Divemedic

For years, I have used the following to illustrate the insanity of the transgender position:

Let’s say that I believe myself to be a gorilla. No matter how strongly I believe it, I am still not a gorilla.
Let’s say that I take pills to make myself grow more hair to look more like a gorilla. I am still not a gorilla.
If I hire a surgeon to perform an operation to make myself look more like a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.
If I get a million people to say that I can be whatever I identify myself as, and declare than I am a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.
If I were to believe myself to be a gorilla and took the steps above, people would say I am crazy.

This is going to sound like a parody, but sadly, it isn’t. The social media platform Twitch now has a man who identifies as both a woman and a deer, and this nutcase is now a moderator: in charge of censoring the users of the platform for not having a diverse enough opinion.

Two days ago, I posted about shortages. To be honest, thanks to ammo shortages, I had not set foot in my LGS for about three weeks. I got called by some new shooters who wanted to take me up on my offer of a free shooting session, so we went. In return, they took us to dinner.

We started off with some .22 through a S&W M&P22. Then we moved to a suppressed 9mm, then unsuppressed. In all, I used up 100 rounds of 9mm, 50 rounds of .380, and 100 rounds of .22. I need to get some decent priced 9mm soon, or range trips in the near future will be made with .22.

Before we went shooting, they had to fill out the waivers, so I used that time to look over the gun shop.

The place was packed. Far busier than normal. There are 40 lanes, and most of them were full. Members went right in, there was a wait for non-members. We saw a large number of customers in the store who were looking for their first gun.  A Florida CCW class had just let out, and there were a few students still hanging out, looking at various handguns. In all, if you include the range, there were about 200 customers in the store. The place was packed.

The training schedule for July and August was up. There were 18 courses on the schedule for the rest of the month of July, and every one of them was booked. The schedule looks like this:
4 classes of “Intro to Handguns” and 2 classes of “Ladies Only Intro to Handguns” all full
6 classes of “First Shots” all full
5 classes of Florida CCW all full
1 “Youth Intro to Firearms” also full

It seems that the new shooters aren’t just buying- they are buying and getting educated. Awesome. I welcome all new shooters into the culture. I mean ALL. The more popular shooting is, the harder it is to ban guns.

Guns are back in stock. The gun cabinets were well stocked, and to the credit of the LGS, the prices were pretty close to normal. Ammo is a bit hit or miss. Limits on most ammo were still one box per person, with a few exceptions:
5.56mm is back in stock in a big way. They were selling it by the box or by the case. Same with shotgun, except slugs, which are still limited.

The hunting calibers seemed to be well stocked, as was revolver ammo. There was plenty of .38, .44, and .357 magnum. For handguns, it was hit or miss. Oddly enough, there was plenty of .45ACP. There was some .40 S&W, but there were only 5 or 6 boxes of expensive 9mm. 

The ammo situation is improving, but I don’t see us getting back to normal levels for months.

In comments to my post on the protesters having a point about good cops who stay silent are not good cops, it was pointed out that the numbers aren’t valid. Perhaps not, but the point is that the “blue wall of silence” makes the good cops into bad ones. Let me offer an example to you:

A female highway Patrol Trooper pulled over a Miami PD officer who was speeding to his off duty job in his cruiser. He was travelling more than 120 miles per hour while weaving through traffic.This incident caused the Sun-Sentinel to do an entire series of articles, where it was revealed that dozens of South Florida cops were routinely speeding off duty, reaching speeds of over 100 miles an hour. Other cops simply looked the other way. I guess they are all “good cops.”

She arrested him and was harassed for months because of it. 88 law enforcement officers from 25 jurisdictions illegally accessed her personal information more than 200 times, violating her privacy, and then used that information to leave notes on her car, and once they even left human feces on the hood of her car. She was harassed in a nationwide attempt by “good cops” to make an example of her, so other cops would know what happens when you cross the “blue wall of silence.” (Seriously, read the comments from the cops at that last link. That is the attitude of supposed “good cops.”)

She  wound up leaving law enforcement and had to move more than 600 miles away, and still they are stalking her. There were still police officers doing it in 2017, six years later.

As a paramedic, I got to see first hand what “professional courtesy” means. You didn’t think that cops put those “blue line” stickers on their cars just for the hell of it, did you? These protests have gotten out of hand, but that is what happens when you don’t police your own. Cops need to fix this, or it will get worse.

St Petersburg police have just announced that they will no longer respond to “non violent” calls, but will instead send social workers. Calls that police will no longer respond to:

• Disorderly intoxication
• Drug overdose
• Intoxicated person
• Mental health crisis
• Suicide crisis
• Mental Health Transport
• Disorderly juvenile/truancy
• Disorderly Juvenile at Elementary Schools
• Panhandling
• Homeless complaints
• Neighborhood dispute

Anything involving intoxication will be handled by social workers? Have you ever tried to reason with a drunk? With a person who is on meth? They can’t be reasoned with.

Overdose? As a medic, I am not going to an overdose call without police to secure the scene.

This is a shit sandwich that is going to get people killed at much higher rates than the handful of police misconduct that happens in a year.

Today is the anniversary of the first post of this blog, July 11, 2007. In the 4,749 days since then, I have posted 2,561 times. So much has happened since that first post. The entire Obama administration came and went. This blog has seen me through three Presidents, 3 careers, four address changes,  two wives, a bankruptcy, the birth of two grandchildren, and more changes than I care to think about.

Personally, my life has seen a lot of changes. Married and then divorced, and then married again. Employed, retired, then employed again. I declared bankruptcy and then became a millionaire.
In 2008 I got married.
In 2009 the bottom dropped out of the housing market, my pay was cut by 30% and, faced with a depreciating asset, I declared bankruptcy with the intent of giving the house back to the bank.
In 2010 My bankruptcy was discharged. The mortgage bank was caught lying to the court with regard to my bankruptcy. They were forced to pay me nearly $10,000. Then they were caught forging mortgage paperwork in my case and several dozen others. Their lawyer was disbarred and they had to pay me more than $25,000 in damages.
In 2011 My wife announced to me (during the week of my birthday, no less) that she wanted a divorce. That divorce became final in June. I retired from my career as a firemedic and began school to be a physician assistant.
In 2012 I decided to leave school, moved back to Florida, and began teaching adult education while remaining mostly retired.
In 2014, I met my current wife. I also applied for my teacher’s license and became a high school science teacher.
In 2018, I finally got paid for a job I did for the Feds six years before and I was able to pay off my house, all of my bills, and put a sizable amount in savings.

When this blog began, if you had told me that 13 years later I would no longer be a firefighter and would instead be teaching high school science, I would have called you crazy. Thirteen years is ancient for a blog, and while mine is not as widely read as some, I write mostly to keep me happy and give me a place to get out the things that I would like to say. The fact that some people care to read them is a humbling bonus.

Thank you to each and every one of you who read my ramblings.

According to the State of Florida, there are 6,942 hospitalized for COVID in Florida. Of those, 3,128 of them are in Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach. So 45% of the total COVID hospitalizations are in the Metro Miami area. Those three counties contain a population of 6.3 million people, meaning that 30% of Florida’s population lives there.

So 30% of Florida’s population is responsible for 45% of the state’s COVID hospitalizations. I think it is more accurate to say that Miami has a COVID problem than it is to say Florida has a COVID problem. 

Commander Zero reports that he is having trouble finding guns and ammo. I am with him.

Last September, I bought some AR lowers and built them into some cheap ARs. In fact, I built four ARs with red dot sights on them for what it would cost to buy one now. Sure, they aren’t high quality pipe hitters, but they are for people who may be helping me but don’t have weapons of their own.

The only pistols at my LGS are high end revolvers and black powder stuff.

Nine millimeter is in almost nonexistent supply. In January I was buying Winchester 9mm for 15 cents a round. Now one of my normal suppliers, Georgia Arms, has no pistol ammunition at any price. Same with Brownell’s. Not much better over at Palmetto State Armory, which only has Sig Elite at $2 a round, and Sellier and Bellot at 50 cents a round. Same story at SGammo. Pickings at LuckyGunner are slim as well, with prices there running between 50 cents to over a dollar a round. My LGS has ammo, but it is even more expensive and purchasers are limited to one box of ammo each. You can buy a second box if you are buying a gun at the same time.

All of this is caused because Americans are arming themselves like never before. There are the current troubles.

For that reason, I have decided to limit ammo expenditures. 50 rounds per month each of 380 and 9mm, and 20 rounds per AR to get them zeroed in. 22 is currently unlimited because I have so much of it. The rest of my ammo, I will hold on to. If the situation doesn’t improve by November, then I will switch to 22 ammo and dry fire only. I have a MantisX for that.

I have been a gun owner and shooter for over 30 years. I remember buying UMC yellow box .45ACP at $8 for a 50 round box back when I bought my first .45 caliber handgun (a Smith and Wesson 4506). I have never seen such a shortage. Not during the Clinton years, not after Sandy Hook, not even during the HRC preelection scare.

Each year, Americans normally buy 27 million firearms and 10-12 BILLION rounds of ammunition. To put that in perspective, that is more ammunition than  was used by the entire US military during each year of World War 2, when the average was just over 10 billion rounds a year and the US armed forces had more than 15 million personnel.

We are only 7 months into the year, and Americans have bought 20 million firearms and every bit of ammo in the supply chain. There is currently more ammo out there in circulation than the entire US military used during any two years of World War 2. I don’t know what production is, but demand is up. Way up.

I hope each and every one of you was smart enough to get and stock guns, ammo, and magazines.

One of the alarming stories that you will see in the coming days are reports that many hospitals’ ICU are at 90% capacity. This seems like the ICU is crowded, but that isn’t the case. Hospitals normally try to keep the ICU at 75% to 85% capacity. As support, here are two studies on that:

Optimal occupancy in the ICU: A literature review

reporting of ICU occupancy measures were identified and there were indications that optimal ICU occupancy rates were around 70–75%. 

What Is The Ideal Hospital Occupancy Rate?

I like having a midnight census of about 85% on Monday through Wednesday. That 15% buffer allows us to overlap that day’s admissions with that day’s discharges in the afternoons and also give us rooms to put the new admission in while we are cleaning the recently vacated rooms. Thursdays and Fridays, I like a midnight census of 80%. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 75% is acceptable because our surgical floors are starting to empty out and we reduce scheduled nursing staff accordingly.

So seeing a 90% occupancy rate is not a whole lot higher than normal. In fact, hospitals can’t be profitable with a census below 70%.

If the occupancy is too low, then you have too many staff sitting around without work to do and you will lose money. If the occupancy is too high, then a couple of nurse call-offs means excessive work for the other nurses and can hurt morale. Furthermore, if you are completely full, you have to turn away patients and in the long-run that can harm both reputation and future referrals.