It's been an interesting week
Normally at this point in the year I'm working one shift a week at work, two at most. This week because someone needed to be off on Friday, I wound up working three days. As a result I'm pretty tired. Especially when you consider I worked three shifts in four days. That's approaching my limit at any point in the year, thanks to the bad lungs and heart that still manage to keep me going from day to day.
I can't go into the specifics of what the various clients I helped during those three shifts needed because of the requirement to keep client information confidential. A responsibility I take seriously. But I can talk about the one thing that was involved with every single one of these clients, some mine and some clients of my colleagues. I was able to help them. I was privileged to be assist them. I loved helping them.
One of them came to me from an office that isn't open at this point in the year. They'd gotten a letter from the City of Los Angeles claiming they owed hundreds of dollars for the city's gross receipts tax. They don't owe the money. But people who react out of fear sometimes just pay the amount billed and it's much harder to get money back than it is to get the city to reverse a balance due when it isn't actually owed.
One new client came in because they hadn't yet filed their 2014 tax return. They weren't really late, when you have no balance due there is no penalty for not filing the return. But they'd gotten a call from someone pretending to be an IRS agent and claiming they were in big trouble. I assured them it was a scam and we had fun playing our respective scam call voice mail messages.
One of them thought they owed thousands of dollars and substantial penalties on top of that amount because of something omitted from a prior year return. I went through and found a way to reduce the amount to only a few hundred dollars. Not by doing something wrong, but by simply using the law as written.
There's more but I think you get the idea. I was able to make a positive difference in their lives. It may be exhausting, but it is also extremely fulfilling and satisfying.
* * *
Let's ignore the constitutional questions about the proposal from Donald Trump about barring Muslims from entering the U. S. There is a far more basic question to consider. An international flight has just landed at New York's JFK airport. Over 200 passengers are clearing customs. Can anyone explain to me just how the customs agents are going to determine with absolute certainty that any of them are Muslims and deny them entry into the U. S.?
Passports do not normally contain information on the holder's religion. But even if they did, it isn't all that hard to obtain false documents. So we can't check passports or any other documents that might identify someone as a Muslim and enable them to be barred from entering.
When it comes to people attempting to emigrate to the U.S., the vetting process is more involved, but again the same question applies. How do we know that someone trying to come here is a Muslim. There's nothing we can do in terms of evaluating their appearance.
So while the questions of constitutionality of Trump's idiotic approach remain valid and worth of exploration, the practical question needs to be moved front and center. Just how do we determine who is and isn't a Muslim before we let them into the country?
* * *
A friend of mine posed an interesting question on FB. How should they deal with their friends who post political things where those who discuss those issues get hateful and very angry with their discussions.
It's a good question. You can of course unfriend someone, or just unfollow them. That allows you to stay friends, but none of their activity will show in your timeline.
I thought about how else one can try to make things less angry in online versus in person discussions. The level of invective people use online, especially in anonymous comment forums, is nowhere near what they would say to someone if that person was seated at a table across from them.
So I suggested that maybe what we should be doing is imagine that we are sitting at a table with the person we are having this online discussion with; before we write a single word.
What do you think?
I can't go into the specifics of what the various clients I helped during those three shifts needed because of the requirement to keep client information confidential. A responsibility I take seriously. But I can talk about the one thing that was involved with every single one of these clients, some mine and some clients of my colleagues. I was able to help them. I was privileged to be assist them. I loved helping them.
One of them came to me from an office that isn't open at this point in the year. They'd gotten a letter from the City of Los Angeles claiming they owed hundreds of dollars for the city's gross receipts tax. They don't owe the money. But people who react out of fear sometimes just pay the amount billed and it's much harder to get money back than it is to get the city to reverse a balance due when it isn't actually owed.
One new client came in because they hadn't yet filed their 2014 tax return. They weren't really late, when you have no balance due there is no penalty for not filing the return. But they'd gotten a call from someone pretending to be an IRS agent and claiming they were in big trouble. I assured them it was a scam and we had fun playing our respective scam call voice mail messages.
One of them thought they owed thousands of dollars and substantial penalties on top of that amount because of something omitted from a prior year return. I went through and found a way to reduce the amount to only a few hundred dollars. Not by doing something wrong, but by simply using the law as written.
There's more but I think you get the idea. I was able to make a positive difference in their lives. It may be exhausting, but it is also extremely fulfilling and satisfying.
* * *
Let's ignore the constitutional questions about the proposal from Donald Trump about barring Muslims from entering the U. S. There is a far more basic question to consider. An international flight has just landed at New York's JFK airport. Over 200 passengers are clearing customs. Can anyone explain to me just how the customs agents are going to determine with absolute certainty that any of them are Muslims and deny them entry into the U. S.?
Passports do not normally contain information on the holder's religion. But even if they did, it isn't all that hard to obtain false documents. So we can't check passports or any other documents that might identify someone as a Muslim and enable them to be barred from entering.
When it comes to people attempting to emigrate to the U.S., the vetting process is more involved, but again the same question applies. How do we know that someone trying to come here is a Muslim. There's nothing we can do in terms of evaluating their appearance.
So while the questions of constitutionality of Trump's idiotic approach remain valid and worth of exploration, the practical question needs to be moved front and center. Just how do we determine who is and isn't a Muslim before we let them into the country?
* * *
A friend of mine posed an interesting question on FB. How should they deal with their friends who post political things where those who discuss those issues get hateful and very angry with their discussions.
It's a good question. You can of course unfriend someone, or just unfollow them. That allows you to stay friends, but none of their activity will show in your timeline.
I thought about how else one can try to make things less angry in online versus in person discussions. The level of invective people use online, especially in anonymous comment forums, is nowhere near what they would say to someone if that person was seated at a table across from them.
So I suggested that maybe what we should be doing is imagine that we are sitting at a table with the person we are having this online discussion with; before we write a single word.
What do you think?
posted by me at 4:35 PM
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