The resource pie is only so big. Here's what gets left out.

While the likes of Pamela Satterfield and the Obscenity Production Task Force merrily squander taxpayer funds on Ahab-like quests against film companies such as Evil Angel Video and Extreme Associates, USA Today reported yesterday that over 624,000 computers have been found to have exchanged child porn images in the past 2 1/2 years, but that "federal authorities with limited resources pursue fewer than 1% of the leads, according to a USA TODAY analysis of government data". (Emphasis mine)

Let me get this straight. The Feds are harassing people who market movies made by consenting adults that are intended for consenting adults, distasteful though the content might be to you or I, while the truly important fight against the people who traffic in child porn languishes because there's no money to do it with?

"We're trying to use every available resource," says Drew Oosterbaan, chief of the department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section".

No, you're not. Here's two fellows and $150,000 annually that could be put on the case tomorrow, but they're too busy batting .000 against legitimate porn companies.

"'We're not even scratching the surface," says Waters, who has helped train 1,800 investigators to use his software. "We have to tell folks we're hurting.'"

I'm trying, I'm trying.