Full frontal disclosure

Several news agencies report that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating, inquiring, reviewing, and/or -- my favorite -- "probing" Apple's recent disclosures about the health of its messianic CEO, Steve Jobs. It's not that they "have seen evidence of wrongdoing," an anonymous source explained to Bloomberg. They're just, you know, looking into it.

I don't know which is more troubling, the notion that the SEC just "probes" people based on hunches, or the specter of future 10K filings being accompanied by health reports detailing the minutia of executive prostate removals and colonoscopies. Perhaps "probe" is exactly the right word.

In any event, it's nice to know the SEC ship is being righted after that whole Madoff thing. Unless investigative resources are limited, that is. But maybe high-salience investigations are more important to the SEC right now than getting down to the business of rooting out serious criminals.