May 2012

I was teaching class today, and I had a student tell me that an EMS system to our north was using a protocol that instructed rescuers to use two defibrilators simultaneously, in order to deliver 720 joules to patients in refractory Ventricular Fibrillation. At the time, I hadn’t known anything about this, so I told the student that this didn’t sound right, but that I would research the subject and get back to him.

It turns out that he was half correct. The procedure calls for two defibrillators to be used to deliver two shocks in rapid sequence, one with the traditional pad placement at the sternum and apex, and the other being in an anterior-posterior configuration. This is not delivering 720 joules, for the following reason:

Defibrillators do not deliver 360 joules per shock. Modern defibrillators are biphasic, and they deliver a shock that is EQUIVALENT to 360 monophasic joules. This means that when you press the shock button, the monitor measures the patient’s resistance to electrical current (called “impedance”), and delivers the energy that will get the appropriate energy to the fibrillating heart. This shock is actually 200j, and was determined to be the best energy level in clinical trials. (Mittal et al JACC 1999 24:1595-1601) Even so, the energy delivered would not even be equal to 400j, because the shocks are going to be delivered at least a half second apart. This makes them 2 “stacked shocks” of 200j each, not one 720j shock.

With that being said, systems using this procedure have had some success in converting stubborn Vfib with this protocol. My thought is that this is more due to either the placement of the pads of the second defibrillator in the anterior-posterior configuration, which would put more current directly through the heart, or is due to the fact that the shocks are being “stacked.” What strikes me as typical here is that there is serious talk about going back to “stacked shocks” as part of the ACLS algorithm, considering that the AHA removed those with the 2000 update. Will we see a return of them in the 2015 ACLS update?

Instead of recommending a return to stacked shocks, how about a study to determine is there is another factor at play here, like pad placement?

So let me get this straight:
Osama Bin Laden was living in a house just a mile away from the main Pakistani military academy, the people who helped find him were convicted of treason, and committing acts against the national interests of Pakistan, and we still send Pakistan $1 billion in aid? How stupid is our country, that we continue to borrow money from China, so we can send it to our enemies?

Years ago, I was shopping for a laser printer. The salesman at the store was telling me that “this printer prints with HP level quality.” That was when I realized that if the HP printer was the one that others were being compared to, then I would be buying an HP.  After all, with the price points being close, I would be a fool not to buy quality.
The same should go with a self defense handgun. You should buy quality, because when you carry a firearm for self defense, you are literally betting your life that it will go “bang” when you need it to. Now most guns and ammunition made today have reliability that is far superior to where it was 100 years ago.

Rob Pincus recently fired up 1911 gun owners when he said that 1911s are not reliable, and issued a challenge. Michael Bane immediately added his opinion. Immediately, the fanboys came out of the woodwork with ludicrous claims:

– It is good, because the FBI HRT, my local SWAT team, etc. uses it.
This claim is stupid, because these SWAT teams are that- teams. They take that 1911 in as part of a team, with a half dozen other team members behind them. Besides, the 1911 isn’t the primary weapon, it is a backup weapon. In either case, a failure of the gun is not as catastrophic as it would be for you- someone has their back.

– The 1911 is good, because it was the military issue sidearm for 80 years
and now it isn’t. So does that mean it isn’t good any more? Not only that, but are you saying that the US Government always buys on quality? Not politics?

– It is good, because many competitors use it in IPSC and IDPA matches
Those matches have rules that are designed to favor the 1911 platform. That was always one of the problems I had with those matches: they are gamed. IDPA has a division that is devoted to it, called “Custom Defensive Pistol,” in which the pistol must be .45ACP loaded to a certain power factor, and cannot hold more than 8 rounds. Not only that, but those competitors are shooting $5,000 custom weapons. If you have $5K to spend, you will do better to buy a $1,000 pistol and $4,000 worth of practice ammo.

My personal favorite:
– No one used an XD to clear VC tunnels, or to root Japanese soldiers out of trenches
The guns in question had not even been invented yet. Silliness.

Look, I bought several 1911s, and ran them through their paces. The first that I bought was a Colt. Out of the box, it had problems. I couldn’t fire 100 rounds without 5 or 10 stoppages. Everyone told me that 1911s have a break in period of 500 rounds. At 500, it was still not working. I took it in for warranty work, and they repaired it. It still wasn’t reliable. Then my 1911 friends blamed me as the problem, accusing me everything from performing poor maintenance to ‘limp wristing’ but the fact is, my other pistols worked fine. The Colt became a safe queen.

I bought me some Kimbers. Three, to be exact. One, a Pro Carry, had problems similar to the Colt, but they were solved by the factory repair. I was happy with all of them, until the round counts got up there. Then, they became unreliable. It turns out that they need repair every 1,000 rounds or so, and major work every 3,000 or so.

That isn’t reliable to me. I have a Sig pistol that I have had for over ten years, and it has over 20,000 rounds through it. It has only been to the shop once. (I must admit that another Sig that I had was just rebuilt because it rusted while in storage, but that is not the fault of the design) 1911s can’t do that. I have one 1911 remaining, the Ultra Carry II. It was the only one of the four 1911s that I bought that works worth a damn. 25% is not a good batting average.

So the Feds claim to have arrested some homegrown terrorists over the weekend. They are accusing them of making Molotov cocktails, but the accused claim that it was only beer making equipment. As for me, I take the accusations with a grain of salt., because I remember the Hutaree false flag operation.

For those of you who do not know Jon Gutmacher, he is widely considered to be the best self defense attorney in the state of Florida. He literally wrote the book on firearms law in the state of Florida. His books are used as reference material by the judges of this state. If I am ever involved in a shooting in the state of Florida, I will do everything that I can to retain the services of Mr. Gutmacher.

This letter was sent from Mr. Gutmacher to the Florida Governor:

To the Honorable Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll and members of the Commission:

The mainstream media reports on the Zimmermna case, with CBS news filing this report on the statements made by Zimmerman’s attorney. Of course, they had to insert the portions that support the narrative, when they had this to say:

Martin’s autopsy showed he was shot through the heart. Gunpowder
burns around his chest wound, called “stippling,” suggest Zimmerman shot
him no more than 18 inches away. The gun shot’s trajectory was
horizontal.
Diagrams also note Martin was hurt in the fight: blood on his head, a bruise around his eye, scarring on both hands.  (emphasis added)

This is where the lies are to be found. Don’t take my word for it: read the autopsy yourself. On page seven, you will find the diagram that they are referring to.

Looking at the hands, there is one hand marked ‘scar’ and one marked ‘abr’. A scar is old injury, and would not have happened during the fight with Zimmerman. ‘Abr’ means abrasion, as evidenced by the fact that it is mentioned in the list of injuries on page three. The scar is irrelevant to the investigation, as is the one shown by the diagram on Martin’s right shoulder.
The note near the eye does not say ‘bruise’ for two reasons: there is no mention of it in the list of injuries, and ‘bruise’ is not the proper medical term and would not be used on a medical report.
The marks on the head part of the diagram are descriptors. The one on the head says “black short,” which is a description of the decedent’s hair, it most certainly does not say anything about “blood,” and the one which is on the eye says “Brown,” not “bruise.” Both of these descriptors can be found on page two.

So what we have here is the mainstream media trying to shape the narrative, either because they are seeing what they want to see, or because they are deliberately trying to mislead the public. In either case, they cannot be trusted.

I will be making an appearance at the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando today for the Southern Classic gun and knife show. Maybe I can see something worth buying.

So my old employer found out that I am back, and I was offered my old job back. I told them I wasn’t interested. I left government service because it is no longer a good job to have. For the past few years, the TEA party has been attacking public sector workers by claiming that their benefits are an endless gravy train.

The TEA party claims that public sector workers have benefits packages that are too generous, and they claim that the public and private sectors should be equivalent. Among their complaints:

– Public sector workers make too much money. The claim is that public sector workers make about 5 percent more than private sector workers
on average.  Of course, they overlook a few details that would change the equation a bit:
 First, the hourly wages for public EMS in my area tell the story. EMS systems for local theme parks have starting wages of $18 an hour for paramedics, while my former employer starts paramedics who must also be firefighters at only $13 an hour. You would never know that by looking at take home pay. Many public workers like fire and paramedics do not get overtime at 40 hours like private sector workers, but at 52 hours. This results in a 56 hour work week because the employer is free to schedule workers to a 24 on/48 off work schedule, so that a firemedic works 2,912 a year, while the theme park medic works 2,080 hours a year. That results in the firemedic making 4.7% more money than his private sector counterpart, but at the expense of working 40% more hours.
Second, comparing all private sector pay to all public sector pay is not an apples to apples comparison. Comparing the majority of government jobs, with their higher educational requirements, to the private sector is not an even comparison.

It used to be that the disparity was made up with benefits packages like pensions and health insurance, but those have been under constant attack. The fact is that public sector health insurance and pensions combined only eat up 4% of the Florida state budget, while Medicaid consumes over 30%. Free lunches for poor kids in school add up to more than what it costs to fund the pensions of state employees.

When I left the fire department, I was earning just $19.27 an hour after spending 15 years at the same employer and receiving two promotions along the way. I worked for the government for a total of 21 years, and I get a pension of $32,400 a year. If I return to that job, I have to give up the pension for the duration of my employment. If I return to a private sector medic job, I don’t. That means that I can work a 40 hour week and make $68K a year, or I can return to the fire department and make $58K a year. That is a no brainer.

I started looking for a job recently. Let’s see what’s out there.

In Florida, if you are selected for jury duty and actually show up, you are not selectable for another year. I have been called to jury duty twice in the past four years. The first was in November of 2008, and I sat in the jury holding until noon, and was then told I wasn’t needed and sent home. The second was in July of 2010. The clerk sent out 200 summons, and only 110 actually bothered to show up. Fourteen made it to the jury.

This is brought to mind when I read the article about how people are protesting that a cop was found not guilty of beating a burglary suspect in Houston. Now, I am certainly not above slamming cops when they are wrong, and this may well have been the case here, I don’t know. What I DO know is that the jury listened to all of the facts in the case, and returned a verdict of not guilty. That is it, as far as I am concerned.

There are people who claim that the jury was biased, because they were all white, and others in comments are claiming that the reason for this, is that the jury was constituted in the south. I have a number of problems with this:

1    It is racist to claim that white juries can’t reach a decision based on the facts.

2   The jury pool is randomly selected from the general population of Houston. The population of Houston is 49% white, 25% black, and 5% Asian. The jury pool should have had a similar makeup. With all of that, only 2 blacks bothered to respond to the jury summons. That means that black people who received a summons were overwhelmingly unlikely to show up, probably due to apathy.

3   It could be that he was acquitted because of the actual evidence. The cop was accused of kicking the teen on the left side of his head, but photos presented at trial showed the teen’s injuries were on the
right side of his head. That may have been the reason.

4   Then the article talks about the Travon Martin case, even though it is completely irrelevant. This case was about a beating that allegedly took place with cops as the perpetrators, and the Martin shooting was a Hispanic citizen shooting of a black teen. Where is the relevance? This is about the press doing what it can to increase dissatisfaction on the part of black citizens.

A suspicious, conspiracy theory minded individual would begin to suspect that this is being done by the MSM to fire up apathetic black voters and inspire them to go to the polls. You see, this voting block voted 80% for Obama in 2008, and unless they show up to the polls in large numbers in November, Obama will lose the Whitehouse, because he is losing the swing voters.

Too many times, we hear about ‘all white juries’ when a decision doesn’t go the way that the black community wants it to go. I got news for ya: Juries do this all the time. They hand down verdicts that don’t always go the way that you would think they would, but they see ALL of the evidence, not just the part that the press manipulates. Try to remember that. Not everything that doesn’t go your way is racism.