Divemedic

Ugly

We still keep hearing how the Second Amendment is useless because a citizen militia cannot possibly beat the might of a modern US military that is armed with Abrams tanks, F16 fighters, and nuclear weapons. I have blogged before about what a monumentally stupid statement that is. Anyone who makes such a statement has no idea about how the military, armed conflict, or asymmetrical warfare works. 

When I was a firefighter, the government spent a lot of money training me in counter terrorism. I also took a fair amount of college classes on the tactics of terrorism and the weaknesses of the nation’s infrastructure. There are millions of people who have done likewise. Police, firefighters, and emergency managers, to name a few. Now I don’t want anyone to construe this post as a threat, because it is not. I am simply pointing out that there are a lot of weaknesses in America’s underbelly, and there are a lot of people who know where those weaknesses are and how to exploit them. Frankly, it surprises me that no one has yet tried.
For example. one class required us to find a weak point in US infrastructure. Here is the one I wrote about:
There are nine major gas pipelines and two crude oil pipelines that pass from Texas and Louisiana, with less than 10 miles separating five of those pipelines where they pass over the Mississippi river, at a point that is less than 5 miles from the I-40 bridge in Memphis. Those pipelines carry most of the petroleum and natural gas to the northeast corridor and Ohio valley. Think of how many large cities are served by these pipelines. These pipelines are unguarded and virtually unmonitored.
If these pipelines were destroyed, the short term disaster would be huge. NASA has estimated that gas line ruptures and the ensuing explosions at that point would be so large that their reflections would be visible on the other side of the planet as the light from the fireball bounced off the moon. Since these pipelines are within the Memphis metro area, casualties would be high from the large explosion and ensuing confusion.
In the long term, the loss of five of the nine gas pipelines from the Texas/Louisiana gas fields to the industrial areas of Chicago and the Ohio valley would likely cause widespread disruption of energy and heating service in those areas. Loss of the I-40 bridge in Memphis could potentially cause transportation delays, as the loss of this bridge would cause land traffic detours of more than 300 miles and make the Mississippi impassible to water transport. Transformers lost as a result of failures to the electrical grid could take eight to twelve months for replacement.
Imagine what the loss of electricity and the majority of the natural gas to the entire northeastern US would do to the US economy. Since all 6 of those items are within 10 miles of each other, it could be accomplished by one small group of skilled attackers. The entire US economy would be brought to its knees. While this is happening, do you really think that India, China, and Russia will sit idly by and not take advantage of the power vacuum?
So to those of you on both sides of the debate, please take a moment to think about what you are pushing us towards before it is too late. A year or more of sitting in the dark without heat in Chicago, Detroit, New York, Boston, and other major cities. 
By Divemedic, ago

Not racist

The Democrats would have you believe that the US is a fundamentally racist country, and that white men are mostly racists who benefit from the fact that they are white. The next time someone tries to tell you that, remember that every single day there are white male firefighters who risk their lives to enter burning buildings to rescue black children. I did that for over 22 years.

By Divemedic, ago

Type 2 Diabetes and genetics

For my entire life, I have heard that being fat is the cause of diabetes. I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 45. Yes, I was overweight, but I disagree that my weight was the cause. I always felt that being overweight was a symptom of the same disease process that caused the diabetes. Let me explain:
– Family history
My grandmother had type 2 diabetes. So did my Father, and my sister. So does my son. My brother does not.

All of us were overweight, except my son, who was diagnosed two years ago at only 28 years old. (My brother was overweight until he lost 30 pounds as a result of his recent cancer diagnosis.) At the time, he has six pack abs. So there are plenty of people who are fat and not diabetic, and there are people in my family who are diabetic and not overweight.

– My entire life, I have been a person who is famous for getting HANGRY. That is, when I am hungry, I get more and more surly eventually becoming rather difficult to be around until I eat.

Now that I am a diabetic, the doctor is constantly telling me that I need to watch my diet and exercise. I do both, but it is difficult to lower your A1C levels without medication when your fasting blood glucose is 140 when you wake up, after being only 120 when you went to bed the night before. When I am not taking medication, my morning blood sugar is in the 160s. Nothing I eat seems to change that, only medication.

During the day, diet and medication lowers that to the 100 level, but I still can’t control what happens while I am sleeping. It is my opinion that this is a genetic issue.

By Divemedic, ago

On the other hand

Many have blasted the deputy in south Florida for refusing to enter the school while children died. I agree with them. However, in the interest of intellectual honesty, this story certainly explains why you wouldn’t want to.

The officer involved was shot in the head during the Pulse nightclub incident. Even though his helmet prevented the bullet from killing him, he did receive a closed head injury that has prevented him from returning to work. The Orlando police department has a rule that officers must return to work within a certain amount of time after being injured in the line of duty. If they do not, they must be examined by a doctor of Orlando PD’s choosing to qualify for a medical pension, or they will be fired. OPD does not have a doctor that can do the exam, so this officer will be terminated on September 30.

Now picture that you are a cop who is standing outside of a shooting incident, and you know that you could be killed or injured. You also know that your family would not be cared for if anything happened to you. Many people are willing to risk their own health and well being, but not those of their wife and children. Do you think that this is more or less likely to make you want to enter the building and risk it all for a public that will likely weasel out of their responsibility to you and your family?

Before you say that this is what cops sign up for, remember that the small risk of being hurt on traffic stops is different from charging an enemy in an entrenched position while under direct fire. That is more like combat than police work. Even worse, since combat troops have tools at their disposal (grenades, suppressive fire, air support, etc.) that police do not. On top of this, many insurance companies will not pay out if you are killed in a terrorist incident. You better believe that a cop’s insurance company is going to look for ways not to pay up, in a situation like this.

By Divemedic, ago

Facebook Jail

I was on Facebook the other day and there was an editorial cartoon:

The comments were ridiculous. There were talks of bans, including one person who said that anyone who wants a gun is too mentally ill to be allowed to have them. There were the claims about limiting in rights, and the tired old saw about “fire in a theater” and taxing cars came up. I refuted them in turn, using facts and logic.

I told them that gun owners would not stand for confiscation. I was called every name in the book: insane, racist, stupid, etc. Finally, I replied with:

Exactly. COME AND TAKE THEM. I dare you. If you think that you have the votes to amend the Constitution, do it. Pass the law that follows, and join the people on the confiscation teams. If even one percent of gun owners decided to veto your decision, the casualty count would dwarf the civil war. Over 100 million adults own more than 800 million guns and several billion rounds of ammunition. How do you think that will play out?

I received a 24 hour suspension for violating community standards. The notice said:

If you request a review, we’ll have someone take another look at the comment.

Except there is no review button. This is my third stint in FB jail. I don’t see how I violated community standards, and the people calling me names and threatening me were not.

By Divemedic, ago

Magic power of signs

Yesterday I was at my school for the first time this school year. The fence that is now required around all schools was about half complete. One of my fellow teachers complained: “See that fence? That is the raise we should have gotten, right there. I could have saved them some money by putting up a sign that says ‘We shoot back.'”

I pointed out that we can’t shoot back, because teachers can’t carry. She replied that she didn’t think teachers should actually have guns, but the students who saw the sign wouldn’t know that we were unarmed. The sign would be a deterrent.

I don’t understand how people think sometimes.

By Divemedic, ago