great book of stories

Y'all will remember how I love Richard Selzer's book, "the Doctor Stories": so now I found another great book, called "The Orange Wire Problem, and other tales from the doctor's office" by David Watts, MD. He is a gastroenterologist and plays the french horn in San Francisco, and his book is earthy, poignant, warm, fabulously written, and interesting/riveting. He talks about making jazz riffs, and how one needs to know the melody, as well as how to make music, to do it well, as a model of practicing medicine. I think his patients are really lucky to have such a great doctor. I love the introduction, which ends "... change suffering into art and dissonance into music". You could do worse, in trying to understand how a doctor thinks. You also could hardly do better. His writing is fine, insightful, and fast-paced. And "balanced!"

missile defense

Dear Friends,
Here is a great answer to anyone who doesn't understand why the President decided to withdraw support from the non-functioning and expensive missile shield. Again, I urge you to check out the Friends' opinion-- here is the link:
From 2C: Obama Suspends Misguided Missile Shield
What can history can tell us about the future for nuclear weapons and diplomacy? In this blog post , I look back to the Clinton administration’s attempts to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and reflect on the implications of President Obama’s recent decision to end the European missile shield project: http://action.fcnl.org/r/86747/76229/0.