Divemedic

Risk and probabilty

Put things in perspective. Your odds of:
– being dealt a royal flush: 1 in 649,739
– dying in a car accident are 1 in 106
– dying from the flu: 1 in 6,500
– dying from COVID-19: 1 in 2,321
– dying from a heart attack: 1 in 4
– dying from a lightning strike: 1 in 1,200,000
– dying after being attacked by a dog: 1 in 118,776
– dying from a shark attack: 1 in 3,750,000
– a heterosexual man dying from HIV: 1 in 2,500
– a heterosexual woman dying from HIV: 1 in 1,250

People are very poor estimators of risk and probability. Watch people try to estimate probability. Ask them what the odds of this are:
Suppose you flip a coin 99 times in a row and each time it comes up heads. Now what are the chances that the 100th time you flip it, it will be heads again?
If they try to tell you that tails is “due” then they don’t understand math or probability well enough to discuss the subject.
That is why, nearly 50 years after the start of the HIV epidemic, many people still do not practice safe sex. Many still get in a car, or even eat unhealthy food. Yet they freak out when they see someone without a mask on, even though there is not one single study that shows masks worn by the public prevent the community transmission of COVID-19.

In the meantime, the “experts” tell us that COVID likely doesn’t spread as an aerosol.
By Divemedic, ago

System failed

The suspect had 230 felony arrests, 15 felony convictions, and only went to prison twice. That is the problem right there. How can a 26 year old have 15 felony convictions and still be out on the street? We see people getting more prison time for being COVID positive than this guy has gotten.

I seriously think that a judge who lets a convicted felon walk out with little to no jail time after he is convicted for the 15th time in the past 10 years should face criminal charges when that felon murders someone. 
By Divemedic, ago

About this blog

I occasionally hear from people who don’t understand why I named this blog “Confessions of a Street Pharmacist.” After all, a “street pharmacist” is slang for a drug dealer.

The roots of this name go back to my military days. Some friends and I were doing our taxes, and we got to the line where you have to list your occupation. We all put down “paid professional killer” on the line, and mailed it in. The group of us got a big laugh, picturing the data entry clerk down at the IRS trying to figure out why there were so many people making a living as killers. 
Flash forward to years later, and I was sitting in the station house while listening to my partner complain that so many of the people who call 911 are just trying to figure out how to get EMS crews to inject them with their drug of choice- we called them “drug seekers,” and some of them have gotten pretty good at it. 
That same year, when I did my taxes, I listed my occupation as “street pharmacist.” It wasn’t a big leap to name my blog after that bit of humor. 
By Divemedic, ago

Range day with an insurgent

Remember Grandmaster J of the NFAC (Not Fucking Around Coalition), the guy who said he was going to take over Texas? He claimed that he and the other senior members of his group of insurgents had all received military training and were experts on the rifle range? He decided to put his latest range day up on Youtube.

A bench rested shot on a pistol target from 10 and then 25 yards with an AR-15, and THAT is the best he can do? He is certainly no expert. His gun handling skills would get him thrown out of my range. He has no muzzle control and is certainly not in any position to be teaching this to others.

By Divemedic, ago

Vacation

My one real vice is that I am a gambler. This made my wife nervous when we were first together, because she didn’t like to see me betting several hundred dollars at a time. She has since come around and realized that you can gamble without losing your house or life savings. She even plays with me, but won’t play when the table minimums go over $20. 

At any rate, I gamble enough that I get the occasional free stay. Back in March, we had a free stay (complete with hotel, airfare, hotel transfer, and a $100 credit for food) at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi. Two days before we were supposed to leave, the trip was cancelled. 
With the school year starting back up next week, we had completed our required summer training sessions, so I decided to go on vacation while we could. Last Monday, we drove from our home to Biloxi and stayed in a hotel for three nights. The stay wound up costing us $500 for everything including food. Where they got me was the casino. I wound up losing about $1200 at the craps table. 
We got home and were immediately offered 4 free nights in Las Vegas. The airfare was $100 each round trip, so we went. Las Vegas is my very favorite city. I know New York claims to be the city that  doesn’t sleep, but Las Vegas really doesn’t. and they have fun doing it. 
Now we usually come to Vegas twice a year. Last year, we were here for Christmas and in March. (We LOVED coming for Christmas) This week’s visit is our first this year. The differences are jarring. 
The place is a virtual ghost town. Many shops and restaurants are closed. Quite a few of the large casino resorts are closed, and the ones that are open are virtually empty. I have been here during the busy and slow seasons, and this looks like an unusually slow season. 
We are at the NY NY casino. It is so empty here, that they offered us an upgrade into their largest suite for $80 a night. We were originally booked in a King room for free (all you pay is the resort fee) for 4 nights. We moved to this GIANT suite of 1100 square feet. It has a whirlpool for 2, with complementary drinks in the mini fridge. The cost for 4 nights? $600, and they threw in $100 for food and $75 for some free gambling money. Here is the view* from one of our windows (the suite is on a corner and 2 walls are windows):
(green because the windows are tinted)
If you are familiar with Vegas, you will see that traffic is almost nonexistent compared to normal. The road running from lower left to middle right is the Las Vegas Strip. It is normally packed this time of day. 
The hotel seems nearly empty. That is probably why we got the suite so cheap. There is a restaurant near the casino floor that is normally open 24 hours a day. I normally love eating there for breakfast because they have strip steak and eggs for $16. Now they are only open 7am-3pm. 
The bars are closed, but not restaurants. Last night, we got several large Margueritas and some outstanding Mexican food. There is a bar on the casino floor where we like to sit and watch people/sporting events/etc. It is closed. 
The tables are just as deserted. Here is a Blackjack table:
Note that there are only three players to a table, and they are all in a plexiglass booth. Masks required. 
Here is the Craps table. Note there are dividers between players, only three players to a side (normally it’s 8), and most importantly- the tables are closed during the day. Usually, there is at least one table open 24 hours a day. The table minimum when it is slow (especially during the day) is $10, increasing depending on how busy things are. Now, even with as slow as it is, the minimums are $25. 
Vegas is hurting. All of America is hurting. This COVID stuff needs to end, before we kill the economy. I personally think it’s deliberate. Hopefully it will be over by November. 
The news here is different. It leans even more to the left than I am used to. Every story seems to relate to “Orange Man Bad”- even more so than at home.  
* an interesting aside: On the upper right of the picture, you can see some aircraft parked in front of a hanger. That is the CIA’s so-called “secret airline” The parking lot in front of it is for employees of the CIA and of the Groom Lake facility, I am told.)
By Divemedic, ago

DeSantis, the South, and Superiority

A person recently told me that Florida is messed up because our governor has a 4th grade education. The funny part of that is Governor DeSantis has a BA in history from Yale, a JD with honors from Harvard, and served in the US Navy as a Lieutenant Commander (O-4). He spent 2006 as a part of the JAG team that was assigned to Guantanamo Bay’s terrorist detention facility, then in 2007 was sent to Iraq as a part of the command group for SEAL team One, which was in Fallujah.

Compare that resume to the one for Governor Party Tits of New York, who graduated from the Albany School of Law. 

The left assumes that anyone who disagrees with them must be uneducated and stupid. I get that all the time, despite the fact that I have 3 college degrees, and scored in the 90th percentile or higher on the ACT, the SAT, and the GRE. Because I am from the south and not a liberal, they assume that I am stupid. Just today, I had a guy with a Liberal Arts Degree call me stupid for no knowing who Immanuel Kant was. He got to feel smarter because his Arts Degree enabled him to know that. Did I mention that he is the Assistant Manager of a Taco Bell?

By Divemedic, ago

Difference of opinion

My son came to see me today. We had lunch before he had to be at work. I have to give you a bit of background:
On July 6, he returned from working in New York . His fiance and her family are hard core liberals. As far as guns go, they are classic Fudds, in that they only support gun rights as they pertain to hunting, not self defense or any other reasons. Sometimes those opinions bleed through to my son’s outlook.

Just before my son got home (June 26), his fiance tested COVID positive after being exposed while out at a bar for drinks with some of her friends. Her two week isolation period would have ended on July 10. Since he arrived home on July 6, he was actively in the house with a person who was COVID positive.

His contract with the NY staffing company required him to isolate for a week (until July 13) after returning. They even paid him for that week as if he were working. Instead of isolating, he returned to work on July 11 by picking up a shift for a nurse who had called out sick. In  fact, he has picked up 4 different shifts during his “quarantine period.” This means that, even though his fiance was through with HER isolation period, he would have had to isolate until July 20 because he was exposed to her.

He came over and almost immediately began to criticize me because I am not wearing a mask when I go out. That then began a heated discussion about how businesses and the public need to listen to the experts. I pointed out that the experts have been changing their advice every few weeks, have been falsifying COVID test results, and listing motorcycle accidents as COVID related.

He responded by pointing out a few things that I thought were ridiculous. A few of the high points:

The people at the CDC are not experts, they are politicians. When I asked him who the experts are, he replied that HE and the doctors he had been working with in NYC were the experts, and actually said that he was now good enough that he could tell if someone were COVID positive by simply looking at them, and didn’t NEED a test.

 He also said that the tests were inaccurate, and 40% of negatives were actually false negatives, therefore he was more accurate than the COVID tests.

He said that everyone should be required by law to wear a mask as soon as they step out their front door. In fact, he went so far as to say that there should be a law that the public is required to obey the orders of physicians.

Also, businesses should all be closed so we can flatten out the curve and stop hospital overcrowding. He declared that all of the hospitals in Florida are currently at least at 115% of capacity. I asked him why, if they were all so full, were they still accepting elective surgeries, and why he and his fiance were still laid off. He replied “Because the people running the hospital are all cheap and greedy.”

I then asked him, if the rest of us have to stay home, why he was permitted to go to work after having a person living in his house testing positive. He replied “My boss knows. He doesn’t care.” I told him that this was hard to believe. How can a hospital not care that one of their staff is in a household were one of their other staff members is supposed to be isolated because they are COVID positive? And if that hospital in fact doesn’t care, then why should I be prohibited from going where I please, when neither my wife nor I have been positive?

This went on for over 20 minutes. My wife managed to eventually change the subject, which was good, because things were getting overheated. My son went to NYC for 3 months and came back as an arrogant, hypocritical ass.

I hope that effect will wear off soon.

By Divemedic, ago

Back home

I haven’t posted all week because I took a well deserved vacation to Biloxi, MS where we stayed at the Beau Rivage casino.

Here were the changes we noted:
Masks were required to be worn by everyone in the resort.
The table games only allowed half as many players. (Three per blackjack table.)
Every other slot machine was out of service, the chairs for the out of service machines removed.
The buffet has been shut down.

It was still a relaxing week and well worth the drive.

By Divemedic, ago

Shit storm

Isn’t it odd that Florida’s number of COVID cases was low until right after it was announced that the 2020 Republican National Convention would be in Jacksonville. Nope. Coincidence.

This entire shitstorm of COVID, the riots, and everything else is being orchestrated and used to influence the election. This is the big play. Expect voter fraud, dead people voting, and more irregularities than you have ever seen before, on top of a backdrop of escalating violence.

By Divemedic, ago