What the International Olympic Committee Looks for in a Host City
Hint: It's not a restrained police force.
For your "the Masters of the Olympics prefer a police-state environment" files, here's a snippet from a new piece by the leftist sportswriter Dave Zirin:
I spoke with someone connected to the International Olympic Committee who told me that Boston has rocketed to the top of their consideration list [for 2024] because of how the city was able to shut itself down after the Boston Marathon bombing.
No further comment is necessary, but if you want to read more about what the Olympics have become, you can go here, with additional horrors here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
The first thing they look for is whether the city officials are willing to let themselves get played as economic suckers, since the costs always outweigh any economic benefits derived from being a host city.
So that's why the Olympics are always hosted in a predominantly liberal city.
Are there any conservative cities?
Depends on how you define city.
Mogadishu?
*applauds*
What the International Olympic Committee Looks for in a Host City
Eminent domain, cartoonish bags of cash, hookers, and/or blow. Did I miss anything?
We've now learned it means a well equipped, militarized police force and an admin willing to lock down a city by any means necessary.
Boston Strong!
Killing and/or "disappearing" retards and homos.
What about figure skating?
OK, local homos.
Damn, aside from the eminent domain, that's one committee I would love to be on.
All I can do is hope DC is not selected for whatever year they're bidding on. Or hope that I'm not still living here.
I just met a couple who recently visited DC with their kids. Major complaint was gates and guards (usually chatting on cell phones) everywhere and the trouble getting tours.
Grew up there, and fuck that place.
I've lived on the east coast my entire life. I've been to DC once and am glad that I have zero plans of ever returning.
Fucking Baltimore is superior.
Fucking Baltimore is superior.
Baltimore is not superior at anything, save for awfulness.
I like the Capitol/mall area, and there are good restaurants in DC.
You, sir, have never visited the "National Aquarium."
you sir have never walked more than a 100 yards from the docks.
I visited the aquarium many times. It's nice, but it's not superior. And as soon as you walk outside, you're greeted by an even worse smell than inside thanks to the garbage fermenting in the harbor. At least they used to have a Phillips buffet. They couldn't even keep that.
Bah. The Texas State Aquarium is better.
Baltimore: We're not Detroit!
Baltimore fucking sucks. Don't get me wrong - the entire DC metro area is a shithole, but Baltimore takes the cake in that department, by far. It's a shithole inside a shithole.
Hey, I never said it wasn't. I'd rather never experience either city ever again.
You'd rather fuck Balto. than DC?
Grew up there, and fuck that place.
Should there be a "Slim" after your handle?
I live here now and can't wait to get away. Far, far away.
As well as the Obligatory "and the sex change band"
My recollection is RBS was from around the Warrenton area. back in those days big difference. Nowadays with the BaltimoreDCRichmond metroplex... not so much.
^This (both paragraphs).
It's a Krugman wet dream. $50 billion of stimulus!
Boston hosting the fucking Olympics!?!?!
Nooooooooooo!
I'm so glad Lexington is small enough to be off the radar yet large enough to maintain self sufficiency as the world's horse capital. (Maybachs and Rolls were dime a dozen during the equestrian games not long ago, and our economy boomed)
Lexington sucks.
Lights on 4. QED
Lights on Man O War. Your move.
Traffic fuckery aside, hard to argue that it isn't one of the coolest little-big cities. The craft beer scene has exploded in the past 2 years, if you're into that.
as the world's horse capital.
Does Sarah Jessica Parker live there?
Boom, head shot
...and no (thank god)
OT
http://news.yahoo.com/robot-su.....03215.html
Antarctica's ice paradox has yet another puzzling layer. Not only is the amount of sea ice increasing each year, but an underwater robot now shows the ice is also much thicker than was previously thought, a new study reports.
According to climate models, the region's sea ice should be shrinking each year because of global warming.
buuuuuuuuuuut
I love how it's a "paradox" instead of "holy fuck we're wrong, lets get back to the drawing board."
What's it called when a theory or hypothesis makes predictions that are at odds with observations?
Anyone?... Anyone?
Bueler?
Feynman?
WEATHER NOT CLIMATE!
My god, I can write these responses in my sleep with ~99% accuracy.
Falsified. The theory or hypothesis has been FALSIFIED.
The robot sub is lying?
Reality is broken. The models are sound, damn it!
OT:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....month.html
I guess killing that kid must have turned that police woman on something fierce.
"Oh yeah baby! Tell me how you shot him! Oh yeah! Fuck me fuck me shoot shoot shoot!"
See, I was imagining he was fucking her because she was a witness or something, and the wedding was blackmail on her part. "ok, marry me or I'll tell everyone you killed that nigger."
I have no idea what happened (at the shooting, not the wedding), but I hope that the grand jury may give me some enlightenment on the subject.
I won't automatically assume he's guilty or innocent. I'm certainly open to the possibility he shot the guy down in cold blood, but I'm also open to the possibility that he was actually defending himself against a robber.
I think I honestly don't give a fuck one way or the other. A cop killing an unarmed black kid certainly isn't news.
And that's the real problem that needs addressing.
Rioters seem selective in what they riot about.
I haven't seen riots over wrong-door raids against admittedly innocent people, or setting babies on fire.
I see riots in borderline cases - before the facts are in - where the putative victim is, not to put too fine a point it, a fairly sketchy person. Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, this Brown guy.
I'm not saying anyone should riot, but they are fairly arbitrary in what excites their outrage.
Unless - as I've hypothesized before - rioters are more inclined to sympathize with a thug or wannabe thug - "that could have been me!" - than with an innocent homeowner or baby.
No outrage at all (except by readers of Balko) for the murder of Aiyana Jones, for example.
How can a wannabe gangsta sympathize with a 7-year-old girl?
Is anyone from Detroit? What's the overall relationship like between the police and the community there? Maybe the answer is in there.
It's an interesting question Eddie. Maybe part of the answer is the media, they picked up the Martin case and ran with it, probably to make an issue about 'stand your ground' laws. I'd guess that the overall police-community history and dynamic have something to do with it too, there seems to be a long history of the police 'messing with' the Ferguson residents.
Which raises the question, why *this* case? Select some guy in prison for unpaid fines (as one of Reason's videos suggests happens in Ferguson) and demonstrate about *him.*
Yes, the media picked up on the Martin case, but I don't think they *initiated* it.
Yes, the "Kock-Funded ALEC allows black people to get killed!" narrative probably gave reporters erections.
Death is different, and you had someone shot and killed by the police and the reports that he was 'an unarmed teen.' That kind of thing provides a bigger spark than the day in and day out offenses against the community that supply the heat that, with the spark can make a fire (Metaphors-R-Us supplied this metaphor).
Well, not living in the area, I can't speak to all the details. Maybe they sincerely believed, at first, that Brown was just skipping down the road to Grandma's house with a gift basket of fruit, but as a Reason video shows, once the video of him robbing the storekeeper came out, the protesters just doubled down.
You'd think they ("they" = violent minority, not peaceful majority) would say, "hmmm...I guess we need to know a bit more of this story before we burn down any more buildings." But no, they'd built up so much outrage-jizz they had to spew it all over their community.
It's a pretty human thing to double down when you've confidently asserted something that now is in question, a human thing that one should strive to overcome, but pretty basic. Of course, if there's a general distrust of the authorities that's intense then that lends itself to 'they're just manipulating the evidence' explanations for evidence that puts the original assertion in doubt. The way the police handled and released information in this case didn't help defuse that.
Which doesn't explain why there was no interest, even locally, in the Aiyana Jones death.
I have yet to figure out the formula by which some stories gain traction and others, more egregious, fade away.
Ask Al Sharpton what his criteria are.
If anything should have caused riots it was Jones, or the baby in Georgia that got burned by the Swat team. I was almost ready to riot over that story.
It's funny that being a teen is supposed to make him more sympathetic, somehow.
A person in their late teens is probably in their peak physical condition and more likely to make stupid decisions than an older person.
"Inspector Kemp. Will you talk to us, please?"
"A riot is an ugly thing und once you get one started there is little chance of stopping it!"
I wonder if Cheye Calvo can look on this crap with detached amusement yet?
Isn't grand jury stuff secret?
Yes, but sometimes they release stuff, like the transcript to a defendant or a report for the public.
Not only that, but they can write long & detailed research reports. But sometimes a judge will suppress those rather than letting them publish. Grand jury reports can be excellent for reforms, though.
My first thought at that sentence was "To each other?"
Boston Olympics?
RETARD STRONG.
The mascot for the Boston Olympics could be a whirling dervish, all elbows and fists, demanding cake.
WICKED RETARD STRONG
WICKED RETAHDED STRONG
FTFY.
How about Detroit? They shut the city down without any emergency at all. And there's lot of available space for an Olympic Village.
And since there are no locals to attend, every attendee would be a boost to the local economy.
And, it's already pre-abandoned!
What's it called when a theory or hypothesis makes predictions that are at odds with observations?
Consensus?
Settled science and deniers.
What the International Olympic Committee Looks for in a Host City
Money. Next story.
Lots and lots of Other People's Money.
"What the International Olympic Committee Looks for in a Host City"
Suckers. Marks. You know, fools.
If not Boston, how about Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana,
Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana,
Monterey, Faraday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa,
Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa,
Tennessee to Tennesse Chicopee, Spirit Lake,
Grand Lake, Devils Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete's sake?
+1 man in black
Gullibility?
What is hookers and blow? I'll continue with corrupt organizations for $300 Alex.
My favorite thing about the Olympics is all the talk about the nobility of individual competition, and the discipline of athletes competing at the highest levels, one on one. And then, half way through the first day, and every day thereafter, the media keep a tally of how many medals have been won -- BY INDIVIDUAL COUNTRY!
It's a weird hybrid of nationalism and masturbation for sports fans from rich, populous countries.
The Olympics are great, the IOC is the worst. They should put me in charge. I would only have them in places that already have the infrastructure in place and I would only have winter Olympics in Europe or North America where there are good mountains and people who give a shit about winter sports.
Ironically, the Salt Lake Games were the definition of IOC and local political corruption, but it's a fantastic city for a winter games, infrastructure-wise.
Too bad the first thing they look for in a host city is "lack of infrastructure".
What, you expect them to just go and *hold* the games in some place that's already prepared to host them? Where's the opportunity for payoffs and graft!?
I believe the first thing the IOC looks for is 'graft and kick-backs'.
Obviously. That's why I should be in charge of it.
I know, crazy talk.
Winner, winner someone else's dinner.
Heh.