From absurd lawsuits to irrational verdicts, the abuse of the legal system in America continues a downward spiral; lawsuits for burns from spilled coffee – unknowingly hot – to even more ridiculous claims like the man who recently filed suit against the Guinness Book of World Records for naming him the World's Most Litigious Man. What can you do to avoid litigation and seek protection from frivolous lawsuits?

On May 26, 2006—high on the north slope of Mount Everest—climbing guide Daniel Mazur, of Olympia, Washington, was faced with a life-or-death decision. He was climbing toward the summit of Everest when he and his party encountered a most unusual sight. "Mazur, his two clients and a Sherpa guide were just two hours from the 29,035-foot peak… when they came across 50-year-old Lincoln Hall, who was left a day earlier when his own guides believed he was dead.

Some folks go through life singing, no matter what their circumstances. Such was a friend of mine, a little lady named Elsie, who died May 8, 2009 at the age of 95. One of the last things she did was to sing a hymn with her friends at her nursing home.

A friend of mine fought in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. As an 18-year-old American soldier, he joined his comrades in facing incoming artillery shells exploding all around them. My friend told me, "There were no atheists there that day. The men were trying to remember all their childhood prayers in that frightening attack."

The societal scourge of spousal, child and elder abuse has grown at an alarming rate over the past couple decades. Violence among family members fills our news headlines as the lives of men, women, and children are being ravaged by an often secret epidemic…domestic violence. How severe is domestic violence in our modern "civilized" world? Is there a way of escape from its oftentimes deadly consequences?