It is a likely truism that there's a sucker born every minute, but only in Vancouver would those so defined revel in their "sucker-dom." Or worse, even pay to re-brand themselves as such all over again. Yet this is exactly what some Vancouverites will be doing when the city celebrates the one year anniversary of the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games.

Much of the world is focused rightfully on a street revolution in Egypt about human rights, a revolt that could utterly change the status quo in the Middle East. Meanwhile, our politicians and those enamored of last year's Olympic circus obsess about recapturing the golden moment. When not so distracted, the corporate press zero in on the massacre of shed dogs in Whistler.

As millions of Canadians and Americans (and others worldwide) sat down last night to watch the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, CTV and NBC seem to have made a barbaric and Machiavellian ratings decision to broadcast the Olympic equivalent of a snuff-film.

While CTV and NBC have made attempts to justify their decision to broadcast the death of a Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, one really needs to wonder (little) if the nationality of Kumaritashvili had been Canadian or American, would the network executives have made a different decision.