After the September 11 attacks, Ed Koch, Dennis Miller, and millions of other Americans put their brains in cold storage and never came back to claim them. However, millions of others have come to their senses (or didn't lose their minds in the first place), and have tried to put the attacks in perspective--something that the Bush administration steadfastly refuses to do.

One of these individuals is John Mueller, a professor at Ohio State University. The title of his book about our reaction to terrorism, "Overblown," says it all. Below the fold is my review of his book...

Take a look at this chart (click for more detail):


(source: Criminal Terrorism Enforcement in the United States During the Five Years Since the 9/11/01 Attacks)

It shows the median sentences (half got more, half got less) handed out for terrorism convictions in three periods: two years before 9/11, two years after 9/11, and since October 1, 2003. Here's the detail:

See that last number? Twenty days.