No home field advantage

This shouldn't be surprising. After all, if we can't agree on English as a common language, and a common moral framework for our society, what's a little detail like a common currency?

In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

Canadian loonies and Mexican pesos are also increasingly common along our borders. If you don't defend your borders, language, culture or even your economy, are you really a sovereign nation? Like everything else, we're headed toward a worldwide lowest-common-denominator. The question is whether we'll like where we arrive. I suspect not.