how can an honest-to-god Pagan remain a Pagan, when all these wonderful are praying for him, and he's ALIVE AND WELL AGAIN?

I went into surgery at high on, on March 15, 2208. Hey, I just noticed, high noon! You know, the gunfighters duel it out on
the streets of a sleepy little western town! A parody!

Anyway, there I was, in this chilly surgery room, with people
rushing every direction. I am shove into this cove, away from
the main hub, and brainiac. I am told to sit up on the table.
"Oh no," I think, "they're going to shove that needle up my back
again."
"Alright," a voice says, "you'll be feeling sleepy soon, so let's lie on your back again."
That was it!
The next thing I saw was my wife's smiling face. That first night is a nothing to me. I hardly remember it, and yet, I can't forget it! I didn't sleep at all, until well after midnight, when they finally gave me some Diladid, my all-time favorite drug, and I became the rock, with zzzzz's! The next mroning Doctor Joudi came to see me and uttered the six most beautiful words I've ever heard in my life.
"I think we gor it all," Diane and I hugged, as I shook the docor's hand. And I want you to know, that really hurt to hug her.
And, the Epideral was still in me!
"Easy," Doctor Joudi said, "I don't want to have to go back in
THERE! It was like a thick jungle in there!"
"More biopsies will be coming back, but the tumor was enclosed, so
we'll wait to make sure, but I think we got all of it!"
A day leter they pulled the epideral out, and two days later he said that, "everything else came out clean." I was clean! Hey, this dirty old man is clean!
I may continue with my huge penchant for being a complete smart ass!
Yahoo! Yippee, kai ay!
Hot damn dog!
I am the luckiest man in the world. Either that, or...you means it's true! There is a

Quick Joe! Start

"No man is an island". Neither, is any man a nation!

President Bush has cast himself as this Nation, and thinks whatever he has done, is exactly right. Not really! The people don’t think so. He lied to the people, and ‘the people’ don’t like it when their president lies to them! He lied in order to do what he has done. That is not a policy; that is an agenda! While he ignores the unbelievable repressions of his friends in Saudi Arabia, 19 of whom did attack us on 9-11, he launches a “shock and awe’ attack on people who liked us, who were like us! That is not policy; that is war crimes!
Today, this today! becomes so important because of that!
In your legacy, no matter what it is you do, you cannot undo what you have already done.

The legend of what he has done will mark our stars for generations. Unfortunately, those generations had no choice in the matter, and must suffer its stain. The next generation is the one the Mothers of now, created. We owe them an excuse to be proud.
Today, this today! becomes important because of them!

And so the young ones come. They have the ideas of the future. They haven’t been so blinded by the ‘fog of war’. They are the positive spirit of the idea that they really can change the world. What’s wrong with that? Why try to make them soldiers, because we don’t have enough of them? They want to feed those hungry children. How about we enlist them into an Army of life? They want to heal the sick. Let them go to college free, and send them out to heal their own kind. They want to love others as they do themselves. That sounds righteous! What’s wrong with that?

Today, this day! becomes so important to us, because of what the young ones want.

I am old, and have seen the despicable act that kills my brother and sisters 'in the field'. They say that we have to support them, or they die in vain. Not exactly! I say we can't support HIM, or they die in vain! 'The field,', the shit', 'the sand', whatever you call the battlefield these days, is what his legend has cast us upon. I doubt I will live to see the end of this, but I will carry my generation’s certain stain, well into my next life.

Today, this day! becomes important so we can alter the next generation’s guilt of what we have done. I weep for my Nation.
Let me enter my last thought smiling.

Diane and I finished at the University hospitals in Iowa City Friday. The Doctor went down through my mouth to the tumor, and biopsied it. Then, because of its proximity, biopsied the Pancreas.
Everything went well, we thought! On the way home, we ate. That went well, and I felt fine. It wasn't until that food went through my system that I realized the echoes of some passed horror.
The pancreas (Pancreatitis) kept me in the hospital for 85 days in 2000. I found myself on the floor dialing 9-11 that night. Diane had gone to a friend's birthday party, and I called there to let her know.
"Wait! I'm coming home!" she yelled.
"It's too late! They're here now, and I am in too much pain!" I said. I cannot believe how powerful this one organ is. It is so fleeting, when it springs loose to attack itself. It's like a self-destructive giant inside the body. .
The doctor told me, had I not managed to dial 9-11 when I did, the situation would have been much, much worse. I know that it was an extremely difficult thing just to dial the numbers, and speak! I really don't think I would have survived this one.
I don't know how many chances a guy gets in his life. But, I am home, I am typing through my tears, and I am still alive, and I am waiting to hear about my surgery date, for the tumor which is now confirmed Cancerous. This old Pagan boy is being forced to face the errors of his ways. I don't claim any ground for my own. Just the time that I have. This passed few days has made me think about an awful lot of things. I keep seeing children's faces. I feel their arms me. I hear them tell me they love me, I see my children in them. And I can't help but feel something better in me.
We never know.
God, grant me one more chance to see my babies smile.

It's a beautiful morning here in the souteastern bowels of Iowa. The Sun is shinging into my computer room, making the mess on my desk look bright and cheery. The Sun always makes things better doesn't it?
I don't want to get morbid, but I'm reading "The Tibetan Book of the Dead". Someone suggested it, and it seems interesting. It's about the moments after death when you have to fight your way into the next life. Pretty good plot huh?
It makes me thing about the new year coming up. I think the country going to have to do some real hard fighting to keep from the going broke. Well, we're already broke, but this could really do it, if we don't get our shit together. The new president is going to get Bush's screw-ups dumped on him, or her. So, I have questions.

1. Who do you see as president?
2. What do you see happening in the next four years?
3. Four years from now, do you see us still in Iraq?

If Barak Obama gets the nomination, he will be president. I see so many positive people coming out to vote, who have NEVER voted before in their lives. That's why he is winning these primaries by such huge margins. I'm not saying he's the most competent one to be president. He's young and inexperienced, but these old war horses aren't doing that well either. How about giving the young people, or the women, a shot at this. They sure as hell can't screw it up worse than these Bushanese have!
I see a crash in the stock market, but it won't necessarily, be that critical. These high-rollers, who have been playing with fire for 30 years will be exposed, as frauds. It might also expose the real danger in our money supply hoax. Maybe we'll go back on the gold standard. Why not?
We will withdraw our troops to very low levels if the Democrats win. If McCain wins, we'll get bogged down and suffer for it.
That's the way I see it. How about you guys?
Joe

Tomorrow I go to Iowa City, to have the famed doctors there
give me their astute "evaluation" of my latest Cancer scare.
I am certain they will agree with the doctors here,
that it is Cancerous, and that I have something to fear.
I was told this evaluation may not last the day.
But just in case, pack my things, I may be told to stay.
With their scapels, and their forceps, they'll carve the evil spot.
And send to where the sun don't shine, where things are really hot!
So if you hear from me, relief, that I have won again then,
wish me luck, I'll see you soon, I'll live to post again.
I love you guys,
Joe