Divemedic

Remember when I warned that pay is declining around here for everyone in emergency services? Here is the listing for a firefighter position in Titusville, which is to my east and just across the Indian river from the Kennedy Space center. Note the starting pay for a firefighter-paramedic: $38,458. Now that doesn’t sound bad, until you remember that a firefighter works a schedule of 24 hours on, 48 hours off.

This results in 56 hours per workweek, but firefighters are special cases under the FLSA and they do not get overtime until they work more than 53 hours in a week. This means that to determine the hourly wage, we divide their annual salary by 2990. That starting pay for a firefigher-paramedic is $12.86 an hour. This is why they post the job as an annual rate instead of the hourly.

For a job that requires EMT school (3 months), paramedic school (1 year), firefighting school (5 months). as well as a number of other classes that must also be taken: EVOC, PALS, PHTLS, as well as having a spotless driving record for the past 36 months, and you are required to be available 24/7 for recall for any reason.

Pizza delivery drivers make nearly $20 an hour. The guy who fills vending machines gets $10.50 an hour, nurses (who attend about the same amount of schooling) start at $25 an hour. Do yourself a favor if you are thinking about a career in emergency services: stay away.

Now that the Affordable Care Act is becoming reality, we are seeing the effects. Hospitals are seeing their Medicare payments. This is causing layoffs and pay cuts for health care workers. Also, employers are cutting the hours of workers, so that they fall under the definition of ‘part time’ and are thus not required to provide the employees with health insurance.

With health insurance changes requiring insurance companies to insure people with preexisting conditions, and not charge those same people more for their increased risks and costs, insurance premiums will soar, and this will force many employers to cut insurance benefits out. The company will do one of two things: pay the fine for not insuring the workers, or avoid the fine by transitioning to a part time work force.

Since the limit for part time is 30 hours per week, my prediction is that employers will begin a schedule of three 9 hour workdays for employees, that will total a 27 hour workweek. This will create jobs, but they will be part time jobs. This will mean that employees will have to obtain a second job to make ends meet, especially considering that they will have to obtain insurance at a cost of $400 per month or so, or pay the fines.

This will mean that Americans will work 9 hours per day, six days per week. A 54 hour work week, and less real money to show for it.

Is this the change you voted for?

Back in May, I posted about an 18 year old Vero Beach woman that was arrested for having a sexual relationship with a 14 year old girl. She is back in the news. It appears as though the state prosecutor offered her a plea deal where she would not go to jail. One of the conditions was that she not try to contact her victim, a condition that she violated. They are moving forward with the charge of lewd or lascivious battery on a child between the age of 12 and 16, a second degree felony. If convicted, a second degree felony will get her up to 15 years in prison.

The gay rights crowd is up in arms, claiming that this is being done solely because the girls are gay. I say they are full of crap. I present to you the case of Terry Gorby. The 18 year old Mr. Gorby had what he claimed was a consensual relationship with his then 14 year old girlfriend. He was convicted of the exact same law that Ms. Hunt is being charged under. There goes your “this is only because she is gay” argument.

She had a deal to avoid jail, and she violated the terms of that deal with 20,000 text messages, and through FaceBook messages. She sent at least 25 lewd photos of herself to her child victim, along with a video of herself engaged in a sexual act. All since March 1. Her victim is STILL a 15 year old underage girl, and Ms. Hunt is now 19. She is a CHILD MOLESTER.

Hunt is an ADULT and she has been for nearly two years. It is time that she take responsibility for her actions. Her victim was 14 at the time of the sexual act, and is only 15 now. She expressly violated a court order to not have contact with the victim.

Compounding this,Ms. Hunt’s mother also contacted the victim and asked her to delete the photos, messages, and video so that police would not have the evidence to prosecute her daughter.

The “Romeo and Juliet” law may not apply here: That law only allows you to be removed from the sexual offender database if you have only one sex crime conviction. Since she committed more than one (the original sex act, and then the act of sending sexually explicit photos and videos to a minor on at least 26 occasions) she will not be eligible, if the state decides to pursue the additional crimes.

I still stand behind this statement: The same people who are crying about ruining the girl’s life for this
would have no problem ruining her life if she were being arrested for
having a shotgun in the trunk of her car that was in the parking lot.

A day of SCUBA diving: there are about a hundred things that have to get done: gear has to be checked for function, tanks filled, all the stuff packed, reservations made for the charter boat, a change of clothes for the return trip, and dozens of other details before the four hour trip to the boat.

I have found over the years that the best way to get this done is through the use of checklists. I have a checklist for everything from calculating the weight needed in a diver’s weigh belt to making sure that all of the equipment makes it to the car. I began making preparations a week before we are scheduled to go on the trip.

Then there is the other school of thought: Sleep in until a half hour before hand, and then spend that thirty minutes frantically looking for stuff like sunscreen and dry bags to keep your clothes in, while getting mad at your dive buddy for pointing out that he has everything he needs, because he has a check list.

Of course, we leave half an hour late and I am sure something has been forgotten.

There is a new movie in the pipeline that tells the story of what it is like to be a paramedic. Here is a teaser, where an older medic talks to the younger, idealistic new medic.

The only thing they forgot was that you do it for less money than a pizza delivery driver makes.

Two men are wanted on drug charges, escape, and for dragging a deputy down the road with their car. The son of one of the men is also arrested for aiding in the escape and hiding the men. Channel 6 WKMG reports on the story, but leaves out a description or photos of the three men. Why do you think that is?

Because two of the three men are black. 33 year old Andrew Coffee Sr, and 19 year old Andrew Coffee IV are both involved in the crime. I don’t know how a 33 year old man can be the great grandfather of the 19 year old, so that must be incorrect, but a 19 child to a 33 year old man means that IV was born when Sr was only 14. Again, a corrupt culture.

As I have reported before, the press largely avoids reporting the race of criminals when those criminals happen to be black.

Stand your ground seems safe in Florida for now. The members of the Legislature that wanted to get rid of the self defense law failed to gain enough votes for a special session.

A sad story, where a woman fled to a battered women’s shelter to escape an abusive mate, and her child ate a detergent pack and died.

and maybe they won’t hurt you…

Why haven’t we seen this in the national media? This is why I carry a gun. I ain’t going out like that…

The couple never saw Boyd cruise into the parking lot at Washington
Ridge with passengers Davidson and Cobbins. An armed Boyd and Davidson
jumped from the car, leaving Cobbins behind. At that point, the pair
intended only to rob Christian and Newsom of the SUV. But as they
approached the couple, guns drawn, headlights from another vehicle
spooked them. They pushed the couple into the SUV.

Testimony has shown that Christian and Newsom were bound in the SUV with
whatever cords the assailants could find. Newsom was forced facedown in
the vehicle. A bound Christian was dumped onto his back.

One of the attackers said: “Two white people, white kids, this (expletive) fixing to get crazy, man, you know what I mean?”

But according to the paper, there is no racial motivation for the crime.

The white male victim’s body was found, anally raped, shot in the back and neck, then shot again in the head, execution style. The body was then wrapped in a blanket, soaked in gasoline, and set on fire.

The white female victim get it even worse, if you can believe that. For hours, she was raped anally, orally, and vaginally. The criminals then crushed her genital area with a boot or other hard object, beat her over the head, and then poured bleach into her in an attempt to destroy DNA evidence. The bound her, wrapped her head in one garbage bag, placed her in a second, and then sealed her in a garbage can to suffocate.

I am opposed to the death penalty because I don’t trust the government to be honest. However, this story shows that some humans are simply evil. That is the reason why I carry a gun.

The real question here is why the press goes to such great lengths to cover up and minimize black on white crime, while at the same time sensationalizing and even inventing race crimes when it is white on black.