Presidential hopeful John McCain had been pretty secretive about his medical records, no wonder, his cancer has returned in a really horrible form:
The tumor now talks, though unintelligibly, about not playing golf instead of letting men and women in uniform get time off from the war at home; it whispers things like, "Soldiers don't deserve to get help with their education through Sen. Webb's GI bill because they're not members of Blackwater or Halliburton subsidiaries."
We wish Sen. McCain well in the safe removal of this malignant and monstrous tumor. Doctors say surgery to start removal will begin Nov. 2008, and they're confident the diseased skin will be gone by January 2009.
When you have cancer and can laugh about it, do it and save your worry if it offends others.
Cancer gives enough worry.
Let it give you some laughs for a change.
from HOW I STARTED LAUGHING: MY FIRST CANCER JOKE
So censorship by ignorant people seem to be a great force, huh? If people who reacted so high and mightily took the time to understand this diary, they'd think twice before getting so uppity. "Cancer" is used either to refer to the disease, or sometimes to refer to something that's "eating up the inside of a greater whole" as in "society has a cancer, and it is greed." My diary's meaning is, though McCain's physical cancer, the one that was eating at his skin, may have gone in remission, another cancer (the non-disease kind) has taken over, it is the cancer that causes the Senator to basically turn his back on everything he seems to have espoused (I don't know if he believed in these): he's turned his back on campaign finance reform (he's broken so many rules), he's turned his back on ethics reform (he's colluded with so many lobbyists), he's turned his back on his comrades in the military (by allowing water-boarding to continue, by disallowing down time, by fighting against Webb's GI bill). What is this new "cancer" that has afflicted McCain? Why, it's George W. Bush. McCain ambitiously wants to become President and he thinks Georgie holds the keys, so if Georgie wants something, McCain follows his lead: more tax breaks for the rich at the expense of the fiscal responsibility? no problem. Keep the troops in Iraq even if it invites more violence and insecurity, no problem, etc.
McCain may have overcome that cancer that ate at his skin, but he's actually welcomed this new cancer that eats at his soul: all for the glory of becoming the President of the United States. I hope it's worth it Senator McCain.
This diary was spurred by two events, I read Memories of Iraq Haunted Soldier Until Suicide; plus I felt angry at all the assasination jokes. Also, I just read of McCain saying Obama doesn't know anything because he's not served in the military. All of this "inspired" me to do this diary. This is how I expressed everything that welled up inside me from these events.
I do not see my diary as making fun of cancer patients or wishing McCain get cancer or to take lightly the suffering of people who've had or have cancer--and anyone with half a brain can understand this. But if some persist on being narrow-minded and pharisaic, then at least I'm glad DailyKos is enlghtened enough not to allow censorship of perfectly legitimate diaries. They may have offed my ability to comment via troll ratings, etc. But who cares, it's so easy to set up a new membership here (in fact I've already done so and am back to happily commenting under a different user name, and ironically, some of the ones who've been so aggressiely deleting/hiding the positive comments in this diary have reacted positively to my new comments in my different user name.
No matter how much I've disagreed with the viewpoints of other people at DailyKos and their diaries/comments, I've never tried to have them banned or deleted, but I'd rather state my viewpoint and leave it at that. I think that's the civil and mature way of behaving.
Now for the stuff I wrote while this diary was being attacked, here they are, and thanks for the recs and positive comments. For those who hated this diary and asked it to be deleted, all I can say, you're free to disagree, but try not to be disagreeable, 'cuz you won't like it either when you're subjected to the same.
Old stuff:
I never, in my diary, said I want McCain to get cancer--that's why I find it funny. 'Cuz he does have a cancer--and it's called George Walker Bush heh heh.
(yes, I do find it funny, and sick, and McCain's karma)
It's only people who think I'm wishing McCain to get cancer again (those who don't get it) who wouldn't think this diary has its hilarious elements.
Also for those who complain that I'm not responding, I have responded, but those who prefer to act like cowardly bullies instead of arguing the merits have deleted my comments. Comments like "In the last remaining days of my good friend who was dying of cancer, I spent it trying to lift her spirits and give her hope and not treat her as if her condition was pitiful, but that she was still the same, spunky, bright and beautiful girl who was my good friend. So cancer has touched me--it's just that in my religion/philosophy, it's as natural as getting a fever. No big deal. But that's just my perspective. And besides, for the opposition to talk about assasinating Obama and other sick jokes, this little diary is nothing. I just want to fight fire with fire, or, as in The Untouchables quote: "They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!"
I also want to mention that positive comments about this diary, by people who DO find it FUNNY, were also deleted/hidden by these cowardly folks who can't stand people who have OTHER thoughts different from their own. These cowardly folks are just like the ones who banned 'Catcher in the Rye', 'Huckleberry Finn', etc. These censors would rather people not have access to ideas different from their own rather than giving everyone the chance to decide what they want to read or ignore.
For those saying one shouldn't joke about cancer, what about Ted Kennedy's joke?:
I did, however, get the chance to glance at the speech he planned on delivering today, and I’d like to start by passing along a message from him: "To all those praying for my return to good health, I offer my heartfelt thanks. And to any who’d rather have a different result, I say, don’t get your hopes up just yet!"
From Transcript Of Obama's Wesleyan Commencement Address
So just like Ted, lighten up people.
[Update 1] I have no qualms in doing this diary because of this:
Memories of Iraq Haunted Soldier Until Suicide
In the diary, an American soldier who killed an Iraqi man felt haunted by the ghost of the man, to the point that he couldn't sleep, he saw him in the mess hall, he stabbed another soldier with a fork because the "ghost" told him he was a vampire, and eventually committed suicide because the "ghost" told him he was better off dead.
It just made me sick that these monsters (McCain and Bush) have subjected the men and women of uniform to a living hell in Iraq. And for what? their vanities, so their friends can get rich, their ignorance, their greed. They deserve every sick joke anyone can pour over them.
[update 2] People have been asking me to delete this diary or to apologize to John McCain. Well...
Many Democrats saw a measure requiring more rest time for troops between deployments to Iraq as their best bet to garner enough GOP votes to beat a filibuster. But despite some last-minute concessions from that measure's sponsors, it was defeated last night...
But Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has made winning in Iraq the focus of his bid for the presidency, deemed Webb's proposal unconstitutional. He dismissed it as a backdoor attempt to speed up troop withdrawals from Iraq.
from Bill Seeking Down Time for Soldiers Fails
Until John McCain apologizes for stopping soldiers from getting more down time, this diary stays...and proudly.
[update 3]
At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.
From Report: McCain's Profane Tirade At His Wife
A couple of years later he was interviewed in prison camp by Fernando Barral, a Spanish psychiatrist living in Cuba. The interview appeared in Granma on January 24, 1970.
Barral's evaluation of McCain is quoted by Amy Silverman, author of many excellent pieces on McCain in the Phoenix-based New Times weekly. Here's how Barral described "the personality of the prisoner who is responsible for many criminal bombings of the people." Barral goes on, "He (McCain) showed himself to be intellectually alert during the interview. From a morale point of view he is not in traumatic shock. He was able to be sarcastic, and even humorous, indicative of psychic equilibrium. From the moral and ideological point of view he showed us he is an insensitive individual without human depth,who does not show the slightest concern, who does not appear to have thought about the criminal acts he committed against a population from the absolute impunity of his airplane, and that nevertheless those people saved his life, fed him, and looked after his health and he is now healthy and strong. I believe that he has bombed densely populated places for sport. I noted that he was hardened, that he spoke of banal things as if he were at a cocktail party."
From The Horrors of John McCain
Maybe this diary is just one of McCain's karma?
BY POPULAR DEMAND, CANCER JOKES (from The Furry Monkey (cancer jokes), Are You Ready for Cancer Jokes?, HOW I STARTED LAUGHING: MY FIRST CANCER JOKE
While humor is a good companion when you’re in treatment for cancer, you may not want cancer jokes for your personal companion. This is especially true if you just found out that you have cancer. I know because I have been there. However, after a period of tears and anxiety, I began to feel better during and after hearing cancer jokes. Eventually, you may want to come back here and read these jokes.
Like me, you may eventually discover that laughter helps the medicine go down. In fact, more than fifteen years ago 60 Minutes did a report about The Wellness Community, a support program for cancer patients and their families. They began by showing a room full of cancer patients laughing at this joke:
What do you call a person who has a compulsion to get lymphoma over and over again? . . .
A lymphomaniac.
In 1996, at age 47, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The urologist to whom I was referred by my new doctor recommended several months of Lupron followed by a radical prostatectomy, which I knew (from searching the internet) was the correct protocol at the time. In conference with my wife and I, however, the urologist warned that several months of Lupron to shrink the tumor might result in side effects, including hot flashes. He mentioned that, in rare cases, breast growth sometimes results.
On hearing that estrogen would take over as testosterone faded from my system, my wife's first question to the doctor was, "Will he finally enjoy shopping with me at the mall?"
Thanks for the jokes.....just what I needed to brighten up the day.
I was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had a radical orcheictomy on Sept.18/98.
I am currently taking radiation therapy that will be finished on Nov.26/98.
After my first radiation treatment, I was laying in bed that night. The children were finally all asleep. Carol and I could, at last, talk about the day events. We talked about several things, always dancing around how the radiation treatment had gone.
Finally, Carol asked how I was feeling. I told her pretty good, but my skin was a little tender. Carol offered to take a look, pulled the covers back and gasped -- there was a strange green glow coming out from under the blankets.
I had taken a "Glow-stick" and hidden it under the covers.
Great trick for anyone getting radiation . . . just make sure your spouse has a good sense of humor.
My first laugh after diagnosis came not from something I heard or saw but something I imagined. It wasn't THAT funny but I nearly choked with laughter. It was the first time I had tears of joy, rather than sorrow, and it felt wonderful. Here it is:
I needed a new wallet and imagined going to a store and finding a nice one. It had a tag reading "Lifetime Guarantee." I imagined turning to the clerk and asking, "Do you have anything that will last the rest of the year?"
Now, nearly two years later, it still makes me smile.
What did the deaf, dumb and blind kid get for Christmas.....?
Cancer.
Q How many cancer patients does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. Just one, but it takes a support group to cheer him on, and there's a lot of grieving afterwards.
A man elects to have a prostatectomy (removal of the prostate) and asks the surgeon to try to spare the nerves that produce an erection. Well, he goes into surgery and wakes up in the recovery room and sees his doctor.
Man: So how did it go?
Doctor: I've got good news and bad news.
Man: Give me the good news first.
Doctor: We were able to save the nerves.
Man: That's great news! What's the bad news?
Doctor: They're under your pillow.
When you have cancer and can laugh about it, do it and save your worry if it offends others.
Cancer gives enough worry.
Let it give you some laughs for a change.