“It opened in 2005 and cost $214 million, although the lab area that handles the most fearsome bugs didn’t begin work until 2009. It replaced a CDC lab that had operated for 20 years. The architect firm that worked on it, HDR Inc., predicted the building would serve the CDC for 50 years. Now it needs to be shut down so they need $400 million for a new lab.

Tupelo calls consultants in to tell politicians what they want to hear. Few disclose the real facts as they sell their services. Everything becomes obsolete and needs continuous maintenance that requires a yearly budget to replace things before the predicted life runs out. When has Tupelo done that?

Many doors are called opportunities when they are opened by a marketer. The only real opportunities are those you create yourself. Those successful billionaires that started with nothing did not wait for some big corporation to build a plant or government to give them a job.

An example is the marketing for Presidents Day is presented by the news media as and opportunity to buy for less when in fact the retailer pays the same for the goods as he does all year unless he is getting a volume discount. This means you can get the cheaper price anyway as long as you talk with the owner. Many people are suffering from the psychological manipulation of propaganda and never ever know they are pawns used by the people in power.

Perhaps public schools should teach the psychology used to make the citizen into a worker/consumer.

“It seems like our elected state legislature thinks it would be good to allow guns to be carried on college campus and in all public places. ”
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Not exactly please do not fall victim to propaganda headlines. This issue that the legislature is debating is can licensed concealed firearms owners bring suite against public building and places prevented them from from the licensed ability to carry their firearm. License holders were always legal to carry in public places. The new law only adds the provision that gives license owners a way to stop the local security from giving them a hassle. The requirement to get a license is an extensive class in the use and laws involving the use and ownership of a firearm. Then you are checked for any crime record and finger printed in the national data base that is checked when crimes are committed. Then charged over $100 and wait more than a month to get the license.

The idea is to stop the criminals that know no one they are targeting can fight back. This is just common sense and the freedom this government was founded on. As for drunks and people that can not control their emotions we have a history of their abuse and criminal records. Perhaps the sporting events need to tone down the emotional entertainment. We need good guys protecting the feeble from the bad guys.

Raley did not hold anything back. She wrote:

Until we, as a country, are willing to get serious and talk about mental health issues, lack of available care for the mental health issues, lack of discipline in the home, horrendous lack of parental support when the schools are trying to control horrible behavior at school (oh no! Not MY KID. What did YOU do to cause my kid to react that way?), lack of moral values, and yes, I’ll say it-violent video games that take away all sensitivity to ANY compassion for others’ lives, as well as reality TV that makes it commonplace for people to constantly scream up in each others’ faces and not value any other person but themselves, we will have a gun problem in school. Our kids don’t understand the permanency of death anymore!!!

All the knowledge of humans can be saved and stored for algorithms to take advantage of and to control the very needs of human survival. The quest for better quality and more efficient use of energy and resources is always continuing improvement. What is local government doing to improve its efficiency and lower cost of its services? Will machines be controlling humans? Why are we accepting the same old ways of doing things when AI is passing the backward humans?
Who is responsible for improving government operations?

How about higher human intelligence? Maybe eugenics? Gene manipulation? Implants in the brain? Where are poor decisions taking humanity? We can do better with better parenting skills.

How would humans keep AI from taking over and destroying humanity?

The bottom line is power corrupts so be careful who or what you allow to have power.

Should the government regulate emotions? Many people have different views and the founding fathers have defended freedom of speech short of slander as an American right worth fighting for. Sticks and stones can break bones but names do not harm me. Our education system has forget how to teach emotional control. The people of MS voted to keep the historic flag and it will continue. Because some have not learned emotional control they want to take freedoms away from the majority of mature citizens. No attempt to rob the freedoms fought for, change the responsible from demanding those freedoms. The U.S. has done many ugly things to maintain power including killing millions in a civil war. This must not be forgotten especially in textbooks laced with political propaganda. This is coming from a yankee.

The law makers in Jackson are not looking out for the best of the citizens. Roads and bridges are falling apart and the government does not have the money to fix them. So they want to add more taxes on fuel while giving a small break on income taxes. What is wrong with this picture? First few Mississippi citizens are getting raises above inflation and an added tax will mean cutbacks some place such as less driving fewer trips to the mall and fast food. Not taking low pay jobs far away and an increase of costs that are passed on to the customer such as lawn care deliveries etc.

What we need is a better quality more efficient way to have roads. We could use recycles plastics for road beds and have roads last three times as long. Who would be the losers? The road building companies and the law makers that get campaign contributions from them.

We need to elect law makers that are bright enough and wise enough to see the big picture and act with virtue not personal greed.