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Crimes like making too much noise or parking the wrong spot, perhaps. Ever heard of the the word "Truthiness?" that's when you "know" something to be true despite what the facts say. You can call me all the names you want, your arguments will still fall short.

Ask if them if they're gay. They love that.

You're right, the gun toting, religious zealots who are intolerant of other's beliefs will have blood on their hands.

You know, I'm sure you have your reasons for saying your volunteer department is different. How you're the ones who are doing it for the right reasons, and how its everyone else is the problem. But you know what? That's what each and every volunteer department in existence says. Someone along the lines, somewhere, is wrong.

Fighting to keep it all volunteer. Thanks for lowering all of our salaries. You're such a hero.

I wasn't referring to you, chbare, I was referring to Engine54 up there with his "The media is out to get me and my gun!" ramblings.

Oh goody, another person showing signs of paranoia who advocates people carrying firearms. The two just go so well hand in hand don't they? Have you ever read one of the trade magazines put out by the NRA? Talk about fear mongering! Geez, if I were to believe their propaganda, I'd think that there was a gang of mean looking minorities on every street corner, and if I didn't by a new Glock, they were going to burst in and sodomize my entire family. I'd also believe anyone who isn't a member of the Republican party was a card carrying commie bent on turning everyone gay. Buy Black Talon ammunition --- OR ELSE THE GANGBANGERS AND DEMOCRATS WIN!!! You what's really funny, is in the war on terror, the loud, flag waving gun toting types are the ones doing the most to make sure the terrorists win. From supporting the oil cartels, to making sure that its easier for Muhammed and Akbar to get an assault rifle or sneak a concealed weapon into your neighborhood shopping mall, these reactionary scumbags are the ones who will have the blood on their hands the next time someone decides to strike a blow for Allah. So go ahead, hinder law enforcement more in tracking firearms, load the next Beltway Sniper up with a new Bushmaster, and make sure the terrorists have plenty of money in their pocket, if your loved ones ever die from getting blown up or shot up by an angry turban wearing fellow, be sure to thank those fellows with the belt buckles and the gun rack. Here's what really happens when people carry concealed:

Oh goody, another person showing signs of paranoia who advocates people carrying firearms. The two just go so well hand in hand don't they? Have you ever read one of the trade magazines put out by the NRA? Talk about fear mongering! Geez, if I were to believe their propaganda, I'd think that there was a gang of mean looking minorities on every street corner, and if I didn't by a new Glock, they were going to burst in and sodomize my entire family. I'd also believe anyone who isn't a member of the Republican party was a card carrying commie bent on turning everyone gay. Buy Black Talon ammunition --- OR ELSE THE GANGBANGERS AND DEMOCRATS WIN!!! You what's really funny, is in the war on terror, the loud, flag waving gun toting types are the ones doing the most to make sure the terrorists win. From supporting the oil cartels, to making sure that its easier for Muhammed and Akbar to get an assault rifle or sneak a concealed weapon into your neighborhood shopping mall, these reactionary scumbags are the ones who will have the blood on their hands the next time someone decides to strike a blow for Allah. So go ahead, hinder law enforcement more in tracking firearms, load the next Beltway Sniper up with a new Bushmaster, and make sure the terrorists have plenty of money in their pocket, if your loved ones ever die from getting blown up or shot up by an angry turban wearing fellow, be sure to thank those fellows with the belt buckles and the gun rack. Lets agree on one last thing. The chances of you being killed by criminal, or stopping a criminal act because you are armed, are far, far, far, far, far less than your chances of offing a loved one accidently, shooting yourself accidently, being killed by your own firearm, or going to jail after shooting someone. This is a fact. You will be killed by your wife long before you are killed by those guys with the doorags you see on TV.

Two auxillary cops shot execution style because they had uniforms and badges similar to PD. I guess you really need that paperwork signed, eh?

Chbare, lets be honest. People speed. They run red lights. They drink underage. These things are dangerous, yet we do them all the time. The same rules apply to carrying a firearm, people do what they feel like, when they feel like it, the difference is that generally, when someone does something wrong with a gun, someone is either dead or severely injured. Saying to me "Its ok, cuz see you can't have it an establishment that serves alcohol" does not make me feel any safer about people strapping on their pieces to go clean up the town.

Here's my take on it. Guns do not in fact, kill people. We've heard that refrain time and time again. However, they do make it easier for anyone, and I mean anyone, to cause death or severe disability with minimal effort. No knife, no club, no pepper spray or tazer, save for maybe an explosive charge, can cause the same damage with the same amount of effort. A six year old with a gun and the element of surprise trumps a Marine anyday of the week and twice on Tuesday. How many people on this board have seen someone's life end or be horribly altered over a stupid arguement when someone was packing heat? People with guns turn a fistfight or shoving match into someone dying, or someone walking with a limp for the rest of their life. People say they carry guns for self defense purposes. Some of them know what they are doing. Most do not. I wager that most people who carry a firearm cannot accurately state the extreme disadvantage carrying a gun puts you at. I wager most people, who believe that carrying a gun gives them the ultimate power, have never had someone nose to nose with them, screaming "SHOOT ME! SHOOT ME! SHOOT ME!" at which point they realize they really can't do anything. These laws in Texas, maybe one person will prevent their house from being robbed, but I say, more people will get shot up at bar when they kiss the wrong person, more 6 year olds will die when they jump out of the closet to startle their parents, and more road rage incidents will turn tragic. If the Texas wants to turn itself into Israel, where everyone walks around everyday living their lives in fear, feel free. Guns are not a means of self defense. Guns are not a deterrent. They are means to apply deadly force, nothing more, nothing less, and for me, I just have never seen the attraction in killing others. Apparently people in Texas and Florida feel differently. Live and let die, as they say.

There was an entire thread on the whole is it a rig/bus thing a while back. Just to refresh everyone's memory: RIG: BUS: MEATWAGON: AMBULANCE:

Okay, first of all, this post will not be about making fun of Texans. Mostly because our good friend Dustdevil is from Texas, so not everyone from there can be bad. That and I've mellowed out a little, and I'm putting to bed my big book of gay cowboy/people who lost to the Mexicans jokes. However, there was this in the news today and it made me wonder a bit: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070327/pl_nm/...QTfFysZWdGMwfIE So, Texans have even more excuses to go shooting. Now, instead of slinging lead when someone enters your home, you now can do it if someone is ---Attempting to commit a violent crime such as murder or sexual assault ---Unlawfully attempting to enter a protected place ---Unlawfully attempting to remove a person from a protected place. And extends this waiver to vehicles and the workplace. I suppose if we wanted to have some fun we could call up a work place in Texas now and tell them we were planning on unlawfully entering dressed as the UPS man, but that wouldn't be cool. Now, also these seem a little vague to me. Sexual assault, after all, can mean anything from what we think of when someone says sexual assault, to something such as forcible kissing. Think of how many times someone has gotten out of line at a bar. Do they deserve a straightening out? Yep. But a shooting? That's a little much. Anyway, that's my two cents. Without getting into the raging whether to bust a cap or not argument, I think someone should do a study on per capita gun deaths and violent crime rates of Texas and Florida who have enacted similar laws and see what the effect is. I really think it would be interesting. All I can say is Jesus would be very upset with you.

That's all nice ghurty, but how about we just cut to the chase and close down the volunteer squads, replace them with competent, dedicated, crews, and call it a night? That should just about solve it. So long as New Jersey's volunteer system remains in place, people will suffer when they call 911. There is no getting around it.

Okay, so before I looked stupid, I decided to review Cushing's Triad. This definition states "hypertension, bradycardia, and widening pulse pressure OFTEN ACCOMPANIED by changes in respiration". I put the caps because up until reviewing there, I thought Cushing's Triad was hypetension, bradycardia, and changes in respiratory pattern. See, even I can be wrong. Anyway, in my opinion, things like Cushing's Triad are one of those things that needs to be commandeered and adapted for our own use. First of all, in the grand schemes of things, the specific numbers, when it comes to BP and HR, doesn't matter so much as the range and the context. For instance, if someone had a BP of 160/100 and a HR of 110 after say being in a car accident, I wouldn't immediately think along the lines of Cushing's Triad but rather along the lines of say internal hemmorhaging. However, if there BP was 180/110 and there HR was 50, and there was a signifcant mechanism of injury or AMS, or unequal pupils then yeah, I'm thinking brain herniation. So, its not so much if there BP is elevated, and they have a head injury, its if there is a mismatch between the blood pressure and the heart rate that needs to be considered, along with the mechanism of injury and other signs. In your case, I wouldn't really think 140 sys is that high, I mean the dude just got shot in the head, he'll be a little upset. I usually don't think anything is really amiss until you go above 150 systolic in a normally healthy young adult or above 180 in the elderly. But as I said before, if the guy has a 140 sys BP and a HR of 42, yeah, we could be looking at something bad. I have seen genuine Cushing's in a handful of people. All of them are now dead. Its really a late sign and never a good one. Maybe someday they'll clear us for trepanation (look it up!) in the field and I can sling a Black and Decker cordless on my duty belt like Clint Eastwood, but until that day comes we'll just have to get them to the hospital really, really quickly.

I recently got my passport redone. My old passport photo was taken when I was 16, which would have been 3 years before I did my first EMT class. Comparing the photo of me when I was 16 to my recent photo is really striking. I should post the two pics, a kind of "Before EMS" and "After EMS" comparison. Maybe I can get to a scanner at some point. Being in EMS, to me, is like taking the red pill in the The Matrix. Your eyes are opened. You see the world differently than others, and for better or for worse, I believe you see it in its more true light. I think also, as Rid said, if you do this job long enough, you can forget what it was like before you started. I try and remember a time where doctors were infalliable miracle workers, police were there to always uphold the law, firefighters were all heroes and if you got hurt an ambulance could appear like magic and make everything all right, and to be honest, its hard. I think though, knowing what I do now about how life really is, it makes me appreciate it a lot more. Even at my worse moments, I think I can honestly say I am happy to be alive and relatively healthy. I appreciate simple things like the fact that I can walk, that I don't have a heart condition that requires me to take a bunch of pills everyday, I'm glad my loved ones, for all of their faults, are pretty decent people and aren't, say, drug addicts. I don't get upset at the things a lot of other people do. If my someone screws up my coffee order, usually, I'm still happy that I'm able to order coffee. I think thats why people accuse me of being boring, because I just tend to be content with the simplest of things, because I have run into a lot of people who would give anything just to have those simplest of things.

TV Sets, stereo equipment, wallets... Just kidding. We are required to use only department issued equipment, so I don't need to pilfer from the hospital, so usually its only linens, which I try and do on a strict one for one basis. Sometimes I'll take a blanket or something if the temperature has dropped, but usually its not necessary. I think thought I am guilty of swiping alcohol preps here and there. I can never get them at my station and I use them all the time for various purposes, and its NOT because I'm addicted to the smell or something. Shut up. I've only really had someone give me a hard time once about taking a sheet, and it wasn't even me, it was my partner. We had brought a patient in and my partner was making up the stretcher and took a, as in one, sheet off of the linen cart. The ER DOCTOR of all people then comes and asks him if we are a part of their system and if not to not take the sheets. My partner then gave him a very strange look but then complied and put the sheet back. We then generally agreed it would kinda of be a step down if not outright degrading to go from MD to sheet police, and maybe he was just having a bad day, and we had a good laugh.

I have a badge. It was issued with my equipment, and my union gave me a nice leather ID and badge holder. I basically use it to hold all of my credentials (ACLS, CPR, Certs, etc) when I am on duty. Officially, the badge is for "off duty identifcation", but you know what I really use for "off duty identification" if the need arises? My ID card! The one with my picture and the words PARAMEDIC in big letters. This badge they have given me, has never, not once, been of any use. I can't even get free coffee at Dunkin Donuts with it. However, anytime I go through any security screening (airports, secure facilities, etc.) with it, I am usually without fail give a hard time and made to present my ID and stuff. People generally don't respect badges, and if they do, its because they think you have some sort of police powers, and if people are doing something under the belief you have police powers, you are comitting the crime of impersonating a police officer. Also, there are many places in this country where if you are carrying a badge, police powers or no, you had best be carrying a gun to back it up. Just look at the two poor auxillary officers who were in that very situation a couple of weeks ago. So, in my humble opinion, if you really, really, really want a badge, go ahead, order one and make it all shiny. Its not going to get you anything good and it may get you hassled, arrested or killed. But it is shiny.

As my esteemed colleague Mr. Dustdevil pointed out, many communities do in fact provide incentives and grants for doctors, nurses, and even paramedics to go to school. You see, if you take money and give it to people to actually go to school and learn someting, rather than throw it away on the bitchin' ambulance with the custom airbrushed eagle on the side, you not only get trained, qualified people seving their community, but also you get some of that money back when you get to get increased income tax from their higher salaries, or you get money back from them spending their increased money in your community at local business and such if you don't believe in the whole income tax route (that one there was for you, Dust). So, anyway, ummmm, yeah, if you bothered to read any of the other posts on this subject, you would have read some intelligent and thoughtful articles on why this notion of volunteers being some how more dedicated than paid, professional providers is complete and utter crap. All you volunteer squads in NJ are doing is causing countless numbers of cardiac victims to lose myocardial tissue, or have trauma victims suffocate in their own blood while you desperately try to BVM them, all because ALS is stretched paper thin in New Jersey, and all because the State of New Jersey doesn't want EMS, they want First Aid Squads. But hey, so long as you get to be heroes, you MUST be doing good, right?

Actually, I think someone listing "12 CPR saves" on a resume is actually quite beneficial for an employer. It says quite a bit about the prospective employee's intelligence, understanding, and grasp of prehospital care as a whole. Show me someone who isn't 65 years old who hasn't been doing EMS since muttonchops were in style who is bragging abot 12 CPR saves, and I'll show you someone who is gonna put the ambulance into the drink rushing to the unconfirmed drowning victim. It won't help you get a job, of course, but it is very helpful for employers to put down "12 CPR saves." If this isn't evidence that we need to increase education for EMT's, I don't know what is.

A lot of times I find people simply don't get close enough to the patient to get good visualization. I had this problem because of my height, and I've found on difficult airways I have had to literally turn my head sideways and get down to where the side of my temple is nearly resting on the patient's forehead. Remember, the structure you are trying to visualize is, depending on the size of the person, approximate 4 to 6 inches above whatever level they are laying. If they are supine on the ground, their trachea and epiglottis will be 4 to 6 inches above the ground, so if you are going to be able to get good visualization, you will need to get your eye level 4 to 6 inches above the ground. Also, people tend to not extend the neck far enough back. Don't be shy. People's heads will go back farther than you think when they are flaccid or paralyzed. Be gentle, but get the head into the position you need. Take control. Don't let the airway push you around.

OMG, a rationale person who realizes the futility of using the justice system in place of being an adult? Wow, 10 points, congratulations on your decision. I'm getting a better picture of the situation, and this guy does actually sound more like an a--hole than a legit psych patient, but still, your ER staff sounds like a bunch of wusses. How would they deal if I sent them the 6'8 guy who caused me to have to hold onto a hand santizer dispenser on the wall to prevent him from putting me into an airplane spin over his head? Don't laugh. This really happened. He lunged towards a nurse, at the time I though tackling him would be a good idea. It wasn't.

Lemme ask you this, in all honesty, how badly were you hurt? Did you have to get a CAT Scan? Was there bleeding? Did you have disturbed vision or constant headaches or loss of coordination? If not, please, explain to me, how is pressing charges on this individual really going to do anything in terms of the interest of justice? I mean, is it really worth tying up some poor judge and burden some person who obviously has a bunch of problems already because they laid a finger on your imperial countenance? What, in the grand scheme of the sun rising in the east and us breathing air in will the benefit of pressing charges because mommy's little pumpkin got slapped a little? The legal system, at one time, was a place for people to have their problems settled fairly and impartiallly. These problems were usually along the lines of somebody stealing your farm or making off with your daughter. Now, every single whiny, helpless, squealing little mole person has used and abused the poor justice system until it becomes nothing more than a hollow shell for someone to stroke their ego and look for a quick buck. Don't be that guy.

If they were firemen, you would have had to change the gambler to a bare chested young cowboy. Oooooooh.... them's fightin' words.

Why must you people make trekkies look 'cool'?