Tilting at Windmills

...It reads: "The Navy must continue to attract and retain sufficient numbers of high-quality, skilled, and motivated people...

...I pointed out last month how that tax hurts struggling businesses...

...But they must have been reaching for their heart pills when they read the USA Today story...

...But that wrong—killing three elderly people while robbing their homes—was one that society, if it does not have to punish, certainly has to prevent from being repeated...

...Soldiers tend to get car sick from the motion of the ten-foot-high Bradley as it speeds across the countryside...

...It says that those accused can escape conviction if the documents were not "properly classified...

...But its editors should hang their heads in shame over a recent headline, "Social Security 'Pax Rocks Elderly...

...They run the food service operations and man the kiosk in the embassy where liquor is sold...

...Colonel Burton pointed out that in previous tryouts, the testers did everything they could to help the Bradley survive: deliberately shooting at its strongest points, aiming to miss its fuel and ammunition areas, and filling the fuel tanks with water, not fuel...

...Perle chose Romancee-Conti and the Fiat Spyder...

...And what about those dangerous cribs for children...

...In January of last year we published an article called "Playing Monopoly at The Washington Post" by Timothy Noah...

...They prefer to have drift and irresolution because then decisions are made by 'iron triangles' of low-level officials, congressional staff, and lobbyists...

...Another absurdity of our security procedures is the foreign nationals who work in our embassies...

...Consider three areas where they have been dead wrong for years and remain dead wrong today...

...Generally, foreign hires have not been counted under these ceilings...

...Often the colonels and commanders are on the phone practically begging contractors to take on work almost without regard to price...

...Young had excuses— plenty of them—for what he later did wrong...

...In one test, the uniforms on the dummies inside caught fire...

...He also endured a frightening childhood...

...But the motive was more escape than emulation...

...Young and other victims of society commit crimes and, in that sense, forgive them for their sins, we still have to keep them from killing again...

...At the dinner table he would curse a rise in interest rates...

...We should be proud of the difference...

...Its significance was correctly analyzed by Michael S. Horowitz, the counsel to the director of OMB, who told Pear: "Personnel is policy...

...I love USA Today for its sports coverage—is there any other paper where you're sure to get the box scores of all the major league teams...

...He recalls the days when he covered courts for the Post and there was all-out rivalry with reporters from the Times Herald, Evening Star, and Daily News...

...Keg of dynamite," agreed another...

...When I worked in the Kennedy-Johnson administration, we routinely classified material as "Confidential" simply because it might embarrass some bureaucrat...

...Wait a minute, you say...

...Recently in the course of writing a book that deals in part with my early years, I've been thinking a lot about life in the thirties, when I was a child...

...As best I can determine, it originated in the need for translators—Americans, remember, are notoriously incapable or scornful of learning foreign languages— and the need for servants, which was justified on the basis of "this is the customary way of life for the people with whom we associate here...

...Are our soldiers supposed to go into combat naked...

...Another sign of an unhealthy society comes from research into the speech of black Americans by Dr...

...Compensation and quality of life improvements must be competitive in the job market...

...His last words were, "Being born black in America was against me...

...Its armor "can stop almost everything," writes Lars-Erik Nelson of the New York Daily News, but critics allege, "it cannot stop what the Russians are most likely to shoot at it: rocket-propelled grenades...

...In 1984, the same working mother paid $1,210 in combined taxes...

...Her gratitude was such that she left him her entire estate, worth about $140,000...

...I want to congratulate Robert Pear of The New York Times for an important story he did in January...

...How did the custom of hiring these people begin...

...And he would like to have the same or a higher income than I do but work a lot less hard to get it...

...Many black children almost never talk to a white person before the age of six, when they enter school, Labov told William Stevens of The New York Times...

...The tragedy of this kind of journalism is that it drives frightened old people to write their congressmen, who in turn will be afraid to do anything more toward instituting a means test for Social Security, which is the only long-range reform that makes sense...

...diplomats...

...My father, even though he had made it into the middle class as a lawyer, still identified with his poor relatives on the farm...

...Remember when the CIA was crying treason at the radical magazines that published the names of CIA station chiefs...

...Room can be made to keep the violent in prison as long as is necessary simply by giving many of the nonviolent, who are a majority of all prisoners today, alternative sentences that don't involve incarceration but do require that they spend nights and weekends working for the community and making restitution to their victims...

...The fact is that there are few govenment documents that are not overclassified...

...Thought I'd forgotten about tax-deductible vacations...

...We're not going to hold her past against her," the firm's managing partner told The American Lawyer...

...This was most definitely not the case in the thirties...

...S peaking of our friends the lawyers, a suit has been filed on behalf of 29 American law firms to prevent the Indian government from representing its citizens in their claims against Union Carbide...

...And of course 7 percent is merely the official rate...

...How can the Indian government dare to disturb this delicious prospect...

...Going to college will cost about 7 or 8 percent more next fall according to The Wall Street Journal...

...So if you're a mission chief and want to get an employee on board without a lot of bother— especially when you don't want to admit you're hiring another employee whose main function is to make life more comfortable for the American diplomats—the simple solution has usually been to hire a citizen of the local country...

...On safety, the Reaganites have failed to do even the simplest things like forbidding lethal luggage in those overhead compartments on planes...

...I suspect the main bureaucratic motivation behind the growth of foreign staff in our embassies is evasion of personnel ceilings...

...The Army didn't like this idea at all but finally agreed to a test in which there was no live ammunition aboard and the fuel tanks were only half full...

...This frightens me...

...Charles Peters...

...Even though the rise might benefit him and would certainly help the rich, it would hurt the struggling farmer—and my father identified with the farmer, not J.R...

...They are not about to offend Bush by supporting some other candidate for the nomination...

...The Army then decided to strip the uniforms from the dummies...

...But, as they say, don't get me wrong—not all lawyers are bad...

...Every government agency that serves abroad is from time to time working under limits—imposed by Congress, the OMB, or the agency's own administration—as to the number of personnel "slots" available at each post...

...Does this reflect a commitment by Sidley & Austin to equal opportunity for former revolutionaries...

...Congress might say we don't need as much money next year if we show that we failed to spend all that they gave us last year and the year before...

...We liberals may fall into error from time to time, but on these issues we've been consistently right and the conservatives have been consistently wrong...

...And the elimination of the five-mile-per-hour bumper on cars...

...The Washington Monthly pointed out at that time that each embassy had scores of host national employees who knew perfectly well who the top CIA people were in their country...

...A glimpse into the lifestyle of the Reagan administration's national security elite was recently provided by The New York Times, which asked Richard N. Perle, the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, and Richard R. Burt, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, about their preferences in, among other things, wine and cars...

...It does mean, however, that violent criminals should be put away for a long time— until they are no longer a danger to society...

...This would not happen, the linguist says, if blacks and whites were not increasingly living apart from one another: "Separate development [of speech patterns] is only made possible by separate living...

...In other words, this tax does not hurt the average senior citizen...

...The real rate is, as everyone knows, two or three times as high for blacks and Hispanics...

...He was probably right...

...In some embassies, it doesn't make any difference whether the employees are loyal to us—indeed, some embassies are so unimportant the question is not who should staff them but whether we need the embassies at all— but it does seem insane to have foreign personnel inside sensitive posts, especially in countries where the government is hostile to our own...

...Every one of his colleagues in the Reagan administration and every state and local Republican official has to contemplate each day the possible death of Ronald Reagan and Bush's immediate ascendancy to the presidency...

...Ways must be found to reduce requirements for administrative functions, reduce personal turbulence, and permanent change of station moves...

...Burton sought to test the vulnerability of the Bradley by seeing what would happen when, loaded with ammunition and fuel, it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade...

...John Young was executed in Georgia's electric chair on March 20...

...As for the medical doctors, Ray Potter of the KnightRidder papers estimates that we are paying for the "continuing education" in courses that often are "taught in exotic vacation spots as on ocean cruises" of approximately 130,000 physicians a year...

...The black vernacular appears, according to Labov's study, to be steadily diverging from white speech...

...Not a chance...

...It contended that the Post's news coverage, among other things, had been hurt by the paper's monopoly status...

...William Labov, a professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania...

...So the Army sprayed them with water...

...Those words, spoken by a college sophomore, came from a survey of children of corporate executives conducted by The Wall Street Journal...

...At the usual fee of one-third, these lawyers see visions of $33 billion in their dreams...

...Was Archie Bunker the last guy next door to make it in the ratings...

...Civilian officials at the Navy Department thought this was something to brag about...

...On jobs, the conservatives want us to accept 7 percent unemployment as normal...

...Where are yesterday's revolutionaries...

...Since inflation is running at about half that rate, why the increase...

...When some conscientious fellow tries to save money he'll almost be certain to get the back of a brass hand...

...This year, for example, the Navy figured out that it spent only $26.7 billion of $29.2 billion allotted for ship construction in the past two years...

...T here is a certain disingenuousness in the Pentagon's current attacks on high spending defense contractors...

...This possibility is enough, as they say it in the trade, to "keep them in line...

...To anyone who understands the workings of this government and the importance of the assistant secretary level as the action point between the top political officials and the permanent civil servants, this was disturbing news...

...Benjamin C. Bradlee, the Post's editor, had this to say about the article: "I've got to tell you that that piece by Timothy Noah makes less sense than anything I've read in your distinguished magazine in years...

...Indeed, there are often hints that the price should be as high as possible...

...You may be too late for this one, but R. Max Bowser of "The Bowser Report" advertises, "Enjoy a tax-deductible trip to scenic Zurich, Switzerland, May 9-16...where I'm conducting a workshop on `How to Detect the Best Stocks at $3 and Under' " I'm sorry to report that you've already missed the April 19-25 conference in San Juan, Costa Rica, sponsored by the American Association of Financial Professionals...

...Whenever I think of Virginia Slims," Chris Evert Lloyd told Business Week...

...The result: "It went up like a skyrocket," said one Pentagon source to Nelson...

...Did they cancel the Bradley...

...The Journal also questioned the parents, and they confirmed the survey's findings about their children: "My son wants to go into business," says one father...

...The paragraph was classified "Secret...

...They found such a suspiciously high proportion of their young choosing civilian forms of service over military that they have now altered the period of service so that it is 15 months for the military and 20 months for Peace Corps/VISTA-type service...

...Murphy charged her only $100 for that service...

...But there are other problems...

...Perhaps not...

...Here's why I think George Bush, absent some terrible mistake on his part, will be the Republican nominee in 1988...

...These employees are given security clearances by the local embassy staff, but the plain fact is that they are citizens not of our country but of their own country, to which their primary loyalty belongs...

...Even then not more than half the benefits will be subject to tax...

...Featured on the accompanying tours are such places as Paris, Lucerne, Berne, Montreux, Florence, Rome, the Rhine River, Athens, and the Greek islands...

...Fat and sloppy administration is another factor, as is tenure for incompetent professors whose classrooms are filled with empty seats, which of course translate into no revenue for their schools...

...Bradlee attributes the setback to the lack of local competition...

...If we don't control the costs of Social Security, we will continue to see the escalation of the Social Security tax...

...Why are they concerned...

...This means that, even though we understand why Mr...

...What it really is is a scandal...

...Since each Bradley carries only six infantrymen, the cost of this undertaking will not be modest...

...Colonel James Burton of the Pentagon's Office of Testing and Evaluation, decided to test the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which has been attacked by many defense critics, including us...

...Last month, in an article explaining why the Post had been beaten on a recent news story, Sam Zagoria, the Post's omsbudsman, wrote: "Mr...

...Instead of firing a grenade into the tank, the Army set off a charge beside it...

...We'll all drown in toxic waste before the conservatives do anything about it...

...For me, this does not mean the death penalty is needed...

...The central reason, as Timothy Noah pointed out in "Highbrow Robbery" (July/August 1983), is that for years now college professors have been earning more for teaching less...

...But the brass said keep it quiet...

...In recent years we have seen public television exalt the lives of the British upper class and the commercial networks glamorize our own rich in shows like "Dallas," "Dynasty," and "Falcon Crest ." What a social change this represents from the days when we identified with Lucy and the Honeymooners and other average people...

...Take David Murphy, a Chicago lawyer who five years ago came to the rescue of an elderly woman named Annice Saucier when she was cheated by another lawyer...

...How did the Defense Department react to these test results...

...I'm talking about safety regulation, pollution control, and jobs...

...The producer of one of today's shows, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," told The New York Times, "I think people are using our programs to see what the rich are buying and order it themselves...

...The same is true of pollution control...

...N ow for that counterattack on conservatives that I proposed last month...

...Murphy turned down the bequest so that it could go to her nieces and nephews...

...And for a lot of other people as well...

...It is a paragraph taken from a memorandum setting out the objectives for the Navy's 1968 budget...

...embassy at any given time...

...Soviet personnel also are used as auto mechanics and drivers for U.S...

...They still caught fire...

...The Charleston-Gazette recently ran a front-page article estimating that the real rate of unemployment in West Virginia is 28.1 percent...

...I don't think of cigarettes—I think of opportunities for women...

...The ad for it was headlined "Vacation in Costa Rica Where You'll Learn How to Write Off a Lot More than Just Your Vacation...

...You have to be a real fool or a stockholder to think that industry voluntarily takes care of safety...

...In 1979, a woman who supported three children on a poverty-level wage paid $288 in Social Security and federal income taxes...

...H ow do the women who participate in the Virginia Slims tennis tournaments justify hustling cigarettes...

...The reason is that, somewhere around the middle of the fiscal year, the services begin to grow desperate about their ability to actually spend all that money they persuaded Congress to appropriate...

...Now if you remember that they charge us enough in fees to earn an average of $100,000 a year, it does seem a bit much to be paying for their vacations as well...

...There are," he found, "at least 20 vacancies in positions at the level of assistant secretary or higher in the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Education, and Justice...

...T he CIA has proposed a bill to punish disclosure of classified information...

...But a single person will not have to pay until his total income reaches $25,000, and a couple will not have to pay until theirs is $32,000...

...A healthy society would reverse these priorities, emphasizing a commitment to one's work and a relative indifference to wealth...

...The magazine Dentist reports that the American Dental Association will hold continuing education programs this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the French Riviera, Belgrade, Montreal, and Honolulu...

...You may have read the recent revelations that our embassy in Moscow was bugged from 1982 to 1984...

...Less than a rigorous test, you might say...

...If you can't guess who planted the devices, The Washington Times, which was more enterprising on this story than most papers, reported: "There are between 100 and 130 Soviets working at the U.S...

...Bernardine Dohrn, former leader of the Weather Underground, is now a lawyer and has joined a prominent Chicago firm, Sidley & Austin...

...If you need a convincing example of Ronald Reagan's indifference to the work of government as distinguished from speeches and policy pronouncements, this is it...

...It seems that Dohrn's father-in-law is the chairman of Sidley's largest client, Commonwealth Edison...

...If you are not filling key policy positions, it's business as usual, and the interest groups are happy...

...Then, too, we liked to watch movies about the rich...

...Of course not...

...The Army plans to buy enough of these "battle taxis" (giant Winnebagos is what the critics call them) at $2 million each to carry 70,000 infantrymen into battle if war breaks out in Europe...

...But have no fear as long as one section remains in the bill...

...They handle routine maintenance, electrical and plumbing repairs, do the building cleaning, and, until recently, answered the telephones...

...The lead sentence of the article is equally alarming: "The news this tax season for elderly taxpayers is mainly bad ." What were the facts that inspired USA Today to panic its older readers...

...The military itself encourages these extravagant and wasteful practices...

...What Pear did was to step back and look at the personnel situation at the upper levels of the entire government in a sampling that cut across the board...

...I am indebted to Marion Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund for reminding me how much it hurts the working poor...

...I f we institute, as I of course hope we do, a program of national service, we might profit from the experience of the West Germans...

...Burt, Pouilly-Fuisse and the BMW and the Morgan Plus 4...

...one critic asked Nelson...

...It was an unusual effort for a Washington reporter because it was not restricted to what could be found on one of the traditional government beats, like State, Congress, the Pentagon, or the White House...

...They offered Colonel Burton a choice of retirement or an assignment in Alaska...

...What about our overcrowded jails...

...This will probably be perceived by the left as a threat to freedom of the press, as indeed it is probably intended to be by the administration...

...You might get a hint from the fact that those same law firms have filed $100 billion in claims against Carbide on behalf of more than 148,000 victims they managed to sign up through the kind of practices I described in this space recently...

...The children feel, according to the Journal, that "wealth is a necessity, not a luxury....The springboard to everything else...you need money to be happy...

...There is a simple answer...

...Simply that the comfortable elderly will now pay taxes on their Social Security income...

...At the age of three, he witnessed his mother's murder and then was sent to live with an alcoholic who threw him out into the streets...

...I think there's more to it than that—a total tendency to identify upward...

...I am indebted to Richard Halloran of The New York Times for an example of the absurd heights the classifiers reach every day...