Iraq residents rise up against al-Qaida

<<BAGHDAD - A battle raged Thursday in west Baghdad after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.>>

It is odd to write something that seems positive about the Iraq mess. I call this "positive" because my country's soldiers are wanted to help others fight off al-Qaida. I wish that I were there with them. I don't think that there are a lot of positives about al-Quaida, from what I read and hear.

I think that it is nice that al-Quaida opposes the intrusions of western commercialism and decadence. That is definitely nice. Short of this observation, there is not much else that a 21st Century, post-Enlightenment thinker can say. Their patriarchy totally sucks! Their fanaticism totally sucks! Whether or not anyone agrees with anyone else's interpretation of God does not matter. "Everyone has a secret place inside, and by God that is how it should be," to quote an old guy in The Bear, one of my favorite movies.

So it goes.
Eddie Evans

So it goes.
Eddie Evans

Nuclear Blast Coming - Not IF, but WHEN

I am sorry if you are still operating under the belief that the USA and its friends will somehow escape becoming a target for a nuclear warhead.

If you are a reasoning person and you gather information from friendly sources, then you will figure it out for yourself. Many of us are going to die in a nuclear mushroom. By "friendly sources," by the way, I mean educational sources, not commercial sources or those entangled in commercial sources.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, pointed out the simple truth that science was being bought off by the corporations. Well, so it is with information; information is bought off by corporations. So, if you are getting your information from corporate sources, the odds are that it is unfriendly to your children's future.

Let us not forget WMD's in Iraq. Let us not forget Pat Tillman. Let us not forget the Gulf of Tonkin, to name just a few.

<<1964, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese forces had twice attacked American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there was a first attack (in response to U.S. equipped and orchestrated South Vietnam's commando raids on the coast [1]), claims of a second attack were later proven to be unfounded. Known today as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, this led to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.>>

You cannot trust the US Government, if you did not already know this. The US Government is in bed with US weapons manufacturers, like GE. The US weapons manufacturers supply more weapons World-wide than any other source.

The US Government nods OK to one government, and Not OK to another government when it comes to nuclear proliferation. Today's "OK" becomes tomorrow's "Not OK," if you care to check it out for yourself.

Last, the US Government has stumbled around Afghanistan for going on 6 years looking for Bennie L. He is nowhere to be found. Benny L. does not matter, anyway. We have created hundreds, if not thousands of Benny L's since Bush came into office. Even before Bush the US was creating life-long enemies.

09/11/01 did some good besides adding to the GNP (Gross National Product). It finally got the US Government's attention off the Star Wars madness. Before 9/11/01, Bush and company were crazy about building a World-wide net of anti-ballistic missiles, no matter what anyone in the World said. They actually believed that Buck Rogers-like weapons were going to stop the inevitable. It took two jets into the Trade Towers to prove what so many of us had said for decades, it takes "only a suit case" to destroy a US city. Like a jerk, jerks, the Government continued wasting valuable time and resources on Star Wars.

What the US could have, should have been doing is becoming the World's hospital , science and education center, and breadbasket. But what has the US done? It has pursued an Empire approach to the World by producing weapons for sale and export, by creating over 120 US military outposts World-wide, by following the dollar with the military. We can learn a lot from Cuba. Cuba sends doctors World-wide and offered to send a "brigade" of doctors to Louisiana following Katrina. What did we send following Katrina and when, if?

Do the math, connect the dots. We, the USA, are going to get hit, and hit big time. At this point, there is nothing to be done for it. We have created enemies World-wide for generations and everyone without a nuke wants one.
Nukes suck!

Eddie Evans

Education and the Mind

Education gives life to the mind. Education is more than a "formal" process; It is experience, information gathering, analysis, and a synthesis of analyzed information. Last, there is an evaluation, an answer to the question, "so what?". Education is usually an outcome of an intended approach to the World.

I do not deny the place of serendipity in education, in scientific exploration and outcomes, by accident. The intent to discover is there. The outcome is there. But the learner's focus on the selected outcome is not there with serendipity. Serendipity is accidental learning and OK. It is not part of what I am writing about. I am writing about a concerted effort of broad design.

Look to the philosopher Eric Hoffer for one example of what I am talking about. His formal education was "poor," by current standards, but he was an "educated" man by most standards. Read The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements and you will see what I mean. He worked as a longshoreman for many years, but he found time to expand and enrich his mind by reading and writing. He committed himself to understanding the World, human affairs, by analyzing it after studying. Then he synthesized his information by writing about his thoughts. He answered a serious question about mass movements and fanaticism. He was named "America's philosopher" by President Johnson.

I neglect my education at times. Sure, if I listen to the radio, I listen to non-commercial radio and hear critical, useful information, but the intent is not there. The intent to "educate" myself, that is. I watch public broadcasting for entertainment, but the intent is not there. I tell myself, "Well, these sources of entertainment and information are not from the commercial World, not of corporate design," but the intent is not there in my mind. Perhaps I evaluate too soon, before gaining the insight offered by analyzing and synthesizing my information thoroughly.

So I forget or somehow deny how important it is to pursue education with an intended approach. Remembering people like Eric Hoffer is important for me, then. I, like others, need a role model to help educate myself. How can I neglect Helen Keller's story and so many others who were so well educated, and not "formally."

Education is very important, and there is no reason to avoid it unless the learner prefers a state of ignorance festering on ignorance. Ignorance does not feed the mind, it warps the mind. An ignorant answer to the question "so what?" produces a poor outcome.

An educated life enriches the mind. An educated life gathers useful information about the World, nature. It analyzes this information and then synthesizes before making an evaluation of what it means.
I will do better.

So it goes.
Eddie Evans

Starting your own Crime Scene Cleanup Business - The Reality

Because I own the domain name www.crimescenecleanup.com and a few like to it, I receive telephone calls in clusters related to becoming a "crime scene cleaner." I guess a television show airs from time-to-time and mentions this line of business.

Most callers know little if anything about cleaning trauma. They have heard somewhere that they will make $100 per hour in this business. Generally, they need work and have been out of work for a while. So I break the news, "This is a very competitive business field." "Sorry," I say, "I don't hire." "Don't quit your day job," I say. (See "How will I do in the Crime Scene Cleanup business?)

I also say that if "you have an existing business, then it may make some sense to add trauma cleaning as an add-on," otherwise, you need deep pockets, a rich daddy, and some luck.

Consequently, if any person representing a "school" says you will make tons of money, beware. If you have some "gaps" in your formal education, you need to really beware because some schools have "gaps" in their formal education. You want as much for your time and money as you can get, and the better your education, the more likely that you are to benefit from more training and education. It's like the snowball story, the farther the snowball rows down hill, the bigger it becomes and the faster it grows.

Good luck.
Eddie Evans

Why do we have Crime Scene Cleaners?

Why do we have Crime Scene Cleaners?

This is an important question. The short answer is this: It is now easier to catch a disease from blood than previously. Blood-borne pathogen's have always been with us. But, blood-borne pathogen's have become more dangerous and easier to contract. So the business field known as Crime Scene Cleanup has grown to serve the needs of blood cleanup for residential, commercial, and industrial environments. Crime Scene Cleanup, as written about earlier, is a phrase that glamorizes trauma cleanup.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, we learned about HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Disease, which becomes AIDS as it progresses. AIDS is an acronym and stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. This disease spread for a number of years in the US before the US Government decided to recognize it. The government refused to get involved because it appeared that "AIDS" was a "homosexual" disease. So there was some bigotry involved with its recognition. In that time, it became obvious that something serious needed to be done.

People were dying in increasing numbers, and the manner of their deaths was quite unusual. They were dying because their bodies could no longer standup against minor and major illnesses. Women were contracting the disease from their husbands and boyfriends at the rate of 1 to 15. That is, women were 15 times more likely to contract HIV from sexual intercourse with a male than vice versa.

So OSHA now set rules for employers to ensure that their employees were protected from needle-stick during work. Health employees were the most obvious group of US workers at risk, but these rules are applied to most employees in the private sector. Because of this, no one can clean a bloody environment or be involved with work involving possible exposure to blood or OPIM (Other Potentially Infectious Matter) without blood-borne pathogen training. See your American Red Cross for a professional trainer.

HIV is not the only pathogen out there. In fact, Hepatitis C is every bit as bad as HIV. These and other diseases will be written about at another time.

What is probably important for those interested in becoming a "Crime Scene Cleaner," to this writer's knowledge, is that there is no "certification" needed to clean a bloody scene. So if a school owner or a Crime Scene Cleanup business tells the reader that they must be "certified," the reader needs to ask, "Certified by whom?". Some states have certain requirements for handling and disposing of blood and OPIM. These state regulations should be taken very seriously.

Blood-borne pathogen training is usually the first step in most states, if not the only step to becoming a "Crime Scene Cleaner."

It is important, in this writer's mind, that as many people as possible become trained in this field of cleaning. The "writing is on the wall," so to speak. Diseases of unknown origin and magnitude will join us in the 21st Century because of Global Warming. Terrorism will probably be another source of creating catastrophic trauma events. So learn to cleanup blood. Whatever you call yourself is not important. It is the skills that matter.

Perhaps it is time for the public schools to begin teaching these skills.
For certain, the public school systems needs to orient their lessons toward a more ecologically centered approach. Students need to learn about ecological relationships early in their academic career. The importance of seeing nature's relationships ought to be taught: Earth, air, water, biology, ecology.

To regress, anyone interested in trauma cleaning should be trained. The more training, the better. Life-long learning is important, anyway. So learning to clean trauma should involve continued training. Training need not take place in a school. In fact, some "schools" need to be avoided like the plague. Keep this in mind: If it sounds too good, it is too good.

See the next blog writing: Starting your own Crime Scene Cleanup Business - The Reality
Eddie Evans

Cleaning blood

"Cleaning blood " as a phrase can be confusing to people looking for a doctor or scientist involved in blood illnesses like ischemia, tissue death, and gangrene. If you were to ask the owner of www.blood-cleanup.com, he would verify that this statement is fact.

For our purposes, "cleaning blood" means working hard for a living. Blood is like a miracle fiber. It has an almost amazing ability to stick to anything. And why not? Blood is actually a "connective tissue" connecting thousands of miles of veins and arteries in critters. In humans, red blood cells' surface area is about 2,000 times greater than our external surface area. No wonder it's so hard to remove!

Blood consists of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and blood plasma. Blood plasma is a fluid. It is about 92% water and about 8% blood plasma proteins. What does this mean for a cleaner?

It means that billions of tiny red blood cells have a lot of power for their size. It means that blood cells are so numerous in blood plasma that a tiny bit of blood carries great energy for its size. Is it any wonder that it is so hard to break free, to dislodge its color from porous surfaces? The fluids in blood wick in many substances like wood, drywall, and fabrics.

9/11/2001 New York City Trade Towers Video

Video

Crazy Videos

Animal Rights - Earthlings - Too long, strong content, a good reminder.

Animal Humor - Crazy Cats - Jurrasic Gas - Rabbit vs Snake - Two Legged Dog - Worst Police Dog in the World

Art - Spray Paint Artist - Long but worth the entire view.

Human Humor -Baby Gasser - White and Nerdy

Social Affairs Police Efforts - If you have the least kinship to law enforcement, this is worth your while.

Crime Scene Cleanup Explained

Crime Scene Cleanup is a phrase denoting a type of professional trauma cleaning. Popular culture plays a part in the term's usage. Television productions like Crime Scene Investigation add to the popularity of Crime Scene Cleanup. Australia, Canada, and England have added Crime Scene Cleanup to their professional cleaning terminology.

The generic terms for Crime Scene Cleanup include trauma cleaning, biohazard recovery, decontamination, and blood cleanup. The crime scene cleaners' work begins when the coroner's office or other official, government body releases the "scene" to the owner or other responsible parties. Only when the police investigation has completely terminated on the contaminated scene may the cleaning companies begin their task.

A crime scene cleanup may involve a single blood loss event following a burglary, battery, or homicide. Companies also clean suicides, unattended deaths, teargas damaged environments, and other crime and trauma scenes. Larger crime scenes involve terrorist attacks, mass murder scenes, and the cleanup of anthrax and other biochemicals. Blood-borne disease is always a safety concern and medical-like standards are invoked when cleaning soiled scenes. Minimal safety standards for cleaning crime scenes are set by OSHA because of employment considerations as well as health issues. Besides the Federal Government's OSHA standards, many state OSHA departments have created similar standards and regulations. Similarly, the Center for Disease Control establishes standards and regulations for working with blood soiled environments as well as exposure reporting.

Crime Scene Cleanup companies may also clean bird and rodent infested areas. Their experience and equipment lends itself to decontaminating areas frequented by potentially deadly viruses.

Standard operating procedures for the crime scene cleanup field often include military-like methods for the decontamination of internal and external environments. Universal precautions recognized World-wide are the cautionary rule-of-thumb for this field of professional cleaning.

Crime Scene Cleanup is a small business activity in most cases. At times small businesses, such as carpet cleaning and water damage companies add Crime Scene Cleanup to diversify their activities. Some franchise opportunities are available through Servpro and other nation-wide franchisers.

Noted authors for the field of Crime Scene Cleanup include Kent Burg and Patrick Moffett. Kent Burg's publications include Crime Scene Cleanup, a how-to paperback. Patrick Moffett's publications are often produced as academic essays and treatises. Moffett defines Crime Scene Cleanup in The Blue Book and lists general price guidelines for cleaning crime scenes. Moffett's activities are generally related to indoor environmental inspection.

Generally recognized organizations for this field of cleaning include the American Bio-recovery Association, ABRA, and the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification, IICRC. ABRA is the largest membership organization in the USA for trauma cleaners. The IICRC is a certifying body for the cleaning trades in general.

Report says Iraq problems were expected

WASHINGTON - Intelligence analysts predicted, in secret papers circulated within the government before the Iraq invasion, that al-Qaida would see U.S. military action as an opportunity to increase its operations and that Iran would try to shape a post-Saddam Iraq.

The top analysts in government also said that establishing a stable democracy in Iraq would be a "long, difficult and probably turbulent process."

Democrats said the newly declassified documents, part of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation released Friday, make clear that the Bush administration was warned about the very challenges it now faces as it tries to stabilize Iraq.

Boy Scouts of America

The below is from the Boy Scouts of America and can be found HERE.
I think that Ben Franklin may have some part in these ideas.
This is an important document. It is important for a number of reasons, which I will highlight:

1. It sets obtainable goals for easily influenced learners.
2. It sets goals that almost everyone can live by and share.
3. It looks to posterity (the future).

Let's take a look at each and deconstruct as we wish.

The Scout Motto^[8]

Be Prepared.

In terms of American (USA) values, being prepared is part of being self-reliant. I am pleased to see that someone is still pushing this idea of being self-reliant, besides the Green Party. BE Prepared for what? Well, for anything that comes the way of an honorable scout. How does one prepare for Global Warming, i wonder?

The Scout Slogan^[8]

Do a Good Turn Daily.

How can anyone improve on this one?

The Scout Oath^[8]

On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

No problems here. I think that "mentally awake" must apply to critical thinking.

The Scout Law^[8]

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

Perhaps the public schools should indoctrinate upon The Scout Law? I might question "obedient." I don't like "obedient." But, that's just me.

The Outdoor Code^[8]

As an American, I will do my best to be clean in my outdoor manners, be careful with fire, be considerate in the outdoors, and be conservation-minded.

I like it, especially the "conservation-minded." So what happened to the USA?

The Scout Sign^[8]

The upper arm is held horizontally out to the right side, and the forearm is held vertically. The palm of the hand faces forward, with the first three fingers extended and the tips of the little finger and thumb joined.

It's OK for the young kids, but lends itself to gang-like behavior in the wrong place.

The Scout Salute^[8]

A three-finger salute using the same configuration as the Scout Sign, with the tip of the index finger touching the forehead or hat brim.

I like Mr. Spock, so I'll keep my comments to myself.

The Scout Handshake^[8]

This is the traditional handshake done with the left hand, because upon meeting the zulu king, Dinuzulu, the king removed his shield which was worn on the left arm and extended to Lord Baden-Powell a hand shake with his left hand. The left hand shake was a Zulu sign of vulnerability and respect.

I don't know where the Zulu's came into the picture, but this is also European and English for more-or-less the same reasons. Enlisted always walk to the left and a bit back from officers for the same reason, keep the sword (pistol) hand free.

The BSA Scout Oath and Law have remained unchanged since they were first developed in 1910.^[9][8]

Eddie Evans

I don't need an audience, only a desire to organize my thoughts.

"Blogging" is something that I ignored for a long time. I have read few blogs that kept my attention, and I guess that my blog is about as boring as they come.

The purpose of this blog is to help me organize my thoughts. To place some sort of structure into these random thoughts some call a "stream of consciousness." My only regret is that it is titled Crime Scene Cleanup. How limiting!

Then, of course, I don't need to play by any rules when it comes to the title. After all, it's my blog. I can write about anything that I please. And after all, I don't really need to keep Crime Scene Cleanup to a strict definition. After all, I am the owner and lawless creator of CrimeScene.info, one of my highest and proudest achievements. I know; I know that "pride" is one of the seven deadly sins, but that's OK in this context. Take a look and see if you agree.

Then, of course, life is about stories because we are the story telling animal, and perhaps a bit more, too. Like, liars? And all stories are interpreted from different perspectives and in different times and places. Things change, after all. It's so easy to lie, to make up stories that are not true. Just ask George Bush. He knows about story telling.

So any stories that I write, call them essays, I guess, any of these writings can be written as make-believe, magical, or out-and-out poor fiction. But unlike George Bush, I will not lie or tell a story to manipulate others; that's crazy! (Manipulation of others is a form of craziness by definition, by the way.) That's power, but I want to create power in good faith, and create life, nature as I want from my own stories. No injuries to others. What a blast!

I will try to avoid stories about the White House and those who frequent it. I don't stay up on that kind of stuff, anyway. So any stories that I do write about the White House will be as close to factual as I can get; I suppose that these stories will be a form of crime scene writing, too. I just do not see anything good coming out of the Bush White House. Just the same, unlike the Bush White House, I will cite my sources so that I and others can look them up soon and later. No crime in that.

I hate to dwell on George Bush, I really do, but this guy is going backwards, no question. And don't blame it on his religious beliefs because Jimmy Carter was a "born again Christian." He at least had the sense to figure out that the US's oil consumption and other natural resource requirements needed to be slimmed down and made sustainable. Remember, Jimmy Carter was so big on renewable energy.

Where would we and the rest of the world be today had Carter's plans for renewable energy survived past Ronny Raygun and those that followed? We would be some 30 years ahead of where we are today.

Gosh, I'm glad that I was privileged to forgo adding to the massive, exponentially growing human population and its ma·ni·a·cal·ly driven desire for more and more of everything. Have you heard about "snap-back"? Well, you will and you will wish that Jimmy Carter had been elected King. Such a kingship would not have been enough, anyway, but it would have been a starter. Perhaps humanity would have suffered less in the future and done the right thing by handing down more species and their habitat to future generations for the next 10,000 years.

In fact, had Jimmy Carter been elected as our King we would not have had King George nominate corporate freaks to plan the US energy policy and to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Can you imagine! Beyond belief and a genuine crime against humanity and other critters and plants, Bush does it all backwards. Now he is a criminal and cleaning up after Bush is going to take more than we have, I fear.
That's how it is. I'm getting organized here.
Eddie Evans - Story teller.

Memorial Day

I write this blog as therapy, I guess. I guess that's why anyone writes, because "The writer has something to say." Sartre

I really could care less that anyone else might read it. This blog is a form of commitment to myself to use my mind, to place my 60 years experience, skills, abilities, and knowledge into one of several places. Plus, God bless'm, Google makes it available for free!

I usually do not write or talk about Memorial Day, but since I've been pontificating on Iraq, 9/11, handguns, philosophy, and such, I suppose that I need to say something. From Wikipedia: Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died.

My wife puts the American Flag out on memorial day. I usually ignore it. I also usually work on Memorial Day, and oddly enough, I usually work on Veterans' Day. I suppose this is because I am a Vietnam Veteran, 173rd Airborne Infantry, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 65-66, "Death from Above," the Southeast Asian Strike-force for the USA and for the Chinese, "Rockasons" - - A mere infantry brigade with a big job back then. Anyway, it seems that this Vietnam Veteran has somehow managed to work more Memorial Days and Veterans Days than not in the last 40 years. (Gee, I like being 60 because it does lend one to a rather monumental picture of being human.)

I cleaned my first trauma scene in a place called "War Zone D," a cluster of mountains in which the "Hoe Chi Men Trail" emptied out into South Vietnam, not really so far from Saigon, not far at all from the Song nong di river. This was in November, 1965 following a rather large engagement at that period of time. I cleaned a few bloody ponchos. Later I would clean M-16's, claymore mines, more ponchos, web gear, helmets, bayonets, canteens, and more soldier stuff. I didn't give a second thought to cleaning the blood off then. I suppose that is why this form of "cleaning" is easy for me. Who knows?

Today I see that the 173rd is in Afghanistan. I regret being too old, too fat, and too weak to join them -- really. I feel bad and guilty that strong young men are "humping" mountains in Afghanistan for a somewhat dutiful cause and I cannot return to their unit. Not to clean trauma, but to work as a sergeant among learning soldiers. I'd share the risk, the labor, the out-and-out drudgery of being a foot soldier. These soldiers are big on words like "honor," by the way. They have to be big on honor. Really. It is a big word to them for big reasons.

That great Army Airborne Ranger and football star Pat Tillman went down to "friendly fire" in Afghanistan, I've heard. He was REALLY big on "honor." I heard too that the Army and U.S. Government have persistently lied to his parents. Odd, isn't it, that US Army officers are trained to tell the truth, to honor their integrity. I hope that they lied for some good reason and not for simple career advancement.

Then there's Iraq. The 101st is in Iraq and I am glad that I am not there with them. When I gave up on the Army, or better yet, when the Army gave up on me a few years ago, I would have promptly joined the 101st in Iraq as a fellow soldier, not with any belief that it was an "honorable" thing to do, because it would not have been an honorable thing for me to do, knowing what I know about the Iraq issues. I knew Bush and party were lying, just like the Army lied to Tillman's family.

I knew from experience that soon the "enemy" would integrate itself into the general population, especially in places like Baghdad. I think that the general population is the "enemy" in many cases. I would not want to take part in figuring out how to survive in a terrorist driven urban environment. I'll stick to the woods, the wild. Still, if I could, I would soldier with the 101st in Iraq, if I could.

I think that there's an emotional thing inside of me about being a survivor and young soldiers are dying and maybe I might help them. Maybe I might help anyone. It is such a mess there. We are so helpless in these matters and I don't like it. I want to help end it all and I would if I could join the 101st. Sadly, there is no fountain of youth for this old, fat man.

Yesterday I heard that fat TV lady Roseann making the point that to the Iraqis, in many cases, the US must be a terrorist organization, considering the numerous deaths created since our arrival. I could hardly believe that I was watching this woman and agreeing with her so much.

Check these figures out, and as of today's date (05/24/07):

Every 10 minutes an Iraqi in Iraq dies from war related causes.

Every 10 hours a US Soldier/Marine dies from war related causes.
(This does not count those who die in-flight out of the country for their wounds.)

For every KIA (Killed in action soldier), there are 15 wounded in Iraq, many with life-long head trauma requiring 100 percent care for the rest of their lives.

Every 10 days the US spends 2 billion dollars on its Iraq war efforts.

The total cost of the Iraq war will probably reach 2 trillion dollars if not stopped soon.

So stand up, hook-up, shuffle to the door, and Go! Here comes another memorial day, more than one hundred have preceded it, and the richest, most powerful nation in history chooses to destroy innocent civilians while tapping their natural resources. Now what does that say for honor?
Airborne!
Eddie Evans

Guns Suck!

Guns do not forgive. Sometimes I regret being in this business because of the stupidity of people and their stupid handguns. I cleaned a death scene for just such people this week.

Often enough, let any drunk or fool or combination of the two around a gun and there is sure to be trouble. I stopped counting the number of "accidental" deaths by handguns that I have cleaned. I stopped counting these deaths very early into this occupation.
Two young men drinking to celebrate the older man's 21st birthday: BOOM! The handgun went off as the two played games with it. The apartment was littered with beer and champagne bottles. Otherwise, it was well kept considering that a young bachelor lived in it. Now he's in jail and going away for a long time. His life will become rigidly structured by the state as a result. What a waste.

I figured that I would write on this subject sooner-or-later, and it has come to pass because of a wasted life that I happened to cross paths with in the last week. The NRA types will argue that there is a "God given right" to have these weapons. I disagree, but the genie is out of the bottle and there's no putting it back. Can anyone imagine the nightmare of trying to police these things out of existence in the US, the home of the Six Gun Mystique?

The only "God given right" to handguns is in choosing the perfect right to live free of them.

Eddie Evans

9/11 - HIV - Crime Scene Cleanup

Here's a fact that the crime scene cleaner needs to keep in mind.

World-wide, more people died of HIV on 9/11 than died from the terrorist attack in New York City. I heard this while listening to the radio today. The speaker wanted to make the point that HIV is a daily event, unlike terrorism.

Here's a couple of things beyond PPE that I do in the field to reduce risks and costs:

Large quantity of dried blood in the form of volcanic ash or less:
Place paper towels upon matter, moisten with sprayer by using 1:10 bleach and water. Let dwell while working elsewhere; Remove matter and towel, and repeat if, until completed. Towels can go into sanitary sewer if not too large.

If the cleaner prefers cotton towels from Home Depot, these can be washed in a dedicated washing machine with soap and bleach following use. (If the cleaner has the stomach for this procedure!) These towels should be pretreated on-site with a soap and bleach solution in a bathtub, toilet, sink, or bucket, given dwell time, and placed in a black bag. Using this procedure, the cleaner will use handling techniques like those used in hospital laundries. (If ever placed in a red bag, cleaning materials remain in the red bag. Never remove material from a red bag.)

Once pretreated and laundered, these towels can be placed in a black bag with duct tape markings to identify it as useful cleaning material. Standard cleaning towels will last for at least 3 cleanings when laundered properly.

I don't find any conflict with the above procedures in CDC or OSHA literature.
1. The bleach solution is per CDC, and dwell time is important as a standard operating procedure.
2. The ash-or-less has been dwelling before the cleaner reaches it, relative to blood-borne pathogens' survival outside of the petri dish.
3. The sanitary sewer carries many gallons of human waste, blood and otherwise, from everyday living to mortuary and hospital business.

I also think that these procedures will fit the catastrophic cleaning needs of the general population, if and when needed because of terrorism or global warming, global dimming, or all three. Bleach, incidentally, carries an MSDS easily found in any supermarket as a universally recognized disinfectant.

Besides the above, I recall my 6 years working in a rehab environment for heavy drug users. The female toilet waste was handled as normal, the sanitary napkins, that is. Also, what came across was the struggle involved with quitting heroin and other such drugs. Even the risk of contracting HIV, HEP C, and more were not enough to stop clients from shooting-up when they left our program.

I recall a number of young women who had contracted HIV, HEP C, and other diseases. Their lives were basically ruined, at least to my way of thinking. At least, "business as usual" should have changed. Sadly, this was not, is not the case.

To think that these ladies went back into the world to share their diseases with unsuspecting husbands and boyfriends is to think in terms of forthcoming criminal-like conduct, spreading blood-borne pathogens, that is. I suppose that we could make an argument for calling their behavior a form of "terrorism," considering its consequences.

This behavior was not unique to women, but also applies to men as well. I point out the ladies because they sometimes wanted to reproduce, which is tragic to say the least.

Now, if the cleaner is careful, there should not be any great risks to cleaning trauma, crime scenes, that is. Needle-stick is by far the greatest risk known for contracting disease from blood; nothing the cleaner does will come close, unless of course there is a needle-stick from the cleaning environment, a real possibility when cleaning a scene generated by inter-venous drug users. At this writing, I have not found evidence of blood-borne pathogen transmission via occupational cuts or abrassions. Nonetheless, always work with the mind's eye to "what if." HIV is a mutating pathogen, in any case. Remember Mandel and Darwin. So, never ever place hands beyond the line-of-sight when cleaning trauma.

Education is so important for cleaning as well as the reduction of risks from blood-borne pathogens, in general. I suppose that education is just about key to everything that humans touch or somehow influence, like HIV, 9/11, and cleaning.


Eddie Evans
CrimeSceneCleanup.Com

Crime Scene Cleanup and Concrete Polishing

I should have mentioned that I have a concrete polishing business. Actually, I have a floor polishing business for natural stone and concrete. So what does this have to do with crime scene cleanup?

It has a lot to do with crime scene cleanup. My floor business subsidizes my cleaning business. You see, there is not enough work in crime scene cleanup to survive. Now, many people in this business survive simply by doing crime scene cleanup. But there are others like me, destined to hold down more than one occupation. In fact, I have several other businesses, but I will not write about these businesses now. You can bet that I will on another day. For now, keep in mind that I need several other businesses to barely make ends meet, and i am looking for another way to diversify my prospects.

Business is so bad in crime scene cleanup that I always advise new-comers to "keep your day job." I say this in all honesty. If you don't believe me visit my crime scene cleanup school and I will tell you the same thing. This line of business is an add-on for most people. That means it is another way to generate income for an already existing business. If anyone were to enter the crime scene cleanup business as a stand-alone business, and they did not have deep pockets, a rich daddy, or the best luck in the universe, I would think they needed their head examined to come into this business.

Can you imagine what people are hearing? They are hearing that "you can make hundreds of dollars an hour by cleaning up after death." They are being told that simply "by going to a school and setting up shop" they will make bunches of money. Well let me put it this way because I like analogies. During the gold rush in California it was those who sold the wheel barrels and picks and shovels that made money. The guys who actually went out to dig for gold ended up starving in many cases.

I believe that this analogy is a good one for crime scene cleanup as an occupation. It works for concrete polishing too -- I should know.

By all means, if you have an already existing business, and you want to add-on one or more businesses, then consider cleaning trauma. Don't expect to get rich from it.
Carpet cleaners, by the way, are among those most suited to add-on crime scene cleanup. Visit my blog at www.crimescenecleanup.com and you will find more writing on these ideas. There will be more coming, too.
Eddie Evans

Is it Hazmat?

Confusion often arises among those new to cleaning after death, pathogens, and HAZMAT. Reading here will help clarify some questions about HAZMAT and pathogens (disease and suffering).

HAZMAT is an abbreviation of hazardous material. It refers to any solid, gas, or liquid that causes harm to humans and other organisms. Likewise, HAZMAT may cause damage to property and habitat.

There are differences between HAZMAT and pathogens (bio-hazardous) in the context of cleaning after death. Pathogens are HAZMAT in the sense that blood containing disease carrying bacteria and viruses are hazardous in some circumstances. So there is an overlap between an understanding of the two.

HAZMAT may be liquid or semi-liquid like blood and other human matter. HAZMAT may also be liquid in other dangerous forms, like corrosives, mercury, and petroleum based products. Solids and gases may also be HAZMAT. Explosives, which may be in liquid, semi-liquid, or solid form are also HAZMAT.

The transportation of HAZMAT requires specialized transporting tools, containers, vehicles, and placards.

The transportation of pathogenic blood and other human matter also requires special handling and special transportation considerations.

Blood

I wrote about blood in another blog, and I wasn't finished. I doubt that I'll ever finish.

Did I mention that the surface area of the external body is less than the surface area of all of those little blood cells in the body? I have read that it is so. Reference to follow at another time.

Eddie Evans

Do not do unto others . . . .

I wanted to write this down before I forgot, and then I forgot to write it down a bunch of times, now.

So here it is:

"Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you." Prince Kropotkin

No, this is not by Jesus Christ or anyone else but Kropotkin.

The other one goes like this and it is less liberating:

"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you"
This one, unlike the first, commands. The first simply says, "Leave others alone."

For those German Philosophy types, here it is:

Behave as if your behavior were to become universal. Immanual Kant

I needed to get these off of my chest and somewhere where I could find them. It is getting too easy to forget stuff. Thank goodness for Google and its blog service!

Now I need to recall something by Shakespeare, but I don't have the first idea what it was!

200th DNA Exoneration

I see that the 200th DNA exoneration occurred recently with the release of an alleged child murderer. `

"I don't have a dog in that fight," I've always thought to myself regarding the death penalty. So I've ignored it. After all, there is so much wrong out there, and who am I to judge one way or the other? But the argument against the death penalty gets stronger with each exoneration. I wonder how many innocent people the State has killed in the name of "justice"?

People like me ignore social problems like the death penalty because it is distant. Can we continue to ignore the death penalty when innocent people are being killed and we could have at least said something? Have I been like "a good German"?

I think that we need to end the death penalty because 200 innocent people have been proven innocent when they could have gone to their deaths. If I had been one of the victims of the death penalty, I am certain that I would want to have ended it by now. It is barbaric, I suppose. There must be a better way.

Crime Scene Cleanup, Blood, and Nature's Complexity

I am humbled by the complexity of nature when cleaning a death scene. Blood alone creates a sense of awe in me when I clean death scenes.(Return to Blood.)

The tenacity of blood to remain fixed, its sticking tenacity (like glue), and its tenacity to remain moist when sheltered impresses me to no end. How many eons have passed as blood's development made it what it is today?

I have read that blood is not simply fluid or liquid, but an actually existing tissue within the body. I can believe this idea, this idea about blood being a tissue. It has so many properties that I have discovered while cleaning. I am pleased that medical science has figured it out, at least to the point of analyzing it thoroughly.

Nature, I have read and realized is "very complex to think about , and probably more complex than we can think." I think it was Barry Commoner that made this remark.

Deep Ecology

There are a number of competing ideas for cleaning up the Earth's environmental problems. Usually these competing ideas protect the interests of capital. Here's an idea that goes to the one for sure solution, which we will not see voluntarily implemented. Just the same, it may come to pass as a dominant system of ideas given the conditions that the Earth is being lead in the name of "government" and "business."

Deep Ecology - A bio-centrally oriented articulation of humanity's biological or ecological embeddedness in nature as a species biologically equal to others. The issue of "equalness" applies to the obvious biological similarities between humanity's needs and that of other species - - habitat, food, water, shelter.

Equality in terms of moral imperatives is another issue entirely, leading to a life-boat ethics outcome: Given the choice of saving one and only one of two species-populations in the wild, which of the two does one save? George Sessons and Arne Ness object to this dilemma, but comment that the species nearest humanity would probably be the preferential choice. Deep Ecology holds that humanity's loss of valuing other species for their intrinsic (inherent) value leads to an eventual destruction of biodiversity as well as humanity's sense for oneness with nature, alienation.

Corporate State - US President Eisenhower warned against allowing the inter-weaving interactions of corporate, military, and government officials. He called the result a "military industrial complex" that would develop by its own agenda and justification for existence. His perception was accurate, although the issues are more complex than he imagined.

Historically, the corporation met strict guidelines of operation under community charters that could be withdrawn for infractions of the charters' mandates. The "tyranny of the bottom line" coupled with capital's tendency to accumulate then centralize give it State-like powers. With its political influence at local and national levels to justify intervention world-wide, the corporate-state has an imperial agenda.

Corporation wealth and influence also often far exceeds that of surrounding communities and host nations. As a consequence, the corporate-state manipulates major political parties and media World-wide to create and re-create the conditions for its existence, one generation to the next as it grows inwardly and outwardly.

CRITICISM of the President

"TO ANNOUNCE THAT THERE MUST BE NO CRITICISM of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is MORALLY TREASONABLE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC."
---Theodore Roosevelt.

Ideology

Ideology - A system of beliefs that may include figures of speech, stereotypes, and social and cultural assumptions based upon the dominant culture's definitions of nature and social relationships. Ideology is often used by the ruling elite to justify acts that are criminal in content while couched in patriotic rhetoric.

Ideological categories arise and subside as hierarchical power relationships change. Industrialized and post-industrial nation-states make wide use of publicity owned media to sustain power relationships for social, political, and geographic purposes, as did their predecessors use central forms of communicating ideas. Propaganda becomes a category of the dominant ideology as needs arise.

The core of the dominant ideology remains intact until a paradigm shift over several hundred years obscures what was once the dominant ideology. Examples can be found in early Egyptian religions that justified their existence from Pharaoh's relationship to their deity. Papal justifications came to work in a similar fashion. Recall the flat earth and earth-centered solar system arguments based upon ideology and scholasticism. Sub-categories of the dominant ideology may change within years or even overnight (Nixon being the "only one who could go to China."). Hence, examples are commonly found in ideological shifts with US presidencies and text book editions.

Today, official pronouncements are often couched in ideological rhetoric to justify wars, shifting tax burdens to the poor, and attacks on the "New Deal."

Which of these two World views tends toward the criminal?

Any reader familiar with these posts will begin to notice an ethical and moral component. This is intended. Blood and gore is easy. Writing for the unborn generations (human and nonhuman) is more important. So I write about cleaning up the BIG CRIMES against all of nature, too.

We need to think of "crime" in more general and meaningful terms for posterity.

- Concern for all life forms	- Concern for limited human life
- Sustainable Economies	- Growth Economies
- Decentralized Economies and Governments	- Centralized Economies and Governments
- Egalitarian	- Power over others
-Honors Diversity in Society and Nature	- Standardization, Shallow Environmentalism
- Long-term Thinking and Ecological Protection	- Short-term Thinking and Ecological Denial
- Heedful use, Development of Science and Technology	- Heedless use, Development of Science and Technology
- Ecologically Sensitive Environmental Ideology	- Nature as Instrument Environmental Ideology
- Environmental Ethics	- Situational Ethics
- Ecological Wisdom: Nature is very complex to think about. Nature is possibly more complex than we can think. Live for benefit of next seven generations -- soft technology.	- Ecological Arrogance: What can be done to nature will be done. Ignores or discounts destruction, future generally ignored -- short-term market remedies.

What I do - -

Crime scenes cause pain and anxiety for those closely involved with the victims of crime, suicide, unattended deaths, accidents involving vehicles, and other scenes.

My job is to relieve others from these horrific tasks and some part of the emotional trauma associated with recovering the scene. I respond within the hour and often complete cleaning on the same day called upon to recover a biologically safe environment. My job entails a strong sense for common decency, and a willingness to work night and day, 24/7/365.

I do not charge additional fees for "off-hours" service. Trauma cleanup has no set hours, and neither do I.

Why I Clean Crime Scenes

(Othello and Desdemona - Wikipedia)

I am a professional cleaner, which means that I earn my living by cleaning crime and trauma scenes - - "niche cleaning." In this field of biohazard recovery, I clean trauma (blood soiled scenes) for money. There are other reasons that I clean bloody scenes, less material reasons.

Trauma cleaning challenges my imagination at times, and at times my Will to move forward. Cleaning trauma as a small business also gives me a sense of ownership few occupations bestow. I suppose an artist shares some of this sense of control. Unlike the artist, I have control over the object of my labor from beginning to end. I do not have the pressures placed upon my labor like an artist's customers demand.

In philosophical terms, I am not alienated from my labor. My type of labor predates the Golden Age. It is ageless.

I do not need to sell my crystallized labor to survive. I need to dispose of it, legally. I often ask myself, "Where do I begin and how should I move forward as I remove bloody debris?". "Can this be cleaned?".

It is best to first make some sense out of the violent act that lead to the crime scene's distortion of the "normal." This way I can map out where I know that I need to clean. I can then anticipate the breadth and depth of blood and other human effluents to be cleaned. I know too that in the last hours of cleaning, I will find debris previously missed and out of the scope of my initial survey of the debris field. It is not that I "miss" any blood or such, but that cleaning means to clean and re-clean, and to revisit the scene from different perspectives and with "new eyes" after taking some time out for a personal debriefing.

This process helps me to recognize and clean blood contaminated furnishings, mattresses, walls, clothing, fans, books, electronics, dishes, and more. Knowing the whereabouts and movement of the perpetrator and victim(s) helps to at least limit the scope of cleaning, usually.

Yes, at times the screams of the victim come to mind, the horrendous agony of foreseeing impending death by the victim comes to mind. The loss of relationships to relatives and friends comes to mind, all of which may pass through the victim's mind in those terrorizing last moments. Every Desdemona suffers the torment of impending death, emotional trauma cutting deeper than physical trauma. There is nothing that I can do to call back the past, to save the victim, to reduce those agonizing moments of stark terror. I can only imagine.

In a sense, I can honor the victim by cleaning his/her remains from the scene. I can nod my head in respect for the lost humanity as one might nod their head in respect for victims of a Macbeth or Othello. I can take a moment for sorrow in recognition of this earliest of all human aberrations and source of archetypes.

Cleaning trauma, like art, challanges the imagination.

Crime Scene

Rumsfield and you know who. Click HERE for more crime scenes.

Freedom

Freedom: Measured by an individual's participation in power, as used by Ralph Nader when quoting Cisero. The idea of the "wild" or wildnerness comes to mind in another context of "freedom." It is thought that with expanses of wilderness, viable bioregions in which species-populations may survive for the long-term (10,000 years, plus), one has the option, choice, to escape civilization. To be free from others.
Of course, human consciousness cannot be abandoned (short of injury or surgery), but the intent to withdraw does in some sense afford an option to be "free" from others or the State. Without the choice of wilderness, there can be no "freedom" in this sense of the term. Thoreau's efforts at Waldon Pond come to mind, but in a shallow-environmental sense of "freedom" used here in the context of wilderness.

The Drug War

How many crimes are committed for drugs, drug sales, and everything related to the illegal use of drugs? A bunch are committed, for sure, and innocent people die and are hurt and are crippled for life because of this manufactured war. The drug war as social policy destroys more lives than it could ever possibly benefit. It also destroys habitat and species-populations.

There was no drug war until Richard Nixon ran for president. He needed an issue, so bingo! The drug war was created and Nixon became chief crook, ah, burglar.

In terms of damage to individuals and their families, drug abuse does not even come close to alcohol abuse or the use of tobacco, not close at all. There seems to be something wrong here.

There is no excusing drug abuse when it hurts others, that is for certain. But how did we get here, "here" meaning the creation of a near-police state spending billions on a problem that could easily disappear over night? Major pharmaceutical corporations spend billions every year promoting their drugs to cure so many problems. TV, radio, billboards, and peer pressure promote the use of legal and illegal drugs. Gads, look at the spread of legal "energy" drinks!

Need I say more than this: Children grow up in homes where their parents model drug and alcohol use. Is it any wonder that children grow up to expect pills and such to cure their growing pains as they fail to cope with the agonies of failed consumerism?

And look no farther than Afghanistan for living proof of a war gone utterly wrong. More heroin comes out of Afghanistan today than before the US and friends went in to dislodge the evil Talaban, which is another story in itself. Look to the corruption of governments from Mexico and down and plenty of examples will come up. The extinction of rain forests continues because of the growth of cocaine.

Ironically, because of the drug war we are denied the use of hemp for creating wondrous, benign goods and services. Oils, paper, fuel, and medicine are a few of its uses, not to forget its important ecological affects. Hemp holds soil and slow or stops erosion, an important by-product of its wild or cultivated use.

We have the power to stop the killing, to stop the maiming, to stop the corruption, to stop the manipulation over night. So why do we continue to jail people for self-medicating? The answer is social control. One part of society believes that it must control those it does not understand. What if we allowed people to suffer the consequences of their own actions? What if we treated addictions like we treat diseases and medicate accordingly, rather than continue this anarchy of self-medicating at the expense of innocent police officers and other victims of the drug war?

Carpet Cleaners

Carpet cleaning was my second adulthood business endeavor. It didn't last long because of the competition. What a joke that was!

I once did an analysis of my competitors, and the first lesson that I learned is that there were far too many. Yahoo! showed me that I have over 40 carpet cleaners within 4 miles of my front door. Now how was I to compete with all of these guys?

No wonder customers were trying to drag my prices down to nowhere. And once on the job, husbands and wives would start adding on more and more and shirked at my suggestion that they should pay more.
No, my customers wanted a personal slave and came to believe that I was their personal slave once they had me indoors. I even had one old guy pointing to places on his carpet that he believed needed more cleaning. I had brought his carpet back from the floor of a motorcycle shop, literally, to a rather clean surface. He still persisted. Enough!

So I came to the field of Crime Scene Cleanup because there was "virtually no competition." Well, I learned again that there is plenty of competition and it is growing by the day, literally. In fact, I probably receive about 5 to 10 calls per week from people looking for work. And I don't blame them. I am just making a point.

Once I wrote at the crime scene cleanup email list at Yahoo!, "Will clean for food" as a title to my complaint about the competition, and the owner of a so-called "Crime Scene Cleanup School" personally attacked me by slandering me as a liar and worse.
And if you were thinking ahead, you are not going to be surprised to read that this guy is a tow-truck driver. So what does he know? He's a tow truck driver!

What can I say, other than the truth. There are far too many companies in this business for the amount of work.

Sometimes I get calls from people asking how they will do if they go into this business, so now I'm going to refer them to this page in this blog: http://crime-scene-cleanup.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-will-i-do-in-this-business.html

I have my recommendations for those interested in starting a business, but I will save those recommendations for later. I will not be recommending carpet cleaning or crime scene cleanup as a business to enter because of the intense competition for far too few customers. In the meantime, learn to live simply.

Universal Precautions for the professional cleaner

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) sets standards for "Universal blood and body-fluid precautions" or "universal precautions." It does so to help prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and other bloodborne pathogens in health-care settings. Under universal precautions, blood and certain body fluids of all patients are considered potentially infectious for HIV, HBV and other bloodborne pathogens.

Because these standards are expected to work in the healthcare environment, we use them in the trauma cleanup environment.

When thinking about “universal,” think that it includes ANYTHING which might contain human blood. Among ANYTHING are blood, cerebrospinal, synovial, pleural, peritoneal, pericardial, and amniotic fluids. Semen and vaginal secretions belong to the list of ANYTHING that might contain blood. In trauma cleaning, expect that these fluids will be present while working on a death scene. If the scene is moist, consider that it is deadly dangerous. Getting stuck, splashed, or splattered on the eyes, nose, mouth, or open wounds is an “exposure.”

Treat an exposure as an emergency. Stop everything and go to an emergency room. This is part of the protocol for Universal Precautions.

How dangerous is an exposure to the eyes, nose, mouth, or open wounds?

It would be irresponsible to try to quantify a level of hazard for such exposures. Every person, every situation is different. What I can say is that these types of exposures pale in comparison to needle stick incidents.

So visible blood is dangerous in this way of thinking. Whether blood or body fluids, treat it like it is a pathogen.

What is the most dangerous of all while cleaning?

Needle stick is the most deadly injury known for transferring pathogens; Hollow-core needles used for injecting medication and drugs have the highest known incidence of causing illness. Needless to say, when working a death scene where needles may be found, work slowly. Needless to say, professional cleaners are at less risk than nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel.

Still, injecting pathogens might also occur from broken glass, bed springs, and other pointed, sharp objects, which professional cleaners work around every day on the job.

Not all secretions require universal precautions, unless they contain visible blood:

Feces
Nasal secretions
Sputum
Sweat
Tears
Urine
Vomitus

Visible blood in anything requires the use of protective barriers. These barriers include gloves, gowns, aprons, masks or protective eye-wear. They must reduce the risk of an exposure.

Gloves should be worn for touching blood and body fluids. If blood might come into contact with your mucous membranes, or non-intact skin (open sores or scabs), wear gloves and bandages. A full-body protection suite with gloves and full-face respirator is often required. We call this PPE for “personal protective equipment.”

Gloves should be changed often and disposed of as bio-waste when they have had contact with blood. If they have been used to clean a bloody scene, but have had no blood contact, dispose of them as solid waste.

Hands should be washed immediately after gloves are removed.

For information about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed rule on occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, call 202-523-7157. The last time I called this number it did not work. It is all that I have at this writing.