Let me make this perfectly clear. I will waste this Sunday evening watching the game and annoying the rest of my family only because it's American socialism in action. I know this because Bill Maher told me so and Bill Maher is almost always right, which means left. Mr. Maher explained on his TV show that the National Football League operates on socialist principles. All the trillions of dollars the 32 teams earn from TV rights is put into a vast pool and then redistributed throughout the league. That's how a team from a tiny mythical town called Green Bay can put together the kind of roster that can make it all the way to the Big Boring Game.

Just over a week has now passed since South Africa's 2010 FIFA World Cup began. Writing from Cape Town, I remain just as conflicted about the matter as I was eight days ago. I was a staunch critic of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, primarily because of its extreme corportization, the further marginalization of already poor communities, and what I considered to be an insane focus on a one-month party while ever-pressing economic, political, environmental and social concerns were put on the backburner.