William F. Buckley Jr., champion of individualism versus collectivism, antagonist of government run amok and constant critic of the nanny-state course America has been steering for far too long, died last week.

While you are doing America’s hardest work in Iraq and Afghanistan, you may have heard the buzz that the Berkeley, Calif., City Council passed a resolution: “... the Marine recruiting office is not welcome in our city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders ...“ and that the council went further to “Encourage all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station, and applaud residents and organizations such as Code Pink, that may volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley.”

I cringe every time I hear politicians, TV talking heads and even generals and admirals refer to our troops as “kids.”

I missed the recent Dragon Boat race in Peachtree City, but having two Chinese daughters has led me to learn some of the roots of the Dragon Boat race tradition. If you’re game for a story from a different culture, read on.

All of a sudden we are bombarded with daily reports of a credit crunch and wild securities market fluctuations with mortgage and sub-prime lending at the root. What does it all mean?

I have read some local comments about lousy health care given our veterans, both in the service and after their discharge. I don’t question that problems exist here and there, but the whole system should not be painted with a broad brush of blame without some careful examination. Let me tell you my own story.

When Judi-ann Rutherford resigned from the Peachtree City Council recently, I took notice because she seemed to be a decent lady whose voting record was in line with my attitude on issues like TDK.

Two years ago at the Peachtree City 4th of July parade, I showed my daughter how to stand respectfully straight and silent with right hand over her heart as the honor guard with our flag passed.

On April 29, 2007, Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki made the baseball history books in a game against the Atlanta Braves.

I admit it, I am one of the few remaining holdouts who despise rap, or hip-hop, which seem the same to me. I won’t even concede the point of calling it music.

Amidst the rubbish rolling off the Hollywood production line there is the occasional gem, a surprisingly high quality film or perhaps an important movie that can teach us prized lessons of our humanity if we pay attention. There is such an important movie now playing, titled “300.”

If anyone needs proof that our mainstream media is focused on unimportant but titillating stories, witness the stampede to cover ad-nauseam the death of Anna Nicole Smith. But even worse, in my opinion, is how the media twists real news. Here are a couple of examples, one recent, one from long ago.

Home Depot shareholders enjoyed record earnings in 2005, and Chief Executive Robert Nardelli took home $38.1 million in total compensation that year. When Nardelli recently resigned and invoked his $210 million severance package, the news was reported with hints of outrage. But Home Depot committed to the severance package years ago.

Just a few critical days before the recent election, John Kerry spoke these fateful words at Pasadena City College: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

The future story of the rise and fall of Peachtree City will surely feature the flawed human urge to heap layer after layer of improvements on a good thing until it collapses of its own weight.

There is a fine movie playing in local theaters, “Flags of Our Fathers,” based on the book of the same name written by James Bradley about the flag-raising on Iwo Jima in WWII. I wish all of you who can stand the realistic gruesome scenes of battle would see this movie about how a war has to be packaged and marketed to the American public. There is a priceless underlying message about heroes.

When I point out our obligation to present a united front to enemies of America, to withhold aid and comfort from them, to support our troops and our President in time of war, I hear different versions of “You don’t get it” along with claims to freedom of speech and even an obligation to oppose a president when we disagree.

On a mid-August Fox News Sunday TV program, Chris Wallace ended the show with a piece on a rehab center where our war casualties learn how to adapt to life with stark physical changes. Wallace didn’t find what he expected and he was clearly moved by the experience.

Like every Vietnam veteran I know, one of the lessons I learned in that war was that young Americans who do their duty in grave danger, and struggle mightily to bring one another home alive, have earned our admiration.

Mother’s Day brings to mind the twisted path that took us to China to adopt our two girls from orphanages, both at 12 months old. Kristen, the youngest, is 4 this year, old enough now to buy a present for Mom with Dad’s help, old enough for our Chinese Moon Festival conversation.

Last week my oldest daughter Melanie turned 9 years old. Her little sister Kristen is still 4.

I’m 57, and if you said I’m too old for kids that age, you wouldn’t be the first. Both girls were born in China, both joined our family by adoption.

John Kerry boasts that he volunteered to serve in Vietnam and volunteered for dangerous Swift Boat duty. But, as most things with John Kerry, the truth tells a different story.

Like the Energizer Bunny, John Kerry keeps on running for president.

Some of us remember Kerry as responsible, more than any other individual, for the false image of Vietnam veterans as dysfunctional misfits, baby-killers.

Maybe now that the 2004 presidential election is far behind us, and the next presidential election is over two years away, maybe at last we can talk rationally and calmly about John Kerry.

Every parent’s nightmare is losing a child. I can only imagine the anguish in the two local families who lost teens to suicide recently.

Well, maybe I’m not the best example. I don’t have much patience for ceremony or parades, and political posturing triggers my gag reflex.

The U.S. House version of an immigration bill is mean-spirited, according to the editors of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, because it makes being in the U.S. illegally a felony. Well, wait until they hear my idea.

When I hear the first words of a comparison between Iraq and Vietnam, I brace myself for nonsense.

It isn’t that there aren’t any similarities. The problem is conventional wisdom about Vietnam is usually wrong because the truth has been hidden for decades by a shroud of myths, half-truths and feel-good baloney. In the words of 19th century humorist Samuel Clemmons, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble . . . it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so!”

The recent clamor for a “date certain” to withdraw our troops from Iraq reminds me of why I thought this war was a bad idea long before the first shot was fired. I doubt many of you would guess my reasons.

Maybe you aren’t surprised that a grump like me is irritated that every day or week or month is named after some stupid special interest. But November is Adoption Awareness Month, and that shuts me up because this is my special interest.