Divemedic

Body Armor

I own several types and brands of body armor. Each has advantages and disadvantages. I will summarize them below.

Back in 2018, I bought some body armor for my wife and me. Since we were working as teachers, I got a set for each of us to keep in the classroom. The vests that I bought are made by Bulletsafe. The vests that I got are the Level IIIA vests, cost $300. I found them to be too bulky to wear concealed. With the trauma plates, the vests are upgraded to Level IV, but they are quite heavy when worn that way. My wife’s vest is still in her classroom. Since I no longer teach, my vest is next to the bed with the home defense gun and a set of electronic hearing protection. If I need to clear the house, having a Level IV vest on is a great idea, and the weight isn’t a concern since I won’t be wearing it for long. The company was OK, with the first vest and plate coming on time, but the plate for the second vest wasn’t delivered after two months. I originally cancelled the order, but the company made it right. It looks like they were just too successful and were having trouble filling the large numbers of orders they had. I’ve worn this set a couple of times to clear the house, and twice while I was teaching when we went on lockdown. Mine has a FAK and a couple of velcro tags on it that indicate my blood type and say “Paramedic” on them. One problem that I have with this product is that it covers the shoulder and makes shouldering a long gun kind of difficult.

Fast forward to 2020, and I placed orders for two more sets of armor. The first was a Testudo Gen2 carrier and a set of Level III+ steel plates from AR500. I also put a set of pouches on it that can hold five 30 round AR magazines, a full sized handgun with two magazines, a first aid kit, an accessory pouch, and another pouch that will hold two smoke grenades. (Yes, I have smoke grenades) Delivery was actually faster than the quoted 8 weeks and cost me about $500. One thing: I bought my own pouches elsewhere, as it was cheaper. Even so, at 25 pounds (with armor, handgun, and other gear) that loadout is as heavy as I can wear in Florida’s summer heat without being uncomfortable. Toss in an AR, and I am toting about 35 pounds of gear. I would recommend (if you have the cash) that you spend the extra for the lighter plates to reduce weight. That will save you about seven pounds, but will cost another $500 or so. This vest is my Antifa emergency loadout and I haven’t worn it other than to see how it fit and how heavy it felt. The good and bad of this setup is that it only covers the vital organs. This leaves the shoulders unprotected but allows long guns to be comfortably shouldered.

The last experience I had with armor was the most promising, but was the worst of them. The company was called Bulletproof Everyone. A concealable Level II vest, it looked interesting:

The product was less than ideal. It was just a sweatshirt with pockets for the soft plates sewn into it. It is obvious that it contains body armor. It smelled like chemical scented ass and took months to get delivered. Even though it was only $350, I expected a better product. The first vest I got didn’t fit even though I measured. After some complaints and a call to the company’s owner, I got one that fit properly, but as you can tell, I wasn’t impressed. I don’t think I have ever worn it other than to check fit.

So that is my experience with armor.

By Divemedic, ago

It was GunFreeZone’s Idea!

I just saw his post about the killer bomb robots of San Francisco. I would point out that I beat him to the punch, but JKB over at GFZ in 2017 was the one who first proposed arming SF robots so they could protect themselves from being sexually abused by the city’s homeless.

So when you get attacked by a fear crazed, killer attack robot bomb who is claiming that he was just standing his ground, remember whose fault it is!

(For those of you with no sense of humor, this is satire and I am just pulling the legs of AWA, JKB, and Miguel. I swear that today’s headlines seem more like satire than actual satire does)

By Divemedic, ago

Not Surprising

University of Florida had some woke bullshit BLM stuff on their medical school webpages. That doesn’t surprise me in the least. I didn’t go to UF, but this is widespread throughout US colleges. I had to listen to and report on Podcasts talking about Health Equity and how all white people have privilege and are racist.

One of those podcasts talked about how black women have worse outcomes in healthcare than do white women, and this is proof of racial bias. As evidence, the podcast offered Serina Williams’ issues during childbirth to show that black women can’t get quality care, even when rich and famous.

Except that isn’t what happened. Ms. Williams has a preexisting condition requiring that she take anticoagulants to prevent blood clots. When she was to give birth by Caesarian section, the hospital told her to stop taking the anticoagulants, as they increase the chances of severe bleeding during surgery. After the surgery, she developed blood clots because she wasn’t on her medication. That happens and had nothing to do with her race.

That doesn’t matter to the woke professors that have infected our colleges. What do you do as a student? Well, you can do what I did when I was in grad school to be a PA, which was be loud and defend your opinions, but all that does is make an enemy of the professor who will then run you out of school and make certain you won’t ever be accepted to another grad school. Or, you can do what I did when I went to nursing school: keep your mouth shut, parrot the woke party line, and try to not be noticed.

By Divemedic, ago

Sixty One Percent

The Pentagon was audited and couldn’t account for 61% of its assets. If a company did this, the executives would be in jail. How can Congress demand to review President Trump’s tax returns, when they can’t even keep track of their own funds?

Even as this happened, there is some PFC somewhere getting smoked because he didn’t tie a dummy cord to his NODs or some sailor is getting accused of gundecking because he used a 4 inch screwdriver when the MRC said it was supposed to be a 6 inch.

By Divemedic, ago

Good Guy With a Gun

A good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun, and doesn’t even fire a shot. The antigun left won’t count this as a “defensive gun use” but it certainly was. You don’t need to fire a gun in order to use it in self defense.

Note how they stress that the hero was an “armed veteran” who “grabbed his gun, chambered a round, and rushed outside to assist.” They can’t admit that a CCW carrier could possibly do anything good, unless they were a veteran who kept an unloaded gun around.

By Divemedic, ago

Guessing Game

Police have arrested a 14 year old in the January shooting death of a 15 year old Jones High School student. The 14 year old has reportedly confessed to the murder. The story reports on the name of the victim and even includes a picture.

You will note that there is no name or picture of the 14 year old killer. I wondered why, so I went hunting for one, and it didn’t take me long to find it.

That explains why they didn’t mention his name, Tydeareon Devonte Sessler, nor include a picture. Still, it doesn’t surprise anyone here, does it?

By Divemedic, ago

Rion

It’s been ten days since I last updated you on my grandson’s progress. He continues to do well in therapy. He can walk moderate distances now, and has learned to roll his own wheelchair around. He appears to have control of all of his appendages, but has some issues that are being worked on in therapy.

He still has trouble with fine motor control. What this means is that he cannot control his fingers individually, so he eats like a small child by grabbing whatever he wants to eat in his fist, then cramming his entire fist in his mouth before opening his hand. That’s one thing that we have been working on with him- trying to get him to pick up food with just his index finger and thumb. I was using M&M’s to try and get him to feed himself.

He is still non-verbal. He can make the “f” and “s” sounds, but can’t seem to use his vocal chords on a voluntary basis, nor can he move his mouth for other sounds. This seems to frustrate him while he is trying to talk. I’ve been working on any word at all. The one he seems to enjoy shooting for is “fart.” After half an hour or so of trying he begins getting angry and stomps his feet. I can’t imagine what that is like, to want to communicate and be unable to. The family has been taking bets to see what his first word will be. I don’t care what his first word is, he can shout an expletive for all I care, as long as he can come back to us.

The therapists have given him multiple cognitive tests, and have determined that his thought processes are working fine. In fact, he is reading at a 5th grade level, so he is far ahead of where he should be.

There are a few personality changes that have become apparent. Foods that he used to enjoy, he can no longer stand. The neurologists say that this is common in people that have sustained brain injuries- as the brain rewires itself to route new pathways around the damaged areas, some things will be different.

All in all, he is making what they say is good progress, and is on the path to recovery. When that will happen is anyone’s guess, but typically it takes anywhere from a six months to two years to see a complete recovery. The goal right now is to get him to a point where he can be home schooled, so that we don’t see him fall too far behind his peers. In the short term, getting him moved from an inpatient status to home health care is on the horizon. We are hoping that he will be home with his family in time for Christmas.

It’s easy to forget that eight weeks ago was the last time he was well. Just six weeks ago, he was still in a coma and we were worried that he wasn’t going to survive. Three weeks ago, and he was still in the intensive care unit, with doctors telling us that he would likely be paralyzed for life. He continues to improve, one week at a time. Whatever the future holds for Rion, it will be better than the one he had just a week before.

By Divemedic, ago

Don’t Answer Questions

This encounter is why you don’t answer a cop’s questions. Hand over the license and registration, and then respond with “I am not trying to be disrespectful, but I don’t wish to answer any questions at this time,” and then shut up. If you get officer road rage, it likely won’t help, but at least you have a stronger case later.

By Divemedic, ago