akflightmedic

I had lost my train of thought earlier and just hit submit knowing you would respond and trigger what I was forgetting. A point I was going to make was individually, people of faith or no faith are ok on this level. It is when they get together collectively (as in the groups I mentioned) where they elevate themselves to a special status at which time a strong demarcation beings to occur between "us" and "them" which then leads to all the issues I have problems with which I alluded to in my first post. It is when we make ourselves "better than" others when the issues begin...make sense?

Thank Annie, but I will agree to disagree. It has everything to do with being non religious as I never threaten my child with thoughts of damnation, I never try to teach because Sky Daddy said so. I think that element is very important as it instills in the children a sense of personal responsibility and accountability. Sure I have the all powerful domain over my children while they are little and they do what I say, but there will come a time when that influence is not as cherished or valued for a few years (teens-20s) and then they will return seeking the wisdom again. But my point is they were taught from day 1, it is all because of how they choose to be, no threats, no promises, simply it is just the right thing to do. You do have to give them a sense of community, sense of family and global awareness otherwise you are simply on the other end of the spectrum of the extreme fundamentalists who try to shield their children from the world while instilling "the word". Finding that balance can be difficult and scary but more for the fundys than me because I have nothing to fear. I am here to live and do well but if I have to worry about every single thought or action which may send me into eternal peril, how fun is that? Where is the love and forgiveness in that? There are good people and bad people of both religious and non religious. Always have been, always will be. When people understand that fact as well and realize there will be no massive change, the world will become a much nicer place. I didn't want to steal this thread and turn it into a religious train but for now everyone has been respectful and I think a belief system is important to the discussion. While your Dad sounds like an admirable stand up guy, I think he was that way naturally. Remove the religion from his life and is he suddenly bad? No, he had certain values, morals, principles instilled in him long before he was uber religious and that means he was simply a nice guy. Him being religious was a bonus to those who knew him of the same belief. For example, I am sure people may have said Wow look at him, he is such a good Christian man. Look at how he lives, this is a fine example of how I should be or how my sons should be, etc. But what we know is it is not the religious beliefs which made him the way he was. Therefore, religion is getting free advertisement and credit for this man being the good man he naturally was. This is what disappoints me within society. I am often amazed at how people's attitudes change once they sit and listen to my beliefs. They are shocked that I can be a caring guy who has done a lot of good and raised a nice family without having a sky daddy. I have even lost friends and unfortunately (my parents) over my beliefs. It is amazing what we attribute to a belief system which truly is nothing when compared to the person underneath it. When I talked about people wasting time on the next life instead of this one, yes again there are those who take time to appreciate the world for what it is but I was speaking more broadly about all the time wasted in rituals, meetings, groups instead of simply getting out in the world and experiencing it. There are those who do their weekly duty and then they feel godly and better than those who did not do their duty. They are also quick to remind others how they do their duty to pressure those who do not. It is a lot of time wasted on one upmanship in the race for eternal life, instead of realizing we have it all right here, right now.

Whether they do it or not is irrelevant as the option still exists, so your argument is moot. It IS punishable by death, short and sweet.

I agree in principle Scoobs, but what I fear is when you give a law which allows that...it will NOT be applied equally across the board. That gives 1000's and 1000's of judges the right to sentence people to death for "less offensive" or unproven crimes. It is too broad of a law with far more ramifications than simply deterring or punishing a rapist. It is an awesome power which must not be handed out to just anyone.

Funny. I get what you are saying Dwayne and ironically, it seems I have been unknowingly applying similar concepts with my children. There are those who may roll their eyes as none of us have perfect children(me either), but when I listen to others talk about their kids and everyone readily agrees, it gives me great satisfaction knowing I have not yet been part of the "normal" child raising experience. I do hope this lasts... Intuitively? Magazines I do not recall? Books? I am not sure how I came to know what I know but I do know this...we took everything we could which we thought was wrong and attempted to change that when raising our own children. We used logic and reason to educate and inform. We explained why things could not be a certain way or why a certain behavior was unacceptable. We taught morals and values (it is true you do not have to actually have them to teach them). We taught respect, kindness, charity,good citizenry and the kids are capable of empathy. All of these things are/were taught without the use of religiosity. The children do things because it is the right thing to do. There is no threat to their lives or soul for not complying, nor do they have an innate desire to go out and be destructive cause they are not saved or do not know a certain belief. They value today and they value the person/s who is in their lives. They know joy and happiness. They know there are bad people in the world and they know bad things happen. They know they have the choice in how their life goes, they have control. For example, when one of them is rude or snappy in the morning, they are asked if they want a good day or a bad day? They take pause, look at you and then do what needs to be done. They either continue where they are or apologize and turn around, go back to their room and reemerge with a better attitude. This is their reset button and I encourage its use. It shows them they have the control/choice and I do not/will not hold a grudge against their temporary behavior shift provided they make the proper corrections. I do my damnedest to lead by example which is the hardest part of being a parent and far too many fail or do not even try because we insist others are responsible for certain elements of our child's rearing. I applied the behavior concept Dwayne mentioned late last year to a close family member of mine. Someone who I had not interacted with in years and vowed to never speak to again. I had already explained to my children the situation and they were aware (dont want to say understanding) as they really couldn't especially since it is not what I taught them. I decided to treat this person as a person and separate past misdeeds to see if the person had changed, if they had grown over the years. Apparently so far so good and the children have since been able to enjoy this person's company and are very happy with it. I know I have gone on a tangent but it has some relevance to the topic at hand. From the biological aspect, we are here to survive as long as possible while making babies or doing the deed which brings babies. Those are the two goals of any living creature, plain and simple. However, we as humans evolved quite a bit in our thinking and some of us shed more hair than others, but those goals are still unchanged. How many of you do not want to live? How many of you do not want to have a family? Exactly my point...we could forgo many things in life, but those two are almost universal. Do not confuse wanting a family as being able to have or support a family (cause some dont want all what that entails), basically I am referring to sex. The sex drive and living, we all have those basic needs. We are here to exist and are now smart enough to make the place better than the way we found it, through design, invention, or its people. It is when we start to tag ourselves as being more supreme than others, when we tag our "evolved" brains into something mighty, that we lose focus on family, community (globally speaking), and simply co existing and enjoying life. It is when we introduce all these other superfluous ideas of existence that the world actually becomes a darker, less enjoyable, more unfulfilling life. When you live for today, you enjoy every minute of it and appreciate and respect all it has to offer you. When you spend too much time planning your "next life" you are only missing out on all the great and wonderful things right here, right now in this life. A very sad state indeed...

First, for the record, I do not advocate rape or sexual abuse of any type, let us be clear. Look and see how many times that punishment has been enforced within the military and you will see why it does not exist within the civilian sector. Quite honestly, it is a benign threat and here is why. Do you think a law which says the death penalty is applicable for rape will stop rapes? Do you think a rapist will actually have that thought just prior to committing the act? Not a chance. The rapist will still rape. Therefore, the law will not be a deterrent. There are hundreds of millions of people in this world who do not believe in hell. Isn't it amazing that they are not running around raping amongst other evils, even though the threat of hell exists (to some).... The point is, the action will occur once the person has their mind set on it, regardless of later consequences. Out of the crimes punishable by death, rape can be one of the more difficult ones to prove beyond a shadow of doubt. Heck, we have had convicted murderers released and their cases thrown out due to new evidence, namely DNA which exonerates them. And these were cases where there was obvious death involved. Again, I am not belittling the severity of a rape, I do understand how traumatic and devastating it can be both physically and emotionally for many, many years. But, the death penalty is too extreme, especially when there is such a high margin of error in proving the assailant did or did not.

Page 17 (last page) says yes.... http://www.fletc.gov/training/programs/legal-division/downloads-articles-and-faqs/articles/SexOffensesintheMilitary.pdf

I sure as heck would not negotiate pay without knowing call volume, especially when that is the only time your pay goes up. I much rather have a steady check than a fluctuating one based on call volume....from past experience I have been on busy units that barely turned a wheel a few shifts in a row which is unheard of...would you gamble that risk with your paycheck?

I am gonna have tor esearch as well, but first...are you sure there is no punch line the instructor is waiting to throw on you guys??

the funny thing is, the guy who posted the article here linked it from another ems website which published it first. That website was not mentioned anywhere...

Oh wow what? The article? The situation? Or oh wow to the fact you never contribute more than 2 words or a smiley face to any given topic....just sayin.

thanks for linking me to my FB home page.

What is sneaky is they did not even send a cease and desist giving the site time to delete or edit as appropriate. This was an attack on 34 web sites all at once with zero warning shots fired...hmmm, so what is this all about? Thanks for the links and as for searching NEMSA on FB, I had about 8 different NEMSA sites pop up, so you tell me! What a job! Surf the net and look for people who stole our petty stories on cats in trees or NLVFD doing stupid stuff and then sue them!!!

You can post a link without breaking any trademark/copyright laws, so feel free to do so.

Yeh, the enemy totally looks for gloves to identify their next target in a fire fight...ummm, yeh. Not enough combat medics in the Army...seeing how every Army soldier is to be trained in CLS (eventually)and they all refer to themselves as medics after that and having personally assisted in the training and testing for the Army "medics" in several different locations in theater...I would say there are quite a few. Are more needed? Sure it never hurts but after an IDF attack where I had 3 patients and 50 medics....we are good for the most part. Some friendly advice is to quit blowing your trumpet so hard and as I said earlier...wait till he gets in theater and reports back. We are not jealous, we are not putting down combat medics, we are supportive but there are plenty of us who have been there, done that and/or are still doing that. You however have demonstrated a serious inflation of one's self and it is quite alarming. You can not speak for every combat medic as you have done as you are one of the first I have ever met with such attitude and you have not even been in theater yet.

I agree Wendy...he started out with a lot of potential. A bit over zealous, false bravado chest thumping and full of himself but potential none the less. He has made a nose dive hard and fast. Give him a little time in theater and then have him report back...he is fresh out of the gate and sounds young...I usually only see his type of mentality from the young Marines, but they do not hold the exclusive rights on that apparently. Anyone else care to watch Full Metal Jacket tonight...cause these posts keep reminding me of it.

Nope, I am in Afghan, headed back to Kuwait in a few hours for a week or two, then back to Afghan.

Two cities pilot efforts using EMS to curb ED visits Two U.S. cities have implemented a new program intended to screen EMS calls to identify non-emergency cases and direct them away from hospitals to more appropriate health care providers, in an effort to alleviate non-urgent ED use, USA Today reports. Advocates for the program—used in Louisville, Ky., and Richmond, Va.—tout its potential to ease the burden on hospital EDs that face high patient demand and to lower the number of non-emergency ambulance dispatches. Individuals calling 911 who are deemed at “lowest risk†are transferred to an RN or nurse practitioner who assesses the severity of a patient’s condition. Nurses also may direct a patient to a proper source of care, such as a primary care physician (PCP) or clinic, and help connect patients who do not have a PCP with clinics that are accepting new patients. According to USA Today, 10 to 15 calls each day to ambulance dispatchers in the Louisville area can be identified as low risk. These low-risk calls often involved leg pain, abdominal pain and wound care. A Louisville EMS official said that saving a trip to the ED may result in better follow-up care and, ultimately, a better prognosis for patients, adding that the program will expand to offer “intensive follow-up†to ensure no patient “falls through the cracks,†USA Today reports. The program costs about $100,000 to set up per city. An official from the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch said that such programs are widely used in Australia and the United Kingdom but that the programs in Louisville and Richmond are the only ones in the U.S. (Halladay, USA Today, 6/1).

"Am I still here" Yes of course, I live in Florida, it is my home!! LOL Again, congrats!

Congrats!! Which county do I need to avoid or move from?

Take care brother and my condolences to the family. I challenge each of you to find a post which made you laugh, cry, think or feel and share it here and maybe explain what it meant to you at the time or even now. His family and friends will possibly see this and it is a nice gesture.

Yeh I heard he died of Diff'rent Strokes...

EMT City Welcomes You! Good times lay ahead.

Sure! You click on apply, fill out all the little information boxes and hit submit. Then you wait for an email or phone call. Then they set up a time to talk to you. Kind of like any other job application process (is that what you meant?) http://emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=13267&highlight=Kuwait

Already here....just networking.