Tomorrow evening, the football franchise I grew up with, the franchise I lived and died with and rushed home from Hebrew school every Sunday to watch play, will be competing - after decades punctuated almost entirely by failure and futility - for its first world championship. And I really don't give a damn.

In fact, under normal circumstances, I'd probably be rooting against the Cardinals, sipping on some of that sweet schadenfreude soup, just like I've done in the 20-plus years since the franchise bolted from my hometown of St. Louis.

The Super Bowl is upon us. It's a remarkable event, able to bring together the vast majority of Americans, calling them to a rather inert form of action in living rooms and bars all across this great land. In this Age of Entertainment Plenitude, with the hundreds of TV channels and thousands of other diversionary options we now enjoy, it's a remarkable feat.

So, A-Man, Genghis, Orlando are all painting D.C. blue tonight, making it tough for them to discuss in detail the incredible experiences they must have had today. In the meantime, I figured I'd give my take on Obama's inaugural address.

So I was watching next-day coverage of the Hudson River airplane crash on CNN today and at some point one of the anchors brings up God and says something to the effect, "And if you're not already religious, something like this may make you believe."

And it made me wonder,

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