Divemedic

Your Employer Doesn’t Care

A 7-11 clerk was being attacked by a customer because she refused to accept a counterfeit $100 bill. Read what happened next:

Stephanie Dilyard was working alone when a customer attempted to pay for burritos, beef sticks, and ice cream with a counterfeit $100 bill. When she refused the transaction, the situation quickly escalated.

“He threatened me and said he was going to slice my head off,” Dilyard recounted. As she tried to call police, the suspect began throwing items and then came behind the counter. “I tried to run off, but he grabbed his hands around my neck and pushed me out of the counter space. That’s when I pulled out my gun and I shot him.”

Good on her. However, her employer didn’t agree: they fired her for defending herself. I used to get roasted for this on the now defunct Packing.org, but I think that, if a property owner prohibits carry, they should be subject to liability for not taking steps to defend you from criminals. Apparently, property rights are sacrosanct to the libertarian crowd. This is what an attorney had to say about the shooting:

Ed Blau, a criminal defense attorney, explained the company’s stance, stating, “7-Eleven as a corporation, they do not want all of their employees packing heat while working all over the country. That presents a tremendous liability risk for them.” Blau suggested that Dilyard might face challenges in pursuing a wrongful termination lawsuit, as the company’s policy was clear.

The libertarian crowd has long held that, if a property owner wants to prohibit weapons or self defense on their property and you get attacked by a criminal while on the property, well, that’s just too damned bad. That’s the risk you take while on someone else’s property. I wholeheartedly disagree. To me, this is no different than a property owner chaining the emergency exit shut, then an arsonist sets the building on fire. While the owner didn’t start the fire, his actions contributed to the loss of life that followed.

So back to the criminals on property discussion: A property owner or employer prohibits weapons. A criminal comes in and stabs you, but you were prohibited the most effective means of self defense. It should be left to a jury as to how much of the liability is on the property owner. Perhaps the jury rules 10%, or even 70%. Each case is different, that’s why we have juries in the first place.

Otherwise, you create the situation we have now- you are attacked by a criminal on someone else’s property. The property owner can’t be held liable for the actions of criminals, so they are free from liability. However, if that property owner doesn’t prohibit weapons or self defense, then the criminal who gets shot in self defense can now sue the property owner for damages that were the direct result of their criminal behavior.

What a perverse incentive that favors criminals.

To sum it up- your employer is in business to make money. They don’t care if you live or die, unless your death somehow hurts the bottom line. The reason for this is that our current legal system punishes property owners and shields criminals. That needs to change.

Now I am going to get off of here and go fly my DCS plane. I’m learning inflight refueling today.

By Divemedic, ago

Gifted

As a child, they measured my IQ at 154 before placing me in a gifted program. This meant that, once per day, I was pulled out of class and placed in a class with other gifted students, where we received separate instruction. I hated it, and fought to keep my children out of the program when the school wanted to place them in it. Not because I disagreed with the program, its aims, or how children are selected. No, I opposed it because of how teachers treated me. There were a couple of teachers who constantly pulled me up in front of the class to make fun of me- saying things like “He is supposed to be gifted, but he isn’t very smart.”

That teacher was black.

She hated me because I symbolized intelligence, while very few black children are above the median intelligence. In order to make themselves feel better, blacks have to convince themselves that gifted programs, and the intelligence tests used to screen for them, are racist constructs of the white race. That’s the premise behind this story in the New York Times.

I maxed out every aptitude test I was given. When I was in the Fifth grade, I was reading at the same level as a fourth year college student. My reading speed was over 300 words per minute with 80% comprehension. Even today it’s still high. My reading speed was recently measured at over 250 words per minute with 84% comprehension. When I took the GRE, I scored in the 96th percentile. I’m just good at tests, I guess.

To listen to those who oppose intelligence testing, they would claim that it’s because these tests are biased in favor of whites. Of course, that ignores the fact that Asians frequently outscore whites. The real issue here is that blacks are the third rail of political discourse. There is incontrovertible evidence that blacks are less intelligent, more prone to violence, and better in athletics than are other demographics, yet the only difference we are permitted to recognize is athleticism. Any result that reflects this- low credit scores, high homicide rates, poverty, or other negative outcomes are simply hand waved away as being evidence that whites are simply prejudiced.

They point out that children in poor households don’t do as well when taking intelligence tests, and then point out that blacks are poor, therefore the tests are prejudiced. Bullshit. Intelligence is hereditary. Since affluence is related to intelligence, we can conclude that rich parents tend to be more affluent, and tend to have smart, affluent children.

Now name the ten most violent neighborhoods in America. What do they all have in common? The most dangerous neighborhood in the US is in Los Angeles and is contained within E. 5th St., S. Los Angeles St., Boyd St., and S. San Pedro St.. That nine block area has 347 violent crimes for every 1,000 residents. In other words, if you live in this area, you have roughly a 35% chance of being the victim of a violent crime. In these few blocks, 55% of the households in this neighborhood earned less than 99.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods. The median household income of this area is around $9,175 per year. 83% of the residents were male, and about 80% of the population aged 16+ were not in the labor force—which is higher than 99% of U.S. block groups. The overwhelming population is black.

This plays out over and over again.

We have programs for “special” children, but we used to call those kids “retarded.” That moniker has fallen from favor, as accurate as it was. However, there is a movement to eliminate programs for “gifted” children, because not enough black kids are smart enough to be considered so.

It’s time to scrap public education. The entire system has failed.

By Divemedic, ago

Jobs

Once I got my MBA, one of the first things I did was to sit down with the director and her assistant. I pointed out to them that nurses who get a master’s degree do so because they don’t want to stay in their current role. The response was that there were no promotions available. They explained that we were budgeted for 10 assistant managers, and we currently have 14. Additionally, five people have been here longer than I have were promised any upcoming promotions. The result of all of this is that I would have to see nine people leave before I would even be considered for an assistant manager role. Assistant manager doesn’t even require a bachelor’s degree, as there are several who only have an associate’s in nursing.

I pointed out that I had more certifications and more education than any of those who were currently in roles over me, as many of those in line ahead of me don’t have a bachelor’s or a single board certification, much less a master’s and multiple board certifications. I am more qualified and certified than any other nurse in the department, including the director herself. That apparently didn’t matter.

My hospital is getting ready to open a free standing ED about 20 minutes down the road, and the staffing for that unit is coming from the staff of my current hospital. I asked them if I could apply to be the director of that facility. She told me that she was planning on running it directly and remotely herself, so there would be no director position to apply for. It’s more cost effective to not hire a new director, don’t you see…

The director then said, “I understand what you are trying to do. Just stick around, because there is a lot of growth planned over the next two years. There will be other opportunities for advancement, and you can apply for one of them.” To me, this was like being placed in the friend zone, where a woman leads you on in order to get you to continue to act like a boyfriend to take her out to dinner, but had no plans of ever letting things go any further.

So I began applying for other jobs. I first tried to get an assistant manager spot at other hospitals within the same company. I was offered one, but at the same pay that I am currently being paid, and I would no longer qualify for some of the incentive pays that I currently receive. In other words, a cut in pay. Topping it off, the position was an hour’s drive away. I turned it down.

So I applied to positions outside of the company. One of the interviews I went to lasted over 2 hours. I found myself saying things like “You hire professionals. They want to succeed and work for a place that is winning. A leader is there to give a team a common vision so they head in the direction that they already want to go, and the result is usually excellence.” They loved me. I was told that I could take a current position as an assistant manager, or I could wait and see if my other application for a more senior position would bear fruit. I elected to go for the higher position.

I then was asked to a second interview with the hospital’s board of directors. I went and got a Brooks Brothers suit for the interview. I got an email on Saturday, and the woman who would be my boss at the new hospital told me that she thought I was a great fit and this second interview was to be on Wednesday.

Then on Sunday, I got an email that the second interview would have to be postponed. Two days later, I was called by HR and told that I was no longer a candidate for either position, because the positions would be eliminated. As of this morning, both positions remain posted on the company’s job board.

I continue to search for a better job. It’s all good, I’ve only had an MBA for 2 weeks, and I have already had 6 job interviews. It will happen.

By Divemedic, ago

Illegals

There is a lot of outrage over this video of a Colorado health inspector pouring bleach into a “street vendor’s” food.

The video is a lie. The truth is this: It wasn’t just over a fee. This so-called street vendor is a business being operated by an illegal immigrant, a man by the name of Isidro Garcia Barrientos. He is operating this business without licenses, and after having received more than a dozen health code violations for unsanitary conditions and improper storage of food. Each time, the workers simply move the popup to a different location and resume selling. So far, he has been seen operating in several counties and cities, and has been dodging the law for months.

In this case, the health worker showed up, and the workers again started boxing up the food to relocate, placing it into a locked truck and refusing to obey the law. To prevent this, the health inspector poured bleach in the food. The inspector was doing her job and isn’t being charged with any crimes.

Source for the story is here.

By Divemedic, ago

Peak Stupidity

This picture has been making the rounds on liberal social media accounts:

So you need a background check and a waiting period to purchase healthcare with your own money? Is healthcare not permitted in certain cities? Do some cities require a permit to see a doctor?

Or are they saying that they support giving everyone all of the guns they desire, free of charge?

They call us the stupid ones, but then post stupid, easily refuted drivel like this…

By Divemedic, ago

Liability Shield

Just as many so-called “conspiracy theorists” have been telling us, at least one government has admitted that it has been withholding data that may link the COVID jab to excess deaths. Of course, this news is nowhere near new. We knew they were hiding data at least three years ago:

So-called “scientists” who receive all of their funding from the government called those who made these claims “disinformants” and called this opinion “misinformation.” Study after study was published about the dissemination of false narratives concerning the COVID vaccine. Every one of those studies was based upon the “fact” that COVID vaccines were safe and effective.

We were lied to.

Those who released information that COVID itself was manmade or that the vaccine was ineffective were summarily deplatformed, fired, and otherwise had their lives destroyed. There is nothing so evil that our government won’t do it.

By Divemedic, ago

Alarm Bells

Alarm bells should be ringing with the news that the government sold $694 billion in Treasury securities spread over 9 auctions in only three days. Yeah, our national debt now stands at $38.2 trillion. The most alarming thing about this news is that T-bill yields are rising. The 10-year Treasury yield is now at 4.15%. At that rate, the interest on our debt will be more than $1.5 trillion per year. Since Americans only pay about $2.4 trillion in Federal taxes each year, we are edging closer to the point where our debt will begin to grow like a snowball rolling down a mountain.

The only way to keep the government solvent at that point would be to inflate the currency in order to pay it with lower valued money. At that point, inflation will be higher than interest rates, and it will no longer be financially possible to invest in government bonds. This will in turn cause higher rates, which will also create a need for higher inflation. In other words, hyperinflation is the only way out, but that will cause a complete collapse of the US dollar.

Anything you own that isn’t a physical asset will evaporate overnight: currency, stocks, bonds, bank accounts. As you can imagine, the government can’t let that happen, so what they will do to deal with it is the real question…

By Divemedic, ago

Collapse

What we are all watching right now is a collapse of the old Democrat party. Pelosi is out- I think they are pushing her out for her role in replacing Joe with the Hoe. Schumer is about to be forced out by AOC as part of the end of the government shutdown, and all of a sudden the crazy old man who was seen as the outlier is mainstream. The democrats took a hit for shutting down government, then caving to the Republicans without getting a single concession.

That’s right, with Mamdani winning the NYC election, commie Bernie Sanders is now the mainstream. That’s the pitfall of drawing a line in the sand over what you call a non-negotiable, then backing off of your so-called non-negotiable without a whimper. You come off looking weak and ineffective, something that Republicans have been the best at for decades. Until now.

It’s going to be interesting to see if the US is willing to keep voting in communists.

By Divemedic, ago

Whiny Children

Listen to this rant, then read all of the comments about how “Boomers” have ruined it for today’s youth because they used up all of the opportunity by living life on “easy mode.” .

In 1960, the U.S. homeownership rate stood at 62.1% of households, meaning a majority but not all adults achieved it through steady work. Labor force participation for adults 16+ averaged about 59% in the early 1960s, with prime-age men often exceeding 90%, though many worked multiple jobs amid economic growth. Poverty afflicted 22% of Americans in 1959 (around 39 million people), dropping to 14.7% by 1966 due to expanding opportunities and policy shifts, yet struggles persisted for the unskilled or disadvantaged.

As of late 2024, the U.S. homeownership rate hovers around 65.7% of households, higher than 62.1% in 1960 despite rising costs. Civilian labor force participation for those 16+ is 62.3%, up slightly from the early 1960s’ 59% average, though prime-age rates remain strong amid dual-income norms. The official poverty rate dropped to 10.6% in 2024 (35.9 million people), far below 22% in 1959, reflecting broader access to opportunities even as entry barriers feel steeper for youth.

So total people in poverty dropped, both in real numbers and per capita. Homeownership rates are higher than in 1960, and labor participation is up.

Now there are some of these kids pointing out that houses were cheaper in 1960, but they are missing that wages were lower, and houses are now much larger. They talk about “tiny homes” as if buying a 500 square foot house is something that they just invented a couple of years ago.

The original video poster is a student. Students are always broke. Living on Ramen noodles and hot dogs is what people do when in college. Get a roommate. Stop being a whiny bitch.

By Divemedic, ago