Doomsday +1

No, not the Charlton comic that gave us John Byrne.  I'm talking about the Olympics.

At this time tomorrow, we'll know if Chicago has gotten the Olympics, and all signs are pointing to yes.  This makes me VERY sad, for a few reasons.

1.  Chicago is the most corrupt city in the U.S.  Pardon me, let me amend that.  Chicago POLITICIANS are the most corrupt in the U.S. and the Olympics has always had corruption problems.  It had problems in Salt Lake, Utah.  That's UTAH a state made for and run by MORMONS.  Mormons got in trouble for running a corrupt Olympics.  What chance to we have?

2.  Congestion in the city will go crazy.  I know this is 7 years off, but traffic and costs of parking and tolls will only go up and cars on the road will only multiply.  Too many people descending on the city will be insanity.  Can we handle it, yes, we're very capable people, but will t be enjoyable, no it won't.

3.  City taxes will go to funding this, guaranteed, and that's a problem.  To my recollection, this has never been voted on by the public.  I may  be totally wrong there, so I'll not hinge my point on the fact that the voters never had a say.  What I will say is that our taxes will go up, and we're already one of the highest taxed people in the US. 

4. New construction is the biggest argument that people are making for these games.  Here's my problems with that.  The money for this construction will be coming from #3 above and a budget built on numbers that will absolutely be eclipsed by overruns.  Therefore, when the supposedly privately funded dollars run out, the money that would come from the govt. and donations, Daley will dip into Chicago's wallets.  This won't be exterior funds coming into the city making us rich.  We'll be stealing from our left hand to pay our right. 

4.5 The new construction, while I'm sure will be competentely built, won't be long lasting structures.  They cannot be, not unless the budgets go higher than they are.  So we'll be building locations that are either MEANT to be temporary or just won't be as high quality as a private business venture would provide. 

5.  Finally, the flat out benefit to the city, as reported on by MULTIPLE outside sources, Anderson Accounting being one of them, is well below the projection that Daley and his cronies have put out there.  Just like the clusterfuck that was the Parking Meter scam, Daley is being shortsighted with the money.  He could have gotten more for the parking meters than they did, but whether he's too stupid to get it or just to shortsighted, he didn't.  And by all accounts, we, the denizens of Chicago, are paying 4x for it.

I'll have to wait at least 7 years to find out whether I'm right or not, and I'll have to listen to all kinds of bullshit for that time.  I guess this is how people who were against Obama feel now.  A lot of parrallels there, passion on both sides, some very geographically delineated viewpoints.  Oh well, I'm not going to launch into a comparison here.  I just wanted to get my thoughts down prior to the announcement, to go on the record.

MotD: To Live and Die in L.A.
William Friedkin is a pimp.  I cannot think of another movie, tho maybe if I sat down and put my mind to it, that more screamed 1980's than this movie.  Really exciting film, with great performances and exciting set pieces.  SCREAMS 80's, which makes me chuckle.  Surprisingly the only thing missing is a giant mountain of blow somewhere.