Unauthorized

The Australian team, who are now in the Athletes Village, unfurled a flag of a Kangaroo with boxing gloves from their balcony.

But it's not an official flag of the Olympics!

Team spirit at an international sporting event will not be tolerated under any circumstance.

Sheets will be handed out to all the athletes that will have International Olympic Committee [IOC]-approved cheers.

Deviating from the officially sanctioned expressions of support will be punishable by IOC law. You think Guantanamo is extra-territorial? J

Just wait until Jacques Rogge goes all IOC on your ass. It won't be pretty. Rogge is a count, for starters, and you know what that means. He is the eighth and current president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). And that's like being King.

IOC has said they'll meet within the next few days to make a decision about the Aussies.

Note to the IOC: Worry about children starving in Haiti and leave the Down Underlings  alone.

  When we criticize the city or the Olympics for certain inanities (curtailing of civil liberties, washing away 'graffiti' because city officials don't know what art is, or using military-grade hardware for crowd control) it's because we want to live in a place that respects its citizens. If something seems silly, disrespectful or downright stupid, we feel we should...nay, we feel it is our duty to call them out on it.

That's why I find it interesting to see the comment sections of online media stories where citizens of the Pollyanna variety repeat the theme "the world is coming, so don't put the city down in front of the guests." Something akin to, "You shouldn't air your dirty laundry."

This, alas, makes no sense. In fact, if there's any positive outcome to be had from these Olympics, it's precisely that Vancouver will be shamed into changing some ridiculous laws or improving transportation systems for the benefit of it's citizens who are looking for something more to be proud of.

Vancouverites who are looking forward to the Olympics haven't been thinking about the coming financial hangover, and there will be one.  Once the fanfare is done, and the Jamaican bobsled team is back home snorkeling for the rest of the winter, people in Vancouver are going to face the sticker shock, like they're at an Edmonton Oilers Christmas party.

One of the biggest cost over-runs was the Olympic Village, and the city is on the hook for $110 million. City Council had originally discussed the idea of having 252 of the 600 units be assigned as social housing, but that's not looking very likely. The city has to make it's money back somehow, and renting a unit to a low-income family just isn't going to cut it.

Now that it's officially 2010(c)  I asked my landlord to get court-approved proof that I wouldn't be arrested for writing "2010" on my rent cheque. As the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) has shown, they will not tolerate any unauthorized use of key words associated with the Olympics, but then again, the bank won't accept "Jan 1, Somewhere between 2009 and 2011."

Until the Games are over, I will preface all my remarks thusly: "If in the course of this statement I use the number '2010', it is merely as a place-marker to refer to a 12 month period and not as a metaphor for any Nordic activities occurring in the 2nd month, notwithstading any usage that does refer to said month, for which I will receive prior notarized approval, in triplicate."

I suggest you do the same. Falling afoul of VANOC is not something I recommend, or you may find yourself "volunteered" to the pepper-spray testing committee.