Sylvia Longmire worked as a senior intelligence analyst for the California state fusion center and the California Emergency Management Agency’s Situational Awareness Unit, focusing almost exclusively on Mexican drug trafficking organizations and southwest border violence issues. For the last six years, she has regularly lectured on terrorism in Latin America at the Air Force Special Operations School’s Dynamics of International Terrorism course. She has packaged some of her knowledge on the US-Mexico drug war in Cartel.

When the publisher offered me a copy of the book to review, it caught my eye because of last year’s travel warnings about violence in Mexico. From news reports, it seemed that the violence around the drug wars had spilled over into previously safe tourist areas. Longmire theorizes that the Mexican cartels are behaving more like the Colombian cartels and combining traditional criminal activity with insurgency against the government, military, and law enforcement.

The big insight I picked up from the book is the US contributions to the Drug War. There is the obvious contribution of cash from the purchasers of the drugs. The other big contribution is guns. Lots and lots of guns. The easiest source of weaponry for the Mexican cartels is at the lax gun shops in the southwestern United States. At one end you have the very strict gun sale laws in California. At the other, you have the gun-friendly state of Texas, with a limited background checks, no waiting periods, and no license requirement. There is little inspection on the way south into Mexico to stop the flow of guns.

Longmire paints a bleak picture for the future of Mexico. Even the current enforcement by Mexican president Felipe Calderon seem to have mere displaced the violence into other areas of Mexico. This week’s Economist put together a great infographic showing the huge number of murders and the changes in murder rates throughout Mexico.

It’s probably not fair to Longmire that I read Cartel after just finishing Michael Lewis’s Boomerang. Lewis is master of weaving his thesis around characters to create a coherent narrative. Longmire’s narrative reads more like a collection of blog posts. What I found lacking was detail on the major cartels themselves. Longmire provides only a little insight to the people behind them and their history.

If you have even a passing interest on Mexican violence, Cartel is worth a few hours of your time.

Ben Mezrich is back. His latest is “the amazing story behind the most audacious heist in history.” A NASA coop student stole a safe full of moon rocks and tried to sell them. After pilfering the lunar samples, he placed one under his bed sheets and …. Well…. I guess you can figure out where the name of the book came from.

The book is fun and sprightly. We saw what a gifted director can do with one of Merich’s books. David Fincher turned The Accidental Billionaires into the Oscar-worthy The Social Network. Bringing Down the House became the mediocre 21.

Sex on the Moon reads more like a screenplay. I expect we will see some version of it the theaters with a “based on a true story” label.

What the book misses is what motivated Thad Roberts to engage in theft. There is an interesting dynamic there and an even more interesting tale of human vice. But Mezrich doesn’t bother to dive that deep into the research to find this. That would just slow down the flow of the story.

The publisher sent me a copy of the book to review.

I sat down to watch The Tillman Story after Netflix gave it high marks as a recommendation. It was a blistering story about the cover-up of Pat Tillman’s death by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

“In war, truth is the first casualty.” – Aeschylus

I wanted to learn some more and remembered that Jon Krakauer had written Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. Tillman was the starting free safety for the Arizona Cardinals when he decided to enlist in the army. Although he didn’t want the attention, he was transformed into an icon of 9-11 patriotism. A legend, foregoing millions to serve his country. Neither the movie nor this book squarely address why Tillman decided to enlist. It seems clear that it was very personal decision, only truly know by Mr. Tillman and his wife.

What the movie failed to portray was Tillmana person. That was the focus of the book. What I didn’t realize was the intellectual prowess of Tillman. He is portrayed not as a meathead jock who wants to shoot things. He comes across as thoughtful and introspective.

Besides the portrayal of Tillman as a person, Krakauer spends large chunks of the book setting the background on other key players. There is great background on history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan going back to the Soviet invasion. Many of the weapons used against US soldiers likely came from U.S. funding of the Mujahideen during their battle against the Soviets. Then there is the rise of Osama bin Laden and his desire to draw the Unites States into Afghanistan. There were plenty of missed opportunities during the Clinton administration to counter the rise of bin Laden. Perhaps he was distracted by the Lewinsky scandal?

With the bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan, along came propaganda to support the war effort. The prelude to the Tillman incident was the Jessica Lynch incident. She was initially portrayed as a hero, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, fighting to death and taking multiple gunshot wounds and stab wounds. Later, a Special Operations force swept in and rescued her from torture and abuse by her captors.

Unfortunately, the truth is that she sustained her wounds when her Humvee crashed into another truck in her convoy. She never fired a single shot because her gun jammed. During her stay in Saddam Hussein General Hospital she was treated as any other patient. The doctors were the ones who told US forces that Lynch was in the hospital. When the huge Special Operations force arrived at the hospital, they met no significant resistance.

Tillman played a very minor role in the Lynch “rescue.” But the propaganda success of the Lynch incident played a big role in what happened after Tillman was killed by friendly fire thirteen months later.

Tillman’s enlistment generated good headlines for the war effort. The military leaders and the White House assumed that painting his death as the saga of a fallen hero would create a media frenzy. Tillman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and promoted to corporal for his bravery in the combat that took his life.

A commanding officer assured Tillman’s brother that whoever was responsible would pay dearly. “This would turn out to be the first in a long string of broken promises and self-serving lies proffered to the Tillman family by commissioned officers of the U.S. Army.”

Having read Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, I expected some solid writing. Krakauer has proven he can craft a true story into a page-turner of a book, bringing depth to the participants and providing insights to their motivation. He delivers again.

Where Men Win Glory is worth your reading time.

It’s July, so that means there will be lots of cycling at the Cornelius estate. These days there is much less time spent on the saddle and much more time spent on the couch, watching the Tour de France.

To get ready for the race, I just finished reading It’s All About the Bike by Robert Penn. The title is a clear stab at Lance Armstrong’s It’s Not About the Bike. But the book is not making a counter-argument, it’s merely a story about Penn’s bike. He was looking to build a custom-made bicycle and, through that process, provide some insight about bicycles, their history, and how they’re made.

Penn is not looking to have the lightest or the fastest bike. He calls those obsessed riders “weight weenies.” The lightest bike is important if your job is getting up a big mountain very fast. Penn is looking for an heirloom bike, custom for him, that will last for decades.

The starting point is a custom frame, meticulously measured and fit to him by Brian Rourke Cycles. Add on a classic drivetrain, a Record groupset from Camagnolo. That powers the wheels hand-built by Gravy using a Royce hub and Continental Grand Prix 4000S tires. Penn will change directions using  Cinelli Ram handlebar attached to the bike with a headseat by Chris King that feeds into a Columbus Carve fork. His backside will rest on the Team Pro Saddle from Brooks.

The Bike

Penn clearly ends up with a beautiful bike and tells a good story along the way. His affection for cycling overflows from the rather short story. I wish he wrote more in the book. It seems that there are lots of untold stories about how he chose the components he did and more ways he could integrate the history of cycling.

If you like bikes, you’ll like this book.

(The publisher provided me a copy of this book to review.)

With the Tour de France starting this weekend, I wrote my annual Top Ten Reasons Geeks Should Love the Tour de France for GeekDad. Go over there and check it out.

The Neponset River Greenway is a plan to connect existing and proposed Boston parkland stretching across Hyde Park, Mattapan and Dorchester and the Town of Milton. When complete, the Neponset River Greenway will be a ten mile multi-use recreational trail from the mouth of the Neponset River to the 894-acre Fowl Meadows at the city limits. The Greenway will also connect to the 5,800-acre Blue Hills Reservation, the largest open space within thirty-five miles of Boston.

The most accessible part of the Greenway is the Pope John Paul II Park on the mouth of the Neponset River. The park consists of three former uses: the former drive-in movie site,
the former Hallet landfill site, and a former lumber yard. The old Hallet Landfill site had pollution in the soil that could run into the river, so four feet of clay and soil was added as a protective layer.

The Neponset River Greenway may be a bit premature to be on the list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts because it’s not done yet. But the pieces that are in place are great places.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,–
One if by land, and two if by sea;

- excerpt from “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So is the claim to fame of Boston’s Old North Church as the starting point for Paul Revere‘s ride.

The enduring legend of the Old North Old Church began on April 18, 1775. Robert Newman, the church’s sexton, climbed the steeple. Having seen the British and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord by sea and not by land.

Actually “sea” is only sort of right, although more poetic. The British could have marched down the long peninsula or crossed the Charles River to start their march toward Lexington and Concord. The two lights alerted the militia that the British troops were taking the boat route to land in Charlestown.

Revere rode out through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, warning towns along the way. William Dawes rode the land route to get out the warning.

The church was built in 1723 and survives as the oldest standing church building in Boston.

With its history and its legend, the Old North Church is an obvious choice for inclusion on the list of the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts.

Ames Nowell State Park in Abington is delightful little park a centered around Cleveland Pond. The park includes a picnic area, ball field and several miles of trails along the pond edge and through the surrounding woods.

It’s a great spot in Abington and a good spot for inclusion on the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts.

Stoughton has a single entry on the list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. The Mary Baker Eddy Historic House sits on the busy Central Street, just west of the Christmas Tree Shoppes retail road.

The story of the house (from the Longyear Museum):

Having been deserted by her husband, Daniel Patterson, the future Mary Baker Eddy reverted to the name of her late first husband, Glover. In late 1868, after staying in a series of boarding houses and friends’ homes, Mrs. Glover arrived in this country home south of Boston. Her stay was a year-and-a-half respite from all the packing and unpacking.

Alanson Wentworth’s wife, Sally, invited Mrs. Glover to live here in exchange for Mrs. Glover’s teaching her the art of healing through Christian prayer — after which Sally eagerly took up the healing work on her own. It provided her with a purpose and an income for the rest of her life.

Here in Stoughton, Mrs. Glover’s treatments through prayer healed Alanson Wentworth of sciatica — healed his wife of a chronic throat ailment — healed one of their daughters of partial deafness — healed neighbors of enteritis, pulmonary disease, and addiction to medicinal drugs.

The house is only open by appointment. My visit was brief since I failed to make an appointment.

Personally, I would have preferred Town Spa over a vacant house that is usually closed.

There are very few restaurants on the list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. The ones that are on the list, as far I’ve seen so far are contained in buildings of historic significance. Somehow, Sullivan’s made the list. Castle Island was already on the list, so it seem strange that to also name Sullivan’s to the list. In large part it’s the snack bar for the visitors to Castle Island.

They do make a good lobster roll.