Wednesday Linkage and Loose Thoughts

We've started reading Julius Caesar this week in school which means I've been busy this week.  Blogging has been light as I've been working on that and trying to get caught up with some of the things (the yard) that I couldn't do during my crazy illness (that lasted ONE SOLID MONTH).  I'm still not 100% but I'm back up and kicking.  Won't be long.

Here's a link to my favorite anecdote from teaching Caesar which I posted last year.  Never a dull moment.

Be sure to check out Andy's Place, my featured blog this week; he covers mostly local stuff but he's made me laugh this week and has a nice blog.  He's even doing some Rule 5 blogging, for those of you into that kind of thing.

Also, be sure to check out Peter Ferrara's The President's Permanent TARP Bailout Socialism Bill in The American Spectator.  That'll get your blood going this morning.

Doesn't it seem we use the adjective "naive" with growing frequency when describing Obama?   Scary.  Just sayin'. 

Maybe I'm the one being naive here, but I've got no problem with Arizona's tough immigration stance.  If the feds had done what needed to be done already, Arizona wouldn't have to take such drastic measures to secure their borders.  But face it, it's a national security issue.  Marco Rubio released a statement on the issue yesterday that got some buzz, but it seemed pretty benign to me.  Rubio's position on immigration has been clear all along; his concern seems to be for law enforcement who might be in a difficult position.  But overall, I've got no problem with this law.  I have to show ID every time I write a check or do any number of things.  If someone wants me to prove my citizenship, I've got no problem with it.  I know, the concern is the dreaded "profiling."  Again, if the feds had handled this already...

Finally, I wish I could make rhyme or reason out of the battles Eric Holder chooses to fight.  He'll take a pass on New Black Panther voter intimidation but Arizona passes a law he doesn't like?  Look out.

So I'm off to work; Caesar awaits.  We have three more weeks of school after this week, and I'm looking forward to summer time!  It's coming!

Twenty Percent "Isn't That Bad"?

John Brennan is coming under a lot of fire because of his recent pronouncement that a 20% recidivism rate on released Guantanamo detainees "is not that bad."

Here is Brennan's actual statement and General Jim Jones who actually doesn't think it's that bad either:



The problem here, it seems to me, is that they are still in a criminal justice frame of mind.

There are many issues on which Lindsay Graham and I disagree, but on this one, not so much:



When Graham says "it makes no sense to say that a 20% recidivism rate is not that bad..." he is spot on. As Chris Matthews points out, if you have a 20% recidivism rate when you're talking about shoplifters, that's quite a different story than when you have a 20% return to jihad from terrorists. Graham is, of course, calling for Brennan's discharge and says Brennan has lost his confidence.

Intrepid researcher Thomas Joscelyn points out that this recidivism number has continued to grow over the last 18 months:

The 20 percent figure cited by the Pentagon and Brennan translates to a current estimated number of recidivists north of 100. A good estimate is 112. Thus, in June 2008 the estimate was just 37 former detainees. Today, less than two years later, the estimate is roughly three times higher.

So, when Brennan says that 20 percent isn't that bad he is ignoring the fact that the estimated number of recidivists continues to grow and could easily be much higher just months from now.

Of course the response from the left will be to blame Bush and to point out that many of those that returned to jihad were released by Bush. And to that, I return to my premise that just because Bush screwed up doesn't mean Obama has to; it's an slow learner indeed who doesn't learn from the mistakes of the past.