Commentary: This 'Tator Needs a Defibrillator: Football, Quebec, Terrorism, Maureen Dowd, CSI: Las Vegas and history

-You are what you eat. You consume a lobster then you are a lobster.Sports leagues are a reflection of the state of a nation's business culture in some ways. There are no better examples than the NFL and CFL.

We all know about the NFL. Its origins and history plays like a typical American handbook on how to succeed. The CFL on the other hand has more lives than Fritz the Cat. It's a league that if a movie were to be made about it 'Night of the Living Dead' would be the perfect parody. From how it operates all the way to how it projects and markets itself the CFL is quintessentially Canadian; and that's not a good thing when it comes to making profits. 9 teams and 95 years of history and the league still can't figure out how to make money. One century later and they still don't sell out every single game - though attendance has been improving. Sounds suspiciously like the country itself. Canada has 10 provinces that conveniently forget they are in a Confederation. Each province acts like it's an independent entity (think inter-provincial barriers) out to suck the Federal system dry. There is no unity or cohesiveness as to how Canada functions. It's a dysfunctional collection of leaderless and spoiled disaffected morons. Can't wait for the Grey Cup though.

-Speaking of provinces, Quebec deserves credit. I have been merciless in the past regarding the political situation in this place. The intellectualism here is claustrophobic and weak. But that's for another post. When looking at Canada as a whole, Quebec by far has the most thriving grass roots football programs and indigenous movie industry. Slowly we are beginning to see world-class French-Canadian football players emerge and there has been a marked improvement in the quality of Quebecois films. Quirky, well-written and now sophisticated, Quebec-based films are even marketable to Americans. In a larger North American context, this is welcomed. While Canadians have been introduced to the many facets of American life, Americans have not been exposed to the different culture that lays North of them.

-Spanish police arrested a Moroccan with plans to attack subways. One of the cities initially thought to be targeted was Montréal. Well, I'm not going to rehash anything here. One of the first things I argued was that we were not immune after 9/11. Canadians, however, unfortunately seemed perfectly content to dive further into a deep and dark realm of denial. Canadians have taken to easily to the disease of anti-Americanism that masquerades as Canadian nationalism. I have strenuously argued that this country is not only unprepared logistically but psychologically as well.

-Speaking of absurdities. Maureen Dowd is one pompous chick. I caught two or three minutes of her interview with Charlie Rose and could not watch one more wretched nano-second. Her demeanor and locked-jaw was awful. Now that's megalomania at its height. Seriously, I have no idea what the fascination is with her. I have read maybe three of her articles and found them to be superficial, childish and arrogant. They offered nothing in insight that would help to improve my knowledge. From what I hear, she's acclaimed and littered with awards. Which leads me to wonder - what are these awards worth? They did, recall we must, give Arafat a Nobel Peace prize.

-Speaking of history, I watched CSI: Las Vegas - as a prelude to FOX Sports World who had my UEFA Cup soccer updates at 10pm - Ever notice how, and CSI is not the only one guilty of this, whenever a character goes off and explains an interesting historical event or fact how the person he or she is speaking to reacts? Usually with rolled eyes or complete disinterest. Tells a lot about the state of history in pop culture - to me anyway.

Clear! That's the sound of the defibrillator....