An alert reader (as funny writer Dave Barry always used to say about his contributers) sent me a link to this very funny story, the squabbling in the States over our Olympics after Fox’s always delightful Glenn Beck claimed on air that Vancouver lost $1 billion on them.
Guess no one told him they haven’t happened yet. Of course, we COULD lose a billion — who knows? — by the end, but there’s no final accounting yet.
This is what I love about contemporary media, not. Misinformation rules. I just hope I don’t have to keep explaining to people every time I go on vacation that we’re actually all fine here and haven’t had to sell our houses to Russian mafia members to help pay our part of the Olympic debt.
8 responses so far ↓
1 S // Oct 2, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I supose that the $1 billion that is being spent on security is “lost”. It’s not an investment with an expected return.
2 R // Oct 2, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Perhaps Glenn Beck knows something about the Olympic housing that we don’t
3 Frothingham // Oct 3, 2009 at 8:35 pm
1.0 Billion on Security. Just think about that for a few seconds and let it sink in. 1.0 Billion thrown down the hole! Another billion and we’ll be into real money.
4 Stephanie // Oct 4, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I think it’s absolutely hilarious that the uber-patriotic American Right is now reflexively anti-Olympics because Chicago made a bid and the Obamas supported it. If Pres. Obama hadn’t shown up and Chicago had lost, Beck and his cronies would have attacked him for “letting America down.” And if Chicago had won the bid they would have branded every inevitable problem an “Obama Olympics scandal.” I’m no great fan of Obama’s, but the guy can’t buy a break from those schmucks.
5 Horny Toad // Oct 4, 2009 at 10:29 pm
You obviously weren’t listening when Beck explained that he misspoke on the city holding the olympics. What he said he meant to say was Calgary, NOT Vancouver.
6 A. G. Tsakumis // Oct 5, 2009 at 10:46 am
Hurrah for horny toad who sets the record straight, but you can’t blame Frances…the EXACT SAME angle was taken by little Johnny ross over at Vision’s propaganda website, where he didn’t bother to Google the story either.
Simple fact Beck, who is an EXCEPTIONAL commentator and author, misspoke only in that he mentioned Calgary but meant Vancouver. No one’s ever done that, perish the thought.
The reality is that he is right on that Calgary lost over a billion and he is likely accidentally prophetic in his prediction of our games.
But you can’t give Glenn Beck credit because he isn’t going to be excited by small zoning changes in Cedar Cottage, defending the ducking and weaving of the Constance Barnes Affair, the Burrard Bridge (failed!) trials or green-washing the city, to the peril of the taxpayer’s pocketbook.
Glenn Beck isn’t a bleeding heart lefty. Shame on him.
7 Stephanie // Oct 5, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Good god. You’re defending Beck? You have got to be kidding. He’s a charlatan, a clown – a very clever one, and all the more insidious for it. Beck is a probably the best exemplar of the utter poverty of American political discourse.
If anyone is actually interested in reading thoughtful, principled American conservative writing, I heartily encourage you to check out Daniel Larison at The American Conservative.
http://www.amconmag.com/larison/
8 Chris Keam // Oct 10, 2009 at 8:07 am
“the Burrard Bridge (failed!) trials”
From that bastion of commie-hippie-think The Wall Street Journal.
“A truly effective traffic program for any dense city would impose high fees for all automobile access and public parking while also gradually eliminating automobile lanes (thereby reducing total car traffic volume without eliminating the environmentally beneficial burden of driver frustration and inefficiency) and increasing the capacity and efficiency of public transit.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574461572304842840.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarousel
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