Divemedic

I know that this is the day when we are supposed to reflect on what happened on that day, twelve years ago and mourn for the passing of our fellow countrymen. I remember clearly where I was that day. I was on duty, assigned to engine 12. It was a pleasant, sunny day. We were checking and performing maintenance on our assigned 850 fire hydrants, a project that takes about eight weeks every fall. Our Battalion Chief called us on the radio, and told us to stop working, return to the station, and turn on the television. That got our attention, as he had never once told us to stop working. Heck, he normally spent most of his day trying to figure out how to get us to work harder, or so it seemed.

We got back to the station just in time to see the second plane strike the towers. As soon as we saw this, we all knew that this was a terrorist attack. We saw as trapped victims leaped from windows to their deaths, rather than face the flames. Then the first tower collapsed. We all watched as the firefighters kept running in, even though we all knew that it was likely that the second tower would collapse as well. Each of us wondered if we would have the courage to do what the rescuers of New York did that day. Until you are faced with certain death, it is hard to know how you will react. A police officer, armed with a submachine gun, arrived at the station and rode with us for the remainder of the day.

What we should be mourning today is the death of a free nation. The terrorists killed it that morning. The Patriot Act, TSA’s warrantless searches at airports, shopping malls, sporting events, and even on the highways, the NSA spying, the establishment of secret prisons, secret courts, and secret searches of people’s homes all began on that day. Sure, there were people who had sought these powers before that day, but it was people’s fears of further attacks that were used to destroy the freedoms that made America what it was.

What made America special was the fact that we were, each of us, free individuals that were fiercely protective if individual liberties. The last of that spirit died when those towers fell. Now we are neither free, nor are we safe, except we are now using our military to protect the very organization that slaughtered our countrymen and our freedom. We stand in line to be searched at the airport, when we go to public gatherings, and when we drive on the highway. Our electronic communications are monitored, and our homes searched at the whim of authorities, without even the benefit of a warrant. Our police organizations are more heavily armed than many nations’ military forces.

From where I am standing, it looks like Al Qaeda won the war. That is what I mourn: that my fellow countrymen died in vain.

Like I told you before:

The Orlando Naval Training Center was responsible for training hundreds of thousands of sailors in the 30 years that it was one of the three recruit training centers for the US Navy. During the years of 1968-1998, there were many service schools located there with the recruit training center. Torpedomen, signalmen, and nuclear power plant operators all trained here.

I myself attended boot camp, electrician’s mate “A” school, and nuclear power school here in 1986.

All of that came to an end in 1998, when the Navy decided to close the facility and give the land to the City of Orlando. The city tore down the classrooms, dorms, and other buildings. In its place, the city sold some of it to developers, who in turn made it into an exclusive luxury housing community. 55 acres of it was made into a park.
Then the city decided to put a middle school in the area, made up of portable classrooms. Wouldn’t it have been more cost effective to use the buildings that were already there?

Here is one of the buildings that was torn down:

Waste. It’s easier when you are spending other people’s money.

This is just plain funny:

On Monday, I decided to spend the afternoon at Universal Studios. As usual, I was carrying a weapon. In this case, I was carrying a S&W M&P Shield, a 9mm handgun, in an inside the waistband holster on my right side. We arrived at Universal around 2 in the afternoon, and left at about 8 o’clock.We decided to stop at a Hibachi grill that is directly across the street from the Universal parking garage, a place called Kobe Steakhouse. We left there at about 10:00.

Being September in Central Florida, it has been rather hot and humid as of late, and so I decided to stop at the Walgreen’s pharmacy next door for some Gatorade. I checked out and left. While we were there, I noticed some rather unsavory characters entering the store. Here is a picture of one of them:

I would have been more suspicious, but I was recently told that wearing a hoodie and hiding your face when it is 85 degrees outside with 85% humidity is a fashion statement, so I just left. It turns out that those two men robbed the place and pistol whipped the clerk.

 I missed becoming the next nationally known racist by a minute or two. The best way to survive a gunfight is not to be in one, and that was a close call.

Recently, I posted about the 18 year old woman that is being charged with Lewd and Lascivious behavior for having sexual relations with an underaged girl. This week, the Washington Post ran an editorial that takes the position that we should revisit that law. The Conservatives are up in arms about it, but I think it is valid that we take a look at laws periodically, to make sure that they still accomplish what they are intended to.

After all, the purpose of the law is to make sure that adults are not victimizing children, and I fully support that. After all, we cannot have teachers and family members using their advanced intellect and maturity to prey upon children. Where I think the law needs to be looked at, especially in Florida, is that the child’s promiscuity, or the accused adult’s belief that the child was of age, cannot be used as a defense.

For example: You meet a woman at a bar. The bar clearly has a sign at the door that reads “No one under 18 admitted.” There is a bar employee checking ID at the door. A woman buys the two of you a drink, and you see the bartender card her when she buys it. You wind up leaving the bar with her, and things escalate to the point where she spends the night at your apartment, where you have sex. Later, it turns out that the girl was 15 years old, and was using a fake ID.

Under Florida law, you cannot even mention that fact in your defense. Why is that? The law in Florida says:

794.021 Ignorance or belief as to victim’s age no defense.—When,
in this chapter, the criminality of conduct depends upon the victim’s
being below a certain specified age, ignorance of the age is no defense.
Neither shall misrepresentation of age by such person nor a bona fide
belief that such person is over the specified age be a defense.

Far fetched? That is what happened to Morris Williams, a case that I have blogged in the past. This girl:

Was only 13 years old in this picture, a picture that she used on her MySpace page in 2008 to claim that she was a 19 year old divorced woman. She doesn’t look 13, does she? Williams had sex with her, and he went to jail. he wasn’t the first. A year earlier, another man was sent to jail for having sex with the same girl.

This is where we need to have a conversation: The purpose of the law is to protect the innocent from being preyed upon by the more experienced. What the law fails to address is what happens when the one doing the preying with all the experience is the child…