Do I think President Obama ordered the IRS to make life hard on the Tea Party? No.

Is it an impeachable offense? Get real.

But I do think it reveals a bigger problem that crosses party lines and should concern ALL Americans: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

On Twitter, Bette Midler cheered the IRS for going after the Tea Party, apparently ignorant of the fact that the party in power changes from time to time in Washington. And if she is OK with an arm of government exacting revenge on a political rival in 2013, she better not be surprised when, under President Rubio, the IRS decides to audit her taxes...for the past 11 years.

My "trust" is government can't go much lower, therefore this story neither shocks nor surprises me. Sadly, I expect it with our current political culture and don't see much change ahead. The ends justify the means rules the day in politics and for all the complaints about what happened last year, the Democrats still won the White House. Mission accomplished.

Every American citizen should be outraged anytime the United States federal government starts acting like some tin-pot dictatorship by pitting the people against one another and using its own agencies to intimidate, punish and hold on to power.

When you consume news and information from a variety of sources (with a variety of viewpoints) a few "truths" begin to emerge.

Here is what I've learned from the Benghazi hearings so far.

1. Nobody took diplomatic safety and security seriously enough.
2. Once the attack began, nobody was close enough to rescue or save Ambassador Stevens and staff.
3. There is a difference between "lying" and "not telling all the truth," although both occurred in the aftermath.
4. Neither "lying" nor "not telling all the truth" is currently against the law or an impeachable offense.
5. Nobody gets elected (or reelected) without lying. Ever.
6. We still vote for them and wrongly believe only the other guy "lies."

Should something have been done before 9/11/12? Absolutely. Was there criminal negligence that led to the deaths of the ambassador and staff? Doesn't look like it. Did the White House, or more specifically the Obama re-election campaign, "massage" the information so as to fit the narrative they were selling about a Democrat that was tough on terror, strong on defense and keeping you safe? Without a doubt.

But as Rob Hunter likes to say, "we get what we deserve" and politicians figured out a long time ago that we like to be lied to. There are few, if any consequences to it, and your political supporters will defend your lies even though they scream bloody murder when the other side does the same thing.

Happy Friday.

Timothy McVeigh, Adam Lanza, the Columbine killers and even Osama bin Laden were all afforded some form of respectful burial. Why is Tamerlan Tsarnaev's case so different? There are plenty of gravestones, tombs and burial sites of people who have committed far worse crimes and murdered more innocents. And that's just in Massachusetts alone.

I get the emotions and visceral response to the "not in my back yard" crowd. But I haven't heard an argument on how it dishonors, or cheapens the victims in any way to allow the family to bury Tamerlan. In fact, as I understand the law, you MUST bury a body "within a decent amount of time" with no provisions made for how good or bad the deceased was.

If the outrage was consistent, I suppose I could at least consider the requests to deny burial in their cemetery, town or state. But as long as serial killers, mass murderers, child rapists and other criminal slime is allowed to be buried without controversy, you won't find me on this bandwagon.

Nowadays it's entered into a calendar program or app, but I used to hand-write the word "Senna" onto May 1 of my calendars every year.

That is the day that my hero, Formula One racer Ayrton Senna, died while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy. If you are a fan of motorsports, you know his legacy. If you saw the documentary "Senna" last year, you got a sense of who he was. And if you are totally unaware, the video below might help bring you up to speed.

It's difficult to describe Senna's impact, even 19 years after his death. Ask today's crop of F1 or Indycar drivers who their hero is, the name Senna tops nearly every list. Look closely at many of the helmets of today's stars and you can see tributes to Senna with the yellow, blue and green of the Brazilian flag incorporated into them. And when talking pure speed, commitment and passion, drivers today are still measured against Senna's levels, with few measuring up in every category.

So I reflect on Sunday, May 1, 1994, and remember sitting in front of the TV, having woken up at 4 a.m. to watch the race live, and cheering as Senna shot away at the start chased by that new German kid Schumacher in a car we all knew was faster. Through sheer will, he pushed his inferior car harder until that fateful corner, when a combination of low tire pressure or a failed steering column shot him off the track and into the wall at an incredible speed on lap seven.

If you believe the promise that has been made to every generation of Americans that THEY will have a higher standard of living, more security and a better life than their parents, then prepare to be disappointed. By almost every measure we have hit a stone wall and at best have stalled, and at worst are slipping backwards.

Author and columnist Robert J. Samuelson refers to it as "The Twilight of Entitlement" and not just the commonly held definition of social welfare "entitlements." I tend to agree with his assertion that, by and large, we have been lied to by politicians and leaders with a vested interest in telling us everything is coming up roses, and that we will continue along that path forever and ever, amen.

Our expectations and attitudes about what it's like to live in and be an "American" have never been more out of whack with reality.

Sorry if I'm the first to tell you, but a college degree, willingness to work hard and playing by the rules DOES NOT guarantee success in America. Or anywhere else for that matter. You are NOT entitled to a job for life, a home of your own, two cars in the garage and a retirement age of 65, at least not the way our system of government is set up today.

And as government struggles to find new promises to engage voters, we are being sold ideals that are neither achievable nor affordable. Maybe the saddest part is the fact that as we are undergoing this huge transformation as a society, our leaders keep selling us on a set of goals and expectations that date back to the 1960s.

Those days aren't coming back and the sooner we start dealing with reality the better of we'll all be. Or we could just smile and clap along the next time someone tells you they are "fighting for the American Dream" in order to get your vote. Ugghhh.

I am not a journalist.

I have never so much as attended a journalism class, referred to myself as a journalist and, as a matter of pride, restrict my dealings with "journalists" to hanging out with Pamela Hughes. But last Friday I found myself in the middle of a journalistic storm as the story in Boston unfolded.

Since I have nothing better to do, I was glued to social media accounts of the events that led to the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Since I was at home and not needed at the radio station, I began to tweet (@BruceStJames) different news bits I was picking up through news organizations, private citizens and maybe best of all, the Boston Police Department scanner. Besides the retweets, comments and new followers I gained Friday night, I also got a new awareness of the good -- and bad -- aspects of Twitter as a news source.

First, the good.

By monitoring multiple channels and cross referencing reports, locations and coded radio messages, I was able to "beat" the cable news channels by several minutes with real, factual and dramatic news reports. Everything from the fact the suspect was alive and moving (according to the sniper on the roof peering into the boat AND the Massachusetts State Police helicopter's infrared radar), to the efforts of the Hostage Rescue Team to coax the suspect out on his own, knowing the clock was ticking as the helicopter was low on fuel and soon they would lose its eyes in the sky. Talk about real life drama!

And now, the bad.

I have no special powers to separate fact from fiction and I debated hitting "send" on a few of my tweets because I thought the source was dubious or the information suspect. What I figured out fast was that ALL truth existed on the Internet and it was up to me to sift through, edit, discard and highlight certain information. No pressure. Literally, no pressure. What is the downside of ME getting it wrong as opposed to AP, CNN or even KTAR? In hindsight, I did a reasonable job of accurately tweeting the events but will also admit to falling for bad leads, misunderstanding communication and/or trusting the wrong source.

Which brings us to this dilemma: fast or accurate?

I'll take my chances with fast. Never before has "normal" news gathering felt so slow. And by slow, we are talking 30 seconds to three minutes behind what was already out on Twitter. As much as I'd like to say that, next time a major news story breaks, we will all wait patiently for stories and sources to be vetted, triple-checked and double-sourced, count me as one of the people who will be breathlessly following along on social media, re-tweeting what I see and hear as quickly as my fat little fingers can type.

There is plenty of evidence that our society is transforming and you can make the argument it isn't all for the better.

We hear stories all the time of seemingly normal people who suddenly "snap" and commit horrible crimes against others or in many cases harm themselves.

The numbers don't lie. In just the past few years, suicide surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of injury or death for Americans and the military recently announced that more soldiers died of their own hand than were killed in combat in 2012. Thirty percent of employees report suffering chronic debilitating stress and over 50 percent of 18- to 33-year-olds say they experience a level of stress that keeps them awake at night.

And it doesn't look better for the next generation when you find out that 20 percent of ALL kids are diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, depression or bi-polar disorder with a large percentage of them taking drugs to deal with their problems.

So is it any wonder that these instances of people "snapping" seem to becoming more commonplace? These "once in a lifetime" events are happening more and more frequently and the overall effect is a general desensitization to these horrific acts. Something is going on and it is profoundly affecting millions of Americans, and by default, affecting ALL of us.

There is an argument that as opposed to trying to stop people from harming others (or themselves) once they "snap" due to stress, why isn't more being done to reduce the causes of stress, or at least mitigate the negative effects? Why aren't we researching the root issue of stress related diseases -- both physical and mental -- with the end goal being a reduction in the amount of people who reach the end of their rope?

Modern American life with its 24/7 connectivity, political hype, economic challenges and societal shifts are proving to be very challenging for millions of Americans. I would hope we could agree on the need to address this issue for our own sake, our children's sake and maybe even for the sake of our fellow Americans.

Oops.

Speed versus accuracy. You saw and heard it on full display Wednesday as reports out of Boston began to trickle out that an arrest had been made and a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings would be arraigned in federal court momentarily! CNN's John King led with this, going so far as to read from his Blackberry that a "law enforcement source" was confirming this.

Do you remember the game "telephone?" Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that breaking news gathering looks and feels a lot like the game I played in kindergarten?

Wednesday morning, specifically on CNN, the story started as "significant progress" made in the investigation and rapidly developed into "unknown person identified" to "suspect identified" to "arrest made" to "arrest(s) made" to "suspect due to be arraigned in federal court," all within 45 minutes. The truth, or REAL story, is most likely buried in one of these headlines or contains elements of them, but you can see how quickly the race to be first with "the news" can lead to, at the least, wildly inaccurate reports and, at worst, outright fabrications.

Just like we found out Monday, the initial reports are usually NOT the most accurate ones. CNN is an easy target for jumping the gun on this story but in a way, we are all to blame. We DEMAND instant news, analysis and preferably a conclusion to big stories like this, and we'd like it before dinner tonight. Thank you very much.

The reason this is becoming the norm is the speed in which we consume information. Remember the olden days when you had to wait until 5:30pm to get the news? Or even worse, wait for the morning paper to be delivered to get the details of a news story? In 2013, news organizations report, fact check, source, retract and re-report stories LIVE and on the fly, a process that used to happen behind the scenes and out of sight.

It's like pulling back the curtain and finding out what the Wizard really looks like, in all his flawed glory.

I must be the weird one. I haven't, nor will I, spend time watching celebrities or non-celebrities as they battle their addictions. I can't find a lot of entertainment value in human suffering, I must be getting soft in my old age.

Wednesday morning, I could not avoid the clips of Lindsay Lohan being interviewed on the David Letterman show the previous night. As much as I am a fan of pop culture, I do not keep up with the almost daily tabloid stories of the young Ms. Lohan and her run-ins with the law, alcohol and drugs. I feel that by following this soap opera too closely I am enabling her and giving her the attention she obviously is searching for, albeit in a very destructive way.

But I digress.

In the interview she referred to rehab as a "blessing," even though her coming three-month stint will be the latest attempt at beating her addiction but hardly the first.

And while I wish her the best and hold no ill will towards her, it seems she is surrounded by a culture of celebrity that celebrates her drug and alcohol abuse, and dare I say benefits from it. Lindsay Lohan has become famous for being an addict at her age and for throwing away an acting career, not for her great body of work. Her booking on the Letterman show and all the subsequent buzz afterwards is not because of a new project or award she received, but rather the public's desire to watch this train crash of a life happen in slow motion before our very eyes. Preferably in HD.

Addiction is a very serious thing. The cost, both financial and human, are all around us. I can't help but think of all the people quietly suffering or battling their addictions and how confusing it must be to see addiction treated like a sport in the entertainment world. Charlie Sheen is rewarded for his bizarre, drug- fueled behavior with more attention, money and fame while John Belushi lies in a grave because of his.

Lindsay Lohan is at a crossroads that many addicts find themselves at. Unfortunately, it seems she stands to benefit from continuing down the destructive path as opposed to being clean and sober and returning to "normal."

Someone PLEASE wave the white flag.

I'm not sure exactly when we lost the "War On Drugs", but I feel confident that after 40 years and nearly $1 Trillion spent on it, the results do not justify the cost. At all. And President Obama just asked for another $25.6 billion to continue this "War" in his 2013 budget proposal. At this point, we might have a greater impact if we piled the money up on the White House lawn and set it ablaze.

I mean seriously, spending that much time and money on a problem should have led to some measurable victories, some changes in society that we can all point to as justification for this war and the toll it's taken on our Country. Instead, the numbers show the exact opposite of what sane people would call "winning".

Take drug addiction rates. Common sense would say that after 40 years of constant "War" that fewer people would be addicted to drugs today than say… 1973. Except they aren't. In fact, over the entire span of the "War On Drugs" drug addiction rates have remained fairly consistent with all the different programs, plans and methods having no measureable effect.

Ok, but the price of drugs must have skyrocketed, right? From our battles to eradicate coca leaves in Columbia to the stop and frisk tactics of the NYPD, these surely must have made it harder to manufacture, import or sell drugs, leading to a sharp increase in price, correct? Wrong. Basic supply and demand and its impact on price blows a hole in that theory as almost every category of drug is cheaper today than it was in the 70's, even adjusted for inflation! (I want to point out this is NOT from first-hand knowledge. )

So much for that. Hey, I'm trying here…

About the only area you can say the "War On Drugs" has had a measurable impact is on the nation's prison population, and I'd argue that's nothing to be proud of. Our prison population has grown by 700% during the last 40 years, to 2.2 million people. And most analyst agree that roughly 50% of Federal and State prisons are filled with people incarcerated for drug crimes, many of them non-violent or usage crimes. Add to that, the disproportionate amount of minorities jailed (even when drug usage is higher amongst the white population) and you can see that unless you are in the prison business, or connected to a line of work that helps fill them, the "War On Drugs" is a failure.

I dare you to name another initiative that has cost us so much, over so long that has yielded so few results. Good luck.