STATING THE OBVIOUS

Do you ever get the feeling your federal government spends too much time on
pointless studies? Two recent examples in the justice area are crimes in
themselves.

In Exhibit A, the feds needed three years and $250,000 of taxpayers' money
to determine that drugs and alcohol contribute to crime.

The study, done for the solicitor-general's office and based on interviews
with prisoners, showed that drinking too much alcohol was the chief factor
in one-third of homicides; it also found that drugs are a factor behind
thefts and shoplifting.

Exhibit B is a study that found prison guards don't care much for inmates.

Let's see. On one side of the bars we have murderers, rapists, pedophiles,
bank robbers, kidnappers and even a few terrorists.

On the other side of the fence we have civilization.

Maybe it's time someone commissioned a study that will prove something else
we already know -- that when bureaucrats have too much time and money on
their hands, they waste it trying to prove the obvious.