Someone who wants to be seen as a "fresh voice" should not use the trite expression "kick the can down the road"!!

I have to admit to never setting foot in Lyndon House and I am sure that is my loss. However, I don't understand why the tours cannot be led either by the staff or by volunteers. Volunteer docents lead tours through the Georgia Museum of Art all the time. Can someone explain why the place needs paid tour guides?

Those of us who are pro-choice are as sickened by this doctor's actions as are the anti-abortion people. It is despicable to do what he did and I hope he rots in prison. However, there is no relationship between what he did and what a physician performing a legal abortion, within the allotted time frame, does. Don't try to make those connections because you really cannot.

@mpd0.59:

Fortunately I know your posts well enough to know you are being sarcastic! Good response to grove600!

I lived in New Orleans for 40 years and it has always had a crime problem. I blame the poor public schools, the poverty, the lack of parental responsibility, too many single mothers, and yes, the easy access to guns. Crime is one of the reasons that I moved away from there and have never had any regrets. (well, maybe when I think of shrimp Po-boys....maybe a little regret. )

Oh please, leave God out of this! We have been given a few "God-given" rights from the bible and the teachings of Jesus but gun ownership is not one of them!
Mr. Elder should read the article in the recent Flagpole about the constitutionality of gun control laws. I think I will accept the opinion of a retired law professor over that of Mr. Elder.

What a ridiculous soap opera this was! What a waste of taxpayer money, letting it drag on so long. Why did anyone watch?

@1965reader:

I agree with you. I wonder if it is against muslim belief to cremate the body. Anyway, it really bothers me that there had to be police protection for the funeral home where he was embalmed. That should not happen. We should be civilized enough in this country to be able to allow the funeral home to do its job and a cemetery to accept and bury the body. Have we become "barbarians"? If the cities all refused the body out of fear that the cemetery would be damaged, which is what I expect, then that does not say much about the people in this country...or in his country, either. You can hate the man and still allow his body to be buried and left to rot quietly! I don't understand people.

I knew when I saw "2 comments" that it would be those of the Obama haters. Just cannot let an opportunity to make your negative comments go by, can you?

This really is a serious problem and shows once again how much damage humans can bring to the environment, in this case by spreading the disease. If the bats die, the mosquitos will thrive, and perhaps the diseases they bring will increase too. We have an obligation to try to preserve the species on this earth and I hope that a prevention for this disease can be found soon.

@OrneryConservative:

I don't have to look up anything about Katrina, I lived in New Orleans at the time. The police did not knock down my door looking for guns. I am sure they knew where they would find the illegal guns or the guns most likely to be used to commit crimes.
Wanting fewer guns in the hands of the people does not constitute wanting a 'nanny state', you are lumping your biases together.

@OrneryConservative:

The government is NOT going to confiscate your guns, that is my point. Although, I wish they would take away all the guns that can shoot multiple bullets and cause mass murder. Keep your rifles and hand guns if you must. This "great place" that we live in is being taken down by those who rant about conspiracy theories and see the government as being all bad, although they enjoy much of what the government provides. Far right talk show idiots and the leaders of the NRA are more dangerous to our country than any government.

Thank you, Myra! You are the one person I can count on to make sense out of the mess that politicians are creating in education and to take the side of the teacher. How many times can a teacher be asked to re-plan, re-write and re-implement educational programs before they give up in despair? My family member who teaches has less and less time to actually be a creative instructor and spends more and more time on testing and planning ways to implement new curriculum. Her first love is teaching....but that comes secondary to all the other "stuff" she is expected to do. And she does not get the big bucks, that goes to administrators and those who design and market all the new curriculum and testing materials. It is beyond ridiculous.

I swear the NRA members are actually just disappointed that the government has not come to try to take away their guns. They are just itching for a fight and have so worked themselves beyond the point of being rational that they will be really really let down when no one forces them to give up their guns. At first I thought all this paranoia and mouth frothing was just comical but now I think it is sick and a sad commentary on where this country is headed.

Home schooling is just as good as the parents who do the teaching. My niece home schools her 3 children but she is an accredited teacher and follows a curriculum provided in the state she lives in. On the other hand my family member who teaches public school has had "home schooled" students return to the classroom and be far behind grade level. I am sure there are excellent home school situations and bad ones as well. I saw a documentary once where the parent was home schooling and the most important agenda she had was to instill a literal acceptance of the Bible and be sure they knew that evolution was not true. Children who get that kind of education I would expect to have difficulty when they hit high school or college and their first real science class.

This is a "culture war", he is right. It is a war between the crazies who are sure that the country is trying to totally take away their guns and those with common sense who are trying to put some controls on who can purchase what kind of guns. Just look at the photo of the boy trying out an assault weapon...he looks to be all of 15. Is this really what we want in this country?

Seriously? Giving a gun to a 5 year old is okay? Seriously? There is a company out there that makes guns for children? I wonder if the writers of the constitution had 5 year olds in mind when the second amendment was written?
And then the gun is left standing in the corner and the parents were not aware it had a bullet in it. MAKES ME SICK!!
The baby girl paid for their stupidity with her life, her brother too will always carry that burden with him, he killed his baby sister. I hope the parents realize that it was their idiotic decision to allow their 5 year old to have a weapon that is responsible for this tragedy. It was no accident, it was negligence, plain and simple.

As a long time vegetarian, I approve this message!

@TeeWee:
\
You make a point but most of us don't live in conditions where we could run around without clothing! Even if I wanted people to view my rather aged body in all its glory, I would FREEZE during much of the year. And that is here in Georgia...what if I lived in Minnesota? So, sorry....cannot do the nudity thing except maybe in the middle of August.

This is a serious problem and I hope that solutions can be found. It is wrong for us to want to buy cheap clothing that is made in dangerous conditions. We can read labels and avoid questionable ones but we really don't know where our clothing is made or in what kind of factories. I hope something positive comes out of this tragedy.

A burning cross sends a message, loud and clear, due to actions of the past. I is a racist statement of hate. However, I am puzzled by the "deer meat". Were these actually pieces of meat, cleaned and ready to cook? Would deer carcass have been a better descriptive term? Hard to get inside the minds of some people!

@Farmer GA:

Google "Texas and the teaching of creationism" or something similar and see what you get.

@Farmer GA:

Really? I would not trust Texas, for one!

@Farmer GA:

Okay, sorry that I misunderstood you. I was not really thinking "federal". I would have to agree about the federal government being involved as regards the "no child left behind" program and all the ridiculous testing involved. I would say leave education up to the local school boards but then we risk having creationism taught instead of science. I think the federal government has to have some oversight but not micromanage.

@Farmer GA:

No, it sounds like some of our more right wing politicians should not be involved in government or education. I am in favor of public education for everyone.

This is worrisome for many reasons. I am not a scientist but my husband is and where he did his teaching, research and directing of graduate students, he and his colleagues depended heavily on funding from NSF. I think this is true in most universities. If grants are cut due to political restrictions, how will graduate education be funded? The scientists of the future will not be able to afford education and training. This country will fall further behind in research and science. To me it seems as if politicians are out to gut education from pre-school through graduate school and I don't understand their reasoning.

Congratulations, Ms. Compton! You look great and I am sure you feel great too. That cannot have been an easy decision to make and it still takes will power each day so I commend your hard work.