Effective Direct Air Carbon Capture will not be Perfected in Time

   It's like magic: The plant sucks the air from the sky into large containers, where the carbon is removed by passing the air through filters. Then -- presto -- the carbon is turned into a liquid and pumped underground where it is no longer harmful.
   It's a technology that needs to be refined if the world's carbon balance is ever to reach net zero. But currently the technology is removing but a miniscule amount of carbon. Keep polishing the direct air carbon capture plants, but don't quit developing more wind farms, and solar farms, and geothermal plants. Direct air carbon capture isn't going to reach a point where it brings us down to net zero on anywhere near the time frame that is necessary.

(Index -- Climate change info)
   

No Red Flag Law was Needed to Haul Maine Killer off to Jail

    With all the discussion going on about whether Maine should have a Red Flag to stop mass killers such as Robert Card, one thing is going unnoticed: Making a terroristic threat is against Federal law. You don't need a Red Flag law, you just need to enforce the law against making a terroristic threat.
   As soon as reports started coming in warning that Card was threatening the death of others, he should have been hauled straight off to jail.
   A fellow guardsman in the National Guard unit in which Card served warned that Card was going to snap and commit a mass murder. That should have been enough. Haul him off to jail.
   And, Card should have been booted out of the Guard, and his military issue weapons taken away from him.
   Those are two things that should have been done. They weren't. Why not?

When Fisticuffs Become Gun Fights, Broken Noses Become Murders

   Fist fights escalate into mass murders when guns are invited. And, if half of Texas has guns, half of the fist fights are going to become gun fights.
   It's called escalation. And, if you tell everyone to go out and buy a gun, guess what you're going to get?
   At a party Saturday in Texarkana, Texas, three people were killed and three others injured. "Apparently, this all started when a fist fight broke out between two men at a party," the Texarkana Texas Police said. "At some point during this fight, at least two men there pulled out rifles and started shooting." 
  If one man has a gun, another pulls out his. And what should have resulted in no worse than a broken nose ends up in a macabre Halloween scene.
   America allows the proliferation of guns, even encourages it. We aren't too smart. We can't do anything about that, we call as someone is hauled off in a hearse. Guns are a God-given right.
  Are they? One wonders if God is really on the side of the gun advocates.
   

Israel's Plan to Rescue the Hostages is Admirable, but is it Possible?

  Never trust a war to go down the way it is outlined. At least, have reservations this time as Israel plans to rescue the hostages being held by Hamas. There are reportedly as many as 230 of those hostages, although some reports suggest about 50 of them have already been killed by Israeli air attacks as Israel in an effort to soften the enemy in preparation for a ground attack.
   Freeing the hostages is an admirable goal and would be a major achievement. But how do you go in, guns a blazing, to kill Hamas without Hamas using the hostages as human shields?
   Some are suggesting it is wiser to rely on diplomatic efforts. War kills, but diplomacy saves. Egypt and Qatar have been leading efforts to free the hostages and that has resulted in four being released already.
   But never trust a war to go down in line with the way it is drawn up. Just as Israel might not be able to save many of the hostages, So also might those calling for diplomacy be wrong. It could be that Hamas has released but a small sample of the hostages just to persuade the world that they will release all of them.
   Hamas is likely trying to buy time. And, if it could, it probably would try to swing a deal releasing all the hostages in exchange for Israel promising it will drop the land assault altogether. Another suggestion is that Hamas releases the hostages in exchange for the Hamas prisoners held by Israel. Hamas proposed that Saturday, and it is a proposal that should be given the highest consideration.
   War might not always go down as planned, but if you weigh all the possibilities, you are more likely to reap the planned result. 

 

Maine is an Outlier; the Lewiston Shooting was an Anomaly

   Not every state that has permissive gun laws has a lot of mass shootings. Not every state where nearly half the households have guns has a lot of mass shootings. Take Maine, where the latest mass shootings took place; it is an exception.
   You can try to figure it out by noting folks in Maine use their guns for hunting and recreation. You can bring up the fact Maine is a state dominated by Democrats. Still, that doesn't overturn the norm that states with lax gun laws and high gun ownership don't normally escape mass shootings. Yet, there it is, before the Lewiston shootings, there wasn't even a history of mass shootings in Maine. It's a state with a low gun homicide rate. Go figure, as they say. 
 

If the Gun is to Blame, Blame the Gun

   Of course you don't want mass shootings, but don't try too hard to narrow the cause to just one thing.
For there is one thing -- the gun, itself,  that is the prime cause, albeit it isn't the only factor.
   This meme takes the opposite approach:
   "Uvalde shooter: Mentally ill
   "El Paso shooter: Mentally ill
   "Parkland shooter: Mentally ill
   "Lewiston shooter: Mentally ill
   "Nashville shooter: Mentally ill
   "Ft. Hood shooter: Mentally ill
   "Sandy Hook shooter: Mentally ill
   "Virginia Tech shooter: Mentally ill
   "Tyrants: America has a gun problem"
   Take that meme to heart and you will conclude mental illness is the problem, and anyone who tells you it is the gun is a tyrant.
    Just the same, it is the gun. The gun is the one thing ALL shootings have in common. You can break it down and note what a high percentage of the shooters are mentally ill, or are current or past members of the military. You can point out that five of the most deadly mass shootings in the last ten years were in gun-loving Texas, and you can let it known that there are a high abundance of shootings in gun-toting Florida. You might even want to point out how few mass murders there are in California, which just happens to have tight gun control laws.
   But, one thing ties them all together: the gun. The gun is available to the mentally ill. When they go crazy, it is the gun that is ready for them to use. Military men are trained to kill, and it is the gun that they are trained to kill with. Gun-happy folks in Texas and Florida have guns waiting in their closets, and in their bedrooms, and in their pickup trucks. And it is the gun they turn to when they get overly angry.
  Horror writer Stephen King posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in the aftermath of the Maine shootings: " This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder." King, who lives not far from where the Maine shootings took place, is right. The politicians insist owning guns is part of their freedom. There comes a point, though, when there are too many guns out there, and there comes a point when the right of some people to own a gun should be curtailed.

Does Mike Johnson's Election Show how Far America has Fallen?

  He played a role in promoting Trump's effort to turn over the 2020 election. He is for Big Oil. He is a climate change denier. He once was against military assistance for Ukraine and still isn't fully onboard helping Ukraine. What more could you want in a speaker of the House? He is a member of the Freedom Caucus. It is no wonder Republicans unanimously endorsed him.
   Mike Johnson is one of the more extreme members of Congress. It is no wonder Trump spoke highly of him. That he was unanimously voted for by Republicans shows one of two things, and maybe both: 1) They were anxious to get the House functioning again and embarrassed that it was shut down so long. 2) House Republicans are all such dogmatic extremists that it reflects how far our nation has given way to the far right.