I was going to say they need food, shelter, and a stable family but a free concert works too.

Some of your may find yourselves wanting to scream plagiarism on my part but please refrain. These are real quotes from both my fellow students and Ayn Rand. It’s not simply that people read her and pulled lines (bad ones at that), it’s that they didn’t. These ideas came from somewhere, these are educated people (save myself- I am just a lowly paramedic). Where, may I ask, do they come up with this clap-trap bullshit?
I suppose it’s from the same people that ask stupid questions like “what do we do if the bookstore doesn’t they books that we need?”. Well my friend, you go ahead and use that fancy laptop Daddy bought you, get on a website and find the damn book. I mean really, you’re in college. You’re expected to take responsibility.

I suppose I wouldn’t care so much if I wasn’t there. If I didn’t have to throw my lot in with the rest of them. I wanted to cry when one person asked a professor if he organized our field trip assignment. Well, right there on the syllabus it says that there are three, very broad options. Is he really expected to set up an appointment for you to go to the soup kitchen?

I would also like to commission a study on much gets spent each ear on Che Guevara Gear? From what I can tell it appears to be the hottest selling item on campus. Need I even mention the irony of spending $25 on a Guevara shirt or poster? Fight the System!! But spend tons of money doing it. The man and his views led to the deaths of millions of people. Why should we celebrate that? It’s not that I think he should be banned, I just think people need to be educated, properly.

I suppose this just feels like pissing up a flagpole.

]]> http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/thank-god-for-university/feed/ 0 RDM http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/mop/ http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/mop/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 17:53:47 +0000 Contraindicated http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/?p=28 ]]> Its amazing, its the 21st century I can’t buy a mop- anywhere. I’ve been to Target, my local grocery store, my local hardware store. I can buy a thousand Swiffers but I cannot find a good ole’ fashion mop.

I drove two hours (its actually kind of nice knowing that the closest mall is two hours away) to get myself a nice comfy pair of business casual shoes. Perhaps a pair of ‘mocs’ or ‘clogs’.

I was happily making my way to the shoe store when this rather attractive girl called out to me from one of the kiosks. She was at such a distance that it seemed like she had something genuine to ask me. The time? The Weather? A Date? Sex?

To make a long story short, she was trying to sell me hand exfoliant and moisturizer. She did the whole demo with asking my name, washing my hands, asking what I did for a living. I told her as politely- being in a position that I hate malls and now I am stuck in one getting my hands washed- I had “absolutely no intention of purchasing the stuff.” I even tried to avoid the demo once I realized why she called me over. But I got this terribly guilty feeling. Here is this poor, 27 year old (I found out her age, after she asked me mine) foreign girl (maybe South American) just trying to make a living. It’s a shit job selling stuff from a kiosk in the mall and I figured $15 dollars wouldn’t kill me if it would make her happy.

She eventually gets around to telling me, “this stuff is normally $69.99 for exfoliant and $69.99 for the moisturizer but today I have a special deal, $39.99 each”.

What the…?

When did hand lotion from mall kiosks begin to cost $150?

I balked, as politely as I could and told her I was poor (about to buy a $150 pair of shoes, but poor) and that “really, I had to be going”. She stepped in front of me. “Please, I promise you’ll love it” she told me. This was now entering somewhere between sad and creepy. Finally I was able to get away by promising (and I really mean, on my knees promising) that I would come back and buy some. I now found myself in the awkward position of having to get back by her (it was a week day and the mall was quite empty) without being accosted. I actually felt real panic. How was I going to get past her? Would I just have to buy the damn cream?

I finally mapped it out that if I got onto the second floor, I would be able to walk past her and get down the stairs near my car- even though this added an addition 10 minutes inside the mall.

My plan went awry when, was just about to the mall doors,who should come in the other direction? But the lotion lady. What Now? Run? Pretend I just got this really amazing phone call?

She recognized me and immediately grabbed me and said “I had to come back and buy the cream, I promised”. I tried to pull away, but she had hold of my jacket. She began pleading, that she needed the money. This had now definitely entered the creepy stage. Was she going to hit me with a jar of hand cream? They were pretty big jars. Was this some sort of joke?

I managed to pull away and started running to my truck; terrified to look behind me for fear that I would get a bucket of exfoliant to the face.

I got to my truck, she hadn’t followed me. And in case you were wondering, Yes, I did ‘run like a girl’, arms and legs flapping everywhere. I may have even let out a little scream, maybe something as pathetic as yelp.

Here I was, having just got back from Newark, NJ dealing with multiple murders, assaults and, in one case, a mini riot and I am running for my life by some poor, 100lb girl selling hand cream in Burlington, MA.

Originally Written Feb/2008

From my perspective, Arnold Kling is dead right when he talks about an abundance of health care. We love it, we love doctors and more importantly, we love specialists. And so, as market forces are want to do, doctors move into specialties but instead of lowering the price of those specialties, we kept the price the same. Everyone gets rich(the fault of insurance companies and lobbying groups), except for those needing the care. To make matters worse, because we lose so many young doctors’ to specialties, sub specialties and in many cases, sub sub specialities we then see a massive deficit in general practice (your family doctor).

As a result, Universities have (again, I have no empirical evidence, only what I see with my own eyes- albeit at the top hospitals in the country) stopped teaching practical family medicine and that has lead to even family doctors not doing even the most basic procedures. As evidence, we have seen a massive rise in 911 calls within the hospital. And I’m not talking about community urgent care centers, I’m talking about world renowned pediatric and adult trauma centers. Perhaps that is a result of tort laws, malpractice is ridiculous these days (though, I have seen a lot of things that would be ripe for malpractice) and that doctors would rather shift the risk onto another provider (ie: the paramedics).

When I was in Africa, my family doctor did everything from check-ups to stitches to minor surgery. Could a specialist have done it better? Perhaps, but it would have cost me a lot more, would have wasted his or her specialties and resources on a non-complicated case and someone else who needed those recourses more than me would have gone without. Of course someone will always go without, such is the nature of economics but I would have been the least efficient option.

So, what steps in the way of lowering prices,? Well, insurance companies and lobbying groups. Sub Specialists went into the field to make money and they’ll be damned if someone tries to stop that. Nurses (one of the fiercest lobbying groups out there- yeah, who would have thought it) prevent their wages from fluctuating and more importantly stop others from moving into the market, like Paramedics (Here, I am biased, I am a paramedic.) A lot of places have been wanting to push a Paramedic to Physician Assistant bridge program, this would basically allow “doctors” (PA-C) to make house calls in an ambulance. The result, less ER resources are used, less use for nurses and doctors, more pay for paramedics (but still a massive cut when compared to the cut in ER staff). Also to be considered is that the vast majority of Paramedics, don’t want to be PA-Cs’ but many do. So when the total is tallied, ER costs ( each patient visiting the ER can expect at least a few thousand dollar bill) are way down, nurses move to other departments (avoiding losing their jobs), some Paramedics get paid more and patients save in time and costs.

]]> http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/some-thoughts-on-health-care-policy/feed/ 0 RDM http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/making-that-first-impression/ http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/making-that-first-impression/#comments Fri, 16 May 2008 06:32:21 +0000 Contraindicated http://contraindicated.wordpress.com/?p=25 Continue reading →]]> So i recently joined a new ambulance company in the area and had my orientation. Orientation went well, up until the end, when we all got comfortable talking to each other. As it turned out, I was the only Paramedic in the room, everyone else were basics. Fine, not a problem. Or so I thought. People had been making snide references to “para-magics” and “para-gods” all day but it didn’t bother me.

I personally have no experience in volunteer ems, I know nothing about it because where I’m from, if you volunteer, it means you can’t get a job. And as one wise medic once put it to me ” Your pay is directly to proportional to how good you are, paid paramedics and EMTs tend to be OK (if not good), volunteers tend to be terrifying”. And so very proud of being “volleys”.”Yeah, I’m a volley, I risk my life to save others for no money, but its no big deal. I’m not a hero or anything, though a lot of people think I am. I just heard on my scanner there’s an accident 8 miles away, lets go see if I can save a life”.

Here though, EVERYONE volunteers and the thing about volunteering vs paid (or career) is that ANYONE can be a volunteer. And I mean anyone. So In this spirit, as we were joking around, I mentioned how when I was in New Jersey, I was talking to a Paramedic who knew that there was a midget on the fire-department in his town. Nothing wrong with midgets of course, I just don’t want my life to depend on one in a fire. I thought this sounded like a pretty reasonable statement (as everyone was talking about how fat volunteers tend to be). Well, no, it was not okay. The girl sitting next to me (a 4’8″ volunteer) immediately turned to me and began to ask why that scared me. I would have thought it was obvious. I may only be 5’7 but I weigh around 160lb or so (…..mostly muscle…..mostly) but someone under 4’10, wearing 50lbs of bunker gear and now trying to carry out a 210lb man doesn’t sound to me like the safest plan. She disagreed and so did everyone else.

In the land where they decry political correctness as left-wing horse shit, I was being lectured on the political correctness of firefighter midgets. I mean, really. I thought if there was one thing we could all agree on its that midgets should not be expected to run into fires rescuing downed firefighters. Anti- Muslim, segregation, sure. But firefighter midgets, they will not tolerate that sort of hate speech!

It is now a well accepted fact that people poop (even girls) and that it is natural bodily function. Still, why is is always so damn awkward buying toilet paper? It feels like buying condoms; you are about to participate in something filthy.

When one buys condoms, they could be for tonight, tomorrow, next week or when you get back into the car with that girl you just picked up on the corner. Is is that same with TP? Could that person i see buying the toilet paper need it immediately?

I kind of have the Clap…and the Herpe….and the Drip. But don’t worry, I have a card to explain it all.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,

I’m not quite sure how to say this but…..

Yes, I will concede that maybe the Clinton’s do believe in equal rights for homosexuals but not at the cost of losing electoral support. If she thought making out with a woman on stage would win her votes she would do it at every stump speech (I don’t think Bill would mind, he’d be too busy filming with one hand and doing something filthy with the other), just as she would likely burn a lesbian at stake if she thought it would get her the presidency.

If you think this sounds extreme, think again. But think Hillary Health-care and the genocide(or the more gentle term…”ethnic cleansing”. Makes it sound like one mass bathing of an ethnic group) of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians. As was pointed out by Christopher Hitchens in a recent piece in Slate, the Clinton administration held off stopping the genocide because Hillary wanted to get her health care plan passed first. Needless to say it failed.I won’t bother mentioning Rwanda. Rwanda and Uganda and most of Central Africa is of little concern to US interests. Plus there’s a lot of Black people and we all know they are only worth 3/5 of white people, or so says the Constitution.

I have added a link from Americablog and (my favorite blog) The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan both of which address Hilary and the Gays. Here’s a video from her recent gay interview (ginterview?).