This is my outlet for news, notes, and commentary on safety, security, crime, the legal system, politics, emergency medicine, emergency management, and whatever else pops into my mind...
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Updated to reflect that the link to The Great Dictator only has the first half of the movie.
The Great Dictatorwas filmed in 1940, before the United States got dragged into World War II. The "Jewish Barber" -- played by Chaplin -- is virtually a twin to Adenoid Hynkle, the Dictator. Through the convoluted circumstances that are Chaplin's trademark, the Barber is mistaken for Hynkle, and must make a speech to his assembled troops. The final speech should be as famous and as well-known as the Gettysburg Address, King's "I have a dream", and Kennedy's Inaugural Address... but it isn't...
I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: "the Kingdom of God is within man" - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
A few days ago, I mentioned Paulette Goddard, the second most beautiful woman on earth, after the lovely yet talented Mrs618. I told you that she co-starred with Charlie Chaplin in both Modern Times and The Great Dictator.
Now comes the best part of the holiday season... all those yummy leftovers! And one of the very best ways of disposing of leftover turkey is on a sandwich with fresh ground black pepper and apple butter (instead of mayo). The apple butters moistens the turkey, but also gives it a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg kick.
And remember, there are plenty of Americans -- AMERICANS!! -- in the same position as these kids, so be grateful for what you have. And maybe if you have a dollar or an hour (and a conscience), help those less fortunate than you.
I'm going to be hellaciously busy tomorrow, so I'm going to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy, safe, and healthy Thanksgiving.
For the folks who are working tomorrow -- the cops, firefighters, EMS personnel, toll collectors, cab drivers, radio announcers, c-store crews, Wal Mart folks, tech support staff -- well...
THANK YOU!
And if any of my readers are Red Cross volunteers and you get called out tomorrow to help some family whose Thanksgiving was suddenly destroyed by a house fire or flood or something, a very special thank you, and a "stay safe."
As Saint Ronnie said, "well, there you go again..."
The rethuglicans are returning to one of their previous, less-than-stellarly-successful campaigns. I saw an ad on YouTube, decrying the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran, culminating with the ominous warning that if we don't stop Obama now, we'll have a mushroom cloud next week.
Apparently, the best way to prevent a nuclear (or as they pronounce it, "nukuler") holocaust is to... nuke Iran.
Despite the fact that he was a RWNJ in the mold of Alexander Haig, Darth Cheney and few others, the late novelist Tom Clancy was a helluva storyteller. One of his most endearing (not) techniques was to take the proclivities of the conservatives, and transfer them to liberals. I just finished Locked On, currently the penultimate novel in the Jack Ryan/John Clark series. Here are some of the things the libruls did, in an effort to oppress the innocent conservatives:
Out a (former) CIA operative -- John Clark -- for purely political purposes (attempting to prevent the re-election of Jack Ryan as POTUS);
Use federal law enforcement resources for purely partisan political reasons;
Assist Islamist terrorists in avoiding justice;
Use CIA personnel in domestic operations, targeting American nationals.
Of course, Clancy also reprised most of his other favorite themes: the violence inherent in Islam (which, based on current behavior, may not be all that farfetched); the portrayal of Islamists as deluded, ignorant buffoons (despite their having acquired and deployed nuclear weapons in at least three of his novels); the infallibility of the conservative viewpoint, and the concomitant inevitable failure of the liberals; and the belief that violence cures all ills.
Every once in a while, his lack of attention to continuity sticks out like a sore thumb. In The Sum of All Fears, Charles Alden was in the State Department,National Security Advisor and was instrumental in the initial stages of a brokered peace in the Middle East; in the later stories, however, those featuring Jack Ryan, Jr., Alden is a venal, corrupt (liberal) political appointee in the CIA.
Another drawback to Clancy's later novels is his use of the deus ex machina of a secret, extra-governmental agency to protect America (not unlike the Men In Black franchise).
And don't get me started on the lunacy of casting Ben Affleck in the movie version of The Sum of All Fears.
First it was Whoopi Goldberg supporting Michael Vick (saying that dog fighting was accepted in his culture). Now, Chris Rock and Jay Leno both have come out in support of Vick, with Rock saying, "Dogs have never been good to black people!" which might have something to do with the fact that so many blacks like to... umm, beat, torture, electrocute, drown and otherwise MURDER dogs?
Going back to the point I made in the linked article, since dog fighting was acceptable in their culture, maybe we should return to another culturally acceptable pastime: lynching these worthless pieces of shit.
Screw Chris Rock for being a worthless piece of shit, and for supporting another worthless piece of shit.
And for that matter, screw the human chin for supporting TWO worthless pieces of shit.
Dog fighting -- or animal abuse in general -- is NEVER culturally acceptable.
D r i f t g l a s s has a post up that describes my own situation almost perfectly, except for gender and lack of MIT credentials. Of course, the same can be said by countless thousands -- if not millions -- across the country.
Ms. Barrington-Ward, D r i f t g l a s s, Jurassic Pork, and yr humble and obt svt are all in the same boat: unemployed for so long that we're now unemployable, with credit scores that have been "sledgehammered," in JP's words.
I tell you, if there is reincarnation, I don't want to come back and be a nice guy all over again. I did that this time around, and I have nothing to show for it. Next time, I want to be a mean, miserable, nasty SOB... with lots of money.
It SUCKS to be in this situation. And to the jerkwads who say it's our fault, fine. Let's trade places. You take our cushy, lazy-ass lifestyles, and try to feed your families.
A couple of weeks ago, two big bales of marijuana washed ashore at Jamison's Cove. Since it was tidal water, we had to notify the Marine Patrol and the Coast Guard.
Well, before either of the law enforcement agencies could get there, the bales were discovered by our local seagulls.
One of the more conservative medical bloggers -- whom I will not link to because he's such a dyed-in-the-wool-right-wing whackjob (but also a helluva medic) -- was bitching about the TSA.
BillyJoeBobBubba "forgot" to remove live ammunition from his bags before heading to the airport to board a plane, and was complaining about the search that ensued.
This from one of those "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about" types. It was HIS philosophical cronies, after all, who established the TSA (and the rest of DHS) and rammed it down our throats.
Apparently, the fact that they searched a white man instead of a scary brown Moozlum is, well... intolerable.
Got news for ya, Bubba: you're the ones screaming that everybody should be armed, so it makes sense that you're the ones who should pay the price when your gun mania gets you in hot water. You're the ones who say "security trumps everything else", including Fourth Amendment freedoms. You're the ones who demanded the PATRIOT Act. You're the ones who supported the establishment of the American version of the Gestapo. You're the ones who insisted -- screechingly -- that TSA damn near strip search everyone within 5 miles of an airplane.
You wanted it, BillyJoeBobBubba, and you got it. Now YOU get to live with it, too, just like the rest of us.
Ohio [was] set to execute a convicted child killer after denying the man's
last-minute request to donate
organs to his ailing mother and sister before he dies.
[Convicted baby-raping murderer Ronald] Phillips has said through his attorneys that the request was not a delay
tactic, but rather an attempt to make a final gesture for good.
This is the latest chapter in the saga of Ronald Phillips, who in January 18, 1993, murdered his girlfriend's daughter, three-year-old Sheila Marie Evans, at her home in Akron. Phillips had been sexually and physically abusing Sheila for some time. Phillips severely beat Sheila in the head, face and abdomen, threw her against the walls, dragged her by her hair and anally raped her. Phillips probably figured he could donate his organs, and then claim his physical health prohibited execution. Variations on this tactic include, just before one's scheduled execution, half-assed suicide attempts, assaults resulting in hospitalization, and a few other more creative things. His attorney said:
"He's been very reflective and prayerful over the last several weeks. I think he
was very hopeful that he was going to be granted clemency and/or get relief from
the court, so this never really had to come to a head," Sweeney said. "The
disappointment on those fronts made this obviously more relevant."
That, of course, makes all the difference: "Ah have found Jee-zuss, and He has forgiven me, so now y'all gotta let me outa here. Hey, y'all need a babysitter?" It's the same crap we get from the "family values" crowd when they get caught with their pants down (literally). BUT..... Republican Gov. John Kasich rescheduled 40-year-old Ronald Phillips' lethal injection to July 2, falling for the "I got religion" ploy just like every other Xristian Xrazy. As a result, the "law and order" party is allowing a baby-raping murderer to escape the punishment decided by a jury of his peers. Just goes to show, moreover, that their "right to life" stance ends at birth. Be interesting to see what happens in July, whether the BABY-RAPING MURDERER pulls another fast one out of his ass, and manages to avoid the same death sentence he handed to his girlfriend's three-year-old daughter. Oh, he was also claiming that lethal injection would have been cruel and unusual punishment because he was "afraid of needles"... just as Sheila was probably afraid of this needle-dicked dink. Hey, Phillips: DIE. Slowly, painfully, screaming in agony. DIE, you baby-raping murderous maggot. ________________________ * I am NOT implying, in any way, shape, or form, that Chief Varone agrees with any of the opinions expressed in this blog. I am merely quoting one of his tags, which I adopted: "YCMTSU."
Dawn Wells... one of the prettiest women on earth... after the lovely yet talented Mrs618 and Paulette Goddard.
You know what always amazed me? The Professor could build an entire rock band (as in this clip), or make a radio from two cocoanuts, and the whole crew could build a village...
...but no one could patch the damned Minnow???
Oh, and just how many bags did everyone pack for that three-hour tour?!? I don't think I ever saw a character wear the same outfit twice.
___________
Oh, and for the kids who don't know Paulette Goddard:
She was one of Charlie Chaplin's many wives, appearing with him in Modern Times and The Great Dictator. She was also considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, but Vivien Leigh won that role.
Another shot of the lovely yet talented Ms. Goddard:
Maybe it's just me, but I think she looks a lot like Elizabeth Short (a/k/a the "Black Dahlia"):
Porky, who has managed to evade a murder conviction thanks to Florida's Make My DayLaw, has since attracted even more attention from the po-po, including numerous traffic stops where he asks if the cop recognizes him from TV. Personally, if I were still a cop, I might be tempted to view that as a threat: "I've killed before and gotten away with it..."
Now, he's managed to get in trouble yet again. After showing up at the home of his estranged wife, Shellie "I've never met a dessert I didn't like" Zimmerman, with a gun, his attorney told the court that he would no longer represent the fat little turdball.
Because the fat little turdball has yet to pay his attorney.
This is despite his legal defense having pulled in more than $300,000 (as of January).
The money went for things like bail (which, having been returned upon his acquittal, should have gone back into the pot), private security (gun nut doesn't want to be approached by someone who may be...well, armed? ... and who might fear Porky? ... and who might shoot his pudgy little ass? ... and then claim he was "standing his ground'?), and -- last but certainly least -- almost $62,000 for eight months of living expenses. That means, for 12 months of living expenses, Quick-Draw Gonzalez would need about $93,000. Ninety-three thousand dollars. Burritos must be awfully expensive in his neck of the woods.
Now, all of those contributions to the Ruger Bandito came from fellow gun nuts, militia members, racists, and other typical redneck scum.
Be interesting to see what they do to Turdball when they finally figure out that HE SCREWED THEM ROYALLY.
This just showed up on Facebook, from one of the emergency management types:
This ranks right up there with the "Pink Shirt Guy"
HE shows up in just about every Haz-Mat PowerPoint I've ever seen. Although, to be fair to PSG, if the crew is going to be taping their boots and gloves and wearing respirators, they should probably have their hoods on too.*
*Not that I have any haz mat training above awareness level. I simply use the rule of thumb: if I'm close enough so that I can't cover the entire scene with my thumb... I'm too freakin' close!!
I've been getting a fair number of visits from the communities of Owatonna and West Concord, MN. I use the free version of Site Meter, so I don't know if these are repeat or unique visitors, but it doesn't really matter.
Hi, folks, thank you for stopping by. Feel free to poke around and see what's here: everything from fire history to music to politics and pets. Comments are always welcome*.
From reading so many John Sandford books, sounds like I'm missing out by not visiting out there... seems like it's every bit as nice as Maine (albeit with a different regional accent).
Oh, and feel free to tell your friends!
* Unless they're spam comments about vacations in Uruguay or body-part enlargement, of course.
In honor of the 33rd Annual Mid Coast EMS Conference, in Rockport, Maine.
This is from the two-hour pilot. Notice the original Squad 51, and the rest of the classic vehicles. You'll also notice that Martin Milner and Kent McCord (Malloy and Reed from Adam-12) appear. Not surprising, as Emergency! was a spin-off of Adam-12, which in turn was spun off from Dragnet.
A potential spin-off from Emergency! that failed was called 905-Wild, about some LA County Animal Control officers. That one starred Mark Harmon, David Huddleston, and Gary Crosby (Bing's son).
_____________________
When Emergency! debuted in 1972, the whole field of EMS was only a couple of years old. Previously, emergency medical care -- such as it was -- was provided by attendants with roughly 40 hours of Advanced First Aid, and maybe CPR. The vehicles were usually modified station wagons, operated by the local funeral homes (putting in the crews in an interesting situation - take the person to the hospital, or perhaps pick up the funeral?), or by civic groups like the American Legion, or Lions clubs.
Cadillac was the most popular make, but there were others like Pontiac, Chevrolet, Packard, and De Soto.
Some were barely-modified hearses:
Some very progressive services did use vans early on... here's a 1962 Chevy Corvair:
As the old wagons were being phased out, we started using vehicles like the Chevy Suburban or the International Travel-All:
As you can imagine, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot of room inside to work on patients. Not that it really mattered, since all we did at the time was advanced first aid - no IVs, usually no CPR, certainly nothing like intubation.
And what do we have these days?
Gawd, I'm starting to feel like Mustang Bobby with all the classic vehicle pix...
A new study
of symbolic racism among white American voters yielded strong links between latent biases toward blacks and increased favor of
gun ownership and oppositions toward gun control.
Wow, that's is a "stop-the-press" moment... that the small-penis-compensation-device-loving crowd would also be jealous of the stereotypical big black jungle dick?
Published in the journal PLoS One, the
study used voter data of white Americans that, after accounting for political
ideology, income, and education, still revealed startling connections between
racism and gun ownership. For every one
point increase in symbolic racism — measured on a five-point scale — the chance
someone had a gun in the home rose by 50 percent, and the chance the
respondent supported policies that allowed people to carry concealed guns rose
by 28 percent.
This would certainly explain the South. As BadTux and others have pointed out, the Southern social norms have traditionally included slavery -- which is racism in it's purest form -- and violence to keeps the slaves from rebelling. When one couples that with the still-extant desire to secede and rebuild the Confederacy, it's obvious that disarming the rednecks isn't going to happen.
"We were initially surprised that no one had
studied this issue before,” said study co-author Dr. Dermot Lynott, from Lancaster
University, in a statement.
“However, the U.S. government cut research funding for gun-related research
over decade and a half ago, so research in this area has been somewhat
suppressed."
Well, yes, the funding was cut at the demand of the National Feckin Rifle
Association, since they didn't want folks to realize that the gun nuts were
also racist bastards (among their many other un-American failings). God forbid anyone should think that guns.. oh, I don't know, kill people?!?
Gun control debates are set against a bleak
backdrop of school shootings, homicides, suicides, and gun violence in a
country that routinely tops the list for most gun-related
deaths in a given year. A study performed earlier this year found that the
more guns a U.S. state owns directly relates to an increased homicide rate.
Covering 30 years from 1981 to 2010, and controlling for a laundry list of
variables, it is the largest and most comprehensive study to date examining
homicide’s relationship to gun ownership.
Part of the answer is simply freedom. Americans
whose family is steeped in the traditions of southern conservatism tend to
enjoy exercising their second amendment Constitutional right. Another
is irrationality, or an ignorance of the facts. Gun ownership often
proceeds under the assumption that one will be attacked. So people buy guns
fearing someone else will use one on them, despite the supposed closeness of
people inhabiting gun-heavy regions.
And if there is anywhere on Earth that epitomizes “irrationality” and “ignorance,”
it is the disease-ridden Trashcanistan hellhole home of our Bible-thumpin’,
hooker-humpin’, sister-marryin’, rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup wingnut “breathren”
below the Mason-Dixie line.
This whole concept of "home defense" lead Mrs. Lanza in Newtown to buy a poopload of weapons to protect herself. How did THAT work out for ya, Mrs. L?
The present study also found
associations in their data between opposition to gun controls and conservatism,
anti-government sentiment, party identification, and being from a southern
state. Even controlling for these factors, the team found racism associated
with gun control opposition and gun ownership.
Yeah, I’d say that pretty much covers it.
To be fair, though, it's not just the Southern racists that are frickin lunatics. Here in Maine, we've had small-penis-compensators like David Marsters, who advocated the assassination of our President; Steve Collins, who advocated the assassination of our President; we have the Maine Tea Party Patriots -- the ones who support Fat-Ass Paul LePage, he of more chins than a Chinatown phone book; the National Socialist American Labor Party, a buncha neo-Nazi twats and Volksfront, representing the racist skinhead crowd. Every one of these assholes keeps agitating for unfettered access to firearms... especially assault rifles.
In a sentence, we drop everything else to respond to other people’s requests for assistance no matter what time it is, how dangerous or safe the neighborhood is, what good or evil or crazy people with or without weapons are at the scene, how clean or disgusting the residence – on fire or not – is, what funky bodily fluids are smeared or not smeared all over someone, and we do what is necessary to get things done, regardless of how much we do or don’t want to do it.
If you've read this blog for more than about three minutes, you'll know I'm not a sports fan. The lovely yet talented Mrs618 could tell you I don't have the faintest idea whether Payton Manning is a shortstop or point guard. I couldn't give a rat's rectum about the Stanley Cup (and I have no idea what A Streetcar Named Desire has to do with hockey) or the Super Bowl or any of the other sports extravaganzas.
But, for these guys, I'll make an exception and post something about sports.
According to NBC Nightly News, the moronic losers at TSA have decided they want to arm some of the TSA goons, in response to yesterday's shooting at LAX.
As you know, I'm not a big fan of TSA. In fact, I regard them as a buncha moronic loser thieving perverts. For example, see these previous posts.
And to prove I'm not alone, if one Googles "tsa screeners arrested," you find 202,000+ hits. They've been grabbed for theft, sexual assault, and all sorts of other crimes of moral turpitude.
Plus, they're completely in-freakin-competent: they can't find bombs or guns in luggage... hell, they couldn't find a frickin BABY that went through one of their Xray machines.
In all honesty, I don't know how skippy can do a zillion blogposts without a single capital letter.
Ambulance Ranger is a Ranger/EMT/Paramedic in training out on the left coast. The impression I get is that she works for the NPS and hence, has her hands full even without medic school.
She has been kind enough to add me to her "waiting list" of blogs she wants to read, which leaves me feeling kinda honored. Of course I'm adding hers to mine.
Good luck in medic school, and stay safe on the job!
A few years back, when we were still in Michigan, I set the picture below as my desktop, then called our IT crew to tell them I had some weird error message on my screen. The tech -- fresh out of college -- looked at it and said, "I've never seen anything like this before."
My Aunt Lavinia hasn't been feeling well for the past couple of weeks, so we called the doctor. The doctor stopped to see her (yes, in Maine, doctors still make house calls). When he was done, he asked for a glass of water, so we steered him out to the well (there are still some things lacking here at Chez618). The doctor was leaning over a little too far, and fell into the well.
I pulled him out and told him to treat the sick, and leave the well alone.
(H/T Max Morath, the ragtime pianist I mentioned here)
