FBI Priorities

I got an email from a friend of mine yesterday (Hey Cuz!) telling me about this news article. I found it on the Boston Globe web site.  Basically the article says that the FBI is forming up a new anti-obscenity squad.  Not only do we get the facts, but when I read the article I got the distinct impression that the author was of the opinion that this refocusing of the FBI was a waste of resources.

The FBI memo quoted in the article clearly states that the Bureau is not going to take resources away from higher priority efforts as a result of this directive.  Even so, the writer was sure to point out some examples of internal heckling on behalf of Bureau personnel to make sure we understood his view that the agents in the trenches are uniformly against this directive.

I find myself asking a number of questions after reading the article.  For example:

• What obscenity laws are currently on the books and are they being enforced?


• How is obscenity/pornography currently defined?


• Is pornography really destructive as some claim, or is it harmless entertainment?


• Does the current legal understanding of free speech cover pornography?  Where is the line currently drawn?


• Is the FBI really stretched so thin that it can’t enforce our nation’s laws while it combats terrorism as the above article implies?


• Does pornography have any affect on society either locally or nationally?  If so, what kind and how much?

I’m sure I’ll have more questions before I get through all this.  I found some interesting things while poking around this morning.  Unfortunately I have to set this aside right now and go do something I can get paid for so Gorgeous and I can keep buying groceries.

I am going poke around some more and think on this.  I’ll let you know what I come up with.