April 23, 2010

The Economy is Sexy They fiddled with themselves while Rome burned? I like to think they weren't ignoring the problem but were turned on by it.
posted by St Fu 13 years ago
  • 33 "senior officials" out of how many the agency had? If it's like most bureaucracies, there were thousands, and it's likely the guilty parties had more likely given up on doing anything productive rather than shirking their duties. It's one of those SHOCKING stories that stinks of somebody trying to make a mountain out of a molehill for political purposes, and when I saw Darrell Issa (California Congressional Whore) quoted, it just stunk worse.
  • And Issa is one of those Glibertarians who would love the entire SEC to go away and leave those poor bankers alone, so his objecting to them neglecting their jobs is totally insincere.
  • Let's eliminate dead *wood* from the system!
  • Swoop, while I agree with you in part, I do think it's symbolic of the mindset that allowed the SEC to screw off instead of tending to business. Also, there would have been 33 less lower echelon employees had any of THEM been surfing pr0n on the job. Given that the the issue has been nothing but an endless circle jerk between the SEC and various politicians, I prefer Dan's snarky double entendre over any meaningful comment.
  • I agree with the foop that many news stories are presented with their numbers out of context. A made up example: "15 Walmart employees are homeless!". They don't bother to research or tell us how many people work for Walmart in all. Is this 20% of the employees of 0.002%? Then, how many homeless people work for Target Stores? It could be the same fraction or more. Then there is the question of cause and effect - just wording the stat one way lets us think that working for Walmart made them homeless. Maybe the reverse is true. My other peeve is stories that quote only one quadrant of a stat: "30% of drunk drivers in Virginia are involved in a car wreck each year!". Well, what fraction of sober drivers were in wrecks? More or less? The 30% is meaningless without the other stat. What about other states - is the number higher or lower? The story exists only to reinforce our biased feelings. The title of this story could have been "SEC has a great system for catching its pr0n users". (Whereas in other places it happens more but goes undetected). But that headline would not sell any ad space.
  • Oh, com'on, TT! You KNOW any headline with the word prOn is going to catch your eye.
  • What I want to know is why consuming prawns, on the job, is a bad thing? I mean, I know it's not banned by Leviticus, but separation of church and state, people!
  • I heard a senator interviewed on this topic today. He hadn't heard the story (neither had I). He said so, then got silent for a second, then chuckled. "Well, that sorta illustrates what the Bush Administration was about." [Am paraphrasing, but am also giving the gist and the spirit.] He went on to give a metaphor about watching porn and deregulation, but his point was made. Sen. Sanders from Vermont, I think.
  • Here's a good analysis of the story from a reporter with an unfortunate name, via Dave "Wang" Barry. Consistent with my previous judgment that if Darrell Issa is outraged, it's not worth caring about.