You Can't Silence Us

It Turns Out I Was Wrong

I said yesterday that the AWFLs would drop the attacks on the Lone Standout after discovering he was black. It turns out that I was wrong. They will protect their own even more so than they protect the slaves on their plantation.

They are investigating and attacking the guy. The latest attack includes references to his having a domestic violence restraining order. These DV restraining orders are bullshit that women frequently use as a weapon in divorces or just to get even with a man who has done something they don’t like. I have twice been accused of this by angry ex-girlfriends who were trying to get revenge on me for daring to be their ex:

the law is abused. Here are the disturbing statistics:

25% of all divorces include accusations of domestic violence.
50% of all domestic violence restraining orders are issued without allegations of violence.
70% of domestic violence restraining orders are trivial or false. (PDF warning)
85% of restraining orders are against men

In fact, a New Mexico woman filed a restraining order against David Letterman in 2005, alleging that she was a victim of his domestic abuse. He had never met the woman. She said that he was using secret code words during his television show to threaten her. The judge in the case found her claims to have merit and granted the order, even though it was later overturned.

To me, if there is no accompanying criminal charge for domestic violence, then the entire issue is a woman making things up because she is a mad cow. The way it works, is a woman accuses a man of domestic violence. She is granted an ex parte hearing, where her accusations are all the court hears. If the court agrees that the claim has merit, the DV order is issued. The first hint a man has that one of these has been issued is when the cops show up with the order, which includes suspension of any concealed weapons permits, and an order that he turn his guns into the police within 48 hours.

Then he gets a hearing sometime in the next couple of weeks. He had better bring a lawyer, because she will have one, provided free of charge by the taxpayers. If he loses, the order becomes permanent, and he is now prohibited from owning firearms or ammunition. For life.

Most men don’t fight it because it costs money to hire a lawyer, money they don’t have. They figure they are never going to see her again, so what’s the big deal. Most don’t find out they are prohibited persons until after it is too late.

The law says that women can make an accusation of domestic violence and the court will punish the man by issuing a restraining order without him being allowed to defend himself. He gets a hearing two weeks later, but by that time his guns have been taken and his concealed weapons permit revoked. There is no fee for the woman to do this.

She gets a free lawyer. He does not. When it is discovered that she lied, nothing happens to her. She will not be prosecuted, and cannot be sued or punished in any way.

The Florida State Supreme Court has this to say on the matter:

Unfortunately, the current version of section 784.046 does not seem to permit the trial court to simply dismiss a sworn petition that does not allege facts that fall within the statutory language. Instead, section 784.046(5) requires that “[u]pon the filing of the petition, the court shall set a hearing to be held at the earliest possible time.” The result is the use of scant judicial resources to conduct unnecessary hearings based on pleadings that could never support the issuance of an injunction. These same hearings often serve only to inflame the parties’ emotions and foster further uncivil behavior. I would encourage the legislature to consider amending the domestic violence and repeat violence statutes to allow judges to dismiss petitions that, on their face, do not contain allegations sufficient to meet the statutory requirements without prejudice to the petitioner refiling a legally sufficient petition if he or she can do so.

Women who lie to use the law as a weapon cannot be punished. From the same decision:

Further, nowhere in section 784.046 is there any provision for an award of sanctions against a petitioner who uses the statutory provisions concerning injunctions as a sword rather than a shield.

The message is loud and clear- you will do what the AWFLs say, as a jury member, you will do whatever they want, or they will destroy your life.

At the end of the day, this is jury tampering. I don’t see how this is any different than a criminal threatening a witness.

Intimidation of a juror in Mass:

Using a juror’s identity or personal information to intimidate, harass, threaten, mislead, or retaliate against the juror (or their family) is a felony under G.L. c. 268, § 13B (intimidation of a juror). This covers both during and after a trial if the intent is to interfere with or punish participation in the proceeding.

Penalty:

  • Up to 10 years in state prison, or
  • Up to 2½ years in a house of correction, and/or
  • Fine of $1,000–$5,000.
  • If the underlying case involved a crime punishable by life imprisonment, the maximum prison term rises to 20 years.

This campaign to dox and harass this guy is nothing short of jury tampering, and is a felony.

People who have read this post: 28
By Divemedic, ago

Death Penalty

This case is a prime reason why I oppose the death penalty. Not in theory, but because I don’t trust the government with the power of life and death.

A former state forensic scientist on Tuesday was sentenced to 10 years in state prison after altering more than 1,000 samples in labs that prosecutors say could have disproportionately affected sexual assault victims over many years.

In this particular case, she made the DNA appear to not match, resulting in people who were guilty being able to walk free, but that isn’t going to be the case with every nutball in government service with the power to alter test results. For example:

  • The FBI Lab underwent massive restructuring in the late 1990s following a whistleblower report by Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, who exposed flawed scientific testimonies and contamination within the lab.
  • In 2004, former FBI biologist Jacqueline M. Blake pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge for providing false statements in her laboratory reports.
  • A massive 2015 joint review by the FBI and the Innocence Project revealed an even deeper systemic issue: for over two decades before 2000, microscopic hair comparison examiners from the FBI gave flawed, scientifically invalid testimony in over 95% of the trials reviewed, contributing to numerous wrongful convictions across the United States.

It’s a certainty that at least some people have been sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. If we execute even one innocent person, we are all collectively murderers. I just cannot support that.

People who have read this post: 105
By Divemedic, ago

Stupid and Uneducated

Democrats have had to pull support for Democratic North Carolina House candidate Shelly Headen when a past statement came back to haunt her:

I think our only hope is an attack on US soil, preferably Alabama, Louisiana where the stupid people live.

It isn’t that what she said was forbidden, because this is what most Democrats think about anyone who isn’t a liberal: uneducated and unintelligent. After all, if you were smart and knew stuff, you would be a commie like them.

People who have read this post: 197
By Divemedic, ago

Quarter of a Century

A quarter of a Century, and I still remember that morning in more detail than all but of a few of the mornings that have come since. The sky was a beautiful blue, the sun was warm, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. A typical Central Florida day. My shift, C shift, had just started our 24 hour workday.

I was driving Engine 2 that morning. Dennis was riding in the seat next to me as the Lieutenant, and Justin was the back seat firefighter. Our shift had begun at 7:30 that morning as it always did. We did our morning routine as we always do. At 8:30, we left the station to do annual flow testing of fire hydrants.

By 8:45, we were behind the Winn Dixie and just about to test our first hydrant. Our Battalion Chief called us and told us to return to the station and turn on the TV. I remember jokingly asking Dennis who the guy on the radio was and what they had done to the Chief, since he would never tell us to watch TV during the workday.

We arrived back in the station just in time to see the second plane hit the south tower. I remember watching Fox news and seeing them switch to the DC bureau, where reporters said they could see a column of smoke. Things were happening so fast, I couldn’t figure out what that smoke was coming from. I commented “There is no way that the smoke from NYC is visible in Washington.” It was then that a fellow firefighter told me that the Pentagon had been hit.

The chief called us to disclose the plans for the remainder of the day. While I was on the phone with him, the first tower fell. The chief said to me, “Oh my God. 30,000 people just died.” I remember being stunned that so many people could be in a building.

By noon, we had an armed SWAT officer with an MP-5 riding along with us on all of our calls “for security.”

For weeks, we firefighters were stunned at the loss of 343 firefighters. I had friends who were in New York and in DC that day- military, firefighters, and paramedics who I’ve known for years. I felt a sense of awe and respect for the guys who went into that second tower after watching the first tower fall. They went into that building knowing that they would never come out of the second tower. What was going through their minds? I asked myself if I was capable of making the same choice if I knew that I would not come out?

We all wanted to be able to say yes. It isn’t the same thing when you go into an ordinary fire. Firefighters are a cocky, professional bunch. When we run into a burning building, we tell ourselves that we are trained and experienced enough that it will not happen to us. Not so with those guys in the towers. They went in KNOWING that they wouldn’t come out. That is a time that you don’t know what you would do until the moment of truth comes.

I just hoped that I would have the fortitude to make the choice that needed to be made, to have the courage to choose duty and honor over self preservation and the fortune to never be placed in that position. I hoped that I would never have to make that choice.

I spent the majority of my adult life in one uniform or another, dedicated to the protection of American lives and values. I spent six years in the Navy, doing two combat tours in the Persian gulf. I wasn’t a big hero or anything. I, like millions of others, did my job. After that, I spent two decades in a firefighter’s uniform. In that time, I ran into hundreds of burning buildings, jumped into a dozen lakes, thousands of medical scenes, and traveled to 22 natural disasters. I was injured three times in the line of duty. I saw a couple of thousand dead bodies, dozens of shootings and stabbings, and saved more than a few lives.

In 2011, I retired. I had seen enough death, misery, and blood for one lifetime. In the intervening years, many changes have come about. Dennis is dead. Justin is dead. I thought that the time of risking life and limb for the good of this nation and its people was over. I had given enough. I deserved to be left alone to grow old and enjoy the rest of my life in as much peace as I could manage.

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.

Yet today, the mayor of New York has given a ceremonial pen to one of the associates of the very people who carried out that attack. Our President gave billions of dollars in weapons, ammunition, and other military supplies to the same people who were part of that.

People who have read this post: 229
By Divemedic, ago

3, 2, 1…

Now that it’s known the lone juror with the large testicles on the Clancy jury was a black man, the left will quietly drop the entire narrative of attacking him rather quickly. This will disappear from the news cycle and from social media by Monday morning.

The defense attorney has filed a motion for a forced “not guilty” verdict because he claims the jury got it wrong.

People who have read this post: 254
By Divemedic, ago

Violence

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue—and thoroughly immoral—doctrine that ‘violence never settles anything’ I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.- Robert Heinlein

Once you threaten me with violence, I will take you at your word. If the police aren’t willing to do something to protect me and my family by taking you into custody, then I must do it myself.

That’s why we have police- to ensure those who are accused of a crime receive a fair trial, rather than a beatdown from their alleged victims.

People who have read this post: 274
By Divemedic, ago

New York

When the mayor of New York City signed executive orders designating the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks a citywide day of remembrance, the ceremonial pen he used was given as a gift.

To an Al Qaeda lawyer and relative of one of the hijackers.

I was still working for the fire department on that day. There was so much support for us, for the citizens of New York, and an upwelling of support.

For the voters of New York City to support this shit just saddens me. I have no words. The Global War on Terror was fought, and the terrorists won. All of the lives lost that day and since were wasted.

People who have read this post: 317
By Divemedic, ago

Another One Bites The Dust

On Tuesday, Big Country asked that his blog be closed. He was the first to share the server that this blog is on. The reasons were shared on his blog, and if you were a reader of his, you know why. I was planning on leaving his stuff up and online, but he requested that I nuke his blog today.

That’s what I did this morning. His domain registration is paid until the end of the year, and if he wishes to return, he just has to contact me.

As for me, that is why I attempt to remain anonymous. I don’t need someone trying to come after me IRL.

People who have read this post: 704
By Divemedic, ago

Failing Society

People come in to the emergency room every day who are 80, 100, or even 200 pounds overweight. They have been eating garbage, they have a blood alcohol that’s over 200, cholesterol over 300, and their urine is positive for barbiturates, or cannabinoids. Then they demand we fix them with a pill or something.

They come in with cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome and you tell them the only way they will stop this, is to stop smoking weed. They call you a liar, complain loudly about the “healthcare system” and its failings, then leave. Two days later, they are back again. Same complaint.

Then there is the guy who comes in showing all the signs and symptoms of an acute appendicitis. We tell him he needs surgery. He signs out against medical advice because he has things to do that afternoon. Stupid, but whatever. What’s incredible about this, is he comes back at 8 am the next morning saying he is ready for surgery, but we need to do it and have him out by noon, because he is busy and doesn’t have time to waste.

People don’t have to take responsibility for anything.

We are in a society that has abandoned objective reality and reason. We each have our own truth- men can be women, Lindsay was a good mother who just snapped and killed her children but it wasn’t her fault because the health care system failed her. In that kind of a society, there can be no choice between what is good or what is evil, because in such a society, there can be no truth, only subjective reality.

As the nation slides farther and farther from the foundations mooring it to reality, it will become more and more insane. If you don’t like what is real, simply substitute your own reality for the inconvenient one. There is no such thing as the golden rule, no such thing as right or wrong. There is only you. Each person gets to decide what it is THEY want, without regard for what society wants or even needs.

In such a scenario, you get anarchy.

Yet anarchy can’t exist for long. Sooner or later, usually sooner, someone comes along and brings order to what is now chaos. The unfortunate fact is the person who brings order is usually a tyrant.

That’s where we are right now, so each of us needs to harden our hearts and be prepared for what is to come. Things will continue to get worse as the society that was once these United States begins to slide down the cliff into the abyss of history.

“A sane person to an insane society must appear insane” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

People who have read this post: 377
By Divemedic, ago

Stolen Valor

I was at work the other day, and a patient told me he had a history of PTSD because he was in 9/11. He is 71 years old, meaning he was in his mid-40s on that day. Making conversation, I asked him how he was there, thinking he may have been in one of the buildings.

Nope, he replied he was a Navy SEAL and was helping search the pile for several weeks. To the best of my knowledge, there were no SEALs doing that work. So I asked a follow up: “What BUD/S class were you in?”

He replied that he was in class 100 with a SEAL named Jim Weber. Then he went on to tell me he was an Electrician’s mate and attended Nuclear Power School in Orlando in 1971.

For some reason, the people who participate in stolen valor always claim to be SEALS or some other badass occupation. No one ever says “I was a cook.”

There are only about 7,000 former (i.e. non-serving) Navy SEALs scattered among our nation’s population of 313+MILLION. That’s approximately one (1) former Navy SEAL for every 45 THOUSAND citizens
You have far greater chance of meeting a former NFL football player than you have of ever encountering a real Navy SEAL. With that said, the FBI estimates that there are 300 SEAL Imposters for every living Navy SEAL.

His claims are bullshit for the following reasons:

  • BUD/S Class 100 graduated in 1979 (Class 102 graduated in May 1979, and Class 101/103 also took place in 1979). If he was in Nuclear Power School in 1971, there is a massive, unexplained 8-year gap before he graduated from BUD/S. While not strictly impossible if someone cross-rated later in their career, it is highly unusual given the strict age cut-offs for SEAL training (usually 28 and under).
  • He entered the Navy around 1970 and was still active duty on September 11, 2001. He was in the Navy for 30 years, and retired as an E6? Under the military’s strict “Up or Out” high-year tenure (HYT) laws, an enlisted sailor cannot remain on active duty for 30 years without reaching the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9).
  • Navy Nuclear Power school was not in Orlando until 1976. A person who was in the nuclear power pipeline in 1971 would have attended the school in either Bainbridge, Maryland or Mare Island, California.
  • With him being 71 years old now, he would have been 15 or 16 years old when he attended Power School in 1971.

I run into people who claim to have served all the time. One of the worst was this loser named John who was my boss many years ago. He claimed to everyone that he knew that he had been in Vietnam as the door gunner in a Chinook, his helicopter was shot down, and he spent years (I can’t remember how many) as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton. The story of the chopper being shot down was my first clue- he said the pilot was killed, and described reaching over the pilot’s shoulder from his door gunning position and tried to prevent the crash. It seemed far-fetched.

That just didn’t seem likely to me, so I wrote to the POW/MIA association and inquired if a person by his name was ever a POW in Vietnam. The answer was no, he was not.

Stolen valor is a real issue. There are a lot of losers out there who try to steal military coolness for themselves. When people ask me what I did in the military, I either give them the real story (I was an electrician) or I make a joke and tell them I killed over 200 men. When they say, “Wow! Were you like a SEAL or something?” I reply that I was either an aircraft mechanic or a cook. I recently was working with a Lt. Colonel in the reserves (a Doctor) and he instantly laughed when I said cook, and replied with “No shit.”

People who have read this post: 435
By Divemedic, ago