[Senator Clay Davis]

What I hate the most about the hypocrisy of "Little to no money for the Flames arena" and "Oh sure, do whatever for the Olympics" is that the argument against the former is that the Flames owners are exceedingly wealthy and thus can afford it, so we shouldn't help them. But helping the latter, also an extremely wealthy group, but one that has in just the last 20 years, implicitly or explicitly, supported the following by hosting Olympics in certain countries.....

Suppression of free speech
Suppression of religious rights
Totalitarianism
Police brutality
Murdering of journalists
Murdering of political opponents
Minority persecution
Environmental calamities
State sponsored doping
Various other human rights abuses
And lest we forget, significant amounts bribery and other corruption

....#### yeah, sign me up!

I have to say what makes the IOC such an effective, albeit abhorrent group, is that they've figured out the combination of sports and nationalism is basically 100% pure, raw heroin to many people. And for 17 days, many basically forget about the disgusting nature of the IOC, because they use their great front to have people in a 17 day trance. But when the hangover comes, the IOC is gone, to never help us ever again unless we bend over for them again in the future. They think of themselves as Gods, whom we should be grateful to host. Forgive me, but #### them.

It's also beyond awful that we have to host them to get any infrastructure. From the three levels of government, what a disgusting message to send to your citizens:

"Oh you need it now because you're the citizens who pay taxes and could use it? Sorry, but #### you"

versus

"Oh, you need to impress the peak of corruption? How much do you need?"

Whole thing is unseemly and gross, and is all about ego and vanity. The athletes are just the front and like another very corrupt group, the NCAA, get nothing financially out of it even as the driver of revenue. Let the dictatorships have it, we have far more important things to worry about then a party most people won't even get to attend the events they most want to (hint: the IOC hoards all the best tickets).