Oh, Canada!

One of the best parts of any Olympics is watching the host country go berserk any time one of their athletes wins a medal. Despite rumors to the contrary, there is absolutely nothing wrong with national pride, especially when it's expressed through something as harmless as sport. Canadian moguls hero Alexandre Bilodeau's medal ceremony was a classic of the genre with thousands of Canadians singing a rousing version of "Oh, Canada!" and the governor-general (or whatever he's called) of British Columbia waving a huge flag like a college pep leader. For whatever reason, no Canadian had ever won a gold medal while the Olympics were on Canadian soil, but Bilodeau won the men's mogul gold (Canada no longer has that monkey on its back), so his medal ceremony had a palpable emotional edge. Good show.

The silver medalist, btw, was a Canadian-turned-Australian named Dale Begg-Smith whom NBC described as an "internet millionaire." Hmph, I thought, some guys have all the luck. Turns out there's more to the story than that: he is notorious in Australia as the designer and retailer of malware and spyware. Not quite as "bad" as the East German swim team, but bad enough.