Back to the Future Day

I was seriously Considered wearing Griff's skullcap to work today.

Where is my hover board?????

Great Scott!

This is heavy!

The doctor, looks like professor Lewen from MIT

Some futuristic concepts from the 50's were not that far from reality....some stuff was missed completely though....

The future seems to contain a lot of glass bubbles and gravity defying cars and buildings, and space dwelling....

I love that all the old depictions of future cars have white walled tires and tailfins!

Not to mention the open cocktail lounge where the trunk should be! Can you imagine now why riding in the back of pickup trucks is banned in Texas? All those rabid, gun-toting maniacs would put an end to crime forever, and we can't have that.

Good old Plano, TX. with their 0.6 deaths to gun violence per 100,000 is No.1 on the planet, and gun ownership is somewhere north of 30%. Just imagine if every citizen were trained on firearms in high school, and required to open carry, and also taught at the same time about the value of any one single human life, and how heavy a matter taking that life is. The killing of one innocent person might as well the death of us all.

The stopping of a mentally deranged sociopath, psychopath, or other from taking lives by violent means is a moral obligation, and a privilege bestowed by natural right. These "city-states" that believe they can legislate violence out of existence by taking away the natural rights of citizens who in fact are honest, law-abiding, and gentle are usurping power for nefarious reasons, nothing to do with stopping crime.

I'm from Arizona where we don't even need a permit to carry any way we choose, including concealed. I grew up in Arkansas where we had guns everywhere. They were hanging, unlocked on the wall or propped up in closets. The kids never touched them because they knew they were not supposed to.

Open carry in Arizona has had little or no impact either way. I still get very nervous when I see a stranger carrying in public, because I don't know if they are innocent or about to blow me away. But, I live with that. I carry one in my personal vehicle at all times, and have for 40 years.

Now, here's my problem with guns on campus.

With extremely rare exceptions, most campus shootings are carried out by a single individual. One person with a gun on campus is pretty easy for the cops to spot. They have an excellent idea who the bad guy is. (He's the one with the gun)

Now assume that there are 30 people on campus carrying guns, plus the shooter.

Now, instead of easily identifying the shooter, the cops have 31 potential shooters to identify, vet and take out of the picture so that they don't get shot by accident either by another gun toting teacher or a cop.

Nope, this is a bad idea.

No Lyn: In campus carry situation (concealed carry only to prevent the heebee geebees) there is only one shooter to identify - the bad dead guy lying on the ground after all the good guys take him out. If all them fired, then the police may have something to grumble about with all the extra forms to fill out about who all was involved in taking out the bad guy, but at heart, they will be thankful.

Police typically cannot arrive in time to stop the event from taking place, much less to discourage it from taking place. Armed "random" people in the classrooms, can and will step up to the plate, because they have had the training, and will not hesitate to protect themselves and their classmates they adore, even that old curmudgeonly professor.

Not to mention the basic idea in the bad shooter's mind that he is not walking into a gun-free zones. Gun free zones are highly dangerous, because there is no one there to stop violence before it begins.

Well I might agree with you if you could somehow monitor the psychological stability of gun owners, and well let's face it everybody else, because anybody it seems can get a gun....We don't have a gun problem we have a mental illness problem....good luck fixing that....The rest can be put in the socioeconomic uneducated group of gang violence and armed robbers....and improper gun handling...Where's all the state mental hospitals? Then we have this latest guy who it turns out had a brain tumor....then we have these medications that yield homicidal and/or suicidal tendencies...Maybe this is as good as it gets...then how do you explain all these countries that have such low murder rates, and low gun ownership as well?

Neither of us are going to win the other over to their side, I'm sure.

But, here are some observations.

"after all the good guys take him out". The "good guys" have very likely never faced down an active shooter so adrenalin will be pumping heavily. This makes the weapon jump up and down with every breath and heartbeat. Try running 100 yards fast and then aiming a handgun accurately at someone who will shoot back at you.

"If all them fired". Trained law enforcement officers hit their intended target less than 30% of the time when engaged in an active gun battle. Think of the collateral damage of 5 shooters pumping 5 rounds each into the air and missing their target 70% of the time. That's 15 rounds that will not hit the INTENDED target but will hit something.

These "random people" will not have adequate training to engage a target in a heavily populated area, such as a school. I see dead kids killed by their well meaning teachers.

Finally, the "bad shooter's mind" is just that. Bad, irrational and not able to adequately asses the situation, and certainly not be deterred by the risk of getting shot.He's going to die anyway.

Nope, still a bad idea.

Then how come the shooters can easily figure where the gun free zones are and go there to commit their lame mayhem? Apparently, their thinking is spot on (only in that regard). Otherwise, every place Americans go will eventually look like airport security. Do you really want to see what that will do to the nation's economy?

I plan on moving back into the country. At least out there, no one can hear the bad person scream but me.

In 2005, 2006, and 2011, Plano was designated the best place to live in the Western United States by CNN Moneymagazine. In 2006, Plano was selected as the 11th best place to live in the United States by CNN Moneymagazine.^[5] It was also selected as the safest city in America in 2010^[6] and 2011 by Forbes.^[7] Plano schools consistently score among the highest in the nation.^[8] Plano was rated the 10th Best Suburb for Education in the Nation in 2014^[9] due to having one of the lowest student-teacher ratios (14 to 1), a high school graduation rate of 94 percent and some of the highest test scores in the nation. It has been rated as the wealthiest city in the United States by CNN Money,^[10] and the United States Census Bureau declared Plano the wealthiest city of 2008 by comparing the median household income for all U.S. cities whose populations were greater than 250,000.^[11] In 2008, Forbes.com selected Plano, University Park, and Highland Park as the three "Top Suburbs To Live Well" of Dallas.^[12] The annual Plano Balloon Festival and the Plano International Festival are two of the city's premier cultural and entertainment events.

Well, if anybody on CR4 needs a new Flux Capacitor...

My, how time flies!

Nice pun. :-)

literally and figuratively! Hey Lyn, I saw the other day where this guy named Lubbock is selling home generators running off grass clippings, and using aerobic digestion to produce way more gas/heat. Do you know anything about this system or have seen it?Anyone else? This is as near "Mr. Fusion" as anything I have heard of, even that Japanese car that now can run off garbage.

That reminds me of the Orgasmitron scam that went around after Barbarella came out.

About to split at the seams laughing and rolling about on the floor (ATSATSLARAOTF). I doubt that acronym will ever catch on.

MIWMIW (= Maybe it will; maybe it won't)

It's TRUE!