Comments on: The FBI’s New Porn Brigade

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 18:32:48 +0000

I’m sure there are many such wastes, but this is one can be evaluate within the current law enforcement environmwnt and be deemed, IMHO, pretty silly. I was actually suprised to learn on day that the federal government actually has an active Nazi-hunting unit in the Dept. of Justice. Obviously, this is a noble goal, but at this point in time, it seems like there might be more dangerous enemies we should be hunting.

With regards to running for office, how about you be president and I’ll be the Secretary of Veteran Affairs because that pretty much ought to guarantee that I’ll never accidentally become president. Or, maybe I’d prefer the Secretary of Health and Human Services so that I can actually learn what a “Human Service” is

By: DC

DC — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 17:44:00 +0000

Well, that is certainly a good point. If the only thing they assign 8 agents to that doesn’t seem very useful is this one issue then I would still argue that it isn’t a big deal, but if we investigated, we’d surely find many such projects underway. I guess the question is really how many resources are worth “wasting” to make things work smoothly (as in, appease some person in power so they aren’t always wasting your time trying to convince you to do so). Let’s just run for office. You can be president and I’ll be vice president (or secretary of the interior, whichever you prefer).

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:51:37 +0000

FOB, I forgot…under President Bush there are not such things as tradeoffs when it comes to managing finite resources. We can increase spending by 30% per year while decreasing tax revenue. If this causes our grandkids to face a 70% marginal tax rate to pay off our debts…who cares, we’ll be dead by the time this happens.

By definition, allocating finite resources is always an either/or proposition.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:46:34 +0000

DC, we could also assign eight agents to the jaywalking brigade and argue that it doesn’t take away from more important things like terrorism. My fundamental problem is that I would consider this less than optimal allocation of a finite resource.

Maybe a better use for the eight agents with respect to research funding would be to fire them and then use what would have been their salaries to fund research

By: FOB-FriendofBush

FOB-FriendofBush — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 07:18:33 +0000

This is not an either / or proposition. The FBI has resources for both.

By: DC

DC — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 06:22:20 +0000

If they’re only putting 8 people on the case, it doesn’t seem like it will take all that much away from anti-terrorism efforts. I don’t know how many agents the FBI has, but if the notice went out to 56 separate offices, then this is the tiniest of drops in the bucket.

Personally, I’d like to see them assign 8 agents to investigate why there’s no more research funding, but that’s just me.