Divemedic

One of the disagreements that I have with the TEA party is about pay and benefits of public workers. The TEA partiers like to claim that public sector workers get an overly generous pay and benefits package when compared to private sector workers.

Firefighters in Central Florida are required to graduate from the fire academy, have passed the state firefighter exam, graduate from EMT, pass that state exam, graduate from Paramedic school, pass that state exam, and then take and pass other minor classes like EVOC. All in all, this takes about two years of full time school. (a year for paramedic, 3 months for EMT, and six  months for firefighter) At the end of that schooling, you are paid a starting wage of $13.25 an hour, on average. The work schedule of a firefighter is 56 hours a week, but firefighters do not receive time and a half for over time until they work more than 53 hours in a week. This means that the $13.25 an hour translates to just $40,000 a year. (although 3% is deducted to pay for pension)

Working for private EMS is not an option, because although they get overtime when working more than 40 hours, the starting pay for a non-emergency paramedic nets you a starting pay of $13 an hour for that year of training.
So pay is $26,000 a year.
Now one would think that this means that firefighters are being paid a fair wage, but remember that private EMS in Central Florida means routine transports of shuttling people back and forth from the nursing home to their dialysis appointments. There is no skill or decision making to be done there.

Compare that to registered nurses: RNs have a two year school. One year, if you are already a paramedic. for that two years of schooling, the starting pay for an RN is $32.50 an hour. That is equal to about $65,000 a year. This leaves a prospective firefighter with a choice: Spend two years in school to work 56 hours a week for $40,000 a year, or spend the same time in school to make $65,000 a year working 40 hours a week. The difference used to be that firefighters got a decent pension.

Not any more. Firefighters hired after July 1 (the beginning of the fiscal year) in Florida will likely not be allowed to partake in the pension plan. This makes nursing a lot more lucrative. This is one of the reasons why I left, and is the reason why many firefighters, including my son, go to nursing school in order to leave what is increasingly a bad career choice.

I understand that the TEA partiers want to save money and pay less taxes, and if that is what they want, I can respect that. However, when that happens, don’t complain about the level of service you get from the lower paid workers that arrive at your house, because the smarter ones left for greener pastures. Especially considering that public pensions only account for 3% of the state’s budget, while Medicaid eats up 30% of the state budget.

The savings are in giveaway programs, not by cutting the pay of people who will simply find employment elsewhere.

Several days ago, Graybeard put up a post about how we may not be capable of thinking like gun grabbers. After reading this:

“The Senators feel the best course of action is to remove all weapons from law enforcement and private citizens so no one else gets hurt,” said a Senate communications intern. “When the gunman realizes that nobody else is armed, he will lay down his weapons and turn himself in…. that’s just human nature.”

I realize that he was right. There is no way that I can get my head that far up my ass. (PS: I know the article is satire.)

I have used Turbo Tax for years, ever since I discovered how H&R Block does taxes: They put some schlub that has no accounting or financial experience through a class on how to use their software, and then they simply ask what the computer tells them to, and fill in the blanks. Then they charge you a pile of money for it.
Problem is, they often screw it up. Case in point: My girlfriend. She has done her taxes at H&R Block for years. She was showing me her return, and I caught an error. We went through her taxes for the past three years, and they have caused her to pay nearly $4,000 more than she should have.
Now we are having to file amended returns. For 2010, she is past the three year limit on filing an amended return, so that money is gone.
We just finished her amended return for 2011, and the IRS owes her $1724, thanks to the wonderful morons at H&R Block.
Once her refund check comes in, we will have to refile her 2012 taxes as well.
What got me started was her complaining that H&R Block claims that they will file a 1040EZ for you for free, but then they charged her $85, because they had to file a 1040A in order to take advantage of a $71 credit that was available to her. The difference in her refund of $71 caused them to charge her an extra $85 in preparation fees, meaning a net loss of $14 to her. We began looking closer, and saw that they had missed quite a few deductions and credits, including education credits.

So I went last night to see Penn and Teller perform at Hard Rock Live, located at Universal Studios Orlando. Even though there was no advance warning on the tickets, there were magnetometers set up at the entrance, and they were searching everyone. I walked up to the security guard and asked him if there were somewhere that I could secure my weapon. He said that they did not even allow cops to carry weapons in the venue. He said that because they served alcohol inside, it was illegal to carry weapons.

I pointed out that he was wrong, that state law actually says that:

Any portion of an establishment licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, which portion of the establishment is primarily devoted to such purpose (emphasis added)

Since the area was primarily devoted to concerts, and the sale of alcohol was incidental to that use, I think that the law is pretty clear there. But, hey, private property and all that, and not wanting to miss the show, I asked what to do, and was told to lock it in my car.

There are two problems with that: I had parked my car in valet parking, and there ARE notices everywhere, both in regular and valet parking, that say Universal Studios is not responsible for valuables left in parked  automobiles. I pointed this out, and he suggested that I rent a locker in a nearby kiosk. So, I walked the several hundred yards to the locker rentals, and rented a locker for $4.

This didn’t surprise me, as Universal is owned by NBC, who are hardly defenders of gun rights, but it did surprise me that Penn and Teller would allow this sort of behavior at a show.

In short, the magnetometers were BULLSHIT.

According the Officer Down Memorial Page, there were 126 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2012. That inflates things a bit, because 18 of them were police dogs.

8 police dogs died of heat exhaustion
2 K9s killed in transportation related incidents.
6 K9s were shot
1 died from a fall

 Let’s take a look at what happened to the 108 human cops, shall we?
Of those 108:

There were 42 officers killed in transportation incidents, 39% of those killed.
3 from aircraft, 35 in auto accidents, 5 were struck by vehicles as pedestrians.

16 of them (15%) died from medical problems, or from accidents:
2 were killed by unspecified “medical emergencies”
1 died from hepatitis C that he contracted in 1983
1 died from complications of a surgery to repair an on duty knee injury
2 cops were killed by falling from heights
1 died from injuries sustained in 2009 when he fell off of a horse
1 died from heat exhaustion
7 died from heart attacks
1 killed in a training accident when an instructor threw him and caused a head injury

Of the 17 cops killed by non-firearm assaults:
11 were run down by criminals
1 was killed with an assailant’s bare hands
5 were stabbed. All 5 were stabbed by jail or prison inmates.

Of the 43 firearm deaths:
1 was killed by her husband, using her own gun
1 was killed by an assailant who overpowered the officer and shot him with his own gun
2 were shot by other cops in cases of mistaken identity

2 were shot and killed when a prisoner that was in custody, was handcuffed in a patrol car, and had already been searched, produced a handgun and shot them.
1 was ambushed and killed in his driveway by a convicted felon that he had arrested many times over a 40 year career.
1 was shot in 1965 and died in 2012. Hard to say this death is due to being shot when you live another 48 years.
2 were ambushed by domestic terrorists while working off duty jobs in their patrol cars.

By weapon type
19 were shot by unknown firearms
18 with handguns
1 with a shotgun
3 with unknown type rifles
4 with so called “assault weapons”

So out of the 108 cops killed in 2012, there were 36 cops killed by assaults on the street by people that they came in contact with. The rest of the deaths were accidents, medical problems, being shot by other cops, by their spouses, and other incidents. It is a myth that cops have a job that is so dangerous as to require that they disarm and subjugate every citizen that they come into contact with for “officer safety.”

If they really cared about officer safety, they would take away their lights and sirens, and force them to drive at reasonable speeds. That would have saved the lives of the same number of officers, and not led to violating people’s rights and roughing them up.

A strong defense of the nation is important. Our military is hard at work, defending us from the enemy. They were recently seen drilling in the skies over Houston and Miami.

With the news that the president is shutting down NORAD radar surveillance in the southern US, while at the same time stepping up its monitoring of its own citizens, it appears as though the government doesn’t feel that the threat to its survival is an external one. Who is the enemy that our military is preparing to face?

This post is about the “Zero Aggression Principle” that many libertarians use as a litmus test. Many believe that it is ALWAYS wrong to initiate force against another. From the linked page:

“A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim.” 

I think that it must be nice to live in such a simple world. The first problem that I have with this idea is how you choose to define “force.” What if a person is shitting in your yard? Is he initiating force? Or would you be, if you physically remove him?

What about a petulant child the refuses to obey his parents? When the parents attempt to discipline the child, at what point is the discipline considered force? Confining him to a corner (timeout)? Spanking?

Then there is the case where a person is out of his mind. Can we, in good conscience, protect him from himself? For example, a drunk that is trying to sleep on railroad tracks. Are we initiating force when we remove him, even if he protests?

This is a problem that paramedics and other EMS workers have to face every day. I will give an example: A man that has been drinking is driving his motorcycle without a helmet. He lays it down, and slides under the back wheels of an automobile. There is a large area of skin missing from his forehead, and a large lump on the top of his head. He is staggering, and there is a large flap of loose flesh hanging torn from his arm. He is adamantly refusing a trip to the hospital. Is it initiating force to make him go? Yes. Is it wrong to force him? No.

You see a person who is drink is not capable of deciding for himself if he needs medical care. A person who has a head injury can be combative and adamant that he doesn’t want anyone touching him. In those cases, should we leave him there to die? If we do, the law says that his family can sue me.

In such a case, I would have no problem leaving a person there, if that is what the law requires. However, the law must also not hold the medical provider liable when the decision turns out to be a fatal one for the patient.

That is one of the basic flaws with that philosphy.

This is a bulletin from Valencia College in Orlando:

At approximately 9:20pm on
Wednesday, January 23, 2013, two female students were approached from behind by
a black male wearing jeans and hooded sweatshirt as they walked together to
their car.  The suspect called out to
them from behind saying “excuse me” a couple of times.  The students continued walking and didn’t
acknowledge him. The suspect grabbed one of the students by
her wrist,  and she immediately fell faint
on the ground.  The second student went
to her aid and was hit in the mouth.  We
believe the second student was hit in the mouth inadvertently as the first
student fell. The suspect walked away with no words or further contact.  There is no clear motive in this incident.

If you witnessed or have
any information regarding this case, please contact Campus Security at (407)
582-1000.  Information can also be given
anonymously using the “Silent Witness” form on the security web page at http://valenciacollege.edu/security/silentWitness.cfm

Remember these safety tips:

·        
Call Campus
Security at (407) 582-1000 if you’d like an escort to your car.

·        
Travel in the
company of others and use the “buddy” system whenever you can.

·        
Use your cell
phone and campus safety call boxes to call for assistance.

·        
If you see any
suspicious behavior, report it to Campus Security using the methods outlined
above.




In Florida, weapons are prohibited on college campuses. Instead, you must hope that the attacker decides not to hurt you. These women used the “buddy system” and it stopped nothing. Call boxes and cell phones only serve to let you call for help AFTER the attack is over. Welcome to defenseless victim zones, ladies.