September 2009 Archives

Couldn't our aldermen have managed at least one dissenting vote during Wednesday's vote on the Olympics?

Apparently not.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council authorized Mayor Daley to sign a host city contract that puts Chicago taxpayers on the financial hook for Olympic cost overruns.

The vote keeps Chicago in the running for the 2016 games with just three weeks to go before the International Olympic Committee chooses the host city.

The vote also tells the IOC that all of Chicago is behind the bid -- even if it's not true.

An entirely different City Council came to life this summer, pushing hard against the bid after Daley unilaterally agreed to sign the host city contract.

As a result, the Chicago 2016 bid committee added additional insurance to protect taxpayers, listened to residents in every ward of the city and agreed to fairly sweeping -- though incomplete -- oversight by the council.

The bid committee deserves credit for responding. The City Council deserves credit for finding a backbone.

But none of that sweeps aside the very legitimate fears about what the Olympics might
cost taxpayers.

And none of that warrants a unanimous vote.

The Old Guard has spoken.

Bill Wyman, formerly of the Rolling Stones, and Nick Mason, of Pink Floyd, are criticizing the video game "Guitar Hero" and similar games, contending they discourage young people from picking up real instruments.

In the games, youngsters pick up smaller, faux versions of the instruments and "play" them along with rock songs and prompts on the screen. The more accurate they are, they better they do in the game.

"It irritates me having watched my kids do it. If they spend as much time practising the guitar as learning how to press the buttons, they'd be damn good by now," Mason griped to The Guardian.

The games are getting more notice than usual because on Wednesday Rock Band is releasing its Beatles version, where players can play along with the Fab Four, in one of the most anticipated releases of the year.