Sunday, October 04, 2009

Domestic Terrorism Piece from David Von Drehle

Some solid writing from the October 12 issue of Time Magazine.



Most noteworthy was "An Enemy Within: The Making of Najibullah Zazi" about the investigation and arrest of a suspected domestic terrorism plotter. The piece was pretty compelling reading and makes one wonder what might have been the eventual intention of Zazi. What would have been interesting to read more of, though, is the purported tip off of Zazi as a result of NYPD inquiries... and to know what could or should have been done differently in the investigation.

That said, it's excellent writing that mirrors past work from Time Senior Writer David Von Drehle, including his book "Triangle" The Fire that Changed America", which was reviewed in this blog post.

Also from this issue was the Joel Stein back-page column titled "The Tough-Love Dictator of My Dreams." Someone could try to assign point of view or message to the piece, but it's probably easier to just appreciate it for what it is... very funny writing.

Finally, I found interesting the short memoriam piece by Peggy Noonan on fellow speechwriter (and columnist) William Safire. I particularly like the quotes about writing attributed to Safire...

"Write what you see because what history needs more of is first-person testimony" and "never feel guilty about reading; it's what you do to do what you do." Solid stuff.