revolver in a belly band while jogging. The fact that it is a revolver simplifies the operation of the pistol and makes correcting a malfunction as easy as pulling the trigger again. The disadvantages to this revolver are: It only holds 5 rounds, reloads take a considerable amount of time, and the sights on this pistol leave a lot to be desired. Accuracy beyond 12 yards is poor under any kind of realistic defensive shooting conditions.

Kimber Ultra TLE II: This Commander sized 1911 in Stainless steel, with night sights and Crimson Trace Laser Grips is the pistol that I find myself carrying most often when cover garments allow. Loaded with Gold Dot 230 grain +P hollow points, I get over 400 foot pounds of .45 defensive power. I carry this pistol in a Brommeland Max-Con V inside my waistband on my right hip, and a single 7 round spare magazine on my left hip. Other times, I opt for a Saddle holster from Andrews Leather. I like the combination of thin profile, accuracy, smooth trigger, and easy concealability that this pistol offers. The disadvantages are that the pistol has a lot of sharp spots on it that seem to either dig in to sensitive skin, or wear holes in my clothes.

I also frequently carry one of the two Sig Sauer P229s that I own. Of the pair, I carry the .357 Sig the most, but I also carry the 9mm frequently. The chief advantage of these pistols is the 13 rounds of .357 or the 14 rounds of 9mm that this pistol can hold. Both pistols have night sights and Crimson Trace Laser Grips. I usually carry this model in an Andrews Leather McDaniel II inside the pants holster, a Saddle style holster, or a belt slide holster. The chief disadvantage is that the pistol is thick enough that concealing becomes an issue, especially since the grip laser tends to cause my shirt to ride up.

Another pistol is my Sig Sauer Mosquito. I bought this because I needed a .22LR with which to practice, as the ammunition is pretty cheap, but I have found several advantages to this particular pistol that I hadn't considered before owning one. First, it is great for new shooters, especially women. The noise and recoil are not nearly as intimidating, and the women LIKE shooting it, an important factor when trying to convince new shooters that guns are not as scary as they thought. This particular pistol has convinced at least three formerly anti-gun leaning people to not be afraid of guns, and one of them actually now carries a pistol as a CCW holder. Additionally, some cheaper brands of .22 ammo cause a lot of malfunctions, which is good for sharpening my own skill at rapid malfunction clearing drills.

In short, every gun I have serves a unique purpose, and have never been used to kill anyone, despite what the anti-gun crowd claims.

Spend it like it isn't yours

2011-12-08T07:55:00.000-05:00

As of November 30th, the National Debt stands at a whopping $15.1 trillion. It took the Obama administration less than three years to borrow $4.5 trillion, what it took the Bush administration 7 1/2 years to borrow. In nearly every measurable way, the Obama administration has been even worse for the country that Bush was. Why isn't the press reporting on this?

The seeds of a totalitarian state

2011-11-30T10:48:00.000-05:00

This is why I have no respect for Republicans. They are for big government just as much as the Democrats. Do you REALLY think that the military arresting people and holding them without trial is the wise thing to do?

Politics in America are not about ideals. Instead, the Democrats and Republicans are merely fighting over who gets to be the dictator.

Retired

2011-11-27T07:46:00.003-05:00

I fought my first fire in the fall 1987. I graduated from EMT school in March of 1989.
I spent my first nine years volunteering to run EMS and fire calls. I decided to take my volunteer status full time for pay.
In the past 25 years, I estimate that I have run 35 or 40 thousand calls. I can honestly say that I have made a real difference in the lives of thousands of people, and I have literally brought dozens back from the dead. I have delivered three babies: one on the floor of a bathroom. I have taught my craft to over a thousand paramedic students, and several times that many EMT students. I have mentored hundreds.
I have been twice injured in the line of duty, and was once told that I had received a "career ending injury" and would never again walk without a cane. I fought through the injury and the pain, and was back to work in just over six months.
A full career by anyone's standard of measurement. Today is my last day in that career. I am retiring from that career, and am embarking on my next journey, and by the time you read this my final shift will be well underway. I will always remember the good times, and wish my fellow EMS workers the best in their trials. When you paramedics next see me in the ER, I will be that Physician Assistant who (I hope) will never forget where he came from.
One month from today, I will be moving across several states to attend school in order to earn my Master's degree in Physician Assistant studies. I must admit that I am pretty nervous, leaving my career and my home of the last 18 years in order to attend a very difficult program.

Illegal Carry by repo men

2011-11-25T07:43:00.000-05:00

In the December issue of the Armed Citizen, there is a report of a shooting where a man repossessing a car used a handgun to defend himself from a man who shot at him. As a life member of the NRA and being a concealed weapons permit holder for over 20 years, I fully defend that man's right to defend his own life, it should also be noted that the repossession agent was NOT legally carrying a firearm, as it is illegal for a repo agent to carry a firearm while conducting a repo.

See Florida Statute 493.6115(3), which reads:

No employee shall carry or be furnished a weapon or firearm unless the carrying of a weapon or firearm is required by her or his duties, nor shall an employee carry a weapon or firearm except in connection with those duties. When carried pursuant to this subsection, the weapon or firearm shall be encased in view at all times except as provided in subsection (4).

I do not think that it serves our cause to support the illegal carrying of weapons and firearms.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T07:46:00.000-05:00

I am thankful that I am still healthy, and that I get to spend time with my family today, and that I have so many friends that support and share good times with.

May you all enjoy the holidays.

Too many degrees

2011-11-11T10:07:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard that you need to go to college to get a good job? I know that I did. Heck, my parents practically tied me up and took me to the military recruiter because I didn't go to college. The reason that our parents thought that college was so important is because of how well college graduates did in college.

In 1950, only one third of the adults in the United States had a high school diploma. Many of the adults were blue collar factory workers and made a good living. Only about 1 in 20 adults had graduated from college.
That was before education became big business. School became easier, and kids were passed on to the next grade, not because they had mastered the skills needed, but because teachers were afraid of damaging the kids' self esteem. In 2010, 80 percent of adults were high school graduates, and 20 percent had a 4 year degree or more.

So the latest generation is flush with college degrees that mean little, because many schools are offering degrees in things that are not needed job skills. Because we have all of these degrees, we are demanding high wages, and this has driven the blue collar jobs out of the country. Unemployment is rampant. At the same time, we are paying people the equivalent of $10 an hour to sit at home for up to two years, so there is little to no incentive for work.
Instead of making things like cars and appliances, we sit around and make war and college graduates with degrees in French Poetry and Women's Studies. We spend money like there is no limit, and for that we are doomed. Soon, we will reach the nation's credit limit, and our time as the world's superpower will be over. I find myself wondering how hard the times that are coming will be.

One month

2011-11-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

Well, the clock continues to count down. I now have only one month left before I am officially a retired firefighter. In just over two months, I will be a PA student, and in just over two years, I will be a PA. Time will fly by.

Stop it!

2011-11-06T05:14:00.000-05:00

I keep hearing the right bleat on about how this country is a Christian nation. They are wrong. John Adams, Sr. (one of the founders) wrote in the Treaty Of Tripoli, which was unanimously approved by Congress, and became law in 1797:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims),—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Yet, the Republicans are constantly trying to worm religion into every corner of American life, by using the coercive power of the state to do so. For example, wanting to alter the WW2 memorial to add a prayer to it, or passing resolutions about posting the phrase, "In God We Trust" in public buildings. (Even though the phrase was not a US motto before 1957)

Look, I don't care if you worship any particular god, but using government to force others to listen to your version of "the way" is not proper. Show me in the Constitution where it says that we are a Christian nation.

A religion is like a penis- it's great that you have one, but rude to try and cram it down other people's throats.

Unions and elections

2011-11-05T18:10:00.000-04:00

My opinions for Unions have been expressed before. In fact, I have done so on more than one occasion. I have worked in two different workplaces that would be considered a union shop. One of the biggest problems with a union shop is that they are run as a democracy, with the majority making decisions that everyone must abide by. Another big problem is that certain members of the union use power and influence to control what the majority thinks and votes for. This can result in some pretty underhanded dealings.

The most recent union shop is the one that I am about to retire from. The issue that has brought this to light is a recent vote that was taken by the union at my current employer. Let me begin by saying that I am retiring in 5 weeks, and will not be affected by this vote, but that doesn't mean that I approve of how it was done.

The vote is to change the fire department schedule from a 24 hours on, followed by 48 hours off, to a schedule where firefighters work 48 hours on duty, followed by 96 hours off. This topic has come up for debate every year at contract time, for about the last five years and has not ever been approved. There are a lot of conflicting opinions on this, and I will not debate or air them here. Instead, I want to talk about HOW the vote was done.

There is a core of firefighters that want the schedule to change, and they have been pressing for it for a few years now. An election was recently held for union president, and the new president is in the 48/96 camp. As his first act, he decided to lobby everyone for the schedule change and held a vote, which he said would require a 65% supermajority to implement. Everyone would be able to vote, even employees who would be affected by the change, but were not even union members. Sounds fair, right? I thought so too, but the devil, as they say, is in the details.

The vote was done by secret ballot. Each voter was given a piece of paper and told to write which schedule they preferred. There are 90 firefighters who work for the fire department, and the vote was close to not passing with the required 65%: There were 60 votes for, and 27 against, meaning that the new schedule was approved by one more vote than was required.

There is a catch: At least three votes were not counted. Mine, another firefighter who has said that she is leaving in February, and a firefighter assigned to a 40 hour work week in the front office. The excuse for that is because two of us were quitting, and the third was not going to work that schedule, our votes shouldn't count. Additionally, there were people who wrote "I don't care" and another who wrote "I have no opinion until I see details" and both of those were counted as "yes" votes.

Complicating things further, the president, who was the one pushing for the new schedule, was the one who collected and counted the ballots, which he claims to have thrown away after counting them.

This whole issue is like our elections process in miniature.

And before anyone comments here about how unions are evil, stuff it. Corporations are no better: Enron, Citigroup, GM, and many others have proven that people are the problem, not the organizations that they create to gain power.

Two year anniversary

2011-10-30T09:24:00.000-04:00

I also just realized that today marks the two year anniversary of my bankruptcy filing.

After finding myself owing $240,000 on a home that was only worth about $120,000, and trying to get some help from the banks that were flush with billions of bailout money, I decided that I could either be stuck with 27 more years of mortgage payments totaling over half a million so that I could own a home worth less than $100,000, or I could do the financially wise thing and walk away, I decided to declare bankruptcy.

It was a wise decision. It turns out the bank had sold my loan to 3 other banks at the same time, so no one knows who really owns the loan. They cannot find the loan paperwork, and it turns out that there are no bank records showing who owns the loan, so I still own the home even though I haven't made the last 25 payments. The bank lied in court, and provided forged papers to try and prove that I owed them money. They got caught, I sued them, and won a not insubstantial pile of money.

I have no debt, a 3 year old, paid for in cash pickup truck, and $40,000 in savings. I have no debt. My credit score of 655 isn't too bad, considering a two year old bankruptcy.

Veteran unemployment

2011-10-30T09:03:00.001-04:00

There is an article from Reuters this morning about the difficulty that veterans are having in finding a job. This is nothing new, and I blame the military and its recruiting system. When I got out of the Navy in 1992, I thought that I had a large bank of skills that employers would value. After all, that is one of the big pitches that you hear from the recruiters, is that the military teaches you skills that employers want. When it was time to get out, the pressure from the military was high: I was told that there were no jobs out there, and that I would either be back within a year or wind up homeless. They were right. I wound up homeless within a year.

I was trained as an Electrician's Mate. During the six years that I spent in the Navy, I went to the Electrician school, where I learned to repair all sorts of electrical systems, run the ship's electrical power plant, and other valuable (I thought) skills. I spent nearly 4 years performing those activities, and then topped it off my going to Motor Rewind School and learning to rebuild and repair electric motors, another allegedly valuable skill.

It turns out that the best training that I got while I was in the Navy had nothing to do with the Navy. While stationed in Virginia, I had been a volunteer firefighter in a nearby town during what spare time I had, and the volunteer department had trained me to be an EMT.

When I got out of the military, I was in for a rude awakening. I tried to secure a job repairing electric motors, but no one would hire me to do anything other than entry level work for $6.50 an hour, because military equipment and repair procedures tend to be ten to twenty years behind what industry is up to. When I got out in 1992, the Navy was still using amplifiers that had vacuum tubes. I tried running my own business, but it turns out that I was ill prepared for that, and my wife, children, and I were soon living in the storeroom of my business.

We thought it was the job market where we were, so the wife and I picked up and went to Orlando, Florida. I tried to get jobs at power plants, theme parks, factories, and many other places. Many employers told me that military equipment, skills, and training were outdated and meant nothing. They also explained to me that many of the things the military trained me to do required a license to do out in the civilian world. A license that I did not have.
I finally wound up as an electrician's helper, building houses for $7 an hour. I traded jobs as I could find a higher paying one, and we ate a lot of meals that consisted of hot dogs sliced into a pot of macaroni and cheese. We ate so much Hamburger Helper that now, fifteen years later, I still can't stand to even look at the stuff. (neither can my kids.)

During the entire episode, I was a volunteer firefighter/EMT. Four years after moving to Florida, at the age of 31, I was able to scrape together enough money and pay for the school that would earn me Florida certifications as a firefighter and as an EMT. Once I got my licenses, I was able to secure a job with the fire department for $8.50 an hour, and the rest, as they say, is history. It was tough doing this, as many fire departments have physical agility tests as a part of the hiring process, and I found myself physically competing against men who were 12 years younger than I was. I had effectively started over at the age of 31.

The moral of this story is that the recruiters will tell you that will be learning valuable skills in the military. It is a lie. The general rule is that the skills you learn in the military are loosely connected to the outside world, and when you get out, you will find yourself being treated as if you were right out of high school.

Do yourself a favor, and remember this: Do not join the military for the education and training. If you want to join to defend your country (I can understand that, even though our military hasn't had to defend our country in over 70 years) but go to college first and do it as an officer. At least then you can use the degree to get a decent job when you get out.

Safety is an illusion

2011-10-29T11:04:00.001-04:00

I ran across this article about five of the safety measures that we take that do not make us safer. Interestingly enough, number five is the TSA and their airport security measures. According to the article:

There's a reason security expert Bruce Schneier described the No-Fly list as "a list of people so dangerous they cannot be allowed to fly under any circumstance, yet so innocent we can't arrest them even under the Patriot Act."

So they are so innocent that they cannot be arrested or charged with a crime, but there are plenty of people out there who would add this secret government list to the reasons why you should not be allowed to own one of the best tools of self defense: a gun. Secret lists kept by the government never work out very well.

It turns out that antilock brakes and bike helmets do not help us, even though they are required by government. Sunscreen is a marketing ploy (because it doesn't block the rays which are most likely to cause cancer). Breast exams actually increase mortality, because the number of unnecessary biopsies and the complications associated with them cause more deaths than the cancer they are designed to detect. Gated communities are also worthless.

In other words, security and safety as it is practiced today is an illusion designed to make you FEEL safer without actually making you safer. I guess feeling safer is better than actually being self reliant.

Blogging milestone passed

2011-10-27T18:36:00.000-04:00

Today, I crossed the 25,000 hit mark. I know that I am not in the same league with some of the mega-blogs, but I am impressed that eyeballs have decided to view my writings over 25,000 times over the past 4 years and 3 months. Thank all of you for coming to read.

45 days

2011-10-25T06:24:00.002-04:00

I am retiring in 45 days, and I will be moving 1100 miles away to become a full time student. In a way, I look forward to what is to come, but I am also a little apprehensive. What will happen? Will I succeed? How difficult will school be? Even though I have budgeted, did I make an error? Will I be broke?

Of laws and tyrants

2011-10-24T06:22:00.000-04:00

There are some lawyers who are arguing about the legality of the Declaration of Independence. Let me settle this: Of course declaring Independence from the King was illegal: If it weren't, then it wouldn't have been necessary. No tyrant ever makes it legal to resist his power.

The only difference between George Washington and Osama Bin Laden is that Washington won. Let me explain:
Did the colonists burn down the homes of tax collectors, and kill their families? Yep.
Did the colonists use force to destroy public property to further their political aims? Yep.

There was little difference between what the American Revolution attempted to do, and any other citizen uprising. What made the American Revolution unique is not the Declaration of Independence, it was what came after the revolution was run. Very few revolutions succeed in providing more freedom, many simply cause one tyrant to be replaced with another. When Washington became president, he insisted that he not be a king, and that the office remain one of the people, and that the Federal government was to remain a servant of the states, and of the people. That held true until the beginning of the civil war, nearly 100 years later.

Was it legal for the southern states to secede? Of course not, but they did. They only came back through military conquest. When the civil war ended, so did the republic. What replaced it has become far worse than that which caused our founders to declare independence from the King.

We are doomed

2011-10-23T16:01:00.000-04:00

This is why this country is going to shit. These people's votes count the same as the votes of people who actually have knowledge of things that do not happen on Twilight, American Idol, and other stupid television shows.

The Scam of traffic safety

2011-10-21T17:58:00.000-04:00

A cop with a stopwatch is more believable than a GPS unit. At least, that is what the Ohio court system believes, if their March 2010 ruling is any guide. In this case, a man was clocked by a cop in an airplane at 84 miles an hour. The way this works, is that a cop in a plane times cars with a stopwatch as they pass over quarter mile segments of the highway. The time to traverse the quarter mile is then used to compute the speed of the vehicle.

The problem here is that the driver had a GPS tracker placed in his car by his employer in order to control speed limit violations. The tracker indicated that he was going 50 mph, not 84. The court ruled that they could not accept the reading of the tracker without expert testimony from the manufacturer that would testify to the accuracy and method of operation of the device. According to the court:

"Barnes presented no evidence from a person with personal knowledge regarding how the GPS calculates speed, whether there is any type of calibration of the equipment used to detect speed, whether the methods employed by his particular company to detect speed are scientifically reliable, or the accuracy of the GPS' speed detection," the panel said.

This would have required that the accused hire an attorney and expert witnesses to attend the trial. To beat a $35 traffic ticket (I wish. In Florida, a speeding violation of 84 in a 65 will cost you $180) you are expected to spend several hundred dollars.

Meanwhile, the government has a bottomless checkbook with which to defend their cash cows. In Sonoma county, CA in 2009, the government of Petaluma spent tens of thousands of dollars to beat the GPS readings. Protecting speeding ticket fines, a $10 billion per year scam, is of utmost importance.

Zombie adventure

2011-10-20T11:30:00.000-04:00

Use fake guns in a giant Z day simulation, only $50! They are only a 40 minute drive from here. I am going to do it.

A lot of cash

2011-10-19T11:09:00.001-04:00

I haven't mentioned this on over a year, but I want to take a look at the US debt. As of today, we are $14.9 trillion in debt, according to the US treasury.

When Obama took office, that amount was $11.9 trillion. An increase of $3 trillion (or 140%) in just 33 months.

When GW Bush took office, we had a national debt of $5.7 trillion. The debt increased $4.7 trillion in 8 years. This means that the Obama administration is just $400 billion shy of borrowing in 3 years what it took his predecessor 8 years to borrow.

Not like I am really happy with Bush's spending, either. Or Clinton's.

D day minus 82 days

2011-10-10T18:12:00.001-04:00

Packing, and not the fun kind. I am busy trying to pare down all of my stuff for the upcoming move. Trying to pare down the contents of a three bedroom house into a one bedroom apartment is a chore. I have rented a storage facility for the things that I am not taking, and the remainder of my things are going into the trash, or are being sold.

One of the things that I cannot take is my suppressor, as it is illegal in the state where I am going. I am trying to find a buyer. Meanwhile, storing over 20,000 rounds of ammo, 8 cases of MREs, 30 cans of freeze dried Mountain House food, about 2,200 books, and all of the other assorted items is giving me a backache.

It is a busy time. I need to complete all of the paperwork for admission to the school, rent an apartment, get the services hooked up, rent a U Haul trailer, ensure my shots are up to date, pack, finish my classes, work my two jobs (I am leaving one at the end of November, the other two weeks later), and do the move.

To make things worse, I noticed today that the windshield of my truck has a foot long crack in it. I have to get that fixed, as well as all of the other chores. Busy, busy. There are 82 days until I go.

There's an app for that

2011-10-07T05:28:00.000-04:00

They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. That didn't happen with Steve jobs, because Apple doesn't support Flash. I wonder if they have an app for that?

So long EMS, and thanks for all the fish

2011-10-06T17:33:00.000-04:00

I applied for, and was accepted to, a Master's degree program that will allow me to become a Physician Assistant upon completion. This means that I will be retiring from my current job and moving several states away to attend the school. For the first time in 22 years, I will not be associated with prehospital EMS. It is a big step, and a bit scary, but exciting at the same time. I am giving up security for a chance to have a better career.

What first planted the seeds of my desire to leave was an apparent lack of medical standards in my agency, and the way that it was ignored by the administration. I wanted to maybe find a job at another local agency, but there weren't many hiring at the time who would pay me what I was already making, and besides, I know people who work for other agencies in the area, and they didn't seem much better, nor did the idiots at some of the local hospitals. I decided to stay put.

Then the TEA party came around, and I had to listen to them drone on and on about how I am a parasite and how I and my benefits are a drain on the system. My pension and my health care are costing the taxpayers too much money, even though they are a mere 4% of the state budget. Free lunches for poor kids in school add up to more than what it costs to run the pensions of state employees.

Meanwhile, I am hauling a Medicare patient to the hospital for the third time this week, this time for knee pain times two weeks. Knowing that Medicare is 30% of the state budget makes me realize that the TEA party is politics, not solutions.

Anyway, all of that came to a head when I began working for a theme park doing BLS first aid for $12.75 an hour, and got a raise at my 90 day point to $17.50 an hour. You see, when I was hired by my original agency 15 years ago, my starting pay was $8.45 an hour. In fifteen years, I made it to $19.27 an hour, and that includes two promotions.

That was when I realized that I was no longer happy working in EMS. I love the medicine, I just don't like all of the politics and the games that go along with the job. I still feel like I have more to offer patients and I want to stay in medicine. Becoming a PA will help me do just that.

No hard feelings to the TEA party, or to the public. You decided to pay less, and as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. The people who are skilled and able to leave will do so. If you are willing to accept a lower level of service, then so be it. As for me, it is time to move up to bigger and better things.

All linky, no thinky

2011-10-02T17:08:00.000-04:00

The honey badger. It is immune to snakes, and kills larger animals by tearing off their scrotums. He is a badass.

The Soviets were free

2011-09-29T10:00:00.003-04:00

There are an estimated 800,000 full-time law enforcement officers in the United States: 120,000 Federal and 620,000 State and local.

That breaks down to 1 Fed for every 2,500 citizens, and one cop for every 375 citizens. Contrast that with this article about the Stasi and Gestapo:

The Soviet Union's KGB employed about 480,000 full-time agents to oversee a nation of 280 million, which means there was one agent per 5,830 citizens. Using Wiesenthal's figures for the Nazi Gestapo, there was one officer for 2,000 people. The ratio for the Stasi was one secret policeman per 166 East Germans.

(even though the math for the Soviets is incorrect)
We have ratios of police versus citizens that is more than that of the Soviet communists, and rivals that of the Gestapo.

But we don't live in a police state. This is a free country, after all.

Just lucky, I guess

2011-09-26T18:50:00.000-04:00

According to some douchebag named Tim Wise, I am the recipient of 12 to 13 years of institutionalized affirmative action as a result of my attending public school, and this is why I, as a member of the white establishment, am so fortunate.

When I graduated from high school, the school I graduated from was one of two in the entire county. Everyone from the east side went to one school, everyone from the west side of the county went to the other. We all attended the same classes, taught by the same teachers. I can't see how there is any difference.

After high school, I joined the military and did six years there. When I got out, I was broke, but willing to work. I tried making it for a couple of years as a business owner, but was soon nearly homeless. My family and I lived in the storeroom of my business, and we bathed in a 48 quart ice chest.

I took what little money I had and moved to Florida. When I got there, I took a job in residential construction that paid $7.50 an hour. Over the next 5 years, I worked at the airport repairing ground support equipment, at Disney repairing the electronic control systems on dancing chickens, at Sherwin Williams on paint manufacturing equipment, and at a stainless steel mill repairing stainless steel pipe manufacturing equipment. Each time I changed jobs, it was for more money. Over that 5 year period, I went from $7.50 an hour to $12 an hour. Then, Bill Clinton signed a the "most favored nation" treaty with China, and cheap steel flooded the market, putting my employer out of business.

I got tired of being laid off, and decided to take my volunteer firefighting occupation full time. I went to school, by working odd jobs during the day, and going to school at night. I graduated the fire academy and got hired. While I was in school, my wife of ten years and I got a divorce. I was so broke, I had to get a second job as a janitor, and then as a lifeguard to make ends meet.

Since then, I have earned 4 college degrees and I am getting ready to begin my masters degree. I did it without handouts, I did it without Pell grants, welfare, food stamps, or anything that I didn't work for myself.

But hey, none of that was due to hard work and perseverance. It was all luck and 'white privilege' that got me here.

A peek into police culture

2011-09-23T08:31:00.000-04:00

I was recently required to go to a class on the incident management system. The class was comprised of about 60% police supervisors and 40% fire supervisors. The class gave me an opportunity for some insight into the way that cops (especially the supervisors) view the world.

The class presented the supervisors with a few scenarios, and challenged those supervisors to set up a command structure that would adequately manage the situation. Since this was a class attended mostly by cops and was being taught by cops, the scenarios and the conversations were mostly cop-centric. It was a learning experience, but perhaps not in the way that was intended.

The first scenario was that a child services worker was doing a well being check on a home, after receiving a tip that one of the children in the home was being sexually molested by the father. When she arrived at the home, she found that the father was home alone with 3 children, ages 9 through 14, and he was intoxicated. The social worker told the father that she was removing the children from the home, because the only adult was intoxicated. The father refused, an argument ensued, and the social worker was asked to leave. Social worker attempts to take the youngest child with her, and is shot in the stomach by the father. Socail worker staggers outside and 911 is called.

The cops said that this is an active shooter situation, and their primary objective is to enter the home as soon as they have three officers present, and "take out the bad guy." I am betting that they were not talking about shooting the social worker.

After this first scenario, we took our first break. The topic of discussion during the break was how the "new NRA law" was stupid and creating problems for police. One of the cops said that they tried to work with the NRA, but that the "gun nuts" were being uncooperative and would not give an inch. Another used an example (paraphrasing, my memory isn't perfect)
"There is this guy who has been "Baker Acted" several times, and has even fired shots at police officers. We were at his house, and he has guns. Now normally, I would just take the guns, and he would never see them again. Thanks to this new law, this guy keeps the guns. Now I am forced to risk leaving the guns there and getting sued when he shoots someone, or taking the guns, and getting sued by the NRA."
Third cop says: "The odds of being sued by the NRA are low. I'm still going to take them."

There are a number of false assumptions there, but it seems to me that if a person has shot at cops, wouldn't he be convicted of at least one felony and thus be prohibited from firearm possession?
If he was found to be a danger to himself or others after being Baker Acted, wouldn't a court have found him incompetent, and wouldn't he then be prohibited from owning firearms?
Why does a cop think that he has the power to confiscate private property, simply because he thinks he is the "only one" that is trained and competent to handle firearms?

Have your cake, and others' cake, too

2011-09-21T06:52:00.000-04:00

One of the things that I constantly hear is how we as Americans should do "something" about a person's pet cause, whether that cause is feeding the homeless, foreign aid, bailouts, orphaned animals, disaster relief, or any number of other causes that are considered to be "worthy" for our nation to throw money at. I consistently feel that it is not a legitimate function of government to send public money to charities. That position often ends with me being called names like "mean", "heartless", or worse.

I want you to do a thought exercise: Think of some worthy cause that you think we, as a people, should spend money on. I will pick one: homelessness. Now ask yourself a few simple questions:
How much of your own money do you contribute to feed and house the homeless?
If you have a spare room or couch, how many times have you invited a homeless person to stay in your home?
If you are not willing to donate to the cause that you deem worthy, then how can you morally demand through the use of government force that others do so? If you are reading this, you have probably spent some of your own money on luxuries like internet service or a computer, instead of giving that money to the homeless. How heartless you are! How dare you spend money on frivolities when people are sleeping in cardboard boxes without a meal! You must be heartless and cruel, you greedy bastard. This makes you feel guilty that you buy expensive luxuries when there are so many worthy causes, doesn't it?

There must be a solution to this feeling of guilt that you feel. The solution is so simple! Why don't you just vote to make other people give THEIR money to worthy causes on your behalf? That way, you can still buy those expensive luxury items, and still assuage your guilt. The plan here is that you get the government to take other people's money away, and use THAT money to help your cause.

Of course there are as many worthy causes as there are voters, and what happens is that we eventually have more causes than we do money. At that point, the only way to handle things is to borrow the money. From China. That is a story for another day...

Deadbeat parents

2011-09-12T18:13:00.001-04:00

The American court system jails thousands of parents every year for not paying child support. I read the article, and I have a couple of thoughts:

First, Article III Section 2 of the Constitution provides that crimes, except impeachment cases, must be tried before a jury, unless the defendant waivers his or her right. The court has managed to work around that by claiming that "contempt of court" cases are not crimes. Regardless, the Seventh Amendment states that in Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. Our court simply seems to ignore the plain intent of the founders: that no one person have the power of a King, not even a judge. The jury was to be the check and balance on the court. That is no more.

Then there are the practical and moral problems. My first wife and I got divorced in 1999.Following the state law formula, the court ordered that I pay half of my take home pay to my ex wife, nominally for child support. At the time, I grossed $1000 every two weeks. After taxes, I was left with about $720 each payday. $348 in child support was taken from my check, and sent to the ex-wife, leaving me with $720 per month to live on. The rent on my apartment was $600 for a small one bedroom. I was soon homeless and without a car, moving from couch to couch at the homes of friends. I got a second job, picking up garbage after the Shamu show at Sea World. I got an apartment with three roommates. I bought a car at a "buy here, pay here." Somehow, I made it.

Except that the ex wife didn't have a job, meaning that the support was more for her than for the children. The children would come over for visitation wearing rags, so I would have to buy them new clothes. Then they would ask for money for field trips and school supplies. Their mother would tell them that they couldn't have it, and that I should pay it. Not wanting to deny them, I gave them the money.

My ex-wife was collecting more than $1400 a month in child support, and because she didn't have to claim it as income, was getting another $400 a month in food stamps. she also claimed to be making $9,000 a year babysitting children, thus qualifying for $300 a month in earned income credit and another $300 per month in welfare. That's right- she was making $2400 per month in child support and government checks, and babysitting the neighbor's kids for a total take home of $3100 per month, tax free. That is the equivalent of grossing over $40,000 a year. Meanwhile, I was living below the poverty level. It is easy to see why many men become "deadbeats." The child support system is fundamentally unfair, and there is no mechanism in place to ensure that the money actually supports the child.

Twelve years later, my kids are both grown up and have been living on their own for years. The punishing child support is a distant memory. The ex-wife got a job at WalMart as a cashier, worked there for a year, and injured her back. She is on Social Security disability and welfare now. As far as I know, other than that one year working at Wal Mart, she has never had a job her entire adult life.

But if I had failed to pay even some of that money, it is me who would have gone to jail, without an attorney, without a trial. Where is the real crime here? The only good thing that I can say I got out of all of those issues is that I no longer fear poverty, for I know what poverty is. I learned what it is like to work hard, and to work long hours just to eat. To this day, I still work two jobs, even though I no longer need the money.

Waste

2011-09-09T18:42:00.001-04:00

How is high school athletics related to education? As a taxpayer, I resent the fact that I must pay extra taxes so that a student can participate in an extracurricular activity. In the central Florida area, every high school has a large stadium for football games, track facilities, top notch weight rooms, gymnastics, and many other pieces of expensive equipment that are designed to enable students to enjoy activities that are completely unrelated to what should be the goal of schools: education.

I know that there are many parents out there will claim that participation in sports is important, and that many life lessons are learned through sports. OK, then: Why is it necessary for the education of children to transport an entire football team, cheerleaders, coaching staff, and marching band of a public high school from Colorado to Florida at taxpayer expense? Not only that, but the same night, another high school team flew from California to play in a Florida football game. The children couldn't play at one single school between here and Colorado? Here and California? Is this really a wise use of taxpayer money?

Florida doesn't have enough money to fund emergency services or repair roads, but we have enough to fly hundreds of children to Disney's backyard to play a game?

Admissions meeting

2011-08-28T15:40:00.001-04:00

I am flying 1,200 miles to see the admissions committee of a college, so that I can attend Physician Assistant school. I hope to get in, because I think that I am ready to move on from EMS. I still love patient care, and I enjoy what I do.

The problem is that I no longer enjoy the setting. It began when a rash of poor care by fellow paramedics was being actively covered up by my administration. It culminated in my mother being one of the patients who were shortchanged. This planted the seeds of discontent. Now I understand that no profession is immune. I have worked with plenty of nurses and doctors who screw up just as badly, and private ambulance companies are no better, been there, done that. I was willing to suffer through things, since I couldn't see anywhere or any job where bad employees were not tolerated and protected. I sucked it up.

Until recently, when the public began jumping on the "cushy" pay for firefighters, and the "public employees are evil" bandwagon. I am tired of being spit on and underpaid. It is time to go.

That's right- underpaid. Starting pay for a firefighter/paramedic is $13.77 an hour. After two promotions and 15 years with the same department, I make $19.23 an hour. I began working a part time second job as a paramedic in a local theme park less than six months ago, and we only perform BLS procedures. Starting pay for a medic with no experience is $16.50 an hour, and $17.50 an hour if you have two or more years of experience. The health plan is better, the hours are better, and the working conditions easier.

So, I am trying to get into school to get my master's degree. Like me, many firefighters are leaving the profession. Out of the 100 men and women in my department, we have lost 9 in the past year:
1 now drives an ice cream delivery truck
1 left to return to college
2 have left to be nurses
2 left to be firefighters in other states
1 is now a radio DJ
2 retired, and I have no idea where they are now

I also know that one just tested for a department in Colorado, one tested in Arizona, and three have notified the department that they will be retiring between now and June. And now me. If all goes well, I will be leaving by December.

Gold experts and inflation

2011-08-23T17:52:00.001-04:00

Gold tops $1900 an announce, and the experts are all claiming that it is overbought, and that the bubble will soon burst.

That is the same thing that the experts said in June, when gold was at $1500 an ounce.
- and October of 2010, when gold was $1380 an ounce.
- and March, 2010, when gold was at $1200 an ounce.
- and December of 2009, when gold was passing $1100 an ounce.
- and in December of 2005, when gold was $520 an ounce.

The secret here is that the world's governments and private citizens alike are coming to the realization that the US Government cannot stop spending money, and are moving away from using the dollar as the reserve currency for the world. This is injecting large amounts of dollars into the world's markets, and making the dollar worth less. This is causing a massive devaluation of the dollar. This isn't the first time that a country has spent itself into financial ruin. Zimbabwe, the Soviets, and the Germans have all done it during the last century.

Our politicians don't care, because both parties need your money to buy your vote. They are spending us into ruin. Don't be caught holding dollars when the end comes, or you will need them to heat your home, like this woman is doing in 1923 Germany, because bank notes are cheaper than coal.

Price of 1 ounce of gold (in German Marks):

January,1919………. 170
September,1919……. 499
January, 1920………. 1,340
September, 1920……. 1,201
January, 1921………. 1,349
September, 1921…….2,175
January, 1922……….3,976
September, 1922…….30,381
January, 1923……….372,477
September, 1923…….269,439,000 (that's right- from 4 thousand to 270 million in a year and a half)
Oct. 2, 1923………….6,631,749,000
Oct. 9, 1923………….24,868,950,000
Oct. 16, 1923…………84,969,072,000
Oct. 23, 1923…………1,160,552,882,000 (over 1 trillion)
Oct. 30, 1923…………1,347,070,000,000
Nov. 5, 1923…………..8,700,000,000,000
Nov. 30, 1923…………87,000,000,000,000 (almost 80 trillion increase in one month)

Do you see how the problem escalates? This is where we are headed. Scary stuff.

Fascinating read

2011-08-23T05:41:00.000-04:00

The Economic Collapse of the Soviet Union.

Pay and skill

2011-08-22T12:49:00.000-04:00

I work at a major theme park. This theme park recently had a turnover problem- that is, a number of employees were leaving for other paramedic positions that paid more money. To solve the problem, they raised starting paramedic pay to $17.50 an hour- a raise of $3.75 an hour. The medics who had been there for more than a few years are livid. They are claiming that they 'deserve' more because they have been there longer.

The American public believes that public employees are overpaid. They complain about what the public employees 'deserve' and claim that, since the economy is bad, that public employees should be paid less.

Both positions show a complete lack of understanding of basic economics. The law of supply and demand dictates what an employee makes. The market sets the price of labor. If you, as an employer, pay too little, your employees will leave. The ones that are available to replace them will be of lower quality. That is, the employee is selling a product: his labor. The price of that product is set by the market. Wages are a balance between the supply of people that are capable of providing the labor, and the number of people who are needed to perform that labor.

Numerous things can lower wages. If just anyone can provide that product, then the price (pay) will be low. A good example of this is greeter at WalMart. This position requires a skill set that nearly anyone can master, so the wages for that position are low. The other factor that can have negative effects on wages is the demand for that particular skill. You may be a master of 14th century French poetry, but there is no market for 14th century French poetry, so you will likely become a greeter at WalMart, that being your only other marketable skill.

Conversely, wages can also be driven in the opposite direction. If you bring a skill set to the table that not many people have, you can "auction" off those skills to the highest bidder.

This is the point that many miss. If you think that you are more valuable simply because you have been at a job for a long time, you are wrong. You become more valuable with longevity because you have (presumably) become more adept at the job you are being tasked with as the years went by. Eventually, though, the job is mastered, and your value becomes capped at a certain level. In order to demand more pay, the employee must accomplish two things: he must gain more skill, and must ensure that the skill gained is one that the employer needs. Just like any other product. It is up to you as to whether or not it is worth the effort to improve your product (yourself) for the additional pay.

And to employers: remember that, as your wage scale falls below market value, the more valuable employees will sell their wares to the highest bidder, leaving you with a cheaper, sometimes less valuable product. It is up to you to determine if you are willing to accept the lower level of skill.

CBS news bias

2011-08-19T12:16:00.003-04:00

With the Obama's planning to take another vacation to Martha's Vinyard, CBS news has come to his defense as the Republicans attack him for taking too many vacations. CBS news correspondent Mark Knoller, a self-proclaimed presidential statistician, claims that Obama has had 61 vacation days over his 31 months in office.

Now, I am one of those who believes that a President is always working, and no matter where they are. I thought the complaints about Bush vacations were silly partisan sniping, and I believe that the same can be said about the attacks on Obama for his vacation. After all, President Bush was just as capable of carrying out the business of the Executive branch from his ranch in Texas as he is from the White House.

Mark Knoller, in an article written in January of 2010, about Obama's first year in office, claimed that Obama spent 27 days at Camp David, and another 26 days on vacation in his first year. That totals 53 days. In addition, he spent 29 days playing golf. It doesn't appear that accuracy in reporting is Mr. Knoller's strong suit, because in July of 2010, he claimed that Obama had taken 35 vacation days so far in his Presidency.

Mark Knoller claimed on December 31st of 2010 that Obama took 32 days of vacation in 2010, and took 58 days of vacation in 2009. According to my math, that is a total of 90 days for 2009 and 2010. So how can the same man claim that, as of 2011, Obama has taken a total of 61 days of vacation? I think Mark Knoller just makes up numbers as he goes along.

No, today's post is about the press and their partisan bias, not about Presidential time off. Much hay is made in lefty circles about how Fox news is biased. Names like "Faux News," yet this is an obvious, provable falsehood. This should be no surprise, since more than half of the items that CBS news is selling in their online store is Obama memorabilia.

Tell me again that Fox is biased, and CBS is not.

(Incidentally, I could not find a source that listed the number of days that Obama has vacationed.)

Only Fox news has biased coverage

2011-08-12T09:34:00.000-04:00

Recently, there was an attack by a group of forty or more teens against a neighborhood, and one of the residents used a rifle to scare them off. Some of the people reading the article were asking why the news didn't mention the fact that it was a group of forty black teens attacking residents of a white neighborhood, and the further alleged that if it had been a large group of white teens terrorizing a black neighborhood, it would have been the largest headline possible. Calls from the press to pass hate crime laws would have been heard. Instead, crickets.

The Chicago Tribune responded by saying:

It's the newspaper's sound general policy not to mention race in a story, whether about crime or anything else, unless it has some clear relevance to the topic.

Really? Let's see:

Editorial accusing people who disagree with Obama of racism.

Story accusing Arizona of racism because they crack down on illegal immigrants, who happen to be Mexican because the Mexican border is closer to Arizona than the Canadian border.

Story about how blacks do not save their money like whites do.

Story about a man charged with a hate crime for pointing at another man and calling him a name.

The Chicago Tribune fails to realize that the race of people involved with a story only becomes relevant when you report the race of the people. Ignoring the fact that an attack is racially motivated makes the race of those people irrelevant and shows your bias.

Hey Dave Ramsey

2011-08-10T22:15:00.000-04:00

You keep telling people what a bad investment it is to buy gold. Let's take another look at the numbers:

Dow in 1971: 868
25 ounces of Gold in 1971: 875

Dow in 2010: 10,067
25 ounces of gold: 27,200 (1088 per ounce)

Dow today:10,862
25 ounces of gold: 44,550 (1782 per ounce)

So, since January of 2010, the Dow has increased at an annual rate of 5%, but gold has climbed at an annual rate of 40%. Since 1971, the Dow climbed at an average of 28.8%, and gold at a whopping 124.7%.

Of course, the Dow is adjusted, and the stocks on it are dropped as they become worthless, so the actual return on the Dow is much lower than that. Thanks Dave.

History!

2011-08-10T11:30:00.000-04:00

History tidbit:

Shortly before noon on June 8, 1959, the first official dispatch of U.S. Mail was launched from the guided-missile submarine USS Barbero (SSG 317), from international waters off of the Atlantic Coast. Twenty-two minutes later, the Regulus I Missile, carrying 3,000 pieces of mail (postcards), landed at the U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Mayport. Among the officials present for the event was Postmaster General Arthur Summerfeld, who stated, "This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation." He proclaimed the event to be "of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world," and predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail!"

Fiscal Budget Math

2011-08-10T10:25:00.001-04:00

The Obama administration is claiming that S&P made a $2 trillion error when they projected the spending of future years and downgraded the nation's debt rating from AAA to AA+, saying that S&P has "shown a stunning lack of knowledge about basic U.S. fiscal budget math."

Let's take a look at that, and at what the government means by cuts, and why they complain that S&P got it wrong. like most people, talking about trillions of dollars makes things a bit hard to understand, because most of us cannot imagine what a trillion dollars is.

To put things in simpler terms, let's say that we have a household budget of $3,000 per month, but we only make $2,000 per month and we borrow the other $1,000. We are planning on increasing our spending by $300 per month, but our income is projected to remain the same.

We are already $10,000 in debt, so I get in an argument with my wife, and we reach an agreement that we will cut our planned increase six months from now, and only plan on spending the following:

Plan......Now ..... 1 month out ...... 6 months out ....... 1 year out
Old ...... $3,000... $3,300 ............ $4,800 .............$6,600
New..... $3,000...$3,300 ............ $4,700 ............. $6,000

We congratulate ourselves because we have managed to save $2100 over six months, because we "saved" $100 the sixth month, $200 the seventh, and on until we reach the $600 "savings" of the twelfth month. That is what government budget cuts mean: cutting the rate of increase. Never mind that that we will have to borrow $50,000 on top of the $10,000 we already owe to make ends meet. Never mind that we will argue about the budget next month, and completely rewrite it.

So, the bank that is going to loan me this money looks at my budget and lowers my credit rating. Instead of fixing the problem, I accuse the bank of not understanding how I do my budget. It's the bank's fault. Yeah, that's it- the banks. I don't think that S&P has failed to understand budget math. I think that the US Government has failed to understand basic arithmetic.

Of course, I can always "print" money to pay my debts by tearing all of my dollar bills in half, and thus doubling my money. That will fix it.

Tyrant

2011-08-09T07:26:00.000-04:00

Officer Benjamin Stanaland of the Orlando police department is a tyrant. He has twice been reprimanded for violating people's constitutional rights, yet he still holds a job as a police officer.

In the first case, he arrested a man for refusing to give the officer his name in February of 2010.

In the latest case, used an unsterilized Q-Tip to test a motorist's mouth for drugs without the man's consent during a traffic stop. According to the law and department policy, officers must use sterilized gloves and agency-issued tongue depressors and swabs. Stanaland said he purchased the Q-Tips from a Walgreen's pharmacy.

Why is he still working as a cop?

We aren't wanted here

2011-08-08T22:58:00.000-04:00

The TEA party screams that government should be run like a business. Like a business, firefighters in the state of Florida get extra money if they have certifications that are above and beyond the basic certifications required for the job. For example:

Statewide, firefighters get $50 a month for having an associate's degree that is related to their job duties, and they get $100 a month for having a bachelor's degree. (You can only get one or the other, not both, and having more than one degree still only gets you one bonus)

Most departments pay extra for paramedics. This amount can vary from $2000 to $7500 a year, depending on your department. Since 90% of calls that fire departments answer are medical runs, this is an important incentive. Nearly every fire department in Florida requires that you be a certified EMT. Paramedics have MUCH more responsibility and work to do than their EMT counterparts.

Departments provide equipment like uniforms and PPE like safety glasses and safety shoes. Many businesses do this. The money spent on PPE is saved in reduced injury costs.

The new position? All of these incentives are "extras" that are not needed. Considering that the state recently cut the pay of all firefighters statewide 3% by forcing them to contribute to retirement plans, cut retirement benefits, and many local governments (including mine) have not only withheld pay raises for the past 6 years, but have cut hours by shutting down units to save money, and other plans to cut pay, it seems like the message is loud and clear:

WE ARE NO LONGER NEEDED OR WANTED HERE.

That is fine. I have made my decision. I am applying for Physician Assistant school this week. It was a good job while it lasted, but I cannot continue down the road that we are traveling. I went from $84,000 a year in 2008 to less than $60,000 this year. How many of you would continue to work for 25% less, if you had other options?

There are incompetents everywhere

2011-08-08T20:40:00.000-04:00

I work a second job at a large central Florida theme park. (There are only a few, you can guess which one.) During my last shift there, I was called to evaluate a man who was "having a seizure." When I arrived, I found a 59 year old man who was sitting upright in a chair and only verbally responsive. He has a history of cardiac, HTN, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. A local hospital owned ambulance service was called. While waiting for them to arrive, we got the following vitals: HR 88, BP 92/54, RR 18, Temp 97.8, BGL 140. It was over 100 degrees in the park, and the patient's skin was flushed. We initiated active cooling, and he was again responsive within ten minutes.

The unit arrived, and in walks the EMT. Alone. Then he began talking the patient into signing a refusal. The medic never even got out of the truck. They took no vitals and did not even put him on the monitor. I pitched a fit and threatened to call their supervisor. The medic came in, ran a strip and they collected their refusal and left. Here are my questions:

How does the medic know that this was not a seizure?
How does the medic know that this was not a cardiac problem?
Why did the medic send his EMT in to get a refusal without even evaluating the patient?
Why do some medics still insist that medics who work for EMS only agencies are automatically better than fire based medics? Is it possible that my position, that it doesn't matter who signs the paychecks, it is what lies in the heart of the medic that counts, is the correct one?

I think the real problem is that some medics are unable to get a fire medic job for a variety of reasons (too fat, out of shape, can't pass the test, whatever) and spend their time bashing the fire department. I do everything that an EMS only paramedic does, and I fight fires and perform rescues as well.

Poverty

2011-08-08T12:28:00.000-04:00

The poverty threshold is an amount of money that is required to meet a certain minimum standard of living. That is, it is computed by determining what amount of money it takes to live in an apartment and eat at a certain minimum level. The government's definition of poverty is not tied to an absolute value of how much an individual or family can afford, but is tied to a relative level based on total income received. For example, the poverty level for 2011 was set at $22,350 (total yearly income) for a family of four, and $10,890 for a single person. Here is the table:

Persons in Family Unit	48 Contiguous States and D.C.	Alaska	Hawaii
1	$10,890	$13,600	$12,540
2	$14,710	$18,380	$16,930
3	$18,530	$23,160	$21,320
4	$22,350	$27,940	$25,710
5	$26,170	$32,720	$30,100
6	$29,990	$37,500	$34,490
7	$33,810	$42,280	$38,880
8	$37,630	$47,060	$43,270
Each additional person adds	$3,820	$4,780	$4,390

(source: US Dept of Health and Human Services)

Currently, 12.6% of the US population, or 37 million people, are below this poverty threshold. So, could we fix this problem by merely giving every person below the poverty level a million dollars? The answer is no. The reason for this, is that as we pour money into the poor community, those people will by things, thus placing an inflated demand for products like food and housing on those communities. Additionally, no one will go to work, because they are all millionaires. The only way for businesses to produce the goods that are under such high demand is for wages to increase to the point where the nouveau riche will stop the buying spree long enough to go to work. These two factors will cause prices to rise until the supply/demand curve stabilizes at a new price level- a price level that is much higher than it was before we handed out the money.

This is why a war on poverty where the wages of the rich are confiscated and given to the poor can never be successful.

Not only that, but let's face it: The United States doesn't have a poverty problem. We are the only country in the world where the poorest portions of the population own cell phones and televisions. According to Nielson, 96.7% of American households own a television. Cellular ownership is high as well: 94% of Americans own a cell phone. Tell me again why my money needs to be confiscated so that someone else can get a free cell phone and television.

Republicans: America's Taliban

2011-08-07T11:03:00.000-04:00

See Florida Governor Rick Scott as he delivers his daily video address to the state. I know that the Republicans don't kill and torture like the Taliban, so don't bother sending me hate mail.

There is a parallel here that I want you to understand: There are many Americans who are completely turned off by the fascination that the Republican party has with preaching instead of governing. You need to keep your religious views to yourself when you are running the nation's governments. We do not want to be preached to. Religion is like a penis, it is sometimes good to have one, just don't go ramming it down people's throats unless they ask you to.

Still going to vote for Democrats or Republicans?

2011-07-31T22:10:00.000-04:00

News tonight is that Congress has reached an agreement on the debt:

In a conference call with his rank and file, Boehner said the agreement "isn't the greatest deal in the world, but it shows how much we've changed the terms of the debate in this town."

Changed? What has changed? The deal makes cuts totaling $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

Way to trim that budget, guys! When George W was president, Dems blasted him for the 2008 budget deficit: $485 billion. Obama's latest deficit: $1.4 trillion. With the cuts suggested by today's deal: $1.28 trillion, or more than 2 times the 2008 Bush deficit. Also, consider that since the cuts are to take place over ten years. This Congress and this President will have left office long before, meaning that the cuts will likely never actually happen.

Anyone who believes that either party has any interest in changing anything is rather foolish.

Government complexity

2011-07-31T13:24:00.000-04:00

The government makes EVERYTHING more complicated. When it comes to performing maintenance, the US Navy has a complicated system in place (or did when I was in)called the Material Maintenance Management (3M) system, which controls all PMS (Planned Maintenance System). PMS is time consuming and overly complicated. The procedure for each maintenance action is written on an MRC (Maintenance Requirement Card.

What makes the system so complicated and cumbersome is the fact that government bureaucrats have managed to turn the system into a set of procedures that make doing your taxes seem easy. Failure to follow the procedure exactly can and does end with sailors being courts-martialed. Maintenance is scheduled for each work center, and the work center supervisor schedules each person for his maintenance. Let's take a look at a required daily maintenance activity (D-1R). We are scheduled to perform that activity toady, so we look for the MRC, on the Maintenance Index Page (MIP) and confirm that it is correct MIP by checking it against the LOEP (List Of Effective Pages) after checking the effective date to ensure that the LOEP is the current one. After locating the current MRC, we confirm that it is correct by checking its effective date against the one on the MIP.

So take a look at the card here. Granted, this one is a joke, but looks remarkably like the real ones. There is a section that has the information about the equipment on the card and the frequency of maintenance. Then an area that specifies who may perform the maintenance, and the man hours it will take to complete. There are sections that specify safety regulations that must be followed, along with a list of every tool that is required. If the card calls for a 6 inch screwdriver, you better not get caught using a 4 inch or an 8 inch screwdriver. The procedure is then listed, and it must be followed exactly as per the card. Failure to do so can land you in prison.

These are the numbskulls that are getting ready to run our health care system. How do you think that will work out?

The downgrade is near

2011-07-30T05:00:00.001-04:00

From the Wall Street Journal:

Medicare, the program for the elderly, was supposed to cost $12 billion by 1990 but instead spent $110 billion. The costs of Medicaid, the program for the poor, have exploded as politicians like California Democrat Henry Waxman expanded eligibility and coverage. In inflation-adjusted dollars, Medicaid cost $4 billion in 1966, $41 billion in 1986 and $243 billion last year. Rather than bending the cost curve down, the government as third-party payer led to a medical price spiral.

According to the most recent government data, today some 50.5 million Americans are on Medicaid, 46.5 million are on Medicare, 52 million on Social Security, five million on SSI, 7.5 million on unemployment insurance, and 44.6 million on food stamps and other nutrition programs. Some 24 million get the earned-income tax credit, a cash income supplement.

By 2010 such payments to individuals were 66% of the federal budget, up from 28% in 1965. (See the second chart.) We now spend $2.1 trillion a year on these redistribution programs, and the 75 million baby boomers are only starting to retire.

On Monday night Mr. Obama blamed President George W. Bush's "two wars" for the debt buildup. But national defense spending was 7.4% of GDP and 42.8% of outlays in 1965, and only 4.8% of GDP and 20.1% of federal outlays in 2010. Defense has not caused the debt crisis.

Worse Idea

2011-07-29T21:43:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Washington, DC was implementing a bad idea when they decided to use firefighters to plug the gaps in their police force. I was proven correct when shootings happened right in front of the firefighters, and there was nothing that they could do.

Now the criminals are breaking into fire stations and stealing. This idea is worse and worse.

Living in the future is cool

2011-07-29T08:46:00.000-04:00

An automatic donut machine.

The point of no return

2011-07-28T12:15:00.002-04:00

One thing that I have always been interested in is the page in the instructions for your income tax form that tells you where the money comes from and where the money goes. I use the instructions for the 1040EZ here (pdf warning) and all you have to do is look at page 37 to see what I mean.

According to this page, the government, for fiscal year 2009, took in $2.105 trillion in taxes, with personal income taxes equaling 26% (or about $547 billion) of that. We spent $3.518 trillion, meaning that we borrowed $1.413 trillion. We borrowed three times what we collected through income taxes. This tells me that taxes have nothing to do with revenue. After all, if we can borrow $1.4 trillion, why can't we borrow $1.9 trillion and simply eliminate income taxes altogether?

This is irresponsible spending at its worst. The Democrats think that the answer is to tax the income of the rich is the answer. However, according to the IRS (excel file- 2005 numbers) the top five percent of income filers made slightly less than $145 thousand per year. That means that the top 5% of earners make a combined total of $2.6 trillion per year. Even if we established an income cap of $50,000 a year, and confiscated every dime that everyone in this country made over that amount, we would not be able to pay for the government we have now.

The Republicans think that the way to fix this is to cut spending. The size if the cuts that are needed is incredible. A 40% across the board cut is needed to balance the budget. The problem is that we cannot cut the interest that we pay on our debt. Our elderly will not sit still for any medicare or Social Security cuts, but those programs account for over a third of our spending. If we leave them alone, we need to cut Defense, welfare, prisons, and every other expense by 60%. Any politician who suggests the cuts that are needed will find his or her political career cut short.

We owe more money than currently exists. There is no way that we can pay it back, no way that we can stop borrowing, and no way out, except default. The system is broken, and we lack the will to fix it. We will soon lack the ability. Soon, the decision will be made for us. People will refuse to lend us money, and the people will become restless. The government, and the political masters who run it, will become increasingly desperate to maintain their power, and dictatorship will be the inevitable result. In my opinion, we are past the point of no return. We are witnessing history, the fall of the mightiest empire the world has ever known. I wonder if a thousand years from now if we will be studied like the Roman empires, or largely forgotten like the Achaemenid?

Prepare.

Civil rights, 1983 lawsuits, liability

2011-07-27T16:27:00.001-04:00

After the incident that I last blogged about, where a Canton, OH police officer threatened a pair of citizens with physical force, I listened to the recording of the City Council President, where he gives his opinion on the whole incident:

The Council President states that the police officer's actions were logical because the person involved was legally carrying a concealed weapon in a bad neighborhood at 1:30 in the morning, around prostitutes and drug dealers. Excusing the cop's actions in this manner is a bit of a problem. Let me explain why:

42 USC 1983 provides that, "Every person who under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, Suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress"

Meaning that the citizen involved gets to sue both of the officers who violated his rights by threatening harm to him, and will probably be successful. You can sue cities and counties under 1983 in what is called a Monell claim. Under Monell, to hold a municipality liable you need to show that your constitutional injury was caused by a policy or custom of the municipality. Monell liability can be established where a municipal official with final policy-making authority ratifies a subordinate’s unconstitutional conduct and the basis for it. The theory behind municipal liability in this context is that the acts of persons with final policy-making authority are considered to be the equivalent of government policy.

To establish municipal liability, a claimant must show a persistent and pervasive practice of the police department in failing to respond to police misconduct. While a single act of misconduct is insufficient to establish municipal liability, a person in a policy making position can show that the unconstitutional behavior of the municipality approved of the act, and thus made the act a de facto policy. In police brutality cases, the municipal entity’s liability can be established by showing that the city encourageed or authorized the conduct.

By stating that the incident that took place is to be expected when people carry concealed weapons in compliance with state law, he has authorized the officer's conduct and opened himself and the city to a 1983 lawsuit. Damage awards in civil rights cases can be high. In 2007, a man won over three million dollars for damages he suffered from false arrest and other indignities by Oakland, California police officers. That award included punitive damages.

Officer Harless: background

2011-07-27T15:52:00.001-04:00

By now, everyone in the gun community has seen the video where Officer Harless of the Canton, OH police department threatened to put "lumps" on a woman that he suspected of being a prostitute, and threatened to kill a man who was legally carrying a concealed weapon. The law in Ohio states that a permit holder must immediately notify an officer that he is carrying a weapon, if he is approached by that officer. The holder attempted to tell the officer three times, but was told to shut up before he could get the words out. When the officer finally finds out about the weapon, he flips out. See the video below:

I show you this video as background for my next post, where I show you how Canton, OH has officially screwed themselves.

Work ethic, the 100, and the Dilbert philosophy

2011-07-24T23:08:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine, a health care educator, has a quote from Heraclitus that he loves to throw around. If you are a gun person, you have probably heard of it, because gun guys love throwing it around as well. I am not sure that many truly understand what the man was trying to say:

Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there. Eighty are just targets. Nine are real fighters and we are lucky to have them for they make the battle. Ah, but the one. One is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.
--Heraclitus, Greek philosopher, around 500 B.C.

This is easily applied to all human endeavors, including the medical field. Of every 100, ten of them are worthless to have around and cause more problems than they solve. I am sure that you all know who those ten are in your organization. Most organizations eventually get rid of them, even if it seems to take forever. (Either that, or they promote them to a position where they cause even more heartache.)

Eighty of the 100 are the drones. The people who work or do just enough to get by. They watch the clock intently and blaze a trail for the door as soon as the appointed hour arrives. They have no interest in improvement, advancement, or in any other thing that will cause them to do anything above what is absolutely required. In the paramedic world, they are easily spotted: When you talk to them about a new procedure or a new bit of knowledge, they tell you something like, "Well, how is that going to change what I do? It isn't? Then why do I want to know that?"

Nine of those 100 employees are the ones who strive to be the best that they can be. They attend schools, expand their knowledge, and they always push themselves to achieve more than they did the year before. We are lucky to have coworkers like this, because they are the ones who others turn to when the shit hits the fan.

The one. He is the one that pushes everyone else to improve and to be the best that they can be. The problem is that the first ten hate him because he calls them out when they screw up, and most of the 80 hate him as well, because he is trying to make them do more than the minimum.

Eventually, the one leaves in disgust, six of the nine become burned out and either move one or join the ranks of the 80, and we are left with an organization filled with mediocre people who work just hard enough to get by, and the three workers become disgruntled, cynical, and generally unpleasant to be around.

I told you so

2011-07-24T18:55:00.000-04:00

Just ten days ago, I posted that Washington, DC was using firefighters as an unarmed reserve police force. I said at the time that it was a bad idea that would not work. Turns out, I was correct.

At least three people were injured in four shootings in the District over a 24-hour period Sunday and Monday, according to fire and police officials.
Two locations that officials responded to for reports of shootings were just blocks from corners where D.C. firefighters have been stationed as crime deterrents.

Paid administrative leave and the Constituion

2011-07-24T14:45:00.000-04:00

Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows that I am not shy about pointing out when cops have overstepped their bounds. I am not a cop basher, I just call em like I see em, bashing them when they screw up and I support them when they deserve to be supported. This is one of those times.

Whenever a cop does something stupid or controversial, he is placed on paid administrative leave pending investigation, and many people are quick to scream "paid vacation" and "cover up" because they feel that the cop is getting away with the act. The truth is actually quite different.

Since a cop is potentially going to be deprived of something (his job) by a government agency, he or she in entitled to the same rights and protections as an other person in this nation, and as many are quick to point out, cops are civilians the same as the rest of us, and need to be treated in the same way. This means that the government agency, his or her employer, cannot deprive him of his liberty or property without due process of law. When I studied for my degree in Public Safety Administration, we had to take classes on Administrative Law. I will excerpt some of my class materials/papers below, and attempt to explain:

The Fifth Amendment to the U. S, Constitution states "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law." Originally this amendment was construed to be applicable only to the federal government. Later, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified to provide "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law." The Fourteenth Amendment clearly applies to municipalities as well. City of Mobile v, Bouldin, 446 U.S. 55 (1950). Further, Section 1983 of Title 42 of the U.S. Code prohibits any person from depriving another of his or her civil rights under color of state law. Section 1983 covers municipal actions as well.

Here we are concerned about a public employee (cop) who is called by the employer to answer for some transgression and punished. The employee appeals, claiming that the public employer violated the employee's rights by depriving him or her of property (in this instance, the job) without extending due process of law, and deprived the employee of liberty (in this instance, his or her good name in the community) without providing due process of law. A public employee with a constitutionally protected property interest in that employment must be afforded the process prior to termination. Cleveland Bd. Of Educ, v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532,105 S.Ct 148 (1985).

Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions address these questions: Board of Regents V. Roth, 408 U.S. 564 (1972); Perry v. Sinderman, 408 U.S. 593 (1972). The decisions in Roth and Sinderman involved tenured teachers who were fired and who subsequently claimed violation of due process as to their property and liberty rights. These decisions were applicable to all public employees, whether tenured or non-tenured. The court held that a public employee has a property interest protected by due process if he or she could show a “legitimate claim of entitlement” to the job – a contract, or tenure, or even oral or implied understandings – creating a reasonable expectation of continued employment.

A recent decision in the third circuit, Schmidt v. Creedon, F.3d (3rd Cir. 2011) (pdf) makes clear that absent extraordinary circumstances, prior to suspending a police officer for any reason, a police department must provide the officer with notice and a hearing. A good explanation can be found here.

So when you hear that a cop has been suspended pending investigation, it isn't a Union that is protecting him, it is the same Constitution that protects everyone.

Mortgages and politicians

2011-07-23T18:05:00.000-04:00

More evidence that politicians of all parties are corrupt and lacking in morals. This article shows that the Republicans in general, and attorney general Pam Bondi in particular, were taking ~~bribes~~ campaign contributions from the mortgage industry in exchange for overlooking the fact that the banks were committing fraud and forging legal paperwork, so that they could ~~steal~~ foreclose people's homes.

If you look at campaign contributions to Bondi, a certain address comes up a lot: 601 Riverside Avenue in Jacksonville. It’s the home of Lender Processing Services, its subsidiaries, and the company it recently spun off from, Fidelity National Financial.
Altogether, those companies gave $6,500 to Bondi’s campaign directly. They also gave $78,000 to the Republican Party of Florida – which was itself a major funder of Bondi’s campaign
Finally, Lender Processing Services recently hired a new senior vice president for government affairs – Joe Jacquot, who until recently was an assistant attorney general for Bondi.

In exchange for these "contributions," Bondi fired the attorneys who were investigating claims that the banks were "creating" documents out of thin air and using them as evidence in foreclosure proceedings.

People were signing documents with fake names. They didn’t have the required witnesses. And they weren’t reading the documents they were signing.

Even though they were sworn statements, that the signing party has personal knowledge of the facts. So much for investigating.

It's OK, it was just legal technicalities, anyway:

End of an era

2011-07-21T06:12:00.000-04:00

As I sit here at my computer, I just heard the twin sonic booms of the space shuttle coming in for the last time. Normally, I am not really happy about government spending money on things like this, but I must admit that the little boy in me likes to watch the space program, and I always have. I watched so many launches from the space center with my Dad, and it is a memory from my childhood that I treasure.

I saw a couple of the moonshots when I was a small child. I was there for the launch of Apollo/Soyuz, and I remember that I was upset that it was the last launch of the manned program. I remember being happy when we returned to space in 1981, and now watching that last shuttle is a bit sad. I leave you with a few pictures.

DUI checkpoints are not really for DUI

2011-07-19T12:27:00.000-04:00

I know that the articles that I am posting are a little old, but this one is revealing about the purpose of DUI checkpoints. These checkpoints are nominally put in place to "keep us safe" from drunk drivers. During the 2009 July 4th weekend in Gainseville, there were 1,131 vehicles stopped at the DUI checkpoint. How many DUI arrests were made? None. However, there were:

2 arrests for outstanding warrants
7 arrests for felony charges (6 of those for drugs)
1 arrest for misdemeanor charges
104 traffic tickets
20 warnings were written

In other words, 1% of the people stopped were arrested, and about 10% of them got tickets, and increased the coffers of the state treasury. These checkpoints are not about safety, they are about making an end run around the Constitution.

The police are not there to make us safe, they are there to take our money. I must admit that I have been the victim of a robbery once (when I was 19, the robber got $23) and I have been the victim of burglary twice (the burglars got a total of less than $500 worth of stuff).

The police have gotten far more than that from me, just in tickets, not counting the taxes I must pay to support them. How is an armed man stealing my money at gun point not stealing from me, simply because he wears a badge? Don't tell me that if I wasn't speeding that I wouldn't get a ticket. There are enough laws out there that a cop can write you a ticket for nearly anything, and regardless of what they will have you believe, they DO have quotas, and they win prizes for writing tickets and busting people for DUI. Those prizes are in the form of cash awards and free vacations.

Welcome to the police state

2011-07-19T11:48:00.000-04:00

The Florida Highway Patrol, like many other police agencies, uses a system called the Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) system. This system consists of cameras that can be mounted on patrol cars, like this:

or they can be mounted in fixed locations, like this:

They are connected to a computer network that automatically alerts authorities when a "plate of interest" passes by the camera. The plates that are captured are displayed on the car's computer screen, and look like this:

According to the website of the manufacturer, each car equipped with this system can scan 5,000 license plates during an average police officer's shift. The reason this is being sold to departments? Read on:

Long Beach police used two ALPR-equipped vehicles to search for parking scofflaws. In 30 days, they located and impounded more than 300 vehicles - collecting over $200,000 in delinquent fines and impound fees. A study done for the City of Seattle showed that parking ticket collection rates across municipalities vary from 71% to 87%, with 80% being the median – that’s a million dollars or more of uncollected revenue in each city. Searching for parking ticket violators isn’t the most productive use of an officer’s time, so locating serial violators has been left to chance: the officer would have to find the car as part of a routine plate check or another traffic stop.
With an ALPR system, the police vehicle only has to pass the violator – whether parked or in traffic – and ALPR will alert the officer. A quick drive through a large parking lot will often locate several serial violators, whose cars can be towed or clamped until the fines are paid. The end result is fewer scofflaws getting away with nonpayment of fines.

Sure, money is the reason they get the system, but there is also the more sinister applications:

Besides alerting the officer when he passes a vehicle of interest, an ALPR system equipped with GPS can quietly note the time and location the vehicle was passed. This data is then loaded into PIPS’ Back Office System Software (BOSS®) and then mined and cross-referenced to keep tabs on known drug dealers, terrorist suspects, organized crime figures, or crime patterns...Areas such as airports, seaports, water treatment facilities, nuclear power plants – even schools – are targets for both criminals and terrorists. ALPR can assist with protecting such facilities by watching for known persons of interest (such as registered sex offenders), unauthorized vehicles, or simply vehicles that show up too frequently.

The founding fathers of this nation would be thrilled.

It's like they are trying to lose

2011-07-18T05:16:00.000-04:00

Obama the President is turning out to be unpopular, and he is being torn up in the polls by "unnamed Republican." The presidential race has not even begun yet, and the Republicans are virtually guaranteed a win. Then they go and say stupid, shit that makes people not want to vote for them. Like this:

Asked if his view could lead any community to stand up in opposition to a proposed mosque, Cain replied, "They could say that." He pointed to opposition to the planned mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., as an example.
"Let's go back to the fundamental issue that the people are basically saying that they are objecting to," Cain said. "They are objecting to the fact that Islam is both religion and (a) set of laws, Shariah law. That's the difference between any one of our other traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes."

Idiot:
Here in Florida, I can't buy alcohol on Sunday until after noon.

Nationwide, your very own (Republican) party is opposed to gay marriage, because it will hurt the religious sanctity of marriage, what ever that means.

You want to know why many cannot relate to, or vote for, your party? Because you are a bunch of Bible thumping, in your face religious hypocrites who continually like to spout off about the Constitution, but only when it suits your purposes.

(As opposed to Democrats, who quote the parts of the Constitution THEY like, when it is convenient to their purposes, like flag burning and porn, but ignore it when they want to ban guns or redistribute my pay.)

The future of medicine

2011-07-17T19:01:00.000-04:00

Just last week, I posted about how Obamacare was forcing health providers to find cheaper ways of treating patients. Well, here is one way. Minnesota is using paramedics, who are being called "mid level practitioners" to perform medical procedures previously reserved for medical professionals with higher levels of education and training, with doctors being available for television consultation and supervision.

This is happening despite the objections of Nursing associations, who have long opposed having paramedics being considered as their equals. Even though a paramedic has undergone the same amount of training (45 credit hours for nursing, versus 50 for Paramedic, both form the core for associate's degrees), many in the nursing community have fought to keep them in the back of the bus. (However, this post is not intended to fight the nurse versus paramedic battle.)

The thing that this drives home is that our health care system is poorly organized and antiquated. There is no way that a doctor can know everything that a patient will need, and they have begun to specialize in fields, leaving general doctors hard to find. The amount of school that a person must attend takes a decade and leaves the new doctor with over a half of a million dollars in student loan debts. Doctors expect to earn large sums of money, so that they can be reimbursed for the decade of work that it took to become a doctor and so that they can repay the student loans.

Physician assistants and Nurse practitioners programs have addressed some of that, and there are many people trying to get into and complete these programs, but there are fewer of them than there are medical schools, and competition is fierce. There are just over 150 physician assistant schools in the United States, and they are producing less than 7400 licensed physician assistants a year. Not nearly enough when you consider that US medical schools produce 18,000 doctors each year, and that doesn't count foreign medical schools, like the ones in the Caribbean or in India. Physician assistant schools are a 24-30 month long Master's degree program, but the schools do not care what your bachelor's degree was in, just that you have one.

So the gaps are being filled in with paramedics, who have a two year associate's degree and likely make less than $15 an hour. I am a paramedic, and I can tell you that there are some good ones out there, and there are some bad ones, but paramedics do not know enough about general medicine, especially when they are right out of school, to do this job effectively. That doesn't mean that they can't be taught, because after all, physician assistants are trained in two years, but I don't think this is the answer.

Now that doesn't mean that our heath system doesn't need an overhaul. I have long felt that it was ridiculous that I need a bachelor's degree (it doesn't matter in what- one doctor I know has a bachelor's in golf) to attend medical school, or physician assistant school. Eliminating that requirement would cut the time and money needed to become a doctor or a physician assistant considerably.

As the shortage of medical professionals continues, pressure will mount for lower level providers (who make less money) to take on an increasing role in your health care, because Obamacare will pressure the medical profession into providing cheaper, but not necessarily better, health care.

religion

2011-07-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

After reading this article, I have decided that this will be my new mission: to be a pastafarian priest in the church of the flying spaghetti monster.

It will make as much sense as any other religion, and who are you to discriminate? Maybe John quinones will do a story on me.

A bad idea

2011-07-14T16:00:00.001-04:00

The city of Washington, DC is using firefighters as an impromptu unarmed police force, deploying them to patrol high crime areas. So what happens is that the unarmed firefighters are increasingly looked upon as an extension of the police department.

The one thing that allows me to enter high crime areas is the knowledge that I am not a cop, and I am not there to bust anyone or take sides, I am just there to take you to the hospital. Once we as fire and EMS are viewed as the enemy, we will be treated like the enemy. An unarmed, relatively defenseless one. At least I can take comfort knowing that if my agency decides to enact a similar policy, I can legally be armed while doing so (even if it will likely get me fired.)

I would also like to point out that the program employs 14,000 people for six weeks, and was $30 over budget in 2008. That works out to $357 per week per worker that the project was over budget. The youths in this program work 16 hours per week. The full cost of the program is $55 million (including the $30 million overrun). That works out to $40.92 per hour per worker costs the taxpayer.

What are the taxpayers getting for that money? One of the jobs is that the kids are being paid to paint pictures on the sides of buildings using spray paint. We are paying these kids to paint graffiti, and demanding that firefighters then follow them around to make sure that they stay out of trouble.

People are stupid

2011-07-13T05:57:00.001-04:00

In the wake of the Casey Anthony trial, millions of people who decided that she was guilty are incensed enough at the audacity of the jury in actually considering the evidence and acquitting her, that they are now attempting to craft a law that will ensure that she will not get away with this. Well, except that her trial is over, and this law would not apply to her case. Casey Anthony is the one person in this country that would not be affected by this law.

The law, dubbed "Caylee's Law by its supporters, would make it a felony for a mother to fail to report the death of a child within an hour, or fail to report a child missing within 24 hours of the child's disappearance. People who advocate for such a law are either ignorant of the Fifth Amendment's self incrimination clause, or they are deliberately ignoring it. A parent forced to report child's death or disappearance violates the parent's Fifth amendment protection against self incrimination, in that if the parent was responsible for that death or disappearance, they are effectively testifying against him/herself by providing the time of death.One might as well pass a law requiring anyone who commits murder to confess to the crime.

"We cannot require perpetrators to turn themselves in, or incriminate themselves," said Susan Rozelle, who teaches criminal law at Stetson University's College of Law. "And that's what this reporting standard could do."
Richard Lubin, a West Palm Beach criminal defense lawyer, agreed the proposal creates constitutional issues.

The law totally ignores common sense. If a parent is willing to kill a child and then lie to investigators to conceal the crime, they are willing to break this new law and fail to report the crime. What this means is that the law is not being crafted, nor is it intended, to do anything except punish the behavior of the one person to whom it does not apply.

Now to validity of “Caylee’s law.” Ask yourself these questions if “Caylee’s Law” was on the books during this case:

Would it have saved Caylee’s life? No.
Would it have prevented the prosecution from overcharging and bungling the case? No.
Would it add another law that more than likely will be used and abused beyond its intended scope? Yes.

There is a difference between justice and vengeance. Like it or not, Caylee did get justice. Her case was heard and decided by a jury.
But what “Caylee’s law” is all about is vengeance. We hate that Casey Anthony got off on the murder charges even though we "know" that she was involved in Caylee's death in some way.

But our Constitution isn’t about vengeance. It’s about justice. And justice means that a few guilty people must go free in order to prevent an innocent person from going to jail.

What this public furor will do is create a law that will hurt us all. Read:

But in the wake of the Anthony case, Lubin said lawmakers could consider toughening penalties for lying to law enforcement -- the misdemeanors Casey Anthony was found guilty of.
"In the federal system, if you lie to law enforcement, that's a felony," Lubin said. "Casey Anthony wouldn't be getting out of jail this month, if lying was a felony."

EDITED: The bill here in Florida makes it a second degree felony to lie to a cop that is investigating any possible felony involving your child punishable by 15 years in prison.

(2) A caregiver, as defined in s. 827.01, who knowingly and willfully gives false information to a law enforcement officer who is conducting a missing person investigation or a felony criminal investigation involving a minor child in his or her care with the intent to mislead the officer or impede the investigation commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

If a cop is investigating whether or not your child accessed your neighbor's WiFi (that is a felony in Florida) and tell any lie to the cops, 15 years in the slammer. Do you think the cops will NEVER stretch such a law for use in a way that was not intended?

Dollar weakens further

2011-07-12T15:45:00.000-04:00

Gold is up nearly $100 an ounce since the beginning of the month. The dollar is falling, because the government is printing dollars like they are going out of style, and if China is to be believed, they are. Gold was just about at $1275 an ounce in January, and it is now running over $1572.

People keep blaming the oil companies for the high price of gasoline, but everything is getting more expensive because the dollar is tanking. Granted, the Euro is falling at a higher rate than the dollar, but that only means that we suck a little less than they do.

Oil is up, food prices are up, gold is up. Are prices getting higher? No. As Einstein proved, it is all relative. As the dollar weakens, it is worth less. When you are standing there with a pocket full of dollars, it appears as though prices are climbing. When you are standing there with a warehouse full of oil, gold, or food, the value of everything appears steady. That is, 12 barrels of oil is worth about the same as 1 ounce of gold.

Don't blame business for rising prices, blame the government for falling currency. Every time they create money, the money that is already in circulation is worth that much less (supply and demand, anyone?). So every time money is printed, the powers that be have just stolen value from you by making that money worth less.

If you have a lot of assets valued in dollars, like savings and other bank accounts, this is bad for you. If you have a lot of dollar denominated debt, this is good for you, as your debts can be paid more easily by selling physical items for more dollars than you paid for them, and paying off debt. The largest debtor in the world is the US Government. They stand to gain the most from a devalued dollar. I can remember reading about the inevitable devaluing of the dollar as far back as 1990, when daddy Bush was President. People told me I was one of those conspiracy survivalist nutjobs.

It doesn't look nearly as nutty from 2011. Things are going to get worse. Much worse. Bread lines worse. and when people begin going hungry, they become restless. Restless people are hard to keep in line. Then comes the inevitable government crackdown, as the powers that be fight to regain control as people scream for someone to step in and make things right. This is how dictatorships are made: by popular demand.

Blogiversary

2011-07-11T06:19:00.001-04:00

Four years ago today, I began blogging. There have been so many changes in my life. I wonder what the next four years will bring.

More Crime

2011-07-09T06:55:00.000-04:00

As I said in this morning's other post, I attended ClinCon yesterday. I drove home from the Disney area by taking Osceola Parkway to the Turnpike. I stopped at a convenience store, and saw more central Florida crime. A man shot another man right in front of the store. The victim then crashed his vehicle into a tree while trying to escape. When the paramedics arrived to remove him from the vehicle, a very large stack of currency spilled from the vehicle.

The crime in this area seems to be getting worse and worse. Here are the violent crime stories from just the past 24 hours:

Three arrested in drug investigation, in possession of firearms with filed off serial numbers.
Armed serial robber shoots cop, commits home invasion in second armed robbery.
Police officer arrested for stalking.
Smash and grab robbery steals guns from Bass Pro.
Armed drug dealer arrest.

Obama Care and the future of medicine

2011-07-09T05:23:00.005-04:00

I was at Clincon yesterday, and one of the lectures was about trends in medicine. One of the topics was Obamacare. When Obamacare takes effect in eight months or so, some provisions will change the way that medicine is paid for in this country, and not for the better.

The hospital will be paid a flat rate for a patient with a given problem, no matter how long the patient is in the hospital. For example, all patients who present to the hospital with congestive heart failure (CHF) will earn the hospital a set price, regardless of how many days that the patient stays in the hospital. This means that the hospital has an incentive to get you out of the hospital in a minimum amount of time, whether you are cured or not, and has the added incentive of diagnosing you with every ailment that they can think of, from halitosis to athlete's foot.

To correct this problem, the geniuses in the government have devised a solution: If the patient must be admitted for the same condition within 6 months of discharge, the hospital gets nothing for the subsequent visits. So that CHF patient doesn't follow his discharge instructions, and gets readmitted. The hospital eats it. It is only a matter of time before the hospitals are forced to find ways to keep frequent flyers away.

This is a real mess. I am not sure of everything that is coming, but I do know that it will create real problems in the health care field.

This makes my point about Corporations

2011-07-08T06:13:00.000-04:00

I posted about how Corporations are the essence of government interference in the free market. This article makes my point:

Wyoming Corporate Services will help clients create a company, and more: set up a bank account for it; add a lawyer as a corporate director to invoke attorney-client privilege; even appoint stand-in directors and officers as high as CEO. Among its offerings is a variety of shell known as a "shelf" company, which comes with years of regulatory filings behind it, lending a greater feeling of solidity.
"A corporation is a legal person created by state statute that can be used as a fall guy, a servant, a good friend or a decoy," the company's website boasts. "A person you control... yet cannot be held accountable for its actions. Imagine the possibilities!"

One house in Cheyenne, Wyoming is the headquarters of over 2,000 artificial persons, gaming the system and allowing the true owners of businesses to evade all responsibility and accountability. The free market only works if the customer and the business owner have exposure to market forces. Once you allow one party to avoid their half of the bargain, you ensure that the system is being gamed to their advantage.

Big Business runs the show

2011-07-07T14:26:00.001-04:00

This morning, I read the Orlando Sentinel's local news page, even though I don't usually read that anti-gun rag. When I got to the Osceola County page, I found same articles that I wanted to post on, so this is the second post in that thread. This is yet another example of how the big corporations are controlling the access that small businesses have to a level playing field.

Transportation impact fees that a new business must pay are cost prohibitive. [pdf alert] To build a business in Osceola County, that one impact fee can be up to $25,558 PER SQUARE FOOT, to be paid over five years. This fee is in addition to all of the other taxes and fees that must be paid.

For example, if a 24,000-square-foot bowling alley were to be built in St. Cloud, for every 1,000 square feet of building, the transportation impact fee would be $10,178, according to examples the city provided. The total transportation impact fees for the bowling alley would be $249,000.

My brother was going to open a ten lane bowling alley in that town, and he determined that opening this bowling alley would cost him over $1 million in taxes for the first five years of operation, not including payroll taxes, sales taxes, and not to mention the cost of building, operations, and personnel expenses for the 20 people that he would have hired. How can a small family business operate with such a heavy burden?

Of course, large corporations get waivers, like this 65,000 square foot Publix shopping center, where the government waived $1 million in transportation fees and $21,000 in permitting fees to allow this shopping center to be built.

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.- Ayn Rand

Head in the sand policy of Osceola County

2011-07-07T11:20:00.001-04:00

Florida Law Enforcement agencies have long followed a policy of denying the existence of gangs in the state, even though it is at odds with the opinion of the Florida Attorney General's office [pdf alert] Florida police agencies say gang members use any information released about the crimes they commit to glamorize their lifestyles and attract new members. The Osceola County Sheriff's Office generally follows that policy.

That policy, it seems, is failing.Hardly a day goes by when there is not a reported shooting in the Central Florida area, and many other violent crimes go unreported. Due to the long standing policy of ignoring gang related crimes, it is impossible to get an accurate picture of gang related crime in the area, but I can tell you from personal experience that it is growing.

The frequency of gang related graffiti is growing, as is the frequency of gang member sightings. The Outlaws Motorcycle gang has a clubhouse not far from where I live. A couple of friends of mine were recently riding their motorcycles and were stopped by five Outlaws, who told them that no one is allowed to ride motorcycles in the area as a part of any motorcycle riding club, unless that riding club paid dues to the Outlaws. They then demanded that my friends remove the leather jackets, and pay a fine of $50 cash on the spot. Outnumbered 5-2 by armed gang members, they paid.

The Latin Kings have staked out Poinciana as their territory, as well as parts of Kissimmee. The Bloods own other parts of Kissimmee. Saint Cloud has problems with white gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood. Orlando has similar gang and violent crime problems.

Your odds of being a victim of a violent crime in Osceola County are 1 in 100. In Orange County, the odds double to 1 in 50.Obviously, there are things you can do to reduce those odds. Don't go into bad neighborhoods like Pine Hills (aka Crime Hills), Paramore, McLaren Circle, Waterway Village, and other notoriously unsafe areas. Don't be a gang member, sell drugs, or engage in other highly risky behavior.

It is more likely that you will be a victim of a violent crime than involved in a car crash or a house fire with a fatality.You don't hesitate to wear a seat belt, or own smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and other safety devices, yet the odds favor your using a firearm to defend your life more often than any of those other items.

Another mile post passed

2011-07-06T16:21:00.001-04:00

Indulge me in a bit of self serving praise. The end of another phase of my career as a student. Today, I graduate from Saint Petersburg College with Bachelors of Applied Science in Public Safety Administration and a minor in EMS systems. To achieve this, I took 77 semester hours in just 4 semesters, while maintaining a GPA of 3.82, and while working 2 full time jobs. For those of you who do not know, a person is considered to be a full time student if they are taking 12 hours per semester.

I will walk to get my fourth diploma (Emergency Medicine, Liberal Arts, Fire Science, Public Safety Administration) as a Magnum Cum Laude graduate from my third college. So much for gunowners being uneducated idiots.

For my next trick, I am considering going on to graduate school. Maybe Health Science, so I can be a Physician Assistant? I took the GRE (kind of like SATs for graduate students) and scored in the 90th percentile with a 680 verbal, 780 math (top score is 800).

Apparently, this is considered to be a high score, and I was told that this score, coupled with my GPA and 20+ years of health care experience, will qualify me for pretty much any school I want. My "I love me" wall is getting crowded.

Letter of Reprisal

2011-07-01T11:16:00.000-04:00

Yesterday at work, we had a conversation on the costs of the GWOT. It seems that the US government blew through $8 trillion in the action, by the time costs of veteran's benefits and claims are factored in. All of this could have been done for a fraction of the cost, and it would still have used a constitutional provision that many are not even aware of.

The US Constitution grants Congress the power to issue letters of marque and reprisal. These basically allow the Congress to contract out military actions, to outfit privateers and mercenaries. This would have been a simple feat: Issue bounties on terrorists. Osame bin Laden had a price on his head, but at $75 million, it was far too low to do any good.

Here is my proposal:

A letter of marque could be issued to all individuals, corporations, or foreign countries, that would pay amounts as listed below to any entity or groups that could verify the death or capture and surrender to US authorities of any terrorist on the list. In addition, American Citizens would be permitted to outfit themselves as needed to carry out this assignment without regard to the NFA or export controls. Need an armed Blackhawk? No problem, just pay for it. Need some missiles? Sold. We even have some warships we are willing to part with, say some older OHP class frigates, or even some old jet fighters that we have just lying around.

Then you issue a list of terrorists, and the bounties to be paid, beginning with bin Laden at $50 billion, and going down to the lower terrorists. you make the amounts large enough that it is worth the money for countries and large corporations to go after him. He would not be able to trust anyone.

This would have saved us trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.

Free house!

2011-06-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

This past week has been a busy one. I went to court to continue my fight against my old mortgage bank, and it was a harrowing experience at first, because I was acting as my own attorney against one of the largest banks in the country. This whole affair was a mess.The bank had royally screwed things up, and faked and falsified paperwork to cover their tracks. I caught them at it, and filed a lawsuit. The foreclosure that I have been fighting for two years finally has a conclusion, as we had a hearing just a few days ago.

I am now living in a house that is paid for. The case was dismissed. Now, there is nothing that will stop another case from being filed, but it is highly unlikely that such a case will be successful, as the bank could not produce the note after a two year fight, so it is unlikely that they will be able to do so in any future case.

It has been twenty-two months (as of next week) since I last made a mortgage payment. I will not make another on this house.

Corporations

2011-06-19T11:37:00.000-04:00

In a recent post, I stated that a corporation was the essence of government intrusion, and that it is hypocritical to claim that you do not want the government intruding in the affairs of your business when you founded the entire business on government intrusion by forming a corporation. A person responded by stating that a corporation is just a contract. This is a mistaken understanding of the law.

The word corporation comes from the latin word corpus, literally meaning "body." To incorporate means to create a body.

A corporation is a legal entity that is created under the laws of a state designed to establish the entity as a separate legal entity having its own privileges and liabilities distinct from those of its members. A corporation can own property, it can be sued, and despite not being a natural person, corporations are recognized by the law to have rights and responsibilities like natural persons ("people").

Although corporate law varies in different jurisdictions, there are four core characteristics of the business corporation:

* Legal personality
* Limited liability
* Transferable shares
* Centralized management

Legal personality is the characteristic of a non-human entity regarded by law to have the status of a person. The concept of a legal person is a fundamental legal fiction. (A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule which was not necessarily designed to be used in that way.)

Limited liability is a concept whereby a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a company or partnership with limited liability. In other words, if a company with limited liability is sued, then the plaintiffs are suing the company, not its owners or investors. In this way, the investors hide behind the legal person that is the corporation, and are shielded from liability for the actions taken on their behalf. In other words, they use the government as a shield.

A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in the company becomes one of the owners of the company, and is thus insulated from liability by the corporate person through the concept of limited liability.

So claiming that you do not want the government to interfere in your property rights and control your business has no traction with me when you are supporting the very essence of government interference, the corporation.

Father's Day and parenthood.

2011-06-19T11:21:00.001-04:00

I carried my father to his grave 6 years ago. Although the pain of it has dulled somewhat, I still continue to mourn his passing. Of my own children, I have a son who is doing well, and a daughter who I have not had very much contact with in the 3 and a half years since her 18th birthday.

On that day, she told me that she had had enough of my "bullshit rules" and she was moving out to live with her "soulmate," a 20 year old who I had forbidden her from seeing, as he already had a lengthy arrest record that was increasingly violent with each arrest. She broke up with her "soulmate" six months later, and had to get a restraining order to keep him from stalking her. She is still angry with me for that, and for forbidding the previous boyfriend from seeing her, because I didn't think it was appropriate for a married 26 year old man to be sniffing around a 16 year old girl and called the cops.

The joys of parenthood.

Private Fire Departments

2011-06-17T08:55:00.001-04:00

Firefighting used to be a private for-profit industry. In the 1800's, the early days of urbanization, in cities like New York and Baltimore, there were private companies who were in charge of putting out fires. The way it functioned was the first company at the scene got money from the insurance company to put out the fire. So, they had an incentive to get there fast. They also had an incentive to sabotage competition. They also often ended up getting into fist fights over territory and many times buildings would burn down while firefighters were busy punching each other in front of it.

Firefighters were hired, not for their prowess in putting out fires, but for their ability to brawl. One tactic that used to be employed was the "plug guard." These were people hired to race to the scene of a fire, place a barrel over the fire plug, and sit on it, thereby securing the water source for his employer's exclusive use.

Rivalry among the volunteers was the cause for the establishment of the country's first paid fire department in Cincinnati in 1853. In 1851, two of the city's volunteer fire companies crossed paths on the way to a fire, and before the fight was over, ten companies were involved. Help was sent from Covington, Kentucky, across the river-not help to put out the fire, but to assist one of the companies in the fist fight. The building burned to the ground.

It wasn't long before insurance companies began taking the position that firefighting was a community responsibility, and stopped paying the fire companies. Coupled with the loss of buildings due to the aforementioned brawling and the reputation that these departments earned due to those fights, private fire protection in America was doomed.

There are only a few ways to fund a fire department, and we can look at them here:

1. Through user fees. A fee is charged for putting out fires. The problem here is that fire departments get few fires. The department that I work for responds to less than 300 fires a year, yet has a $20 million budget. Except for large commercial buildings, the fees required to make this profitable would be more than the value of the building. A homeowner would probably refuse to pay a $600,000 fee to save a $200,000 house. What if the fire spreads to more than one house? Does each homeowner have to agree to pay before the fire department can act? Or only one? If only one, do they all have to pay a share of the bill, or does the homeowner who made the decision pay the costs of putting out all of the houses?

2. Through membership fees. Charge a small fee for fire departments to respond to members' homes. Anyone who isn't a member, too bad for you. Of course, there will be those who take their chances, and some of them will lose. See here for an example of this plan.

3. Through taxes.

and before you mention volunteers, remember that diesel fuel is $3-4 a gallon, fire engines, hose, protective gear, and all of the other equipment needed costs money. That money still must be provided from somewhere.

Property rights

2011-06-16T21:46:00.000-04:00

Other discussions on other blogs and on various forums around the internet frequently center on people who talk about how the government and others should not be allowed to infringe on their property rights. They go on and on about how they have a right to do whatever they wish with their property, and no one should be able to say otherwise. Those topics include:

1. anti-discrimination laws
2. fire codes
3. The Americans with Disabilities Act
4. Guns in parking lots laws, and CCW in business establishments, etc.
5. pick another law that controls the behavior of businesses

Overwhelmingly, these people complain that the government has no business interfering with what they consider to be the free enjoyment of their property. Of course, those same business owners have no problem with forming a corporation to run the business and therefore use the government to interfere with their exposure to liability, because the government interfering in the business transaction is fine with them, as long as the interference is to their benefit.

They likewise would have no problem inviting police to arrest shoplifters, thieves, bad check writers, and other people that the business finds objectionable, but they don't want the government interfering. No sir. They want those government funded roads to transport customers to their business, they want the fire department to put out the fire that is burning down the building, and they probably don't have a problem with the banking regulations that control the bank where they store the day's proceeds.

To them, what is really important is that no one can tell them that they can't chain the fire exits shut, or that they must have a fire alarm, or that they can tell their employees that they cannot have weapons on property. This isn't a principled stand on property rights. It is an attempt to game the system in your own favor, yet another manifestation of the NIMBY philosophy. I want the government to help me, but I want them to stay out of my way instead of helping that other guy.

Until the "property rights" crowd tells me that they are against ALL government intrusion, I just can't take them seriously.

I have been singing this all morning

2011-06-16T11:52:00.000-04:00

Tam's post got me to (slightly) rewrite the lyrics of an old song, and I have been singing it all morning:

SWAT Team Dance

S-s-s-s, W-w-w-w, A-a-a-a, T-t-t-t
SWAT, dance!

We can search if we want to
We can inspect your friends' behind
'Cause your friends don't bow and if they don't scrape,
Well they're no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to
A warrant you'll never find
And we can rewrite the Constitution
Leave the real one far behind
And we can dance

[Sung]We can search if we want to
We can inspect your friends' behind
'Cause your friends don't bow and if they don't scrape
Well they're no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to
A warrant you'll never find
And we can rewrite the Constitution
Leave the real one far behind
And we can dance

We can go where we want to
The night is young and so am I
And we can dress real neat from our helmets to our feet
And surprise 'em with the no-knock cry
Say, we can act if want to
Question us, nobody will
And we can shoot some dude, he's totally screwed
And I can act like an imbecile

[Refrain]
I say, we can dance, we can dance
Totally out of control
We can dance, we can dance
We're doing it from wall to wall
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody look at your hands
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody takin' the cha-a-a-ance

with the Swat Team dance
It's the SWAT team dance,
It's the SWAT team dance.

S-s-s-s, W-w-w-w, A-a-a-a, T-t-t-t
SWAT, dance!

We can search if we want to
We have auth-or-i-ty
As long as we abuse it, never gonna lose it
Everything'll work out right
I say, we can search if we want to
We can shoot your friends' behinds
'Cause your friends don't bow and if they don't scrape
Well they're no friends of mine

Know your toolbox

2011-06-12T06:10:00.000-04:00

A 69 year old male with an implantable defibrillator calls EMS because it shocked him. A medic who was on the call with me was assuming that the defibrillator was malfunctioning. That is usually not the case. In fact, I cannot think of a single time when an implantable defibrillator shocked a patient unnecessarily. This patient told me that he got lightheaded at about the same time as he was shocked, so I was running off the assumption that the patient had been in Ventricular Tachycardia, and the ICD shocked him. We put the patient on the monitor, and the patient was in a first degree AV block with frequent (15 per minute or so) PVCs.

The best treatment for PVCs is oxygen, so we started the patient on 4 liters, and obtained IV access. By this time, the patient was in ventricular trigeminy, and it wasn't long before we started seeing couplets. Vitals: HR 88, BP 152/88, RR 18, SaO2 100%, EtCO2 34, and he weighs 193 pounds. Of the five of us on scene, there were three medics, and the other two medics wanted to give him a cordarone drip.

I told them to give 100mg of lidocaine, and follow that with a maintenance drip of 2mg/ minute. The PVCs were almost completely resolved (less than 4 per minute) within 3 minutes, and we took our ride to the hospital.

When we returned to quarters, we had a discussion on the benefits of lidocaine versus cordarone, and turned it into a training session. I must admit that other medics may have different feelings on this, but here are the reasons why I prefer lidocaine over amiodarone for conscious patients:

1. Amiodarone causes too much hypotension for my comfort
2. Amiodarone frequently causes bradycardia
3. Amiodarone has a long half-life, so in the event that 1 or 2 occurs, the patient is going to be screwed for a long time
4. Although lidocaine toxicity is theoretically a worry, I have never seen it on any of my patients.

So that is why I go with lidocaine. Any other readers have different opinions? If so, why?

Stupid humans

2011-06-10T17:46:00.001-04:00

Yesterday at work, I was flagged down by a woman who wanted to report an alligator in the middle of the road. Not an unusual occurrence in alligator country, but not as common as it once was. At four or five feet, the alligator was not a large one, but there was a group of about 10 people who were stopped in the middle of the road, out of their cars trying to get pictures of the animal, some of them as close as 10-12 feet away.

The alligator was facing them, mouth open, and hissing at them. For those of you who do not recognize the behavior of an animal that feels threatened, this posture is alligator speak for "Leave me alone, or I will maul your ass with these huge teeth I've got here." When an apex predator such as an alligator, or any animal, takes this sort of an aggressive posture, it behooves you to pay attention to the message and move away slowly without turning your back on it, lest you trigger a pursuit response from the predator. When the nice firefighter tells you to get in your car and leave before you get eaten, you should probably do so.

Of course, that is not the behavior of the people in my area. Instead, they want to argue with you about how they only want a picture, and how you can't order them around. Hey, I am not going to argue with you, go ahead and get your pictures. Once you get bitten, though, don't file a complaint against me when I laugh at you.

Coke or pepsi

2011-06-05T12:10:00.000-04:00

Naomi Wolf wrote an article in 2007, titled "Fascist America in 10 easy steps." The subtitle was:

History shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. Each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.

She then went on to list those steps. I thought that I would revisit this list, and see where we are:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system or even this example. What scares me the most is this executive order.
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Coke or Pepsi. No difference between the Republicans or the Democrats.

Suffering through what passes for education

2011-06-02T14:47:00.002-04:00

I am taking a class on EMS injury prevention, and the author of the book spends an entire chapter on how eliminating guns would prevent millions of injuries. He cites the largely discredited studies by Kellerman and Hemenway that state you are 4.8 times more likely to die from suicide if you own a gun, and 43 times more likely to die if you have a gun in the home. A quote from the book:

The ease of access and lack of safety standards has made the United States one of the most "gun violent" countries in the world. It is particularly tragic that suicide has not been a part of the suicide debate despite the fact that 55% of completed suicides are carried out with firearms. The political leadership of the nation has facilitated suicide and homicide even as the public health and medical communities have geared up to reduce intentional violence. Politicians have avoided offending a powerful gun lobby by hiding behind a mythical individual "right" to guns.

They have played out this deceit even though the US Supreme Court has made it clear that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution has no significant limiting impact on efforts by government to control (and even ban) firearms. Two Supreme Court decisions defining the meaning of the Second Amendment have made it clear that there is no Constitutional right to possess firearms.

This is what passes for scholarship in the colleges of this country. I will grant you that this book was written in 2006, two years before Heller, but even using the figures available at the time show that 52% of suicides were by firearm, not 55%. Also, I would like to know which two cases the author speaks of. The only case I know of is Miller, and that case certainly did not say that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right.

UPDATE 6/6/2011: I contacted the professor and complained about the text. The professor agreed, and told that he would begin looking for another textbook.