1 comments about At Ground Zero: 25 Stories from Young Reporters Who Were There.

1. How many times can one read that the author's cell phone (and every other one) failed to work after the collapse? Or learn that the boss wanted them to get right down to Ground Zero and call in the story (any story)? Or find the author confess to you that they wonder if what they are doing is ethical? Or that they found themselves crying days later? I didn't keep count, but the book has a lot of this repetitiveness.

   And yet, there are enough morsels and pieces of material that come from this book to make it worth your time. After a while even some of the sameness strikes a chord of interest, (e.g., the question of ethics that keeps coming up again and again nags at the writers with none truly giving a clear justification for their questioning of victims' relatives.) But back to the morsels. You learn that the Moslem people of New York City were not united in either anger or celebration at the attack. Then, Benjamin Wallace-Wells' Chapter tells us how the terroism caused a strange type of black/white racial harmony that disgusted me. Without giving it away, let's just say it appeared that that day nothing could better bring it about than hatred for yet another race. And too, the fear the City's Moslems had after the attack is brought out. The horror of people in the buildings above the attack dealing with certain death and the jumpers and body parts and photographs that one author has never shown. These accounts made this book worth the effort of ignoring another dead cell phone report.

5 comments about Plague: A Story of Rivalry, Science, and the Scourge That Won't Go Away.

1. This is really 3 1/2 stars. The subject was engrossing, the story of the rivalry between the heroic Frenchman and the brilliant but cheating Japanese researchers interesting, the history of the plague informative. BUT it was very condensed; the chapters were quite short and needed fleshing out.

   I did like the organization - alternating between a breakout of the plague in modern India and the one that struck turn of the century Hong Kong. Particularly disturbing were the tales of modern plague and the rather easy conditions needed to engender such a horror.

   The author did not spend enough time with the main story. He concentrated on colonial conditions, the prejudice of the imperialists, the still-existing problem of health in the 3rd world. But the heart of the story was the rivalry between the two researchers and the plague itself. This could have been a brilliant book - instead it was only above average. Pictures and a bibliography are included.




2. Plague, commonly known as The Black Death, has occurred in three major pandemics, and this is a fine history of the latest, which started in China in the late 19th century and spread worldwide from Hong Kong. Investigations into the nature of the disease in 1894 culminated in a contest between two early microbiologists, Kitasato and Yersin, a tale with obvious modern parallels. This historical footnote is one of the major themes of the book, but the author then follows the spread of Plague from Hong Kong to India and on to America. It has become entrenched in various wild animals worldwide. This is a great medical history, and one of the best of the rash of books on "killer diseases" that currently flood the market.



3. Edward Marriott's book is an interesting, well-written, anecdoctal account of two rival scientists studying the plague that struck Hong Kong in 1894. In the light of present day news stories of mad-cow disease, SARS, and other exotic ailments that possibly could pose a pandemic threat, Marriott's book is especially relevant.

   Marriott brings the rat-infested harbor area and the exceedingly crowded, poor districts of the city to vivid life. The stark pictures of those soon-emptied areas, so quickly deserted by panicked residents, are chilling to view.

   Recommended to all readers, and especially to those involved in public health issues.




4. A great and resource heavy book. Enjoyed very much. My hubby took it away half way through my reading and I didn't get it back till he was finished.
   
   In a world of the next best terrorist action or weapon of mass destruction, we as a community tend to forget how dangerous a plague could be or an influenza for which there is not enough vaccine or medicine set aside. A good look at history tends to reinforce that looking backward might save the future....



5. I bought this book because I am interested in history and what really happened with the plague. I started reading this book and realized that even though parts of the book were interesting and read like a novel with a story line, there were also very slow parts that I skimmed over. I think it is a good book for history or medical majors, but not great for everyday people looking for an interesting read. A bit slow and plodding for my taste.

No comments about Fighting Back: Winning the War Against Terrorism.

3 comments about Investigating Religious Terrorism and Ritualistic Crimes.

1. Dr. Perlmutter provides a remarkably complete volume on the subject of ritualisitc crime & religious terrorism. Her work is most current and is interesting for many audiences - criminal investigators, students, scholars and those who wish to read for knowledge. The book is enlightening and alarming.



2. Religious pluralism is increasingly alarming to the small-minded and xenophobic. Books like this just legitimize prejudiced, rascist and ignorant stereotypes.
   
   Ritual crimes are "generally perpetrated by practitioners of occult belief systems including Satanism, syncretic belief systems (Santeria, Palo Mayombe, Brujeria) and the Vampire/Goth scene" ?
   
   Excuse me? No, they are not. In what crazy moon universe do members of the absolute smallest of minorities commit the majority of crimes? Where are the numbers for this? If actual research were done on supposedly "ritualistic" crimes, one would discover that most of the "evidence" consists of the ignorant superstitions of the local law enforcement. Superstitions about their fellow human beings which are legitimized and perpetuated by irresponsible books like this. And completely mundane crimes (if crimes can indeed ever be called "mundane,") are labeled "santeria" motivated or "Satanic" because of the race or culture of the people involved.
   
   Does Perlmutter have any credentials at all, besides being an ART HISTORY professor, and being part of a LIMITED LIABILITY CORPORATION that calls itself a research foundation on religious violence? This is spurious academics, people. For those who may not know, an LLC is a for-profit personal corporation which can (and usually does) consist of only one person. Calling your corporation a "foundation" makes it look like a research institution, but it doesn't fool those of us with enough intelligence to tell the difference between useful law enforcement information and dangerous muckracking.
   
   It is very scary to think that law enforcement workers might put some stock in this collection of Midwestern prejudice. Instead of providing useful information on how to tell the difference between criminals motivated by religious themes and legitimate religious practitioners, we get indiscriminate profiling.
   
   The Goth subculture is not a recruiting ground for cults. The Christian superculture IS, however, and how often do prejudiced accounts like this one address that? Campus Crusade for Christ, anyone? How often do self-advancing blowhards have to beat the "goth is going to get us all" horse before they realize that it's dead? Of course, since they haven't stopped beating the racism horse, I suppose it could be a very long time.
   
   In the 21st Century, when the Satanic Panic of the 1980's has been proven to have been complete bunk, when we now know that not a SINGLE child is known to ever have been kidnapped for ritualistic crime purposes, then or now, and when we have preservered, despite the "fact" that Ozzy Osbourne was going to get our kids to kill themselves by the thousands and Twisted Sister was leading our kids to Satan, maybe we should stop blaming minority subcultures for the failings of the mainstream to teach people to distinguish stereotype from reality.
   
   You think?



3. I've just finished my first reading of Dr. Perlmutter's fresh work. The text is offered with the conviction that "understanding the religious beliefs, ethics and ritual practices of unfamiliar religions is imperative to preventing future acts of violence." I sense my socio-cultural paradigm has shifted since reading this book. And I hope that my personal baby-steps toward a more careful handling of the involved issues can serve to further future prevention of violence in some way.
   
   While it is true that this book was written by a woman who is principally an academic, it's also true the research that went into it involved a great deal of field work and contact with law enforcement, victims and true believers themselves.
   
   Groups covered include various millenial religions, domestic terrorism groups (many of which mix component forms of Christian/pagan religious expression with extreme racial theories), international terrorist groups with an emphasis on violent Islamic groups, various Satanist groups, Vampirism, and syncretic belief systems such as Santeria and Voodoo. Dr. Perlmutter then addresses various intelligence strategies for maximizing the public benefit of an informed investigative approach. The book is also a wealth of resources for gaining additional information. This dynamic field of study is difficult to set in print as though it were some sort of unchanging holy text, and the author acknowledges ongoing development.
   
   The book is not alarmist, but does raise concerns. Crimes incidental to the practice of ritual violence covered in the book range from mild trespassing and littering issues through threats and assaults to violent crimes against persons including homicide. The cases are well-documented and photographs and illustrations are plentiful. This is not a coffee-table book; the photographs and symbols (germane to the topic, always) can be unpleasant. While there are those who find any expression of intolerance to be small-minded, social intolerance of crime - especially violent crime - is both sensible and lawful. One man's xenophobia is another man's kidnapping and cannibalism.
   
   While the author's initial area of academic expertise was art symbolism and religious art, she has become an expert in the related field of physical evidence of ritual violence. For many practitioners of violent religious expression I suppose, their holy places are superior to the best available sacred art. Her book has grown out of her law enforcement consulting experiences, not the other way around. And, as a law enforcement professional, I'm glad she published it.

5 comments about Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower.

1. This is the BEST BOOK I have ever read on real world diplomacy. The combination of his feet on the ground experience and clear eyed view of American diplomacy is most powerful. I started writing down pithy, pertinent quotations as I read it through the second time, but I filled up too many notebook pages. Perhaps it will be best to read it yet again! Here are a few: "A politician who obeys the dictates of a hostile superpower is toast." "..local nationalism and resistance to outsiders trumps the call of ideology or religion." "Someone whose ego has been sandblasted by the humiliations of learning a language successfully from scratch as an adult is bettter at risking the reciprocal vulnerability required for relationship building."



2. Kiesling's cogently and convincingly presented lessons are a useful read for anybody who takes an interest in foreign policy, but all our politicians, of BOTH parties, ought to read it. Unfortunately, very few of them will.



3. I bought this book after seeing Mr. Kiesling speak about it in a bookshop on PBS. I was impressed by his sincerity and knew, from the chaos of our involvement in Iraq and elsewhere, that his insight was needed. As a career diplomat, he's seen first-hand how diplomacy has been shunted aside in favor of blundering military might. He isn't just defending his own field, however, since he demonstrates how arrogance actually loses ground for the U.S., both by making us more of a target and destroying our credibility with potential friends. While he's on-target as far as he goes, Mr. Kiesling stops a bit short in his criticism of the Bush administration. He sees it as incompetent but basically well-meaning, rather hastily dismissing any ulterior motives. I suppose this is due to residual loyalty, but the more credible doubts about the administration's motives should eventually be attended to.



4. I recieved this book as a Christmas present. It is certainly the kind of book I'm fond of reading. This was no exception. As a career diplomat, Kiesling sees the importance of projecting American inflence, but as the subtitle suggest he is "realistic" is how far this influence can go. However, his presenation gets repetitive in places and is needlessly wordy. For example, he included, as an appendix, his letter of resignation. You can see in the personal document that his natural writing style is rather verbose. Some of that style made it way into this book. Still an important addition to the bookshelf library. Four stars.



5. Mr. Kiesling is of course famous for his notable letter of resignation at the beginning of the latest Iraq adventure after which he left a 20 year career as a diplomat. Hearing the backstory of his departure alone would have been interesting enough reading. But, surprisingly, that story is only the introduction to the real book.
   
   Diplomacy Lessons ends up being a tour-de-force about the modern craft of international affairs, a book that transmits both the soul of the profession and the technical details that make up getting along in a world transformed by globalization. Befitting the archaeogical background of its author, the book delves into international relations with a much more sweeping view, starting with Greek democracy and projecting into the future. Diplomacy Lessons goes beyond the shallow headlines of our news sources into what's really going on - not just back room details, but simple stuff like "Hey, there are reactionary nationalists in EVERY country." You get the immediate sense that this is the backstory you need in order to understand current events.
   
   Not that it's an easy read. Probably to the reader's benefit, the book has not been overly edited to meet mass appeal. The text can be quite dense at times, and the organization can seem a bit haphazard. Then again, to leave much out would detract from the value it provides.
   
   The author also adds choice phrases that can only come from a man never again considering a career in federal government such as "the flies gathered in swarms like defense contractors." Who knows if a big publishing house would have let such zingers go - but it adds to the color.
   
   If you follow the news AT ALL, then BUY THIS BOOK.

No comments about Counter Terrorism.

No comments about 102 Minutes.

No comments about Terrorismo global.

No comments about Rethinking Global Security: Media, Popular Culture, And the "War on Terror".

5 comments about Nine Lives Too Many.

1. 
   I've read many first novels, but this is certainly one of the best I've encountered.

   "This is a violent and unsettling novel about terrorists, a cautionary tale, but also the deeply moving personal story of a conflicted police detective." says a blurb from an editorial review. A very good description. Certainly it is unsettling, and "violent" is no exaggeration.

   The protagonist is Sgt. Denny Delaney, NYPD, who is assigned to security at Grand Central Station. He has a drinking problem which has estranged him from his beautiful wife, Monica, and he is threatened with suspension without pay for his drinking problem by his friend and supervisor, Big Mac.

   The antagonist is "Felix the Cat," a middle easterner, Muslim and Palestinian sympathizer who hates Americans and Israelis. He is also a wannabe film writer, who is writing his Opus Magnus with actual events: he is staging his plot with bombing events, killing hundreds of New Yorkers, ala the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

   This is a well-written thriller. The author, like the protagonist, is of Irish descent, judging by his surname, and both favor vodka martinis--the author, in moderation. according to his biography. He has a Masters from Columbia, and is an excellent writer as well as a great story teller--perhaps a result of the Irish in him. I predict a fine future for him. This book would make a great movie.

   I want to read his next one, which I'm told will be a spy story. I can't wait!

   Joseph (Joe) Pierre
   
   author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
   and other books




2. The GOP convention is coming up in Manhattan. Wait until the delegates read this book. They'll quake in their boots. A terrorist homicide bomber strikes Grand Central Station, and all hell breaks loose. The bomber is called Felix the Cat, a cunning extremist and a failed screenwriter. His adversary is Denny Delaney, a New York detective fighting his own demons, alcoholism and an inability to connect with his wife Monny.
   This book is a grabber; it'll keep you up at night turning pages as Felix and Denny duel in a battle to the death through Felix's nine lives, his nine assaults in New York and Washington, D.C. Felix is fascinating, and Manhattan comes through as a character more than merely a setting. This is a page-turner, a great read. Don't miss it!



3. Though the writing in places is rough, this book bit me with its rawness. It was hard to put down for long.
   
   John F. Rooney explores the psychology of a terrorist who is willing to bomb innocents in the name of an unnamed cause, and the thoughts of the American public reeling from the effects.
   
   How can this happen? How do they do it? What is the motivation? Rooney explores these questions in the nine lives of "Felix the Cat". Parts of the story are seen through enemy eyes--just enough to tantalize.
   
   Most of the story is seen from the perspective of a flawed police officer, Denny Delaney. His personal struggles with alcoholism, family illness and a looming divorce hinder his ability to do the job. The raw emotions of 9-11 permeate the story and provide a urgency for Delaney to overcome his failings.
   
   The way Rooney kept placing Delaney in bars as a storytelling device was awkward. Those scenes did not advance the plot but injected a social commentary without all the political correctness everyday life. Delaney is no great intellectual, but he still chews over the political issues of the day, the failings of the FBI and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
   
   This action-packed adventure reads quickly. Keep an eye out for more in the Denny Delaney series.



4. Well written. Should be made a movie.
   It is entertaining



5. When a Middle Eastern terrorist bombs New York's Grand Central Station NYPD cop Denny Delaney must work fast to track down this evil doer. Problem is...he spends more time drinking and whining than doing his job. The bad guy keeps getting away with stuff and the cops seem like boobs. The story is poorly written and, I'm guessing, never edited. It is readily apparent when reading this tome that the author has a very high opinion of himself and a very poor opinion of his readers. Run! Run far away from this waste of good trees.