"Buy Gold!" scream dozens of headlines in various financial newsletters, internet websites and television commercials. It seems that the economic uncertainty of the times has motivated people with assets to seek a safe haven, and what could be more attractive than gold, the standard of monetary value for millennia.

The news today generally fails to communicate the complexities of the current Georgia/Russia conflict. The U.S. has long supported Georgia's bid to hold on to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, when the people of those provinces consider themselves Russian.

A short news story out of Cincinnati, Ohio is a grim reminder of the child-abuse sex scandals that rocked the religious world over the past several years. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has provided its priests with the latest list of "inappropriate" behavior regarding children.

Recently, I realized a dream, a long-held goal to visit Ireland, England and Scotland. My timing wasn't very good because the "Yankee Dollar" doesn't buy much anymore, especially in the United Kingdom or the European Union. But it was a great opportunity and my wife and I enjoyed it immensely.

As I travelled with my family along the highway winding through America's heartland, we were struck by the natural beauty of the landscape; mile upon mile of fields and forests, spotted with occasional towns. And then we saw it. In this of all settings it looked so out of place.