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Keller @ Large: Boston Looking Smart 2 Years After Turning Down 2024 Olympics

BOSTON (CBS) -- For most of us, this weekend is the official kickoff of the season, and what a summer it's going to be.

Fried clams, soft ice cream, fantastic sunsets, Red Sox vs. Yankees. And the best thing of all?

No Boston Summer Olympic Games.

You may recall we dodged that bullet two years ago. And if you have followed the ongoing saga of the global Olympics meltdown, you realize how smart we were to do so.

No Boston Olympics
No Boston Olympics group celebrates after USOC pulls 2024 bid. (WBZ-TV)

Just yesterday, a top official with the International Olympic Committee publicly urged organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Games to cut back on its projected cost.

Japanese officials originally claimed their Games would cost less than $7 billion, still an obscene number. Now, the estimate is for a pricetag of more than $12 billion.

Said the IOC executive: "It is important to us that when the costs of the Games and the final analysis become public, they are going to be a reason to attract candidate cities…rather than to scare them off."

This is laughable, of course, because it is the greed-crazed, historically corrupt IOC that has driven the bloating of the original Olympic ideal into an out-of-control scam where they collude with local high-hats to extort unaffordable commitments by gullible politicians and other suits.

So as we kick back this weekend, we should reflect on how lucky we are to live in a beautiful city, showcased much more effectively by the recent Tall Ships visit than it ever would have been by the Olympics, and feel proud that we're also smart enough to know the difference between a hug and an unarmed robbery attempt.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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