Presnell Wood tells about a boy growing up in a simple cottage nestled on the side of a mountain. His family was poor, but they enjoyed a millionaire’s view of a wooded valley.

Well it’s happened again. The Wife has left me. For those who are regular readers of this column, the news may come as a surprise. Others may be wondering why it has taken so long for her to come to her senses.

What does Santa Claus look like? He may just look like a United States Marine. In 1947, according to the national Toys for Tots website, when Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children, Toys for Tots was born. The idea came from Bill’s wife, Diane.

In the string of amazing decisions made during the first year of the Obama administration, nothing seems more like sheer insanity than the decision to try foreign terrorists, who have committed acts of war against the United States, in federal court, as if they were American citizens accused of crimes.

At Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Oct. 29 press conference, a CNS News reporter asked, “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?”

Joseph Stubbs, president of the American College of Physicians — the second largest doctors’ group in the country — confirms that “the supply of doctors just won’t be there” for the 30 million new patients Barack Obama wants to cover.

We have a problem. This could be “the big one” — bigger than coping with the Ahmadinejads, Kims, and Chavezes of the world and bigger than our current economic woes. Our republic, our society, may be heading for a crackup. We are bankrupt, both financially and politically.

Big bank predatory lending practices that played a major part in causing the current financial crisis have been widely publicized.

Art Linkletter coined the phrase, “Kids say the darndest things.” To borrow from Mr. Linkletter, politicians also say the darndest things.

In Belfast, in the stunningly gorgeous building dedicated by Prince Edward in 1932 (he who abdicated), where the Northern Ireland Assembly convenes, I learned why I can never be president of the United States.

Our world prizes perfection and we come to expect it. We expect it of others, and we expect it of ourselves. We strive for it and fall short and that often gets us demoralized, making us think that we’re somehow inadequate. We’re all too aware of our shortcomings, our mistakes, our past failures.

The cruise ship Noordam we boarded last summer cost a small fortune, but that’s why I write. Dave takes responsibility for keeping the house intact, paying for prescriptions and groceries, and for vehicular maintenance. My meager wages go into an account labeled “Fun.”

When I was a young pastor, 24 or 25 years old, my denominational supervisor offered me a book on theology by Karl Barth. I declined his gift and said that I didn’t need it.

After more than a decade of public healthcare with mandatory coverage, so many Canadian doctors have left the practice and so many young people have entered other fields that Canada ranks 26th of 28 developed nations in its ratio of physicians to population. Once, Canada ranked among the leaders in the number of physicians — but that was before government healthcare drove doctors out of the practice in droves.

The early morning sun streamed through the bedroom window blinds, warming my face. A slight breeze slipped past the cracked window and tickled my neck, trying to awaken me.

Government and military officials have issued statements since last week’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas that have nothing to do with the reality of what occurred, what is occurring and what our enemies would still like to have occur all over the United States.

Going through some old files recently, I opened one slugged “ants” and dated exactly one year before today. Talk about your déjà vu….

Each year when Veterans Day comes again to honor those who served their country, my mind often drifts to those who served in the life-saving business, the medics, helicopter crews, doctors and nurses who make a memorable difference in the lives of so many.

The 1-year-old Fayette-Coweta Clyde Thomason chapter of the Marine Corps League held its first Marine Corps birthday event in Sharpsburg, Ga., Saturday, Nov. 7, and with 40 Marines and spouses in attendance, it was a very successful first effort.

The dawn was barely breaking, the morning just beginning to wrestle the new day away from the black night as the train traveled with a jolting purpose from Dublin to Belfast.

By REP. MATT RAMSEY and SEN. RONNIE CHANCE

It is hard to believe that it has been more than seven months since the Georgia General Assembly wrapped up the 2009 session. With the 2010 session right around the corner, we thought it would be a good time to provide an update on our state’s budget and economic picture.

Why did the Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendums in other counties pass, but not in Fayette? Ours was a vote of no confidence.

Every Veterans Day presents an opportunity to commemorate those who served in some faraway place long ago, many of whom paid that ultimate sacrifice. World War II offers its share of remembrances: Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941; Normandy, June 6, 1944; the Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 16, 1944; to name a few.

By Shiraz Karaa

As the nation welcomes the return of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who will take advantage of the expanded GI Bill education benefits, Clayton State University, among other post-secondary education institutions, will see and has seen an increasing number of soldiers who are pursuing higher education opportunities.

This coming Sunday, Nov. 15, here at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, we will celebrate our 25th Anniversary and Homecoming with worship at 10 a.m. followed by a luncheon for all our members, former members, and guests. We invite all our former members and any of our friends in the community to attend and celebrate and reminisce with us.

Some would say that it not surprising that the United States Marine Corps was born in a bar — a tavern, actually. On Nov. 10, 1775, the Continental Congress formed the Continental Marines. Captain Samuel Nicholas was commissioned as the first officer in the Corps on Nov. 28, 1775, and set up the first recruiting post in a tavern.

Yes, yes, says White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Congress has the power to make everyone buy health insurance. “I don’t believe there’s a lot of case law that would demonstrate the veracity” of comments to the contrary.

When I was small, my best friend suddenly stopped coming around to play. Mom said, “He’s moved on to a better place.”

We are incessantly being told that the cost of medical care is “too high” — either absolutely or as a growing percentage of our incomes. But nothing that is being proposed by the government is likely to lower those costs, and much that is being proposed is almost certain to increase the costs.

Steve H. Hanke is a professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., and writes frequently for Globe Asia and Forbes magazine. Professor Hanke starts off his “Hu versus Sarkozy” article (Globe Asia, November 2009) with a warning.