THE SMILING SCALPER.

One of the crookedest collections of grifters in the world are the members of the Olympics committee. So it will come as no surprise that one of them, Ireland's Patrick Hickey, was arrested in his hotel in Rio de Janeiro Wednesday in a ticket scalping scandal. Hickey, who heads the European Olympic Committee was connected to a scheme to illegally pass Olympic tickets to touts who were reselling them far above their original price. What is surprising is that such an illegal enterprise was profitable at all during an Olympics distinguished by so many near-empty stadiums. Considering the polluted beaches, algae-ridden pools, the many poor families evicted from their favela shanties, Rio's brutal police force, the $12 billion tab, and the feces seemingly floating everywhere, it would appear that this
year the Olympics committee took its bribe from the wrong city.