The big appeal for me of the Winter Olympics is the biathlon. That combination of cross-country skiing and riflery is a civilian adaptation of Scandinavian military training that needs only the addition of beer to fully evoke my old memories of cold-weather shenanigans in the high country of northern Arizona. But indulging my nostalgia is an expensive endeavour that dwindling ranks of taxpayers around the world are willing to shoulder. While the Olympic Games make for occasionally interesting spectacles, they’re primarily exercises in expensive nationalistic chest-beating that interest fewer potential hosts and spectators than in the past. Read More