Divemedic

Double Standard

A school district in Maryland has been forcing teachers to display progress pride flags in their classrooms. Lets be clear on what these flags symbolize.

  • Black and brown represent people of color
  • Pink represents the traditional color for baby girls
  • Light blue represents the traditional color for baby boys
  • White represents the lack of gender, a gender beyond the binary, or people who are transitioning
  • Red represents life
  • Orange represents healing
  • Yellow represents sunlight
  • Green represents nature
  • Blue represents serenity
  • Purple represents spirit

Sounds like the flag is based in spiritualism and race. So if this flag is to be allowed, why can’t the KKK flag be displayed? Or perhaps the Christian Flag?

By Divemedic, ago

Valueless Colleges

Stetson University is raising $250,000 so they can hire a Ukrainian faculty member and offer four scholarships to Ukrainian refugees. There are a few things wrong with this plan, starting with the fact that it is illegal.

First, stating that you are going to hire a new faculty member, and that the faculty member must be from a particular country violates the law. The Civil Rights Act states that it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age. That means telling someone that a position is open only to those from the Ukraine is against the law.

The next problem with this is more obvious. The claim from Stetson is that the $250K is to fund a one year scholarship for four Ukrainian students. Doing the math, it costs $62,500 a year to attend Stetson University?!?!

According to this website, ten years after their initial enrollment, the average graduate of Stetson University earns $45,400 a year. According to this website, the average high school graduate with no college earns $38,792. That means a 4 year degree from Stetson University will cause a person to earn $6,608 more per year, on average.

It will take 38 years of working to break even from what it cost to earn that degree. You will be 60 years old before you begin to see any real benefit from attending Stetson.

By Divemedic, ago

Signal 7

To help in understanding the Disney rules, I want to take a minute to explain how Florida works when it comes to EMS and dead people. Florida’s EMS system requires that all prehospital services (like EMS) have to be supervised by a doctor. That doctor is called a medical director, and that medical director sets the rules under which all of the EMT’s and Paramedics that he supervises must operate. The rules are referred to as protocols.

Some medical directors don’t trust their underlings very much, and keep them on a very short leash by making protocols restrictive. Other medical directors allow their medics latitude to make more clinical decisions than others. There are all kinds of protocols.

My first medical director here in Florida was one of the strict kinds. We were not allowed to declare someone dead. Ever. Every single person got transported, and the doctor in the ED had to make the call. We once transported a person whose head was severed from his body. The ED doctors were pissed.

If you decide that the patient is dead on scene, the radio call used to be “Signal 7.” Then the 911 commission came along, and we were no longer allowed to use codes. From that point on, the radio call became: “No code, no vitals.”

Reedy Creek is, for all practical purposes, a government that is owned by a private company. Their medical director is VERY strict, and the protocols that they operate under are anachronistic. They wrote their protocols IMO with a lawyer and PR department in mind, but not a doctor, and certainly not the patient, in mind. One of the rules that Disney operates under is that all medical patients need to be transported to the hospital, even if they are dead. The majority of them go to Advent Hospital in Celebration, where the doctor then declares them dead. Since Celebration Hospital is not on Disney property, the person didn’t die at Disney. They died in the Hospital.

By Divemedic, ago

Making Math Racist

A few days ago, I posted about Florida refusing to buy certain math textbooks because they contained CRT and SEL propaganda, and the state is trying to keep political topics out of elementary school. No groomers allowed, to put it bluntly.

Now the state has finally given some examples and reasons for why they rejected some textbooks. Take a look:

It’s subtle, but they are grooming the kids in their care, so that they grow up to be good little communists.

Grooming kids to become little communists. That is why these books were rejected. I took the Implicit Association Test, and it is garbage. It asks questions like “Are those that you are sexually attracted to mostly of a similar skin tone?” and “Do you think that certain skin tones have an advantage over others in making money?”

Garbage. This isn’t math, and it isn’t science. It’s propaganda.

By Divemedic, ago

Fourteen Years Ago Today

On this day in 2008, two marines gave their lives defending 150 other marines from a suicide bomber when they stood their ground, opening fore on the bomber who tried driving through their post. They successfully stopped him before his bomb detonated, killing both of them.

For their bravery and unwavering selflessness, they were both posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

By Divemedic, ago

Car Burglaries

Your car is being burglarized right there in front of your house. You can see them on camera. Your impulse is to run out there and protect your property. I don’t recommend that, and would tell you not to. If you decide to any way, there is a right way and a wrong way. That is the subject of this post.

In the eight years that I have lived in this neighborhood, we have had two attempted burglaries of my pickup truck parked in my driveway. Since my truck is too big to fit in the garage, I have to leave it outside. Both attempts to break into it occurred in the summer, and I wasn’t home for either one. The first time was in June of 2017 while we were in Alaska. Several cars were broken into, and they stole the Jeep across the street. The idiot left the keys to the Jeep in the glove box of the unlocked car that was parked next to it.

The second attempt was a year later and was caught on my security cameras. The cops used my footage to catch the burglar, but he reached a plea deal that included expunging his record. All he got was probation, even though he broke into four vehicles, stealing one of them. One of the cars was a police cruiser that he stole a fingerprint reader from, another was a truck where he stole a handgun, and some items from a few other vehicles. In both break-ins sprees, my truck was spared simply because I lock the doors. The thief tried to blind my cameras with a flashlight, but was unsuccessful. At the time he was trying to break into my truck, he was already armed with a stolen handgun.

The point here is that thieves are frequently armed. That is why I don’t think it is a good idea to leave the house in order to confront burglars. My truck is both empty and insured. The only thing I keep in it are my work IDs and the HAM/CB radio equipment that is mounted in it. Not worth my life. Even if I *do* confront him, my truck will likely be the backstop to my gunfire, so either way I am filing an insurance claim, and the best way to survive a gunfight is not to get in a gunfight in the first place.

If you MUST confront car burglars, there are a few things that are important:

  1. Wear body armor and ear protection. They will give you an advantage.
  2. Don’t exit from the door closest to the burglars.
  3. Don’t forget that there will likely be more than one. Keep your head on a swivel, focusing on the burglar in your car may cause you to miss the one in the getaway car to your right.
  4. Bring enough gun and more than enough ammo. Say an AR with two mags, or a PDW like this one with at least one extra mag. Since you will likely be facing more than one assailant, you want a gun that will allow you to put a lot of accurate fire down range.
  5. Have a good IFAK with a tourniquet and chest seals.
  6. Call the cops before going outside, so backup is on the way. Hope they don’t shoot you by mistake.

Or you can just call the cops, stay inside, then call your insurance company.

Oh- don’t forget your gun in the car and lock the doors.

By Divemedic, ago

Reedy Creek

The left has suddenly abandoned its hatred of big business and defense of the little guy. Now they support big pharma, they support Disney, and they want companies running the show. I never thought that I would see the day. So Florida just voted to eliminate Disney’s government.

Now that Florida is removing Disney’s right to be its own government, what does that mean? Let’s start by explaining what the Reedy Creek Improvement District is, and what it does.

History

On May 12, 1967 then Governor of Florida Claude Kirk signed a bill into law establishing the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). On the same date, he signed the incorporation acts for two incorporated cities within the district: Bay Lake and Reedy Creek. (The City of Reedy Creek was renamed to the City of Lake Buena Vista around 1970.) Before that time, nearly all of the area was undeveloped swamp land. Of the 25,000 acres of land within the RCID, Disney owns more 68% of it, RCID owns 29% of it, the State of Florida owns 2% of it, and a small plot of 110 acres belongs to “others.” Reading below, you will see that much of this 110 acres belongs to the board of directors, so they can legally serve on the board.

RCID provides to the area what local governments normally provide: fire protection, street lighting, garbage collection, water and sewer services, permitting, tax collection, and more. The District can issue bonds, and more importantly for Disney, controls all building codes and rules. Since RCID is located in two counties (Orange and Osceola), the ability to make its own rules concerning flood control, building permits, and environmental impact has meant that Disney has been out of reach of any local government regulation for over 50 years.

With more than 500 current employees who handle things like a laboratory for testing water and environmental concerns, an electric power-generating facility, a water treatment facility, recycling center, and a fire department, RCID provides all of the services that a small city does.

Governing Board and Voting

RCID receives all its income from taxes and fees imposed within its boundaries. This is a huge boon for Disney, because they are essentially paying taxes to themselves. RCID has an annual budget of $119 million, with more than $90 million of that being paid by Disney. Considering the value of all of those resorts and theme parks, $96 million in taxes and fees is a bargain.

A board of five supervisors elected by the landowners conducts the business of the district at monthly board meetings. The supervisors must also be landowners. Since Disney owns the land in the district, Disney sells five-acre blocks of undeveloped land to the supervisors. Since, you guessed it, Disney owns virtually all of the land within RCID, Disney decides who is on the board. On completion of their terms, these individuals (who are also employees of Disney) sell their land back to the company. Votes are strictly proportional to the acreage owned, so the company basically governs its own property. The law permits supervisors to vote on contracts between the district and their own companies. The board doesn’t change hands very often. For example, the President of the Board of Directors has only been held by five men since its inception in 1967: Larry Hames (the current President), Donald Greer (who is still on the board), Tom Moses, Tom DeWolf, and Joe Potter.

Losing the RCID

The impact of losing the RCID on Disney will be large. The company will have to pay taxes, water and sewage fees, and more importantly will lose the ability to set its own building codes and regulations. There are those who claim that Disney might simply leave the state. That would be ridiculous. The cost for Disney to replace just the road network that it has built around the parks is over $200 million. There is land development, flood control, infrastructure, as well as the cost of replacing four major theme parks, another six minor theme parks, a hospital, power plant, water and sewage plant, and all 31 Disney owned resort hotels. This would also require the moving of the animals located within the zoo at Animal Kingdom, meaning that wherever the company went would have to have similar climate. It would all need to be near a major airport, and a large source of employees. Even if all of that were possible, Disney would then have to fund and construct the project, which would take a decade and cost billions of dollars. The total assessed value of the property within RCID is $13.7 billion. Moving that just isn’t happening.

So how will this affect Disney and the surrounding area then? Let me start by explaining something I know a lot about: the fire department.

Reedy Creek Fire Department has 138 people staffing four fire stations. (Another 86 personnel provide admin and first aid within the parks, but that service would likely remain a Disney provided resource as it does in other area parks like Universal Studios and Sea World.) They are all union employees who are very well paid. People will leave years long careers at other departments to work for Reedy Creek, mostly due to light call loads and high pay. The RCFD pensions are paid for by the Florida taxpayer, and since pay is so high at RCFD, the pensions are high as well.

Thanks to the good condition of the buildings, Reedy Creek doesn’t run many fires, and the ones they do get are generally wildland fires. More than 97% of the calls that they get are EMS calls. The operating budget for this department is over $32 million a year. In contrast, the Kissimmee Fire Department (located a few miles away) is of similar size and call load, has a budget of $17.1 million a year.

Starting pay for a firefighter paramedic at Reedy Creek is nearly $60,000 a year. If the RCID is disbanded, firefighters may get picked up by Orange County Fire Rescue, where their starting pay is considerably less at $52,700.

They are screaming that the fire department will be eliminated. Scare people into thinking that they will be unsafe. If the firefighters want to continue working there, they are going to have to take a large pay cut. Firefighters with Reedy Creek claim that they aren’t Disney employees, but that is smoke and mirrors. As you have seen on this page, this is a distinction that exists only on paper.

The democrats are pulling out all of the stops. The local news is filled with stories of tax increases, lost jobs, and other disasters. They are really trying to whip up the local public into thinking the sky is falling. None of that will happen. It’s all election year scare politics.

Sources

Reedy Creek Facts from the Office of Program Policy Analysis, 2004

Reedy Creek Budget

By Divemedic, ago

Plumbing Problems, Part 4

This is my only post of the day today because of my plumbing issue, complicated by the fact that I was scheduled to work in the emergency room 9-9 today, until my boss called me at 8 o’clock and rescheduled me to work 1 pm to 1 am today.

For six years running, we have had a plumbing problem. I have been suspecting it was a vent problem. It rears its head every fall and spring. We have had three different plumbers out, and I swear it has cost us thousands of dollars, and no solution has been found. The problem corrects itself after a day or two, so by the time a plumber gets here, they never find anything, but are happy to bill us between $100 and $500 to tell us nothing is wrong. Assholes.

The last plumber to come out (4 months ago) thought I was nuts when I asked him to check the vents. He found two large frogs living in one of the vents. That cost me $200. Other than that, nothing has ever been found. They even put a camera through my pipes two years ago. Nothing was found, but they still billed me $500.

Let me describe the drains in my house: There are two vents in the house: one over the laundry, which shares a drain line with the kitchen. The second vent is over the guest bathroom and shares a drain line with the master bathroom. There are three undersink vents that are covered by air admittance valves.

We are planning on moving next year and converting this house into a rental. If this plumbing issue keeps up, I may just sell it, even though the wife doesn’t want to.

Anyhow, time to get ready for work. I am not looking forward to getting off at 1 am.

By Divemedic, ago

TSA Agent Lies About Robbery

A TSA agent made a habit out of being late for work. To excuse her latest tardiness, 34 year old Taleta Collier concocted an elaborate story about a man with a knife who tried to rob her. Collier told her supervisor she was visiting her parents’ home when a man armed with a knife attempted to burglarize their vehicle. She said she drew her agency-issued weapon and aimed it at the suspect, causing him to flee.

It isn’t every day that a Federal law enforcement officer has to draw their weapon in the line of duty, so her supervisor requested the Polk Sheriff case number, and the TSA agent provided one. She even texted her supervisor a screenshot of a document that appeared to be a police report.  It was soon discovered that the report number was fake, and now the loser is facing criminal charges.

The TSA has been a disaster from the start. All this agency is, is a jobs program for morons who would otherwise be collecting welfare. I can’t believe that we give idiots like this a badge, a gun, and real authority.

The list goes on and on.

By Divemedic, ago