Columns

As the March 1 sequestration deadline approached, Attorney General Eric Holder dramatically warned that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would be forced to make cuts that threaten the safety of all Americans. Holder claimed that cuts to agencies within the Justice Department would diminish the department’s ability to investigate and prosecute crimes.

    There’s an old saying: A proof text out of context is a pretext. The idea is that one should always check the context of a Bible verse that someone has quoted to prove a point. Checking the context of a verse means reading the passage that it was pulled from. It also means checking other parts of the Bible that address the same topic, letting Scripture interpret Scripture.

Tax season is upon us once again. As April 15th creeps closer, families and businesses are scrambling to meet the filing deadline for 2012 tax returns. For many that means a mountain of paperwork, hefty fees for tax preparation, and a headache from navigating the outdated, needlessly complex tax code. The U.S. tax code is so complicated that roughly 9 out of 10 Americans use paid professionals or commercial software to prepare their tax returns.

    Everything eventually comes to and end. I was reminded of this as I sat in Delegate Lacey Putney’s office doing the interview for the story on him that appeared in last week’s Bedford Bulletin. He’s never lost an election, but time finally did what no political opponent could do. Next year’s General Assembly will convene without Lacey Putney for the first time in more than half a century. I certainly wish him, and Carmela, well in his retirement.