Go Canada! But to be Honest I'll Just be Glad When the Olympics Are Over

I have been trying to convince myself to get pumped up about the Olympics, but I absolutely cannot. This has nothing to do with the athletes, and yes it will be nice if we win a few gold medals, but the entire event has been so tainted, that I'll just be glad when they're over and we can get back to our lives.

And no this does not make me unpatriotic.

Unpatriotic would be to allow an American firm to build the Canadian pavilion.

And unpatriotic would be to sell Canada to the U.S. while spectators are enjoying the games.

Gerald Caplan has a great piece in the Globe today about the state of our country and why he can't get into this fiasco either. While Harper sits grinning, refusing to address the Canadian public, and answer questions about his latest treasonable actions; the hypocrisy is just too overwhelming, so I will be sitting this one out.

The grinch steals the Games

I am suddenly feeling my cherished Canadian sense of liberty being chipped away.

I can't lend money to a fellow Canadian, Abousfian Abdelrazik, who is accused of terrorism but is guilty of nothing. He has been made a non-person by a disgraceful UN witch-hunt that the United States initiated and Canada refuses to fight.

And then of course there's the whole Israel thing:

I can't criticize the government of Israel, even when it is extremist, chauvinistic, racist and brutal without being labelled a self-hating Jew, or –who knows? – maybe even an anti-Semite.

An unholy alliance between the Jewish establishment, which does not represent the views of thousands of Canadian Jews, and the Harper government, which does not represent the views of a majority of Canadians, has created a new code of free speech for Canadians: We are not permitted apply the same standards of conduct to Israel as we do to all other countries in the world without being charged with anti-Semitism.

And the freedom of speech thing:

And I apparently can't write this column critical of the International Olympics Committee without the threat that mysterious police officials will question me, my family and friends about whether I'm a danger to – who knows what? That's exactly what's happened to other critics. This kind of harassment, persecution, arbitrariness, authoritarianism and suppression of ordinary Charter rights is only too accurate a reflection of what the Olympics – athletes aside – seems really all about.

He then goes on to explain the corruption and commercialism, making these games more about the competition of brands than athletes.

Yep, I'm sitting this one out.