Say No To 2016 Olympics In Chicago

This is likely to be another boondoggle in the making. Only in gigantic proportions. I'm speaking of the possible selection of Chicago hosting the 2016 Olympics. Not only would this decision allow the international community to experience Chicago and Illinois corruption up close, but will most probably end up becoming another money loser for our near-bankrupt state.

Chicago is at odds against Madrid, Tokyo and Rio De Janerio for hosting rights. It has projected a cost outlay of $4.8 billion to prepare the city to host the Olympics that year; the lowest of all the contending cities. Now I'm guessing it will cost much more. When was the last time you saw a government entity come close to projections. Once the corruption begins, the paybacks are made and palms greased, it's going to cost much, much more. And who is going to pay for all this? That's right, you and me.

Instead of the City of Chicago solely paying for all this needed infrastructure, the State of Illinois will most likely be paying for much of it. Should the Olympics prove profitable, it will be Chicago who reaps the rewards. Moreover, the taxpayers who reside in places such as Quincy, Mt Vernon or Carbondale will be paying for Olympic infrastructure. And when the games are finally being played, what benefits will the people in these fine towns see?

Supporters state that some games will be held outside of Chicago and that fans will be staying at hotels hundreds of miles from the host city. That's very probably and the outskirts of Chicago will likely see benefits of some sort. But taxpayers further downstate, like Carbondale, will not see any benefits. Why should they have to pay into this, take the risk and have absolutely no return?

And that's assuming there will be return. From what I understand, many cities that have hosted the Olympics have, overall, never realized a return on investment. It's more of the "build it and they will come" mentality.

I'm not even going to speculate how the crime element may be run out of Chicago for the Olympics and part of it relocates to Peoria.

The wheels are in motion and Chicago is already one of the finalists. We'll just have to wait and see what the International Olympic Commission decides.

Housewives Are Desperate

I started watching the television show Desperate Housewives when it first aired. It was entertaining. The original promo clips featured a naked Teri Hatcher running around the neighborhood. What American, red-blooded, heterosexual male wouldn't want to see that?

However, last season really sucked and in my opinion, the show is not worth investing the time to watch it. For whatever reason that I can't find, the producers of the show decided to "reboot" it by moving it 5 years in the future. So we are to understand it is now 2014 on Westeria Lane? There has not been much technological change from what I can tell.

One of the characters did buy a Lexus with a refrigerator, so I guess we have that to look forward to. Another character in the show was unemployed and was attempting to get back into the work force. He was having a difficult time and he believed it was because he was older. This character claimed he was asked about Twitter at a job interview and he stated he did not know what Twitter was. Ok, if it's 2014 and you don't know what Twitter is (in all likelihood, Twitter will probably be dead by then), then you don't deserve to get hired.

There were a few references to how bad the economy was in the last season. So I guess our current recession will continue for the next 5 years. There were some other continuity issues as well. One particular couple had two kids in the 5 years the show leaped over. However, these kids looked to be about 7 or 8 years old. The father of these kids was made blind from an accident a couple seasons earlier. Behold, there's now an operation to let him see again. In another gaffe, the 16-year old daughter of Teri Hatcher's character has now graduated from college, is gainfully employed making good money and is engaged to be married... all in 5 years, from high school sophomore to 20-something fiancee.

The biggest flop of the season past was Hatcher's character Susan and her husband were in a car wreck that killed a woman and her child. Susan can't deal with this turn of events in her life and demands a divorce. WTF? Where does this come from? Mike, Susan's husband finally says "sure" and signs the papers all the while she's crying, now thinking that this might be a mistake. Mike moves on and starts banging another neighbor which he later gets engaged to.

Meanwhile, the man whose wife and child were killed in the car accident plots his revenge. He buys a house in the neighborhood and starts a band with Mike and others. He buddys up with everyone. Ultimately, he wants Susan and her child to get killed at the same place and same way his family was killed. Then episode after episode last season, there was no story development whatsoever. On episode showed us some handyman who died that everyone on the street loved. The recounted stories of this guy whom we've never seen or heard of for 4 or 5 seasons. WTF? Then they did the same thing when they killed off one of the major characters. The stories went nowhere.

For the season final, Mike is off to get married with the other neighbor girl. The psycho that moved into the neighborhood just gave up on his original scheme and instead decided to kill Susan and her son by taking them camping in the woods and just shooting them. He instead was able to get them to the same location of the accident and arranges to have Mike run into them, but then he chickens out and lets them go. Mike, Susan and their son are ok, the psycho is dead and by the end of the episode, there is another flash forward where Mike and Susan are getting remarried (though they never show her, you just know it's her... saw that coming months ago).

That was completely worthless. A season of TV watching I'll never get back. I doubt I even tune in this season.

Shopping

Tonight I made a routine visit to the grocery store to pick up our usual staples. Nothing too exciting. I've lately been shopping at the Kroger's in Chillicothe. Not that I'm a loyal Kroger's shopper. Quite the contrary, I really don't care for Kroger's. But it saves a bit of time traveling to Schnuck's and better yet, the sales tax revenues will go to Chillicothe rather than Peoria. It's a safe bet that the town of Chillicothe will use those revenues far more efficiently than the city of Peoria. Let's get back to why I'm writing this post.

As I stood in the checkout lane, a manager asked the bagger if they had asked me if I wanted paper bags. Sensing that the bagger could get into some trouble because he didn't ask me and that he did not use plastic bags, I came to the rescue and said that it was ok. In fact, I even pointed out I would prefer paper bags. And that got me thinking...

There was a day, long ago, I remember when there were no paper bags. One day, sometime in the late 70's, Mom was interviewed on the local news about these new plastic bags. She gave it a good review. But after 30 years of plastic bags, is it really a good deal.

For starters, I like paper bags because you can place more goods and products into them. With plastic bags, you can put a couple boxes of cereal into them and then you're done. Another reason plastic bags suck is environmental reasons. Paper bags are biodegradable; plastic is not. Of course, paper is not the greatest. As the paper will decompose, the ink for anything printed on it will leak down into the water supply. Think about that the next time you're eating at McDonalds. What was it, 15 to 18 years ago, they replaced all the styrofoam containers for their burgers with paper wrappers. While styrofoam will last forever, it would just look unsightly sitting in a landfill along side plastic bags. Parts of this refuse might even be used by birds and squirrels in next building. But all that ink on those paper wrappers will wash down into our water supply.

So I don't know, take your pick on how you want to destroy the environment. But for me, I prefer paper bags as you get more bang for your buck!