This may seem like a little thing. An abortaton, or a minor glich, but it pisses me off.

This is the way I look at it.

There are some things that should never change. There are some traditions that are right, in fact they are so right they are as right as rain. They are the foundation of respect. There are some traditions that are solid as granite and are basic principles that should not ever be altered by even ten percent.

I have been blessed to have been in almost every ball park in America. Been to Fenway, Wrigley Field, Coors, Sun Life, PNC, Dodger Stadium over 30 times, been to them all except a few.

The one thing that happens every time, at every ball park, is the announcer states: "PLEASE STAND AND REMOVE YOUR HAT FOR OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM."

You do not wear a hat at the table during Christmas dinner, you do not wear a hat in church, and you sure as hell do not wear a hat when you are the gold medal winner in the Olympics as your National Anthem is playing while the world is watching.

Someone should have given, Christine Nisbitt, just a little-bitt of freakin common sense education before she stood there with her hat on during the Canadian National Anthem.

The I.O.C. should drop her down to a Bronze Medal just for being an idiot.

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I disagree. I wouldn't drop her Medal down. However, she needs to be smacked upside the head by her folks when she gets home to visit.

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that just might be an american tradition. Maybe cuz it is so damn cold up there (not the olympics, canada) that it is acceptable to have it on. I noticed the norway skier kept his on too.

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Just want to interject an additional tradition that very often surprises people in restaurants and other public places. My fondest memory was many, many years ago in a very fancy restaurant in D.C.

The string quartet started playing a medley of the Armed Forces songs. I was there with wife #1 and her parents. My father-in-law was a high-ranking Army officer.

They played the Army song, the Navy song, etc. Everybody just sat there, enjoying their dinner with the very nice background music. They got to the Marine Corps Hymn. I leapt to my feet and stood at attention. I honestly expected to be alone in doing so. Instead, I might have been a micro-second slow. I looked around, and at many, many tables there were men of all ages standing at rigid attention, from their 20's to their 80's in age, and I swear we stood in damn near perfect unison.

Made me proud.

My father-in-law explained to my wife and mother-in-law what the hell David and all those other crazy men were doing even while I stood there.

Why we stand at attention, no matter the clime or place 

That it explains it pretty good, but a better and simpler explanation is that we stand for our country, and the price it sometimes costs.

I don't get bent out of shape when someone fails to remove their cover when our anthem is played, even in the context of an Olympic medal. I would never do such a thing...but then I'm "brainwashed", as contrasted to "unwashed"...To each their own, which is kinda what it's all about in the first place.