TILTING AT WINDMILLS

...The General Accounting office has now confirmed a charge made here two years ago that the Defense Department gave the ReaganBush campaign the names and addresses of 1.4 million members of the armed services just before the election in November 1984...

...She is an ambitious lady, so that, if you wrote her protesting this outrage, she just might do something about it...

...He immediately sent photocopies of his 1982 return and of the $900 refund check he had received as a result of the return...

...But I know from letters we get that many intelligent people do not believe this is a serious problem...

...One of the more dubious developments of recent years has been the industrial bond (see "Industry's Bondage Fetish," by Harold Bergen, January 1981), under which local governments issue taxfree bonds to lure industry to their community...

...Yes, let's...

...This would give us insurance against need, which I think is all most of us really want from these social programs...

...Certainly such taxes are a disincentive to hiring new employees...

...Perhaps this example, provided by Jason DeParle of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, will change their minds: "On January 30, 1982, a patient at Lallie Kemp Charity Hospital in Independence needed transportation to New Orleans...

...The Department of Education recently issued a 66-page booklet entitled, "What Works: Research About Teaching and Learning," designed, in the words of William J. Bennett, the secretary of education, to "tell the American public what we know about how to teach...

...Finally, Landry fired him...

...Well, recently they sent out a questionnaire that was weird, to put it mildly, with do you agree or disagree items like "I like to think I'm a bit of a swinger," "Members of the American Nazi Party should be prohibited from running for mayor of this city," and "Women should take care of running their home and leave running the country to men...

...Instead, the agencies become so involved in self-perpetuation that they develop an instinctive aversion to solving the problem they were supposed to take on...

...This is a classic case of nothing being done about a campaign abuse until long after the election is over...

...At the same time, they often fail to provide enough money for those who are totally dependent on them...

...We may have a new champion in our search for the law enforcement officer who offers the worst possible example...

...In the case of a struggling enterprise that can't function without a certain minimum number of employees, inability to pay rising Social Security taxes can actually close the business down...

...We had declared war against Japan...

...What is so bizarre about this attitude is that anyone who has worked with computers knows that they can be wrong and that, when they are, they will never ever admit i t...

...He's Gordy Taylor, the sheriff of Grand Forks County, North Dakota...

...Of course, there will be an honorarium and all expenses will be paid—for you and Mrs...

...attorney told a reporter that he was "stunned" by the news...

...Then the store was sold for guess what—$47 million,more, in other words, than the original assessment that Hecht had appealed...

...An appeals referee ordered the hospital to rehire the ambulance driver, pay his attorneys' fees and give him $13,355.47 in back pay...

...But Young appealed his firing to the Louisiana Department of Civil Service...

...The hospital issued Young a written reprimand that promised 'more severe disciplinary action' if he did it again...

...Let us hope this one sign does not point the way, but the Senate Finance Committee is seeking a 21 percent increase in its budget...

...This sounds terribly harsh, but if you doubt me, consider a recent story by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times that began: "Kickbacks in the awarding of subcontracts by big military contractors are widespread and institutionalized and present far more of a problem than generally believed, according to investigators for Congress and law enforcement agencies...

...The partial tax is producing $3.6 billion in revenue...

...Shall we tell him...

...In one of those decisions that turn liberals into conservatives overnight, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled unconstitutional a federal law that permits judges to deny bail to a defendant they believe is a danger to the community...

...Wild fluctuations in commodity prices can produce economic disaster for both producer and consumer countries...

...Should public television be sponsored by lobbies...

...And perhaps most important, it would no longer discourage businesses from taking new employees...

...But when hospital officials attempted to summon the ambulance driver on call, James Young, he was nowhere to be found...

...As for people presently receiving Social Security and those close enough to retirement to make it unreasonable for them to alter their plans to take account of the new system, I would continue the benefits at the present level...

...Parental leave for male employees is now offered by more than one-third of the nation's major companies...

...But over the next two years, Young refused to transport a severely burned patient, falsified time sheets, failed to answer calls from work, came to work late, and fell asleep on the job, records show...

...But Greene went on to ask a Reynolds spokesman why...

...While I would not reduce the benefits of those present and close-enough-to-taste-it recipients, I would make their benefits fully taxable, instead of only partially so, as they are now...

...These include warehouses, aircraft hangers, and barracks...

...The catch, of course, is that we're using tax incentives to permit one part of the country to gain at the expense of others and to distort rational decision making about plant location...

...From time to time in these pages, we have mentioned how hard it is to fire a civil servant...

...This is thanks to a ruling by the Comptroller General that "regardless of the cost incurred by the Postal Service in handling franked mail, the amount the Congress appropriated to the Postal Service would be considered payment in full for the service...

...To put this into proportion in the overall defense picture you should understand that kickbacks are a small problem compared to overcharging, and that overcharging is a small problem compared to weapons that don't work or aren't needed...

...This may help explain the decline in our military effectiveness since 1945...

...Reynolds, the tobacco company...

...Or take this story from the Los Angeles Times: "Federal authorities have been told that up to half the purchasing agents for Southern California defense contractors take kickbacks in return for awarding lucrative subcontracts...

...The list was delivered exactly two weeks after it was requested—a list, remember, of 1.4 million names...

...The Hecht Company's old department store was assessed at $45 million...

...but this is a bit fishy...

...And there was still enough isolationist sentiment in America that Germany would have had to have taken some aggressive action toward us before Roosevelt, as much as he might have wanted to, would have dared ask Congress to declare war...

...This program should have a work requirement for every adult under 65 who is not the single parent of preschool children...

...In May 1985, the Navy suspended the company for misconduct against the government...

...To do so, he must submit a certified copy of a letter from higher state officials giving him that authority...

...There would be a stigma only when a recipient who should work refuses to do so, as indeed there should be...

...To give you an idea of the costs, take an individual who makes $10,000...

...In their photographs they always look like they're fresh in from picking fruit in the orchards, flannel-shirted, all-around good fellows...

...But, Green discovered, there is a code number on the questionnaire that matches the code number on the customer label...

...Charles Peters...

...This would come in handy for the Republic, and even more important, would keep the rich recipients from getting away with highway robbery...

...But that hope died when I read that the administration has budgeted $50 million for facilities in Honduras...

...So why did Hitler do it...

...One was the speed with which the Pentagon complied with the Republican request...

...When you're driving to or from work or just around your neighborhood or on a trip, do you notice that an awful lot of drivers yell abusively at one another...

...This is against the law, and these are the supreme judges of the law of the land...

...I must confess that I am not without sin in this regard...

...Collected through the tax system, it would be payable the same way, as a negative income tax...

...I know you're asking what's wrong with saying thank you...

...For me, of course, that explains everything...

...It is of course possible that the speaker granted no public favor in exchange for these fees...

...An assistant U.S...

...The sheriff has been arrested three times for drunken driving since 1981...

...As a long time World War II buff, there is another book that I hope gets written...

...But they are getting one hell of a deal...

...The assessment was reduced, not just a little bit but all the way down to $12 million, costing the city a bundle in lost tax revenue...

...There has been criticism of some of the booklet's recommendations, but I find it a near miracle that a government agency has actually tried to do something practical to meet the problem it was supposed to address when it was founded...

...Yet the attitude of the IRS is increasingly common...

...Finally he gave in and filed another return...

...Thus the McClatchy News Service reports that last year Willie Brown, the speaker of the California Assembly, received $51,677 in honoraria and travel expenses...

...I would finance the new program by an addition to the income tax, which means it would no longer threaten struggling individuals and businesses with bankruptcy...

...In case you haven't heard, this country already has a large dairy surplus...

...The computer beamed, and immediately proceeded to print out and dispatch another $900 refund check...

...Furthermore, since Social Security is financed by a tax which employees and employers must pay regardless of what their other expenses are, it often takes money from people and businesses that are barely keeping their heads above water...

...Wouldn't it be lovely if the Pentagon could rise to this level of efficiency in the discharge of its proper duties...

...Usually nothing, but in this case the letter is being sent to people who have not yet selected a long-distance carrier...

...So with apologies to our old subscribers, who should now skip to the next item, here are my concerns and my solution...

...Now we're giving a tax incentive so a foreign company can increase that surplus, which the rest of us will pay for in the form of government subsidies for dairy farmers...

...Similarly, when we buy Social Security, we hope we won't be poor when we're old but want to be protected if we are...

...Until last month, I had clung to the hope that we might come to our senses and leave Central America alone...

...Not long ago, according to the Detroit News, a resident of Pleasant Ridge, Michigan received a letter from the IRS saying that its records showed he hadn't filed a return in 1982...

...After all, if the problem is solved, why would the agency be needed, and what would happen to the jobs of its employees...

...What are Harry and David doing...

...The dog's owners have sued the county for $100,000 for mental anguish and loss of companionship, claiming $1,000 for each day their dog is held...

...But, however self-righteous I might feel at the moment of the other driver's stupidity or selfishness, a few moments later I'm shaking my head in embarrassment at my outburst, realizing that there have been times that I, too, have been stupid or selfish on the highway and needed the forgiveness of my fellow travelers...

...It is about what has long been for me the greatest mystery of that war—Hitler's decision to declare war against the United States in 1941...

...Speaking of outrages, here's one that's minor, but because of the people involved, especially grating...

...But the groups that paid him—the vending machine operators, utilities, and for-profit hospitals, to name a few—are not known for their eagerness to spend money for nothing...

...The answer may not be easy, but at least the problem ought to be confronted...

...The only thing that's not typical about this story is the extra $900...

...Sominex ." This practice is now employed not only on Capitol Hill but in state legislatures as well...

...I remember, with special sheepishness, once pulling abreast of a driver I had been yelling at, only to discover that she was an old friend...

...Asked if he thought his compensation was fair, Bergerac replied: "Clearly it's an enormous amount of money...

...And, of the four programs, only welfare is based on need...

...I hope some day someone will write a great book about how the Philippines became a big story to the American press...

...In another manifestation of the Reagan administration's concern for the public safety, they have decided not to tell you about the recalls of defective cars any more...

...For our "I can't believe they would try this" department, GTE is sending out letters that begin, "Dear GTE Sprint Customer: Thank you for choosing Sprint Direct Dial Service as your primary long distance service...

...All these programs are means-tested, meaning they go only to the poor...

...It is absurd to make any Social Security payments to the Rockefellers as long as recipients who have nothing else live such a painfully threadbare existence...

...Under present incomemaintenance programsunemployment compensation, Social Security, veterans pensions, and welfare—there is much wasteful duplication, with many people getting payments from two programs at the same time...

...Every politician who violates a spending limit or other election laws counts on just this kind of delay before the truth comes out because then people will just shrug their shoulders and say, well what can you do, take the election away from them, after all it was two years ago and how can you prove what impact it had anyway...

...And it won't be until the public realizes what AARP is and also realizes that the interests of the elderly, which are often discussed on the show, do not always coincide with those of the rest of us...

...A full tax would yield much more, probably around $10 billion...

...He and his employer pay $1,420 in Social Security taxes, while he pays only $890 in income tax...

...Two interesting facts did emerge from the GAO investigation...

...The group is a paramilitary terrorist organization that has committed a number of crimes...

...I can't think of one good reason why the Pentagon would do it ." The reason is that the Pentagon needs General Dynamics to spend money on...

...After all, when we buy fire insurance, we hope our home won't burn down but want to be protected if it does...

...Anything that stands in the way of spending must be overcome—and that includes any decent standard of ethics for government contractors...

...If the return isn't on the computer, it doesn't exist ." For two years, the man from Pleasant Ridge struggled to overcome this point of view, but the IRS was adamant...

...In the decision, the civil service official explained that the hospital administrator must prove he has the legal power to fire his employees...

...There is a program on public television called "Modern Maturity...

...Bob Greene, the columnist, got on the case and called Harry and David...

...Believe me, we are not trying to collect dossiers on our customers...

...It is currently the subject of three grand jury investigations and, according to the assistant secretary of the Navy, "10 to 15" Pentagon investigations...

...At any rate, I'm glad to report that, according to a recent article in The New York Times, the War College is again teaching how to win wars...

...The answer: "It is merely an attempt to determine the values and lifestyles of our customers...

...I have no hesitation in saying there were more stories about that country in our media in 1985-86 than there were in the preceding 40 years altogether even though the abuses of the Marcos regime were occurring during more than a third of that time...

...You know who I mean—the guys who send you the Fruit-of-the-Month catalog...

...I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist— remember, we published "Was Sirhan Sirhan on the Grassy Knoll...

...If the manufacturer lets you know, that's fine, but suppose he doesn't or suppose he doesn't until after you've been injured because of the defect...

...To my eternal shame, not long ago an employee of this magazine told a loyal subscriber with a complaint that the subscriber must be wrong since the computer is always right...

...The cost of congressional postal service may well rise more than 21 percent...

...But officials submitted only a photocopy...

...That just happens to be a lobby...

...Clean of defense contractors...

...By eliminating duplication and payments to the affluent, we can give more money to those who need it and still have an overall saving from the combined costs of the present programs...

...In any event, now that it is a story, it promises to continue to be one...

...That means that 14 years of their retirement is paid for by the rest of us...

...Hospital Administrator Thomas Landry responded by giving him an unsatisfactory job evaluation, two formal reprimands and three suspensions...

...The letter continues: "You may receive a ballot from your local telephone company asking you to select your primary long distance service...

...The dog had attacked before, so county officials impounded it and tested it for rabies...

...We had been attacked by Japan...

...This decision was made by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration...

...The first thing he found out is that Harry and David are no more...

...General Dynamics is definitely not the Mr...

...This insanity has reached new heights in Georgia, where industrial bonds are being issued to attract an Irish corporation to establish a large dairy farm...

...The others waste a lot of money on people who don't need it...

...A senator may be famed for his ability to put an audience to sleep but the lobbyist will say, "Senator, we absolutely must have you speak to our convention in Honolulu...

...When it comes to its own expenditures, how faithful is the Congress to the spirit of Gramm-Rudman...

...In Louisiana a Doberman pinscher attacked a nine-yearold boy who needed 55 stitches, plastic surgery, and 32 days in the hospital to recover...

...Hecht's lawyer appealed...

...It is, as those British-accented announcers love to say, "funded" by the American Association of Retired Persons...

...It won't be long before we know the municipal politics of Zamboanga better than that of our home towns...

...This is something women have a right to be angry about...

...The court did not say the defendants weren't dangerous but held that, even if they were, the mere fact that they were likely to commit other crimes while on bail is not enough to deny them bail...

...But only a handful of the eligible men are taking advantage of it-12 out of 9,500 recently surveyed, as a matter of fact...

...When lawyers for the rich get reduced assessments like this for their clients, it means the average man has to pick up the difference in the form of higher taxes on his property, which of course he cannot afford to hire a lawyer to appeal...

...In other words, you can be identified...

...Speaking of the elderly, the letters about Social Security in this issue remind me that we have added several thousand new readers since I last explained my position on the issue...

...You judge them outrageous...

...They have a life expectancy of 17 years once they have reached 65...

...Most of us get no compensation for our usually futile struggles with faceless computers...

...They have to have something to do all day...

...So if kickbacks are of the dimension these two stories suggest, you can began to see the extent of the other problems...

...I never heard of anything so broad...

...Back to the IRS...

...In all the "gaffe" reporting of George Bush's recent remarks about the need to stabilize oil prices, I did not find one sentence indicating that any reporter writing about it had the slightest sense that, however questionable might be Bush's motives for raising the issue at this time, reasonable stabilization of commodity prices should be an important goal of the world economy...

...They're behaving arrogantly because no law enforcement officer is likely to take on the Court, and the Court knows it...

...If he had not gotten us into the war, it seems probably that he would have at least been able to achieve stalemate, if not victory, against Britain and Russia...

...That letter writer who says he could have done better investing the money himself may be another J. P. Morgan, but most present recipients are doing far, far better than they could have done investing for themselves...

...In the case at hand, the defendants were a group called Los Macheteros—in Spanish the term means "the machete wielders...

...The Pentagon is first and foremost a spending machine...

...It is part of the Department of Transportation, whose head is Elizabeth Dole...

...They are paid back both their and their employers' contribution plus interest within three years...

...Yet I don't think most viewers will recognize it as such...

...In other words, Congress could appropriate $500, the mail could cost $500 million, and the $500 would have to be accepted as full payment...

...If you don't think poverty's a problem for youth, consider the fact that one in three American children live in households that receive government help from welfare, food stamps, or Medicaid...

...The failure of political reporters to understand this is further evidence of their abysmal ignorance of the important issues of politics as distinguished from the horse race aspect they all love so much...

...If you wish to return your ballot as a confirmation, please be sure to sign it for GTE Sprint...

...NBC alone has 13 staff members who are still there...

...The solution I propose is to combine all incomemaintenance programs into one that would be paid only to those who need it...

...Don't try to fool us," said the IRS...

...There would be no public stigma because only the IRS would know...

...Certainly, to answer another letter, no investment of their own could have guaranteed them protection against inflation...

...It seems that official cars of the Supreme Court are being used for personal errands, from taking two justices' daughters to the airport, to picking up the laundry of another's daughter—what solicitous parents these fellows are!—to taking Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to the theater...

...The other interesting fact is that at the very time the Republican's request was being rushed through the Defense Department, the military was arguing in federal court in Boston against the release of the same names to another applicant, The John Hancock Insurance Company, on the grounds that it might help potential enemies collect intelligence about troop movements...

...Young later told hospital administrators that he decided not to carry his beeper, gambling that he wouldn't be needed, personnel records show...

...Their company has been taken over by R.J...

...We had not declared war against Germany...

...But now the Navy has not only lifted the suspension, but has entered into a five-year agreement not to suspend General Dynamics for any past wrong-doing that may be brought to light...

...Speaking of losing sight of what you are doing, the Army War College after World War II gradually stopped teaching bright young colonels how to wage war and began to teach them how to become international statesmen...

...The largest golden parachute, according to Business Week, is the $15 million package that was given to Michel Bergerac as his reward for leading Revlon from profits of $192 million in 1980 down to $125 million last year...

...Speaking fees have long been a polite way of bribing members of Congress...

...But the conclusive evidence that the military is serious about staying is that the funds also will be used to build a $115,000 racquetball court...

...Whether it should be less or more, I don't know, how do you judge these things...

...This does not make much sense in an era of 7 percent unemployment...