Divemedic

Ask for it…

Dan asked for copies of bills that eliminate death benefits for public employees in a comment to a recent post, so here it is:

HB7011 eliminates the pension plan for all employees hired after January 1, 2013. This includes death and disability benefits to cops, firefighters, and EMTs that are disabled or killed in the line of duty. From this article:

Closing the current pension plan would also end benefits such as life
insurance or death benefits if employees are hurt or killed in the line
of duty. Rainey said death benefits of a newly hired firefighter killed
in the line of duty under the 401(k) plan could offer his or her
family less than $1,000.

Here is the FOPs opposition letter to HB7011 (pdf warning)

Not only that, but the system as is requires no tax increase, but switching to a 401(k) system will force the state to contribute money to the system to fund the pensions of those already retired, which will require tax increases.

By Divemedic, ago

L&R Armory

I am writing this post about a local gun store, the L&R Armory in Kissimmee, Florida. I had a friend that was in search of an AR-15. The store’s Facebook page claimed that they had some in stock, so we went down there. I discovered why they had them in stock. They were selling stripped lowers at $900 each. Not complete ARs, just the stripped lowers. We walked out.
Yesterday, they put up a post on Facebook, announcing that they had received a case of PMC .223 ammunition, and urging people to come on down to buy it before it was gone. The first commenter asked what the price was, and I replied: “If the $900 they are asking for a stripped lower is any guide, I would bring a credit card with a high limit.” My comment was deleted, and I was banned from commenting on the page.
Well, fuck you L&R Armory. You are the one that chose to jack your prices up, and there are better ways to respond to that. I am about over the poor attitude and general jack assery from gun stores. The only reason you get away with poor customer service and high prices is that the government requires that we use your services. That is why so many gun store owners support universal background checks: monopoly.
As for L&R Armory, I will remember you.
It seems that the only decent gun store in Central Florida is an hour away from me…

By Divemedic, ago

HAM geekery

So I got me a new rig: A Yaesu 897D. I put an autotuner on this thing, and I am using a G5RV jr antenna for the high frequency side. It took about 2 hours to get everything rigged up, and I was slowed down by some rain, so I have only been playing with it for about the past hour. With that said, I got it to tune up on 40, 15, 12, 10, and 6 meters. I am happy with it. Now to see if I can make a few contacts.

(I am getting the HF beacon in Atlanta at 50.065 mHz with it.)

By Divemedic, ago

Pardon me

When the bomb went off at the Boston marathon this past week, the films of the event showed many bystanders fleeing the danger, and responders running towards the bomb site to render aid. Every responder in the country has had to attend terrorism awareness classes, and are all aware that a common tactic is for bombers to use a secondary device that detonates a few minutes later, in an attempt to injure responders. Yet, time and again, you see the people that are our first responders running towards the danger.

There were more than a few reporters and commentators that took note of this. Borepatch even shows the crowd at a Bruins game singing the national anthem and showing respect to the responders of Boston.

I’m not impressed.

I remember that exact show of national pride and support for responders in the days after 9/11. It was nice to feel like people knew about the sacrifices that we as responders make every day. It isn’t just the big events like 9/11 or Boston. It isn’t about the exploding fertilizer plants, or the idiots that ambush and shoot responders. It is the every day dangers that they face. Nearly 300 responders a year lose their lives in the protection of others.

Within 6 months of 9/11, the signs of respect stopped. By 2008, I was hearing about how we were the greedy people who got overpaid and under worked and were ripping off the taxpayer. They cut our pay, our pensions, and there is even a bill that would keep my family from receiving death benefits if I am killed in the line of duty.

So excuse me if I am not impressed with your show of support. I know it will fade in about six months, and you will go back to watching Kim Kardashian make $80,000 a week and complaining how firefighters, police, and paramedics are overpaid.

By Divemedic, ago

Authoritah

So a cop that I know posted this video to Facebook:

With this comment attached:

I think this cop didn’t know what to do because he spit out some legal crap.

Here are the replies from the posters fellow officers:

1:  I agree..he had probable cause for the stop….the 911 call for a man with a gun…duh….

2:  And he wouldn’t have gotten that gun back till he proved he could legally carry it…for ya know…public safety. ..lol…

3:  your walking around with a gun….. we are going to stop you dumbass get used to it. smh

4:  Time to cuff and stuff!

5:  some stick time and a ride will solve that problem 

6: The cop should have arrested him for disturbing the peace

7: Stupid law students 

Not one cop posted in favor of the gun owner.



Let’s start out with probable cause. The term probable cause means that the officer has reason to believe that more likely that not, the person is guilty of a crime. A 911 call that a man has a gun is not probable cause to believe that a man has committed a crime, if it is not a crime to have a gun.

Taking a person’s property without a legal reason to do so is a crime. The only problem is that the cops (in many cases, correctly) believe that they are above the law.

The obvious disregard for people’s rights and the law makes me fear the cops more than the criminals. They are just a legalized street gang. It is things like this that make me begin to think that anarchy could not be much worse.

By Divemedic, ago

Cheats

While we were busy watching the long, drawn out debates on Obamacare, the economy, and gun control, we all missed that Congress legalized insider trading for themselves. It was easy to do, though. They only debated and voted on the bill for 30 seconds.When Obama signed the new law, the announcement was only one sentence long.
So now a Congressman can legally profit from upcoming legislation. No conflict of interest there.

By Divemedic, ago

Communications

A proper survival plan includes things like water, food, and light. One important thing that should be a part of your plan is communications. During the recent events in Boston, cellular communications were inoperable for hours. There is some question as to whether they were turned off by authorities, or if the heavy traffic overloaded the system, but the end result was the same: no phone communications were happening throughout most of the Boston area.
I have portable, handheld radios in the 2 meter band. There are 9 repeaters that are within 40 miles of my house, and each of these can be reached by the radios that I have on hand. This allows me to communicate across the majority of Central Florida with a large level of redundancy. In the event that all of those repeaters are non functional, we can go direct radio to radio on any one of hundreds of frequencies. These radios can be had for as little as $40.
If hundreds of available frequencies isn’t enough, you can get a dual band radio that also works in the 70 cm band. That band is less crowded than the 2m band, and adds thousands of available channels to the possibilities.
Set up a communications plan: “If anything happens, we will contact each other on the 146.22MHz repeater at the top of the hour, and on the 145.52MHz repeater at the bottom of the hour. If both repeaters are down, we will try 433.62 MHz., additionally, we will monitor 146.52 MHz.”

 The HAM license costs just $15, and no morse code test is required. Then you don’t have to worry about the cell phone repeaters.

By Divemedic, ago