Now the stupid has reached its pinnacle.

Mayor Bloomberg just announced that the NY Marathon, which was due to run Sunday, is canceled.

This, after telling everyone all week it was still on.

At this point there are literally tens of thousands of people in the air headed to NYC by hook or crook to run and thousands more coming to cheer on the runners.

This is no small ball thing -- last year some 47,000 people ran the race.

The financial consequences to people who were told it was on (after reasonably believing it would be canceled) and who now have almost-certainly lost any possibility of recovering deposits or getting refunds on travel they had intended to take are going to be severe.

Adding to this are severe insults by hotels, which frequently impose 48-hour cancellation penalties in NYC (which can be, for special events, the entire amount of the stay) and then you can add to it the insult imposed on your local population in that many hotels were kicking out locals who were staying in the hotels because their power was off at home to make room for the runners!

Yes, I know there have been a lot of people screaming about "abuse of power" while the liberal press (hello Huffington) and others have said that it was in poor taste at best to let the race go on.  But there are also those who said that running the race would demonstrate to the world that NYC is not subject to the whims of nature and that her people can rise above any challenge -- even a truly nasty storm -- rather than whimper in a curled-up fetal ball.

I don't know whether the original decision was good or bad, all things considered.  Certainly the diversion of resources would do some harm, but all the money being spent in the city would be good -- particularly when you have a business district that's been trashed by the storm and needs the money..  But what I do know is that once the decision was made -- to run the race -- that was a commitment the city and mayor personally made to the runners and everyone else who supports them, and there was then an obligation to keep to that commitment.

As of right now (5:05 PM Central time) despite multiple wire reports this is what the web page shows:

New York, your government is incompetent and your mayor is a douche-nozzle.  Mayor Bloomberg has hosed the tens of thousands of people who could have mitigated their economic losses that will now result from traveling to an event he could have canceled Monday or Tuesday, but instead confirmed Wednesday was on as scheduled.

As a consequence of this outrageous and willfully-stupid behavior the Marathon should be boycotted by all, both now and in the future

And that's my polite answer to this intentional act of financial******your mayor served up this afternoon upon tens of thousands who had every intention and desire to help New York City recover.

This latest insult is added upon the outrageous dereliction of duty displayed by two of your hospitals and their regulators within the city and state, not to mention the outrageous idiocy displayed by regulators who were not all over your power company to shut down that substation that blew up and darkened half of Manhattan before it got shorted out by the storm.

In short, New York, your city government sucks.

Ps: For those who say that the Marathon would have taken "precious" police resources needed elsewhere, please be aware that as of 2012 marathon runners were paying for the overtime required to provide that police protection through their entrance fees -- that dog won't hunt as each runner was paying approximately $60 -- each -- for police protection and other unspecified "police" and "crowd control" costs.  And yes, the entry fee is (of course) non-refundable.