My Sunday Feeling

Despite the lobbying of the President and the First Lady, the bid entered by the City of Chicago to host the next Olympic games was rejected in favor of Rio de Janeiro. For which the good folks of the Chicagoland area should say two words. Thank God.

There is no more relentlessly hyped, thoroughly corrupt, PED infected and civic bankruptcy inducing event on Earth. Michael Jackson's funeral was tasteful and cathartic by comparison. Next to the Olympics the Super Bowl is a modest schoolgirl. Chicago, or New York or whoever else in this great land of ours thought they wanted to host this headache, should thank their lucky stars that Rio successfully out bribed the other cities that sought the hand of the faux royalist grifters that make up the International Olympic Committee.

Don't get me wrong. I love Chicago. But I cannot imagine what an unmitigated cluster it would be to get the various venues up and running by the time of the drag show known as the opening ceremonies. Between the corrupt politicians in the City and State and the Unions, people would be turning themselves into pretzels trying to get a piece of the action.

I get up there every 3-5 years or so. The construction out on the Dan Ryan Expressway is a continuous buzz of activity. The only place I have ever seen where the road work is similarly unending is I-55 through Jackson. They have been working on that stretch of road for 20 years. I don't get it.

Or take Millennium Park in the heart of the Chicago Loop. Sure, it's a beautiful place. But my buddy up there said the cost over-runs eventually hit 500 million. Imagine how the cash register would ring when the unions put a gun to the head of the IOC.

As if the prospect of all of the above were not sufficiently alarming, just think of the security angle. For a big city Chicago, by and large, is pretty safe. But whenever the Olympics are held the host city immediately becomes the target of nuts and terrorists. And then you have your tin-horn potentates that will come to town bringing with them their own entourage of acolytes and security types. As if dealing with the Mob weren't headache enough.

No Chicago you are far better off obsessing about the Cubs and the Bears. Better to leave this ersatz spectacle to the folks that don't have much else to do. On the other hand, running the Marathon south of the border should be interesting. It won't be hot and humid or anything. I'll watch that.

But I have a question, Chicago. Greasing palms is second nature to you people. It's how things get done over there.

How did y'all get outbribed by Rio? Mayor Daley is spinning in his grave.