it's zmedsday! (v)

today is tunesday: "bowl full of noses" by country bob & the blood farmers

ethan's essay has unexpected meaning

A family friend issued a writing challenge to Ethan. Now they take turns picking topics, and each one writes an essay. The friend, a former teacher, grades Ethan's essays.

The current question is whether President Truman was justified in using nuclear weapons against Japan in World War II.

Ethan's essay is here.

The day after Ethan posted it, he and I went to visit my mother in Atlanta. Talking about family history, mom mentioned that her father, born in 1914, had been exempted from the draft during World War II because he had a family. By the summer of 1945 that had changed. With the military planning an invasion of Japan, grandpa was expecting to be drafted and go off to war. But the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki altered the course of events.

So the topic has unexpected immediacy for me.

in the lions' den

I wasn't sure how to respond when Blair suggested Ethan and I go see David Priess speak about his new book, How to Get Rid of a President.

Despite a title that one might, given the current political climate, think was a how-to guide for the political left, the book is a historical survey, going back to Washington. I can't say whether I like it or not, as I haven't read it yet. Maybe over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Anyway, on the one hand, Ethan is into history -- especially the personalities. And I'm really into process. So the topic seemed like a winner for both of us.

On the other hand, I'm more or less center-right politically. The talk was to be at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side, and figured (by virtue of title and location) to bring in a decidedly leftist crowd. I wasn't looking forward to going into the lions' den, but it's important not to avoid views with which one disagrees. So off we went.

I should acknowledge, first of all, that the audience wasn't the braying mob that I expected. Actually, it wasn't a full crowd -- which is a loss for those who could have gone and didn't.

Priess started off by talking briefly about impeachment and conviction (a topic he kept returning to) as well as 25A (which he didn't). But he explained that he's taking a broader view of what it means to get rid of a president. He noted that that broad view included assassination -- which he understatedly said was an insult to the voters. He also talked about what he likened to a pocket veto -- the President's staff actively preventing the President from doing his job.

As to that last matter, he talked about how H.R. Haldeman, as Nixon's chief of staff would take orders and simply not follow through. More recently there have been the reports (including an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times) of President Trump's staff conspiring to keep him from carrying out what they consider to be ill-advised policies. When he mentioned that, I sat up and noticed. He had just said that assassinating the president was (among other things) an "insult to the voters." While this kind of removal of a president from his job isn;t as severe or irreversible as assassination, it seems to me that it's also an insult to the voters. Perhaps reading my mind, he did eventually get around to that point. He noted that, however well-intentioned, this substitution by a political appointee of his own judgement for that of the elected president is a dangerous road to go down -- it effectively nullifies an election and reduces the ability of future presidents to trust their staffs.

All in all, an interesting talk. Hopefully the book is as good.

lidsletter or something...

After several years as an active member of LIDS -- I think I joined in 2013, but I'm not sure -- I am now on the board, as the Newsletter Editor. The official election was last Saturday at the potluck luncheon (and business meeting), but I had been approached about it a while ago.

In some ways, the role should be a natural fit for me -- I enjoy writing, and have often blogged about LIDS meetings. On the other hand, I'm somewhat nervous -- LIDS deserves a good quality job, and I hope I'm up to the task.

It would be easier to step into the role of running the newsletter if there were already an existing, regularly produced newsletter. Then I could just step in, learn the procedures and protocols and adapt to them -- maybe also adapt them if I like. But maybe I can view this as a positive -- I have a chance to build this up the way I envision it. 

Seriously, though, there are a lot of decisions to be made and issues to solve, and I'll be seeking the guidance of LIDS' leaders. And of my daughter.

• Should the newsletter be published on paper and mailed to members? Or created as an electronic file for distribution? I vote for the latter.
• Should the newsletter be published on an ad-hoc basis? Or a set schedule? I prefer a set schedule, but that creates all sorts of challenges.
• What tool will be used for creating it? I hope Sharon can help me there. She has a subscription (which I pay for) to the Adobe suite of programs. Maybe there's a good publishing tool.
• How will we get articles? I'm cynical enough to know that getting members to write enough articles will be a challenge. And what will there be to write about? Each meeting can be an article. And maybe previews of regional and national meetings (and writeups after the fact). Maybe something about the award winning cultivars each year. But it would be great to have more. And I still worry about the possibility that I'll end up being the main writer. We'll see.