IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER SNARK about intelligence agencies, reader Paul Stinchfield suggests replacing the CIA with one of these.

Well, it would be cheaper. It “has all the answers you need.” And it wouldn’t meddle in domestic politics.

Seriously, I know that gathering intelligence about closed, totalitarian countries is hard. But the CIA has a lousy track record, and there’s no clear sign that anything’s being done to make it better.