Comments on: One small step backward for a man

By: Is comparing apples and oranges better than good analysis? « Likelihood of Success

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:55:48 +0000

[...] I sure hope not. I expect to see Glenn online the 46 times a day I check his site. This is notwithstanding the fact that, despite his considerable talent — and, of course, galactic power over the blogosphere and the personal lives of each and every one of us — he seems to be a sucker for awful comparisons. [...]

By: In an age of terrorism…. — Dean’s World

In an age of terrorism…. — Dean’s World — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:16:38 +0000

[...] my blog I consider the bad-faith formulation of our time — “In an age of terror, X” — the first refuge of blogging scoundrels. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social [...]

By: Dave Justus

Dave Justus — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:56:46 +0000

Ron,

This ‘prevention of squalor’ (as you term it) happened in an international airport.

I certainly happen to think that this sort of thing is foolish regardless of anything else. Asking for sex, clandestine or otherwise, should not be a crime of any sort, and I certainly don’t consider it ’squalor’.

However, it seems inarguable to me that spending resources on one law enforcement activity prevents them from being spent in another law enforcement activity. If I give a dollar to Joe Bathroom Patroler, I can’t give that same dollar to Bob the Homicide Dectective or Frank the Counter Terrorism specialist. Unless you are proposing that more dollars are availible because of Joe Bathroom Patroler’s activities (he pays for himself in other words, perhaps by increased public support of police funding, something I find highly unlikely) his activities do reduce the availibility for alternate activities.

Of course, hunting Bin Laden personally is far removed from this. I don’t think you would argue though that any counter-terror activity that doesn’t personally involve finding Bin Laden should not be considered anti-terrorism (if they can’t find Bin Laden why should they have airport security?) Certainly mid-western towns have had roles to play in combating terror before, and will again.

By: Elisha Feger

Elisha Feger — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:52:23 +0000

Unless Bin Laden was trawling mid-western bathrooms looking for sex…

By: Roland Dodds

Roland Dodds — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:54:17 +0000

That’s some mighty fine “lawyering” Ron. Couldn’t agree more.

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:49:25 +0000

I just think, as an empirical matter, that you’re wrong, Dave. “Law enforcement” is such a broad category of activity that the prevention of terror and the prevention of squalor have really nothing to do with each other besides sharing a formal definition — preventing illegality. If bathroom-prowling programs are canceled, not a penny more will go to “finding Bin Laden”; and if it did, finding him (well, finding his moulderin’ body; he’s dead) will not be any more likely.

By: Dave Justus

Dave Justus — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:28:52 +0000

The fact that both of these activities do fall in the law enforcement category undermines your case. It is more similar to asking, if they can put a man on the moon in 1969, we can’t we put a man on Mars forty years later. The subject is in fact related.

Now, there may indeed be good reasons for not going to Mars in 2007, or why we need to patrol bathrooms to make sure people don’t clandestinly ask for sex, but the case you make here, that somehow law enforcement activities should not be re-prioritized because of the war on terror is weak indeed.

There are limited resources availible for law enforcement. If they are spent in one way, they cannot be spent in another. Granted, the particular skills used to identify bathroom toe-tappers probably are not relevent to combating the war on terror, but the dollars used to purchase those skills could have been used in other ways.

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:46:07 +0000

No, but from Glenn I did.

By: Ken McCracken

Ken McCracken — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:56:39 +0000

You expected, what, reason, logic and good faith from Arianna?

By: Dean's World

Dean's World — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:01:52 +0000

In age of terrorism….

At my blog I consider the bad-faith formulation of our time — “In age of terror, X” — the first refuge of blogging scoundrels.