A faulty episode of "Lost," curious optimism in Russia and ratting people out to the IRS

- You might recall that Jack, Hurley, Sawyer and Jin played prominent roles in major storylines the past couple of weeks on Lost. Well, they made a grand total of zero screen appearances combined on last night’s episode, good times. Once this season (and the series) ends, that’s the one thing I’ll be most thankful for, that a show that regularly omits key characters for weeks on end is gone. Now, on to the recap. It was a Sayid-centric episode, with the former member of the Iraqi National Guard visiting family in L.A. in Oceanic-land (life off the island, where Flight 815 never crashed on the island). He arrives at the house of his brother Omar, who is amazingly married to the former love of Sayid’s life, Nadia. On the island, Sayid storms Dogen’s “office” inside the temple, where Sayid was tortured soon after coming back from the dead. He demands answers and Dogen says machine used to administer electrical jolts to Sayid’s was to see which way his internal scale of good vs. evil tipped. His scale tipped the wrong way, Dogen says, thus they tried to kill him by having Jack give him a pill filled with poison. A kick-ass fight breaks out between the two men; things are thrown, plates and pots are broken, makeshift weapons are used and martial arts skilled displayed. Dogen gains upper hand and has knife to Sayid’s throat, but curiously stops the attack when he sees the baseball he always seems to have in his hands hit the floor. He pauses, then tells Sayid to leave the temple and never return instead of killing him. Meanwhile, Claire and faux Locke stand in the jungle outside temple. He sends her inside for some sort of mission, but she wonders why he’s not going himself. She says he could have sent Jin or Sawyer as well and asks why her. Fax Locke says if he could go himself, he would. He confirms his promise that if she helps him, he will help her get her son back, so in Claire goes. Back in Oceanic-land, Omar wakes Sayid in the middle of the night while he sleeps in the guest bedroom and asks him to help settle a debt. Omar explains that he took out a loan from a shady character to help open a second branch of his dry cleaning business and now the man he borrowed from claims that Omar owes him interest on the already-paid loan for as long as he owns the business. On the island, Claire strolls into the temple area and informs Dogen that faux Locke wishes to speak with him. He refuses because he believes faux Locke will kill him if he sets foot outside the temple. Instead, Claire suggests that he send someone faux Locke won't kill. In response, he orders her to be placed in “the pit” and tells his minions to find Jack and Hurley, not knowing they are gone to the other side of the island. Instead, Dogen halts Sayid’s exodus from the temple and asks him to be the one to go see faux Locke. Dogen tells him he that the being he’s about to meet is evil incarnate who is free now that Jacob is dead. This being, Dogen says, will appear to Sayid in the form of someone he knows. He must stab this person in the chest before they speak because if the person speaks, “it’s too late.” Sayid takes off with Dogen’s dagger and on the way to his meeting, he encounters Kate, who is on her way back to the temple. She arrives and greets Miles, who admits that he considered going after Sawyer like she did, but figured he would eventually end up berated and sent away. Then Miles spills the news that Claire came to the temple and because that’s who she came back to the island to find, Kate is determined to see Claire and talk to her. Back in the jungle, the wind begins to swirl through the trees around Sayid and he braces himself for trouble. Suddenly, faux Locke walks through the trees and greets him. Remembering Dogen’s advice, Sayid stabs him in the chest. That proves an exercise in futility, as the knife stab does no damage to faux Locke. He doesn’t bleed or suffer any pain and merely asks Sayid why he did that as he pulls the knife from his chest. Off the island, Omar is attacked and sent to hospital, presumably by the men he owes money to, and at the hospital, Nadia urges Sayid not to go after attackers. On the island, talks with faux Locke, who explains to Sayid that Dogen sent him to kill him because he knew Sayid would fail and assumed that faux Locke would kill him, which is apparently something Dogen really wants. But instead of killing Sayid, faux Locke tells Sayid that if he will merely deliver a message to Dogen, he can have literally anything in the world that he wants. Sayid apparently accepts the assignment and goes back to the temple, where he loudly shares with all the inhabitants that faux Locke is leaving the island at sundown and those who want to leave can go with him. When someone asks what will happen to those who stay, Sayid answers that they will die. Elsewhere in the temple, Kate visits Claire in the pit deep inside the temple and is given two minutes to talk by Lennon, the hippie right-hand man of Dogen. Off the island, Sayid is back at Omar’s home with Nadia while Omar himself recovers at the hospital. Nadia asks why he keeps a picture of her in his suitcase and why, if he truly loves her, he pushed her away and toward his brother. He answers that he’s spent the past 12 years trying to rid himself of the terrible things he’s done and that he doesn’t deserve her. Clearly, they still love each other, but to what avail? Flash back to the island, where everyone is fleeing because from the temple because they now know that Jacob is dead and because of that, the temple is no longer safe. Sayid goes inside to return knife the knife to Dogen. Back off the island, Sayid is met in front of brother’s home by men in a black SUV with heavily tinted windows. They demand that he get inside and he’s taken for a ride to a local restaurant. In the kitchen, he meets none other than Martin Keame. You may remember Keame as the leader of the mercenary team that billionaire Charles Widmore sent to the island two seasons ago. Keame is the man Omar owes money to and he begins lecturing Sayid. He knows all about who Sayid is and pointedly informs him that either he or Omar is going to pay him the money he’s owed. Sayid calmly answers all questions, bides his time and when the moment is right, attacks the guard closest to him. He manages to take out both guards and after shooting them, he turns the gun on Keame, who desperately offers to forgive Omar’s debt if Sayid will let him live. After a moment’s consideration, Sayid decides he’s not in a forgiving mood and shoot Keame dead as well. As the sound of the gunshot dies out, he hears the sounds of movement from the nearby walk-in freezer. Rushing over and opening the door, Sayid finds none other than Jin bound up inside the freezer. This version of Jin doesn’t speak English and it’s unclear why he’s there. Back on the island, a whole lot of people suddenly bum rush the temple. First, Sayid finds Dogen sitting beside the temple pool and drops the knife beside him. Asked why he wants Sayid dead, Dogen launches into a monologue about once being a banker in Osaka, getting promoted and going out to celebrate with his co-workers, having too much to drink and ending up in a car crash that killed his 12-year-old son. In the hospital, he was visited by Jacob, who offers to save his son’s life if he agrees to go to the island, take a new job there and never see his son again. Sayid admits that faux Locke offered similar deal and suddenly leaps up from where he sits and drowns Dogen in the pool. Lennon walks in, realizes what he’s done and berates Sayid. He states that Dogen was the only thing keeping faux Locke (i.e. the Black Smoke Monster) out of the temple. Stunningly, Sayid admits that he knew this and slits Lennon’s throat. The BSM rushes in and begins killing people right around the time things get busy inside the temple. Kate and Miles try to flee the BSM, but rather than leave with Miles, Kate goes to get Claire. Claire refuses to leave, knowing what’s coming, and urges Kate to take shelter in the pit with her. That ends up being the wise choice, as Kate survives the BSM attack. Ilana, Lapidus, Ben Linus and Sun also arrive at the temple (haven’t seen them in a while) and find Miles, telling him he needs to come with them. Ben breaks off from the group to find Sayid, who is sitting calmly beside the pool containing his two murder victims. Ben says there is still time to escape but Sayid distantly answers, “Not for me.” The rest of the group – Miles, Sun, Ilana and Lapidus – head through the temple to the tunnel we saw Hurley exploring last episode. Ilana stops at the same symbol engraved on the wall that Hurley seemed focused on and pushes in that section of the wall, revealing a hidden compartment. The four of them step inside and close the opening just as the BSM rushes by. As the attack ends, Sayid strolls out into the temple courtyard and walks through a scene of total carnage. Dead bodies lie everywhere and the temple is in ruins. Sayid and Claire walk out of the temple trailed by Kate. In the jungle just outside the outer wall, faux Locke is waiting with a band of followers/Others. Without a word, Sayid and Claire join faux Locke’s posse and trudge off through the jungle, leaving a stunned Kate behind. So once again, lots of questions raised (still no one will say what faux Locke/BSM’s real name is) and only a few minor answers provided. Hopefully next episode will be better……….

- It’s a simple question with a simple answer: Should you turn in someone you know who cheated on their taxes? No. The topic is coming up because it’s once again tax season and the country has just over a month remaining to mail (or electronically submit) their taxes to those ass clowns at the IRS. It’s a guarantee that more than a few people will cheat on their taxes because it happens every year. Skew a few numbers your way, omit some information and bam, a) your refund it bigger or b) the amount you owe is smaller. A recent poll from the IRS Oversight Board showed that 13 percent of those surveyed think this behavior is acceptable, up from 9 percent in 2008. Bearing that in mind, the IRS is upping the blood money, er, reward for turning in someone who cheats on their taxes. The IRS's informant program has been around for more than 140 years and rewards have never been higher. Should you choose to be a no-integrity rat and sell out your fellow citizens to The Man, you could receive up to 15 percent of the amount that has been underpaid, with a maximum award of $10 million. To sell your soul to The Man for a few bucks, you must fill out a claim form, which is available on the IRS Web site, and mail it to the agency or call the IRS tip line. What is particularly gutless about this approach is that although you must reveal your identity to the IRS, your name will not be made public. I say if you’re going to rat out someone for trying to stick it to The Man by cheating on their taxes, you need to be man enough to have your name made public. Of course, there is no minimum requirement for the amount in question, which could lead to a lot of people filing small claims against people they merely suspect of tax fraud in the hopes of scoring a few bucks or getting some payback for a past wrong. To combat this potential problem, IRS requires informants to provide personal information about the tax evader, including the person's social security number, address and date of birth. For big-time tax cheats, the IRS offers even more incentives to turn them in. Rats who sell out someone who cheats the IRS out of at least $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest will receive a minimum of 15 percent and a maximum of 30 percent of the amount owed. Additionally, if the suspected tax evader is an individual, his or her annual gross income must exceed $200,000. What I hate is that the IRS received tips from about 476 informants identifying 1,246 taxpayers in fiscal year 2008, the first full year the program was implemented. In other words, people are far too willing to sell one another out for cash. It’s one thing if you want to go down the street to your neighbor’s house and steal his TV because he’s cheating on his taxes. If you want to even the score that way, I don’t have a problem with it. Just don’t go selling that same neighbor out to The Man for some quick cash, that’s all I’m saying…………

- Why this next topic is even a topic at all, I’m not sure. But I suppose that there are just too many morons in the world for subjects like this to not be an issue, so onward we forge. Journey with me to Brooklyn, New York, where the current hot-button issue is none other that people bringing their infants and toddlers to bars. Sounds insane, no? It is insane, but in places like Park Slope and surrounding neighborhoods, parents just can't seem to shake the habit of bringing their little brats to the bar. Why they are unable to find a babysitter or find somewhere else, I don’t know. The issues are numerous relating to this trend, from bar patrons who don’t have kids feeling uncomfortable drinking, swearing and engaging in normal bar behavior in front of kids to those who worry what being around drinking, smoking, swearing people and bar fights will do to kids. I’m with those in the former category because they should not be asked to watch their language, to not smoke outdoors near strollers and to keep their drunk friends under control because some ass clown has brought their 4-year-old to the bar. Nor should you be asked to play peek-a-boo or talk baby talk to someone’s tot sitting in a baby carrier in the corner booth. The bar is where you go to unwind, to get your drink on and to enjoy some freedom and lack of constraints. Yes, I understand that in a place like New York, the cost of living is high and paying for a babysitter on a regular basis can be tough. But if you can't afford to pay a babysitter, then you don’t go to the bar. There are places you can bring your kids along if you absolutely have to, but the bar is not one of them. Recently, a user on the Brooklynian, a neighborhood blog, posted a question: "Which bars are child free?" The debate has been raging for two years, ever since the bar Union Hall, a popular New York gathering place, banned strollers from the premises. It was a brilliant decision and if I were looking for a bar to go to in New York, that decision would put Union Hall at the top of my list – or it would have if whiny, b*thcy parents who like toting their kids to bars hadn’t thrown a hissy fit and pressured Union Hall into doubling back and removing the rule. Even though the bar had a legitimate reason for banning strollers - it been issued tickets by the fire department at one point because strollers blocked exits – these tools who wanted to both get drunk and not have to pay for a babysitter for little Timmy didn’t want to hear it. Tough luck, knobs. You have kids, you forfeit certain parts of your life in order to raise those kids. Going to the bar a couple nights a week is one of those parts and you all just need to deal with it………….

- One of the thickest personnel files in the history of personnel files became public record recently and now the entire world knows exactly what sort of impact golfer John Daly has had on the PGA Tour for the 17-year span from 1991 through 2008. We all know the highlights: multiple divorces, numerous battles with alcohol, smoking and gambling, run-ins at Hooters and suspensions from the tour just to name a few. But the true depth of JD’s wandering ways is illustrated by the following nuggets of knowledge, which became public when the records were turned over as part of a court case. This 456-page behemoth reveals that the PGA Tour ordered Daly to undergo counseling or enter alcohol rehabilitation not one, not two, not even three, but seven freaking times. Seven stints in rehab is an impressive number, one that would make Amy Winehouse envious. Daly has also been placed on Tour probation six times, although the records don’t indicated if the probation was double super-secret in nature, and cited 11 times for "conduct unbecoming a professional." That doesn’t include the 21 times JD was cited "failure to give best efforts,” which seems like a very subjective evaluation and would also be tough to prove if a guy was playing drunk, which I have to assume happened once or 15 times. All told, these antics cost Daly some $100,000 in fines during the period covered in the file, which ends with the infamous Hooters incident in which he was found intoxicated outside a Hooters restaurant in North Carolina, ended up in the drunk tank and was suspended from the Tour for the six months of the 2009 season. Oh, and there was also the time JD almost drove his ride into an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent after failing to stop at a security checkpoint at the 2005 U.S. Open in Pinehurst, N.C. He returned to the Tour midway through last season and was out playing this year at the start of the season, but remarked to a Golf Channel crew that he "was done" with the game following one particularly bad round. Of course, he was back on the course two weeks later at Pebble Beach, which surprised exactly no one. He’s also the subject of a new reality show on Golf Channel, which should be an interesting train wreck. I do have to wonder what the over/under on Hooters references in the file is, a number I would put somewhere about 471…………

- Russia’s focus isn’t only on its piss-poor Olympic performance and finding ways to get its athletics officials in front of the firing squad, er, fired as soon as possible. Make no mistake about it, they’re still pissed about winning a measly 15 medals and three golds at the Vancouver Games, but they can multitask. For instance, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov showed that he has far more optimism than the rest of the world when it comes to the growing international menace that is Iran. While the rest of the world has more or less resigned itself to the fact that dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Co. are a bunch of nuclear-happy freaks looking to create an arsenal of nuclear-powered weapons (i.e. bombs) and blow Israel (and perhaps others) right off the map, Lavrov seems to believe that there is still room for diplomacy rather than sanctions to resolve the dispute with Iran over its nuclear program. "We will concentrate all efforts on finding political and diplomatic solutions. These efforts have not yet been exhausted," Lavrov said Tuesday. Furthermore, Lavrov said his comments were in keeping with a statement by Russian President/Communist dictator Dmitry Medvedev, who on Monday said Russia would back new sanctions against Iran as long as they did not create a humanitarian crisis. For some odd reason, Russia seems intent on avoiding additional punitive measures despite the fact that Iran is openly boasting of its nuclear advances and marching blatantly and proudly toward creating a nuclear bomb. Unsurprisingly, both Russia and China have been reluctant to endorse any broader sanctions against Iran, probably because my mythical League of Fascist Dictators truly does exist and their leaders are all members of it. Either way, a fourth draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution regarding Iran is due in the next week or so and many diplomats believe it will contain a "symbolic" tightening of sanctions against Iranian government assets. Still, I am nothing if not a guy who loves optimism, so you keep those rose-colored glasses on, Russia…………