Out of Touch -- Legislators and Taxes

I read an interesting article in the Baltimore Sun the other day about a proposal in Congress to address back taxes owed by some government workers. I couldn't find the Sun article so here is the one from the LA Times titled Fire Them? Federal employees, retirees owe $3.4 billion in taxes.

It seems many of my federal co-workers are slugs (yes, I wrote it) and do not pay their taxes. This includes military personnel. I believe paying taxes is a responsibility that good citizens of our country need to accept--that does not mean that I like paying taxes, because I don't. But, as a citizen, I must accept the responsibility for doing my part to contribute to the operation of our government.

But here is my take on this emotional, election year issue. If they fire the workers who owe the taxes--which means they know who they are, then how do they reasonably expect the people to pay their back taxes--plus penalties and interest.

Yup, they owe the money. And according to the article we are talking about 280,000 people.

My answer is to take the money out of their wages and make them keep working until the debt is paid.

Why is that hard?

Hello, Congress!

Admittedly, the article says pretty much the same thing: "Critics of the legislation have said that firing employees who owe taxes would make it more difficult to collect the money. The unemployed hardly make for very good taxpayers, the Federal Managers Assn. said in a letter to lawmakers last year."

So if I can see the problem with trying to collect taxes from unemployed people (who then begin to receive benefits which may compound the problem) and the Federal Managers Association can see it, why is Congress wasting time trying to pass legislation that is counter productive to what they want to do?

Of course--we've been there before, haven't we?

Wake up and let's move on.

Next issue?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

The Fastest Plane, Ever

SR-71 Nose On

Standing in the entrance to the Udvay-Hazy National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport I heard a question from an excited Ethan, "Poppop? What was the fastest plane ever?" Although I know he knew the answer I replied "Why, the SR-71 Blackbird"

How fast, he wanted to know. So we looked it up on the internet and gave him a number that was totally meaningless--because none of us could really comprehend how fast 2,600 plus mph really was.

Fast.

SR-71 at Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum

The boys were fascinated with the aircraft, which is the center piece exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport.

For a Sunday afternoon there is not a better way to spend time with the boys that reveling in aerospace history.

The missiles, the bombs, the Space Shuttle and satellites, and of course the aircraft--from the early propeller planes to the fastest jet ever conceived.

Ethan, especially was impressed when he realized that when missiles were shot at the SR-71 that the best tactic was to just fly faster and  outrun the missile. That's fast.

How fast?

Faster than a speeding bullet, fast.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - January 30, 2012

1. Airplanes, rockets, missiles, and spaceships go together very well with grandsons.

2. Who would have believed that the two front running Republicans would have names like Newt and Mitt. Makes me think of salamanders and baseball but not Presidents.

3. Why does the NFL actually play the Pro Bowl exactly? Oh yeah--show me the $$. And who cares?

4. Baseball is on the way to create some actual sports interest for a bit.

5. Evening television is becoming very spotty, despite the huge numbers of channels we have access to.

6. Given the warm weather, relatively, I keep looking for the crocus to bloom. Alas, they apparently are smarter than I am.

7. Groundhog day is this week--I wonder if we can receive a repeat of last years early Spring forecast? No matter, I think Spring is here already.

8. Today is National Croissant Day! It is also FDR's birthday (1882). I'm not really sure why or if those two pieces of trivia really go together.

9. Mornings when I wake up well before I need to are difficult. I long for sleep, but I also enjoy the quiet of the house and the attention that Makalya gives me as she too wonders why I am awake so early.

10. I met an interesting retired AF colonel at the museum yesterday. Wolfgang W.E. Samuel was there signing his books, I bought one, about war and life. I bought the autobiography about growing up in post-WWII Germany. He wrote a nice inscription to me on the cover  page of the book.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Reflections on January 2012

We have managed to survive the New Year party celebrations and are already ending the first month of 2012. Where did the time go?

This has truly been a January to remember.

It has been warmer  than normal, and there has been almost no snow.

Sometimes the lack of winter snow results in low water supplies for the subsequent summer, but we have seen some rain, so I do not believe there is a threat of drought. .

I saw a guy driving a Porsche convertible yesterday, with the top down. Although it was a bit cool, driving a convertible with the top down in late-January is not something that happens much here.

I was, I admit, a bit envious that I had not had the same idea. 

I am hopeful of getting through February without a major school-closing snowfall. And then Mach will be close on its heels along with the first lawn mowing of the year. I am truly a crazy by longing for the sound of my mower in the afternoon sun.

But then two days remain in January.  Who knows what can happen?


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Air and Space museum

Spending a day with two of the grandsons exploring aviation history. And yes, the Blackbird is still the fastest jet on the planet.

Orion on the Horizon

As I was walking back to the house the other evening from depositing the garbage container at the street, I noticed Orion hanging in the early evening sky moving lower on the horizon.

The hunter and harbinger of winter and cold weather, I have watched Orion since August transition from the early morning sky and now into the early evening sky, is beginning to loose his grip on the planet and allow the warmer days to return.

We have finally crawled over ten hours of daylight per day--I noticed that last evening as I was outside after 5pm--and there was light.

My drive to work remains in darkness--but at least I can begin to imagine being outside during the unseasonably warm weather we have been having. I need to remove the neighbors garbage from my yard where it has blown in since they can't seem to secure their trash containers to prevent the critters from enjoys a mid-winter meal at my expense.

Despite my well know lack of appreciation for winter, Orion is my favorite constellation. It is far more complex than the Big Dipper or Cassiopeia, and I associate Orion's arrivals and departures with the changing seasons. It is a love hate relationship. I love Orion's return from his travels and summer sojourn as one of my friends in the sky, but I hate what that means--dark and cold.

Soon, I expect, my old friend of the sky will head off on his annual vacation and I will be left looking for his return during August or September.

But I have a lot of things to do before I am ready for his return.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

The Power of a Song

Thursday's are one of my most difficult days, schedule-wise, at work. It is one of those days where the calendar conspires against me to create a day filled with meetings and activity. While that may not seem to be a bad thing, it means that I cannot interact with the people I work with and delve more deeply into the issues of the day.

The pace of the day also means that I cannot stay up to date with the presents being delivered by the "e-mail fairy" and so I tend to get bit behind.

Fundamentally, Thursday's are a high stress day for me. A day where I am clearly not in control of my schedule nor my work-life.

And then, as I turned the key in my truck while preparing to depart the gym after a less than exiting racquetball match, one of my favorite songs was playing on the radio. The song is "Today is the Day" written and performed by Lincoln Brewster. I wrote a blog about this song when I discovered it back during 2008, titled Today is the Day--Get Started.

The song on the radio and my response to it, singing, changed my entire out look on the day ahead of me. The transformation in my truck was amazing to me because I was no longer dreading the day ahead, but rather, I was prepared for the challenges.

As it turned out, I needed to be ready for the challenged because the day included a mad dash back home to change my shirt before the last meeting of the day due to one on my pens having a major malfunction. I just didn't think the big, blue spot on my shirt looked professional.

In the end, I made it through the day and I know my positive outlook was due in part to the song that played on the radio at just the right moment.

The power of the song is in the words, especially one part of one of verse which contains the following phrase--the words that helped me change my day!

Jesus
I`m reaching my hand to Yours
Believing there`s so much more
Knowing that all You have in store for me is good

And since yesterday was the day, so is today!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Bottom Out Day

An interesting thing happened yesterday. I confess that I had never considered it before--but it is a pretty significant occurrence for the Baltimore region.

Yesterday was the bottom out day--the day when the average daily high temperature begins to climb, ending the slide which began on July 15th. We bottom out at 41 degrees. The highest average high is 88 from 9-17 July and then it begins the slide which ends on 25 January.

The average low doesn't begin to increase from its bottom of 24 degrees until tomorrow, the 27th.

So happy bottom out day.

Springtime is coming--but it is still cold out there.

Have a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy the idea of the warmth that is on its way. It's coming, really!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Fighting Through the Fog: A Road Warrior's Short Tale

We have had some really oppressive fog the past two mornings that has significantly complicated my relatively short drive to work and I had forgotten how tough it can be to safely occupy the highway with other drivers when darkness and fog are working together.

The one driver that scared me the most was the guy who didn't have his headlights on, but was driving by the light of the daytime running lights. I am sure that he/she does not understand that the tail lights are not on in that situation and that is why they almost got rear ended twice before realizing that they were putting not only themselves, but other drivers at risk. I had flashed my headlights at them, from behind a couple of times to try and spur a change in behavior--but to no avail.

And then there were the paralyzed drivers who assume that because they are uncomfortable then it is OK to drive 20 mph on I-95 where the speed limit is 65 and even with the fog traffic is trying to move along crisply at 60 or so. Very scary situations developed across all of the lanes and inpatient drivers made their way around the slow moving road obstacle.

I guess the fog is worse than snow--because most of the timid people stay home when it snows.

I admit, I was a bit uncomfortable because I am not too happy with the way my headlights are aimed, but it was the car that decided to attempt to change lanes into my fender really spooked me. Fortunately, I was able to avoid a fender bender because even though they did not see me, I saw them and took action.

Note to self--find a reason to stay home until daylight next time the fog is thick.


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Year of the Dragon

Happy year of the dragon. Chinese New Year began yesterday and the mythical dragon reigns this year.



I guess it is appropriate--especially given all of the concern about the end of the Mayan calendar.

I do like Chinese food, too.

I wonder how they came up with the creatures that grace their calendar.

But it sure does make the year exciting, and magical when considering a dragon. It has to be better than a rat. Or a snake, which is next year.

It is kind of fun to transition through a year and celebrate all of the different means by which we reckon time.

And writing of fun stuff, the California Gold Rush began on this date in 1848. I don't know how that ties into Chinese New Year, but it was an interesting fact.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD