My take on the IRS mess

I'm 100% sure that the President knew nothing about the nefarious dealings going in inside IRS offices until very recently.  I'm also convinced that the plan to deny/delay granting nonprofit status to conservative groups was hatched around water coolers in one or more regional IRS offices.

Supervision of thousands of employees must cause major headaches for the leadership of any federal agency, particularly when some of them are furloughed for the sake of saving tax dollars.

This is not the first time the IRS has been slapped on the wrist for stupid stuff some of their staff do.  There have always been employees who, just out of curiosity, looked up the tax returns for famous people.  Even the lowest clerk on the totem pole can access very personal information about any one of us. Unfortunately, the age of electronics opened a Pandora's Box. There is no privacy anymore.

Personally, I'm a liberal thinker.  However, workers in government agencies must remain neutral and obey the regulations and laws governing their responsibilities.  It's not always easy when one is passionate about his or her political beliefs.  But trust is hard to earn back once it has been questioned.

Since no one really loves the IRS and paying taxes, heads must roll.  Sadly, that usually means heads high on the totem pole who very likely had no idea what those working several management levels below them were doing.  It's time to take a closer look at those on the bottom of the totem pole.

 

Bury him at sea.

All the hand-wringing and nasty commentary about where to put the remains of one of the Boston Marathon bombers disappointed and disgusted me. He’s dead, so what more damage can he do?!

Some said his remains should be sent “home” to Russia. Who would pay for that? -- American taxpayers. I’d prefer that my tax dollars go to feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.

No cemetery wanted to accept the remains and it took great courage on the part of a funeral director to accept the body. Even then, he was threatened and scolded for doing the decent thing.

Granted, for some, Tsarnaev will become a martyr. His gravesite could become an impromptu shrine where like-minded extremists visit for inspiration. Another possibility, listening to some who are angry about his burial in American soil, is that his grave could be desecrated.

The decision to bury Osama Bin Laden at sea was brilliant. It left no gravesite where his followers could exhume and display grizzly remains to incite more violence. It also preempted any shrine in his honor.  Since Islam does not approve of cremation, burial at sea seems like a better, more decent choice, even for "the bad guys".  Better out of sight and out of mind. 

Earth Day 2013

Beautiful, isn't she?

Up close, she's not quite as beautiful.

From space it's hard to see toxic smoke billowing out of chimneys; a huge man-caused "island" of plastic bits floating in the beautiful, blue waters of the Pacific Ocean; crude oil seeping into the Gulf of Mexico and countless other places; rivers and lakes so contaminated it's dangerous to even touch the water.

Somestimes I think we humans are too smart (smug?) for our own good.  We develop weapons that can destroy huge chunks of continents and everything living there, leaving it uninhabitable for generations to come.

Developing poisons that kill almost instantly and usually torturously occupies minds that would be better used to find cures or preventatives for diseases.  Even the treatments we have to combat polio, malaria, measles and more don't get to the needy because of misguided or partisan thinking by those with superior weapons.

We humans are pretty blase when it comes to caring for our planet.  We are not yet to the point that we can simply abandon Earth when it becomes too toxic to support life and fly off to another planet.

Earth is hurting because of human abuse and neglect.  Selfish interests are destroying our people and our planet.  What good will all that hoarded wealth do when Earth can no longer support life?

Will they never learn?

Thugs who pull-off reprehensible deeds like detonating bombs at the Boston Marathon will never learn:

When you attack one American,

you attack every American.

It doesn’t matter if the perpetrator/s turn out to be homegrown or foreign; nothing unites Americans like an attack on innocence. For proof of this, just look back to the atrocities September 11, 2001. Yes, we all suffered, but we drew together as a nation to protect our way of life.

On April 15^th, children, moms, dads, grandparents, siblings, friends and supportive strangers came out to cheer-on those participating in a grueling marathon. I’ve done it myself during Marine Corps Marathons here, in D.C. You cheer for every runner, not just your own, because they all need and deserve it.

Freedom of speech allows and empowers Americans to express their grievances. Covertly killing, maiming and terrorizing unsuspecting victims is cowardly and achieves nothing but hatred directed at those responsible.

We will grieve our losses and help those who need it any way we can. Then we will move on knowing that the American way of life works and will survive. . . .

[Even though Congress continues to refuse to put limits on the types of weapons that can be sold to the general public and with unlimited quantities of ammunition. The original Minutemen must be twirling in their graves.]

Eagles Amongst Us

An article in today’s issue of The Washington Post triggered a memory.

While foolishly juggling too many grocery bags in an effort to make one trip between the store and my car, I stumbled and dropped several. Thankfully I didn’t fall, but it was still embarrassing and annoying.

Within seconds, a strapping young man appeared seemingly out of nowhere. After making sure I was OK, he easily picking up the bags and carried them to my car and waited while I got the trunk open.

My words of thanks felt pitifully inadequate, but he just grinned and said he was an Eagle Scout and it was his pleasure to help. Having had two brothers in scouting, I knew what it took to earn that distinction. As I snapped shut my gaping mouth, I shook his hand and said I was proud to meet him.

The Boy Scouts of America have produced young men like this for more than a century. However, now, they are going to great pains to identify and excommunicate those who are “different” -- gay. It seems that some religious and secular organizations are adopting Puritan principles when it comes to sexuality.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if it was possible to gather statistics on how many boys who earned Eagle Scout status during the past century were homosexuals. Now THAT would be an eye-opener!

One reason there seems to be an explosion in the LGBT* population is that its members have organized and now have strength in numbers. They’re fighting back against decades of fear, confusion, mistrust and outright hostility to embrace their human rights. It is still an uphill fight.

Here, in the nation’s capital city as elsewhere, gay and transgender persons have been viciously attacked and/or killed because of their differences. What the Boy Scouts is doing is just as damaging psychologically.

Being excluded from something because of the way someone was born can be excruciating. I would compare it with saying you can’t join this or that because you don’t have green skin and purple eyes. LGBT people are born as they are. Think about it; why would anyone choose to be discriminated against and ostracized?

So, to the young man in Bethesda working hard to earn Eagle Scout status, I say BRAVO and don’t give up the fight. Plenty of people believe in you and hope that revealing the truth about yourself will help to change the status quo.

Every child deserves a chance to achieve excellence and to earn the praise that goes with that achievement. Scouting has been a firm advocate for that until now. It needs to step out of the mire of social disorientation and return to it’s laudable roots.

　*Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender

Excited Anticipation

For the first time in many months, since my health dramas hit, I've found a cool diversion that should appear any day now.

The so-called 17-year locusts are coming!  Billions of them will be clawing up through soil that has held them dormant for the past 17 years.  Why they hang out underground for so long is a mystery to me.  However, their sole purpose, once they emerge, will be to find mates to procreate.

I clearly remember the last time these cool/creepy looking insects "visited" our region.  They are so hot to trot that they will fly right into people and objects in their frantic search for sexual release.  Their urgent, boisterous mating calls become a solid wall of inescapable, constant buzzing.  To my ears it sounds just like the tinnitus I hear all the time, except louder.

Cicadas emerge from the ground as larva. They soon grab onto a tree or any other rough surface to shed their skins and free their transparent wings.  As a kid, living in the Midwest, my playmates and I spent hours trying to collect the most shells.  The sharp claws left on the shells made it possible for us to wear them on our clothing -- something we thought was truly awesome.

One benefit of this 17-year appearance is aerating the soil.  Millions of 1/2 to 1 inch holes open up as the cicadas emerge from the ground, allowing rain to reach deeper into the soil.  That's my theory anyway, and I'm sticking by it.

For those who dislike stepping on their crunchy bodies or being smacked in the face by one clumsily flying in search of love, remember that they've been without everything for 17 years and won't be around for long.  So enjoy the red-eyed, gossamer-winged critters for what they are: a miracle of nature.

I'll be out of touch for a while.  Going to get myself some new hip hardware tomorrow!

 

These begonias grew in our balcony flower boxes a few years ago.  We're thinking of doing begonias again, maybe with some petunias.

 

Spouse and I both love the scent of  "4 o'clocks", which I think are also called nicotiana or some such name.  They blossom every evening and give off the most beautiful fragrance.  They are a tad messy though, shedding big seeds that are not fun to step on bare-footed, which I usually am.

 

After yesterdays disappointing non-blizzard, the sun is shining brightly and my thoughts are all about

Spring -- that is when I'm not obsessing about tomorrow's surgery.  The Cherry Blossoms around the Tidal Basin are supposed to peak during the last week of March, so there is reason to hope that Spring will come before Summer hits with a vengeance.



Looks like we dodged the bullet!

As much as I love snow, I'm kinda glad we didn't get clobbered as some had predicted we would.  Counties west of D.C. did, however get hit with some significant snow.  My part of the District (Foggy Bottom) has had hours of rain and occasional snow showers, but no accumulation.  It's amazing how just a few miles of distance can result in totally different weather.

Shutting down schools, some businesses and governments was probably a good idea since workers commute from areas that have lost electrical power and/or have trees down in inconvenient places.  Rush hour is more like traffic on a Saturday afternoon.  I hope there won't be too many bad surprises for those folks heading out of town.

But cheer up!  Any snow we got will be gone soon enough.  Our temps will be back into the 50s in a few days.

It's Panic Time Redux in D.C.

The D.C. region is bracing for our first, named snowstorm; Saturn.  Locals have already changed it's name to Snowquester in keeping with the federal government's latest move.  The storm is supposed to hit tonight and dump anywhere from three to eight inches on us.  We shall see. . .

Living pretty much equidistant from the Atlantic Ocean and the Blue Ridge Mountains our weather is notoriously quirky.  Both can influence it, so making predictions are difficult.  At the moment, the sun is shining warmly and brightly.  There is a thin skin of clouds that barely blocks a lovely blue sky.

IF we get snow, it is expected to be wet and heavy.  There are already visible buds on the Cherry Blossom trees.  They're small enough that they should survive, but it was just announced that they should reach their peak during the last week of THIS MONTH!  Please join me in keeping fingers crossed that Snowquester will be our last big winter storm.

 

Not So Fast, America!

From what I’ve been reading, it seems that there are plenty of Americans cheering the pending federal government sequester scheduled to begin this Friday.

Take a minute to think what that means not only here, in the D.C. Region but to average Americans everywhere.

In this case, sequestration will prevent federal workers from working full time or furloughing them because of budgetary constraints. In other words, many of the services Americans have come to expect and take for granted may be curtailed or delayed.

For examples, it takes millions of man-hours to manage and distribute VA benefits, health and education benefits like Medicaid and federally funded programs for childcare and education, and many other federal services that aren‘t quite as visible, like federal meat inspections. Your own finances may suffer when IRS refunds are delayed or messed-up for lack of adequate human resources. It cannot all be done by machines.

Yes, the D.C. Region enjoys a fairly high standard of living but, of course that is relative to the cost of living here. It ain’t cheap! Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of federal workers commute long distances to labor for all of us. Often this is in somewhat rustic offices inasmuch as many federal office buildings were built before or during WWII.

So, my fellow Americans, think again before you caste aspersions on federal workers. Right now many of them are concerned about how deadlines set by law will be met when their work week is cut short, or they are furloughed. Of course rents and mortgages won’t pay themselves, either.

When you think about it, the Federal Government is the largest nonprofit in America! It is controlled by the whims of Congress and the President -- not a pleasant or easy position to be in.

I you will forgive my bastardization of a familiar quote: From a few much is expected and little is given.


[Full disclosure: I am not, nor have I ever been a federal employee. I have, however, worked in formal collaboration with many. I found them to be conscientious and devoted to their agencies’ missions. It’s too bad that the “bad eggs” get so much notice. There are far more “feds” who take their jobs seriously and deserve our respect.]

Gratuitous Cuteness

On this cold, February day, following St. Valentine's Day I felt the need for some cuteness.

This little doll is my #2 goddaughter, Carolyn on her first birthday.  She is now a ravishing 25 year old.  She could truly charm the birds out of the trees -- even now!

Human Sacrifice

It’s bad enough that D.C.’s football team has a name which, to Native Americans is equivalent to the N-word for African Americans. Now the team’s management is sacrificing a remarkable young man for the sake of winning games.

Robert Griffin III is a brilliant, dignified young man who happens to be a splendid football player. When he arrived in Washington to throngs of cheering fans, he kept his feet firmly on the ground and maintained a healthy skepticism regarding the adulation.

In short time, RGIII has become a heroic, saving grace for a mediocre football team. Not only does he know how to through a football, but he isn’t afraid to run with it when the need arises.

There are very few professional athletes who can provide the sort of role model Griffin does. His modesty, integrity, intelligence and professionalism make him unique in the world of sports heroes. I have the feeling he will not succumb to the adulation that has turned other athletes into embarrassing caricatures of themselves.

Unfortunately, he may succumb to injuries exacerbated by greedy team management. Last Sunday’s game was disastrous. I’m not talking about the fact that the team lost. I’m referring to the crippling sacrifice of one of the teams most promising players.

It wouldn’t surprise me if RGIII insisted on playing though he knew his knee wasn’t 100%. However, it is the responsibility of coaches and management to weigh the benefits of playing in a game vs. further damage to an already injured player.

I pray his injured knee can be repaired so that it will not cause him permanent problems. It would be a crying shame if it ends his football career but he has huge potential on or off the gridiron. Good luck, Robert.

How to Enjoy the Holidays (and save your sanity)

I know, that sounds contrary to what most of us anticipate about Christmas and celebrating a new year, but I have my reasons. There is far too much stress around most holidays.

For those who have recently had their hearts broken, lost someone dear to them, lost a job, seen a financial decline or anything else that puts a damper on their mood, listen-up. You are hardly alone and you can get through this.

Every one of us has certain expectations about what should happen during the coming weeks. Traditions must be adhered to, and should not be altered in any way. Forget the nutmeg in the eggnog always consumed after church on Christmas Eve -- blasphemy!

Menus for certain meals are written in stone and heaven forbid the cook forgets to serve Grandma’s rutabaga casserole even though everyone hates it! And cookies . . .? Well, lets just say there can never be too many varieties. Even if she/he who must mix, roll-out, cut, bake and decorate stopped enjoying that activity years ago, the cookie jar (if not several) must be filled to brimming with beautifully decorated, delicious cookies in several varieties -- it’s tradition!

Timing is also crucial to the success of the Christmas celebration. If someone wants to sleep in on Christmas morning; forget it, especially if there are children in the house. If they sleep at all, they’re always up before the sun chomping at the bit to dive into all their gifts. [When I was little “Santa” would leave our stockings outside our bedroom doors in hopes of occupying us until breakfast hours later. While grabbing them from the hall floor, we tried to stifle the stupid bells on them, but usually gave ourselves away to a light-sleeping parent.]

The person who is probably the most stressed during Christmas is the one who does most of the cooking. I, for one, never have been good at timing dishes to be done at the same time. It also seems that meat and poultry have a mysterious and arbitrary way of deciding when they will reach the correct serving temperature. Can’t tell you how many times everyone has been seated at the festively decorated table, candles lit, hungry as bears waiting for the main course to reach serving temperature. Other carefully prepared dishes sit cooling or warming (remember, there’s always a Jell-O mold) until they lose some of their appeal.

I won’t even touch on the fact that children are seldom satisfied with the gifts others have so thoughtfully made or purchased for them. That and the fact that during the course of the day, often the boxes gifts came in become more interesting than what they contained.

No, the way to survive and perhaps enjoy the holidays is to go into them with absolutely no expectations.

Being pleasantly surprised when things go well is so much better for one’s soul than being disappointed or frustrated when inevitable glitches happen.

If the top layer of the Jell-O mold slides off when being removed from its mold onto it’s special platter, so what -- it will still taste good. Dump it into a bowl and add a spoon.

If the old family dog loses control while everyone is opening their gifts on the family room floor, turn your grimace into a patient smile, grab the paper towels and mop it up, knowing that s/he is excited, too.

If you aren’t gifted with that special something, get over it and keep your disappointment to yourself. Buy it for yourself if it’s that important to you.

If someone has too much to drink at dinner and turns rude or lewd, in advance, ask someone to gently escort the offender into another room to keep watch over a special candle set out just for that purpose. It becomes his/her responsibility to make sure it doesn’t burn down to low. [I’m sure you can come up with something better to handle these difficult situations.]

Last, but not least, ask the cook/host specifically what you can do to ease their burden during the day. Don’t push if you’re told everything is in hand, but look for opportunities to help like picking up discarded paper napkins, empty glasses/punch cups.

Distracting tired, bored, hungry, angry, whiny children can be a huge gift to everyone. If you know there will be children where you’re spending Christmas day, try to think of simple activities to do with them. Even loops of string can keep them busy if you know how to teach them to make a cat’s cradle and all those other funky shapes with string.

Gratitude for others’ efforts to please you are always best expressed at the time, followed up in writing -- on actual paper in your handwriting. Getting a piece of mail other than a bill or advertisement is special. It doesn’t cost more than a couple of dollars and a couple of minutes to make a lasting impression.

Holidays are about family ties which can be mixed blessings. Relatives may not be your favorite people but we make the effort because we share history and roots. And, thankfully, we gather for just a few hours, right?

So . . . . Relax. Don’t worry if you cannot get everything done that you think you “should” do. Do what you can, get enough sleep and remember that no one is perfect, including you.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Christmas this year will be unlike any I've every had.  Only for the second time, Mom is traveling to the Midwest to spend the holiday with my three sibs out there.  Because of my recalcitrant back, Spouse and I will not be driving to Solomons to enjoy the day with my sister and her clan.

I used to go all out for Christmas.  Buying and decorating a live Christmas tree, stringing lights along our balcony railing, baking way too many cookies and, my favorite task: wrapping gifts.  This year, I've done all my shopping online and can still enjoy wrapping gifts, but the rest has gone by the wayside.

Growing up in northern Illinois, we were pretty sure we'd have snow on Christmas Day.  Sometimes it would start falling on the drive home from the midnight church service.  A very nice touch.  Here, in D.C. today, it's 60 degrees with no snow in sight for the foreseeable future.  Sooooo, I'm posting  pics from Snowmageddon a few years ago.  Of course, it didn't happen during Christmas, but it was beautiful just the same.

For those of you who love snow as much as I do, I hope you have some for Christmas and someone else to shovel/plow it.  For those of you who do not like snow, move to Central America!

Happy Winter, Y'all!!