Eugene David
...The One-Minute Pundit

Sunday, October 04, 2009


In posting yesterday of the epochal waste that is THE GAMES we failed to mention this:

Q: But not every impact can be broken down into dollars and cents, right?

A: Sure. One of the biggest benefits of an Olympics - or a similar event - is civic pride.

Chinese residents overwhelmingly said hosting the 2008 games would improve their image around the globe, despite its eye-popping $40 billion price tag.

After Germany poured millions into hosting the World Cup in 2006, data showed there wasn't much economic impact. But research also showed Germans were much happier afterward.

What it comes down to: Winning an Olympic games will make Rio de Janeiro an even more exciting city. But it might not make Brazilians rich.


One of the central tenets of RENDELLISM is that civic pride is a good. Philadelphia has so much history we could take it to the bank. But other than low-paying tourist jobs how much does history help? Meantime we must live in the here-and-now -- a city sixty percent ghetto, with little industry and lots of taxpayer-leeching institutions, that loses residents no matter how many high-end apartments we must build. Civic pride is to the RENDELLIST what faith healing is to a corrupt evangelist -- and even Jim Bakker admitted he was wrong, more than we can ever expect of a louse like EDDIE.

I mention this too because the BLUTOS are about to embark on another three-week-long mission to make lots of noise on weekdays around 1 a. m. I will not say what I said the last time. And last time the epochal triumph came as our economy threatened an immortal collapse. Things are not much better now -- and no amount of horn tooting and drunken reverie will help Philadelphia, or anyone else.

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