If I ever moved, those three states would be among my top choices.

Fake John,

Exactly, but what an illusion! It was what made me play football so aggressively and ride roller coasters. I submit it is what makes explorers explore and is responsible for the accomplishments that elder, more mature folks would never attempt. I am slipping into their camp now.

Thanks to all.

I just got back from the party at my partner's house. His wife and mine, along with excellent catering and bar tending, the rain holding off(we were mostly outside) and close to 100 friends and spouses made this a memorable and delightful evening. I am lucky to have them all. I feel loved and appreciated for whatever I mean to my wife, my partner and all those friends.

50 ain't so bad so far.

To me, it is as though there is a group of people who, no matter, call you a liar each time they hear you say the sky is blue. These ideologues will only be defeated and never converted. We have a shot with their children who will grow up and come of age either with a progression of socialism or a revival of libertarianism and conservatism.

Fake John summarizes my thoughts well. Great topic CU.

I do enjoy this thread as it reminds me of literature classes , but with mature adults, not trying to get an"A". I enjoy these conversations so immensely and pine for more though I am daily swallowed by the necessities of work, raising children and maintaining a household.

"Youth is wasted on the young."

I have read most of the novels of Alexandre Dumas and I found the character Grimaud, D'Artagnan's valet/aide de camp, to be compelling for myself.

I will never be a general but I am a good soldier. I would therefore not presume to take on one of the actual Musketeers's as a pseudonym. My other choice was Chicot, a jester character, in another period of Dumas' historical fiction, but I "met" him after I had begun with Ricochet.

Perhaps I have  put more thought than necessary into my pseudonym. It would seem presumptuous, ultimately, to select anyone else creation  as representing our own ethos, and pathos. Yet in a way, it is in homage that I chose mine. 

My! You are in a mood. Good on ya.

The Tea Party has been at work and raising their families. When the election comes around they will do their double duty and save this country. We just cannot let ourselves be co-opted by the establishment who needs our support to hold onto their power. 

We still have to be careful against opportunists willing to cloak themselves in the "Tea Party" mantle. Politicians tend to be shameless and all should be properly vetted. 

Little Big Man, Support Your Local Sheriff, Hang'em High, War Wagon, A Man Called Horse, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Shootist, Mountain Men and any movies with Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper, Glen Ford, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda and of course, The Duke. I also liked the old Roy Rogers, Tom Mix (Liberty Films?) B Movies.

Do not be so naive as to think these Alinskyite radicals do not want this country to be put on par with a third world country in a third world world. One has to suspend disbelief to accept that liberal/socialistic/communistic  forces do not realize their strategies give only power to the ruling class and squash all other classes to peasantry. Equal misery for the masses is all they offer while capitalism offers upward mobility for those who are willing to work hard and take some risks.

These liberals are evil, intentionally or not. 

low calorie beer. Not Miller Lite, but all these new "Ultras" etc. 

DocJay, we think alike. The newer IGRT external beam radiation is pretty nice and very precise for someone beyond surgical age. Very low side effects and comparable cure rates to 10 years. I still do open prostatectomies though there is a big shift toward robotic surgery. I think the lack of benefit and added cost may keep my skills in fashion for a while however.

I am a urologist. This procedure is already widely available. Surgery and radiation remain the mainstay of curative treatment however, and, while side effects and complications occur, they are by no means a given. My concern lies in the idea that prostate cancer  is "not serious'. It is usually slow growing but if aggressive, like other cancers, death from advanced prostate cancer is painful and slow. We have a hard time discerning which cancers will be more aggressive.

So HIFU is a neat, newer technology to treat prostate cancer in certain clinical situations. It will not, for the foreseeable future, replace current standards of care treatment.

Claire, I consider myself compassionate and understand the sentiment of "there but for the grace of God go I", but do you feel sorry for John Edwards or Bill Clinton? A certain amount of schaden freud seems acceptable toward our political/ideological enemies, though they be fellow countrymen. I think we should, however withhold judgement in general until the facts are in for the Secret Service guys. It makes me wonder about past indiscretions. It is almost easier to believe somehow this administration's Secret Service are newly corrupt, given that unit's long history of valor and professionalism, but it is possible there is a prior history of this behavior.  

Casey, you are an envelope pusher. Using the term "retarded" in this day and age.

As implied earlier in this stream, God bless you for caring enough to stand up and address the point. It's the "emperors new clothes" or the "elephant in the room", yet most are too cowed to face the imminent charge of "racist".