P. J. O'Rourke has "cancer of the ass" and is thankful for life and whiskey

PJ O'Rourke, one of the founder's of National Lampoon and the author of many books and even more essays, has been diagnosed with cancer...apparently at about the same time as Kennedy. He stands a good chance of recovery (on the order of 95%)...which pleases me. I am tire of loosing great writers. While steadfastly on the free market/libertarian side of the spectrum, his writing is such that it is/should be a treat for those who read it...agree or not, he is always sharp, cogent and his sense of humor and appreciation for the absurd shines through. I have always pictured Hunter Thompson and PJ standing back to back, so far out on the right and the left that they formed the bridge to close the circle.

For PJ's thoughts on the his ass and , please see Give me liberty and give me death. A snippet follows:

I have, of all the inglorious things, a malignant hemorrhoid. What color bracelet does one wear for that? And where does one wear it? And what slogan is apropos? Perhaps that slogan can be sewn in needlepoint around the ruffle on a cover for my embarrassing little doughnut buttocks pillow.

Furthermore, I am a logical, sensible, pragmatic Republican, and my diagnosis came just weeks after Teddy Kennedy's. That he should have cancer of the brain, and I should have cancer of the ass ... well, I'll say a rosary for him and hope he has a laugh at me. After all, what would I do, ask God for a more dignified cancer? Pancreatic? Liver? Lung?
...
Then there's the matter of our debt to death for life as we know it. I believe in God. I also believe in evolution. If death weren't around to "finalize" the Darwinian process, we'd all still be amoebas. We'd eat by surrounding pizzas with our belly flab and have sex by lying on railroad tracks waiting for a train to split us into significant others.