TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 220.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Why I Try Not To Write Bad Reviews.

I am, as my family and friends will testify, neither nice nor sweet. And I have certainly delivered my share of scathing takedowns and over-the-top denunciations. But I’m not particularly proud of it, and as I backpack into middle age, I’ve been trying to cut down on the snark, along with late nights, red wine and almost everything else I enjoyed in my 30s.

If not because I am nice, then why? Out of pity for my victims? Oh, sure, that’s a factor. When I used to write mean reviews of people’s books, I thought of them as big, powerful people who deserved to have their work torn down. Then I started running into those people, and to my shock, they had read — and remembered — even reviews I’d written for obscure outlets. They were people who had spent years of their lives working on something — something they thought was really important — and I had spent perhaps two or three hours composing a sarcasm-filled denunciation. They were hurt, just like I’d be. This is both sobering and socially awkward.

But that’s not actually the main reason I avoid it. The main reason I avoid the joys of snarky takedowns is that it’s not very good for you. Snark is immense, immense fun; the only thing more enjoyable than chortling to yourself over a particularly well-turned insult is having your friends and acquaintances e-mail to tell you how awesome it was. But if you’re basically pretty good at snotty putdowns — and most bloggers have at least an apprentice-level facility with this art — it’s almost too much fun. It’s too easy. It’s the writing equivalent of skiing the bunny slope.

I have written some epic snark, and I have written a book, and let me just tell you, there is no comparison. Books are hard. Reported features are hard. Sarcasm and outrage are easy, which is why they tend to peak in adolescence, unlike, say, mastery of nuclear physics.

True. For me, of course, I seldom buy a book, or see a movie, unless I expect to enjoy it. Sometimes I’m disappointed, of course, but usually I’m right. I seldom even accept commissioned reviews for things I don’t think I’ll enjoy — they don’t pay enough for those to make it worth several hours of unpleasantness. I still sometimes write negative reviews, but even then I try to focus on the subject, not bash the author. But that’s just me.

WORRIED ABOUT THE SRIRACHAPOCALYPSE? Amazon still has some. For now.

SIGN UP FOR OBAMACARE, have money “erroneously” debited from your bank account. But it’s easy to get this straightened out, right? Not so much: “Washington Healthplanfinder emailed the Bruners a few days ago telling them to log in to view their invoice, something they couldn’t do because the website has been down. The Bruners haven’t been able to get through on the helpline either. They finally contacted Healthplanfinder administrators by posting a message on their Facebook page.”

FREEDOM IS . . . HEY, WAIT: Teamsters allege right-to-work laws are ‘slavery.’

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I DON’T TRUST THEM: Lawmakers Eager to Get Secretive Trade Agreement Moving.

JADE RABBIT vs. Jackalope.

FUNNY, I’LL BET THIS STORY WOULD HAVE GOTTEN MORE PLAY IF HE’D BEEN A TEA PARTIER: Kansas terrorism plot: The American engineer turned unlikely jihadist: Family and neighbours express disbelief as unassuming 58-year-old aviation electrician alleged to be new face of Islamic terror in American heartland.

To his neighbours in the quiet residential neighbourhood where he has lived since 1979, he was the quiet but polite man with the unkempt front garden. To his adult son, he was a “regular dad”.

But to their amazement, Terry Loewen is the unlikely new face of alleged Islamic home-grown terror after he was charged with plotting a pre-Christmas suicide bombing mission at the Kansas airport where he worked as an aviation electrician.

Mr Loewen was arrested as he arrived early on Friday at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita in a car that he thought was packed with explosives As the name of the airport indicates, this is the American heartland, far away from the usual targets for terrorist plots and breeding grounds for extremism.

But Tea Party terrorists seem a lot less common than the Islamic variety. Even in Kansas.

YEAH, HOW’S THAT WORKIN’ OUT? ‘Smart diplomacy’ update: Benghazi now a ‘training hub’ for Islamist fighters.

IT’S POLITICS ALL THE WAY DOWN WITH THESE PEOPLE: WaPo: White House delayed enacting rules ahead of 2012 election to avoid controversy.

The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials.

Some agency officials were instructed to hold off submitting proposals to the White House for up to a year to ensure that they would not be issued before voters went to the polls, the current and former officials said.

The delays meant that rules were postponed or never issued. The stalled regulations included crucial elements of the Affordable Care Act, what bodies of water deserved federal protection, pollution controls for industrial boilers and limits on dangerous silica exposure in the workplace.

The Obama administration has repeatedly said that any delays until after the election were coincidental and that such decisions were made without regard to politics. But seven current and former administration officials told The Washington Post that the motives behind many of the delays were clearly political, as Obama’s top aides focused on avoiding controversy before his reelection.

Obviously, they want babies to die. I mean, that would be the headline if it were the GOP delaying stuff like this. . . .

THE HILL: Democratic lawmakers: White House staff shakeup long overdue.

LEFTIES CONTINUE THEIR BY-ANY-MEANS-NECESSARY CAMPAIGN: Frivolous Ethics Complaint Against Judge Sykes Dismissed.

UH OH: Budget Deal Could Stumble Hard in the Senate: It’s a 2014 – and 2016 – thing. “Senate Republicans are lining up to oppose the two-year budget agreement that passed the House on Thursday, placing the package in some jeopardy if it fails to attract the expected overwhelming Democratic support. A growing number of GOP lawmakers who have expressed their reluctance, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, the Senate Republican whip, are facing re-election challenges from their right flank, generating political pressure to oppose the plan.”

ED DRISCOLL: All The President’s On-The-Job Training. You’d think after five years, he’d be better trained.

VIDEO: Glock’s Fantastic Pro-Gun Commercial Is Sure To Offend A Liberal, And Make Conservatives Laugh Out Loud.

BOSTON POLICE “indefinitely suspend” license plate reader program. “This suspension likely makes Boston one of the largest cities in America to stop using this sort of technology, which for years has been in wide use by thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide.”

I’m going to be optimistic and assume it’s because they read my Popular Mechanics column this month.

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TAM: Why We Fight. “Gaze upon the face of the enemy.”

HMM: US, UK officials worry Snowden still has ‘doomsday’ collection of classified material.

US and British intelligence officials say they are concerned about a “doomsday” collection of highly classified, heavily encrypted materials they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden may have stored away.

The cache supposedly contains documents with names of US and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former US officials and other sources told Reuters.

The collection is shielded by elaborate encryption that requires multiple passwords to open, said two of the sources, who all spoke to Reuters anonymously.

At least three people – unknown to the sources – possess the passwords, which are only valid for a short period each day, they said.

Now, see, if it were me I’d have it hidden on an anonymous server somewhere running on some sort of dead-man program that would email it out if I disappeared for too long. Actually, that was pretty much the “MacGuffin” in the unpublished novel I wrote with Fritz Fiedler back in the 1990s, entitled, appropriately enough, Deadman. The twist was, the protagonist died accidentally before the beginning of the book, leaving people scrambling to find it. . . .

FALLEN ANGELS WAS JUST A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL, RIGHT? RIGHT? Sun’s Current Solar Activity Cycle Is Weakest in a Century.

KATHY SHAIDLE: Finally: A Comedian Who Refuses To Apologize.

TEST-DRIVE: The 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid.

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ANN ALTHOUSE ON THE LEFT’S MEGYN KELLY RACE-BAITING. “He just cannot let it go. Megyn Kelly must be stupid. Fox News must suck. Jesus can wait and Martin Luther King’s dream will need to be deferred for however long it takes to kick that right-wing news blonde around one more time over less than nothing.”

She’s a big deal now with her own show. They have to Palinize her fast, or women might listen to her and see another way.