Before jumping to conclusions regarding the political intent of Cincinnati-based operatives in an Internal Revenue Services' unit looking at tax-exemption requests, it might be useful to spend some time with a little fiction before assuming something to be fact.
David Foster Wallace's final novel, "The Pale King," paints a compelling picture of the intense boredom, arcane complexity and crushing workload of tax workers' responsibilities in backwater assignments like Cincinnati. In overwhelming real-life situations, as well as in fiction, people can sometimes get weird and resort to questionable strategies to gain control and make life and work more manageable.
Wallace, were he alive today, would be beaming with irony reading about the "scandal" involving the alleged targeting of tea party groups for special scrutiny by IRS employees who might as well be drawn directly from his prescient novel.
Victor Smith Jr.
Westerlo