abaduck

Amen bro. I'm going to criticize my adopted country here, and say that there seems to be a cultural problem with regards to drunk driving in the USA: despite all the laws and programs, there's a degree of social tolerance of it, it seems. I've seen a number of posts which give the impression of making light of what happened here, saying 'he should have been helped', and saying stuff along the lines of 'who hasn't driven when they've had one too many?'. Well I sure as hell haven't, and back in the UK, where I was raised, driving drunk really has become socially unacceptable: the vast majority of people there have never driven drunk and wouldn't even consider doing so. The UK has a lower drinking age, higher alcohol consumption - and much lower incidence of drunk driving. You get an absolute minimum of one year banned from driving for any drink-driving offense (including refusing a test) and it stays on your record for ten years - for the first few years you'll find it hard to get insurance, and extremely expensive. If your work involves driving... better get used to the dole, very few people will employ a drink-driver. I hope this guy gets the book thrown at him. I'm not an unsympathetic guy, but in this case... zero sympathy from me.

Don't take this as gospel, but if I recall correctly, to be considered for membership of our FAST, you have to (obviously!) be an active member of our department, and must have: 1. FF2, Truck Ops, FAST. *and* 2. A minimum of five years firefighting experience.

Cap, I do see where you're coming from. Monday morning quarterbacking a split-second shot and all that. But as long as we're running ~100 LODDs per year, and God knows how many injuries, maybe a little safety policing isn't such a bad idea... Forget the photo - by my lights, it's a legit question more generally. I was taught to use all the straps, I'm gaining experience and I've found that I like the waist strap quite tight myself to take some weight off my shoulders. But you do see a few guys who seemingly seldom use the waist strap at all. Why? It's a fair question, if there's something to be gained by it I'd like to know.

He WHAT?? Must have been a bad case of testosterone poisoning... seriously, that's bordering on the criminal. Who arrests a trooper, when they need arresting?

I was aware of this law. And I believe that under this law, any scanner - even a portable - which is switched-on in a car is deemed to be 'installed' in the car. Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on radio law, or indeed law of any kind, but the following two thoughts occur to me: 1. Would not such a state law be superseded by any conflicting federal law? 2. Fire departments are duly licensed by the FCC to operate radio equipment. Certainly the base stations, and ?probably? also for the use of fireground portables. In my department, our fireground portables are programmed with various local police frequencies (and adjacent FD frequencies), as well as our own fireground frequencies. And they have a switch to put them into scan mode. When responding to a call, I usually have my portable switched on in the car, and in scan mode, in order to get as much information as possible as part of my sizeup. If PD are first on scene and reporting a working fire, I want to know! Is this legal? I presume it is, it certainly should be. I presume it's covered by our FD license from the FCC. So there *may* be your answer; an FD-issued portable, in scan mode. Other than that there's no exemption that I know of. There have been several attempts to amend the state law to permit volunteer firefighters to use actual scanners in their cars, I believe, but AFAIK they all died. Getting a basic FCC ham radio licence is pretty trivial, I believe - google it. Mike

Lockerbie is still seared in the memory of the Scottish people: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_...and/7792119.stm Mike, remembering

Depends on the road... I've heard some departments take a ladder on, probably primarily for blocking I would imagine. Yonkers I believe is one. Mike

Well who says you get any choice? It's down to the chief, surely? If you're ordered to wear one, you had better wear it! Mike

"His train set, his rules" ~Mike Ross, EMTBravo, 2008

That thought had occurred to me too... but if you look at the helmet, it's not really a flag at all, it's painted red white and blue with stylized elements of flag. I think that's far enough from a real flag, or representation of one, to not be covered by the Flag Code? I'd be more interested to know why it's an issue now, after apparently being accepted with no problem for three years. Mike

That got me thinking. As a vollie responding POV, in the summer my gear lives in the car and I dress on scene. In the winter it lives in the hall, and I dress before responding. And you know what? I've realised I much prefer winter. It's easier to screw up your donning ritual when doing it on scene; doing it before responding, as I do in winter, it gives me a moment of calm (during which I'm doing some mental sizeup) before responding, and I think I drive better and arrive on scene in better mental shape (and ready to instantly go to work) as a result. Someone else mentioned upper body movement re. driving a rig; actually, thinking about that, I see the point. Driving my POV I have no problem, it has very quick, direct, flick of the wrist steering. It's not like hauling on the wheel of a rig! So I can see better where guys who have a problem are coming from. Mike

"I want to send my greetings to Osama Bin Laden and reaffirm my allegiance. I hope the Jihad will continue and strike the heart of America with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction." Those chilling words were delivered by Ramzi Binalshibh through a translator at the close of the first day of the pre-trail military hearing at Guantanamo Bay. Mr Binalshibh is one of the five men accused of plotting the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001." Let's be careful. As for Mr. Binalshibh - why continue the trial? Enough trees, plenty of rope... Mike

I can't believe the guys who are complaining about driving while wearing turnouts - there must be some very big guys or very small rigs! :-D In the winter I regularly drive my POV while wearing turnout pants and jacket. It's small, and it's a stick shift (so three pedals to manage), and I'm not exactly undersized, and I don't have the slightest problem. But then I was raised in the frozen north of Scotland, and did some of my early driving in barely-heated Land Rovers, wearing heavy winter gear and overtrousers, so perhaps it's a matter of what you're used to. Mike

Fine. Sure. Whatever. Then hang them. Actually... forget that. What uniform did they wear? Just hang them for perfidy. (Geneva Convention Article 37; perfidy includes '© The feigning of civilian, non-combatant status' - so hang them; that's what happens to spies and their ilk when caught during wartime) Mike

I'm going to be a bit of a nay-sayer here. Yes, this one ended well and they got a dangerous driver off the road. Kudos to them. But think about the issues: quite apart from the legal issues - performing a 'stop' you likely (??) have no lawful authority to perform, you never know what the hell you're getting into in a situation like that. Unless you're cross-trained like markmets, leave the stops to the guys and girls with the guns, the training, the experience, and the undoubted legal authority. That's my 2c anyway. Mike

Simply stunning: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sciencetech/...-Greenland.html Mike

I'm going to stick my neck out and be the first vollie to post on this topic... Now congrats to the guys who have got the result they wanted and deserved in this dispute, I'm not taking anything away from that. But looking at the above quote... whether it's true or false it seems to me there's a far bigger problem than cameras being put in inappropriate places - that's just a symptom. Surveillance cameras in firehouses to spy on us??!! How have we come to this? I thought we were supposed to be able to trust each other, brothers and sisters? Has honour gone out the window? Mike

Now I've only been involved in the fire service for a couple of years, so I'm hardly qualified to throw mud at anyone, and we don't know the full story, but taking the above observation at face value: 1. Doesn't the above meet the definition of 'freelancing'? 2. My understanding of how MA works is that the MA company members will remain under the command of their own officers. If this guy is going right to work, without even checking in with the first-due dept. officers, let alone waiting for his own officers to arrive... how is that supposed to work? Where is he in the chain of command? That's why I used the 'f-word' in response 1. above... Mike PS... MA members responding to the scene in their POVs sounds like a recipe for the above situation to happen... which is why it's utterly forbidden in my department. You go to the firehouse, you get on a rig, and you go to the scene as a company, with an officer, ready to go to work. Or you don't go at all. Now geography (suburban vs. rural) may be a factor here, but I can certainly see why it's something that many would wish to discourage.

I'm pretty certain that was the car that showed up to my kids school last month, so yes it seems to be. Mike

Maybe (don't worry about feeding me!) Mike

Happy Thanksgiving one and all - but especially those who are working in the public service today!

Well the law should be able to distinguish between an individual legitimately fixing his or her own car, and a back-street garage business, surely? If you don't have a garage you don't have many choices about where you fix your car! So long as it's not stood there for weeks and months as a dangerous wreck on blocks there shouldn't be a problem. I've had to fix cars on the street in my time. Not in the least defending the serious issues with the other criminal records being reported, but I have to say that one stood out as a wierd thing to get in trouble over when I read it too; it sounded like an 'invented' charge. Mike

And I do mean bombs... http://www.wsbtv.com/news/18145069/detail.html#- Mike

1. I personally would never go Canon because of how they screwed us over with the change from FD to EOS lens mounts, but that's just me (Nikon have enhanced the mount over the years, but you can still use 30-40 year old lenses on current bodies). I shoot a D3 and love it to bits. 2. It doesn't matter whether you buy Canon or Nikon: whichever you buy, if in doubt buy a cheaper camera and buy better lenses. 3. If you do go Nikon, hunt up a used AF 28-200mm f3.5-5.6G ED Nikkor - for the price it was and is (they stopped making it a year or two ago) an astonishingly good gem of a lens. Mike

Beware especially of old bangers with a clapped-out engine and/or life-expired or burnt-out cat; they get much hotter than a cat in good condition (which is already plenty hot!). Mike