“The Walking Dead” by Gerald Seymour follows the story of a young Saudi man who travels to England, with dreams and determination to go to paradise a hero for Islam as a suicide bomber. He would, of course, kill many innocent people in the process.
In the book, Seymour inhabits the mind of an idealistic radical who believes in what he is about to do with unwavering fervor.
Writes a BookBrowse reviewer:
“In the hands of a lesser writer, The Walking Dead could have become a run-of-the-mill pot-boiler. What makes this novel noteworthy is Seymour’s attention to the book’s underlying themes. He delves into the question of how young men get into situations where they willingly risk their lives for their ideals, drawing parallels between the suicide bomber and a young volunteer fighting in the Spanish Civil War seventy years earlier (1936 - 1939). Other sub-texts explored are the efficacy of intelligence gathering and old-fashioned detective work, and the roles chance and coincidence play in events.”
“The Walking Dead,” ISBN 9781590200056, is available now from Penguin books.

To read the review, CLICK HERE.

I don’t know which makes me angrier: The filthy scum who perpetrated 9/11 or our government’s often inept response. (Wage war with Iraq? Sounds good to me! Underman troops in Afghanistan, the actual base of al-Qaida? Sure!) I would have been much more satisfied to see Osama bin Laden’s extremely dead head mounted on a stick. That would have been an appropriate response.

Which has me thinking twice about picking up Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama that Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11. One voice says, yes, learn the awful truth, the untold stories of unspeakable evil and amazing heroism. The other says, it’s done, why put yourself through one the worst days in our history again? I guess I don’t have to decide today.

I remember how empty the sky was in the days immediately after the attacks, how eerily empty. And then Bruce Springsteen up and writes Empty Sky on his 2002 album, The Rising.

Anyway, to learn more about Touching History, CLICK HERE.

For those who can bear it, take a look at Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11, by Lynn Spencer.
Spencer, a commercial pilot herself, was deeply touched by the events of 9/11. In the wake of the 9/11 Commission’s report, she believed part of the story remained untold. This touched off a three-year quest, which resulted in Touching History.

A Milwaukee native, her story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“Spencer decided to write her book after realizing there were untold stories from the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The Air Line Pilots Association sent a letter to its members asking those with stories about Sept. 11, 2001, to contact Spencer. That’s how she came in contact with Gerald Earwood, pilot of Midwest Flight 7.”
(Earwood was piloting the plane that nearly collided with United Airlines Flight 175, the second airplane to hit the World Trade Center.)

“Spencer also interviewed air traffic controllers, military pilots and Federal Aviation Administration officials and reviewed public documents to write Touching History.”

Here ’s excerpt of an excerpt:
Boston Center, Nashua, New Hampshire, 7:59 a.m.

American Flight 11 receives takeoff clearance at 7:59 and is handed over from the controllers at Logan to the FAA’s Boston Center after reaching 11,000 feet. The plane appears on Pete Zalewski’s radar screen just after passing through 20,000 feet, and he radios the flight crew climb and course instructions.

“American 11, turn 20 degrees right.”

“20 right. American 11,” comes the prompt reply from the cockpit.

“American 11, now climb/maintain flight level 3-5-0,” Zalewski continues, instructing them to head up to 35,000 feet.

He receives no response.

“American 11,” he repeats, “climb/maintain flight level 3-5-0.”

Still nothing.

“American 11, Boston,” he radios, requesting a call back from the pilots. “American 11, uh, the American on the frequency, how do you hear me?”

That was just the beginning.

Touching History, ISBN 978-1-4165-5925-2, is published by Free Press, a Simon & Schuster imprint.

Ran across an interesting column about an interesting book in my hometown newspaper today. Newspaper, you know, large sheets of flimsy paper with black ink with a few splotches of color thrown in that show up at your doorstep or roadside box. Anyway, I was reading a column by Trudy Rubin about the deteriorating conditions in Pakistan/Afghanistan’s lawless border area.

In it, she was quoting the author of a new book, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. He should know. Also author of Taliban, Ahmed Rashid is know as “Pakistan’s Best and Bravest Reporter.” He knows the players: outgoing Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the assassinated would-be returning hero Benazir Bhutto, W., the Taliban, al-Quaida and other insurgents and so-called Federally Administered Tribal Areas in northern Pakistan, which really aren’t administered by anyone except the inmates in that particular asylum.

Perhaps better known (not much) by its snappy acronym, FATA, it is believed to be home to Osama bin Laden, assuming he’s still able to sit up and take nourishment.

It’s just another garden spot that W. thought he could waltz in and clean up, with the help of his good friend, “General,” as he famously named Musharraf in a TV interview (BEFORE he was elected!! People, how could you elect someone that uninformed??).

I’d like to read the book, but I’m afraid it’ll send me off on a long rant, and honestly, I don’t think that’s healthy.

For the news feed, CLICK HERE.

Dave Wilson is the Grand Pooh-Bah of Editorial Content at DelMio.com, a site developed by SunLit Communications LLC. He also is at times janitor, chauffeur, chief cook and bottle washer. Once upon a time he was a metro editor and copy editor at the Akron Beacon Journal. Send love letters and trash talk to dave.wilson@delmio.com. Or post a comment. Whatever.