OK, the New York Press may not always be a paper that I agree with, but who, apart from Nurse Bloomberg , a few misguided boosters, oddly insistent masochists, and some ill-informed corporate cheerleaders, could possibly take issue with these comments from this article on the idiotic idea that the 2012 Olympics should come to New York City?

“Some might say that the Olympics, should they come here, are still eight years away, so what’s the point of worrying about them now? Well, the mayor’s office is worrying about them now, and that’s what concerns us. These things take years to put together, and planning for 2012 needs to be snipped in the bud.

“The Olympics never bring about the kind of economic boom they promise, as the last few host cities can attest. (And is anybody ever going to trust estimates from the mayor’s office again?) Security measures would be much, much worse than during the RNC, because the general public would be involved and not just party delegates. Instead of a singular, localized event space to keep an eye on, there would be half a dozen spread all over town. Traffic would be a nightmare, not just during the games, but for years prior to their arrival as the infrastructure gets built. Instead of bringing in a few thousand delegates, protestors and journalists, you’re talking about many hundreds of thousands of extra bodies. The worst of it would drag on for weeks if not months. Olympic hype, already suffocating the event no matter where it occurs, would reach a truly unbearable pitch. And speaking of the ancient Greeks, the target-rich Olympics would put dangerous strains on the men and women in charge of Operation Atlas, whose expensive wheels would no doubt be put in motion.

“So what’s the point of squeezing the Olympics onto our geographically tiny, overcrowded city? Prestige? We’ve already got prestige. We don’t need to prove anything to anybody. Apart from that, what is there, really? New badminton courts on the waterfront? Higher billboard ad rates? Who exactly would benefit from this? Not you, and not us.”

Amen.