Hamstrung When Looking for Prior Art? (Score 4, Interesting)

When we graduated my wife received a job offer to work as a patent examiner. Despite the fact that she has a degree in computer science I do not believe it would prevent absurd and obvious invention patents from going through the system. As best as I can tell the examiners are limited to prior patent applications and official publications in searching for prior art. Little room seems to be reserved for common sense. Quite thankfully she did not accept the job offer because I didn't want to move to D.C. and the pay wasn't that great for someone with that degree.