Alive and Well

A personal training outfit opened up near my studio. Flying under the name Crossfit, their workouts boast a cross between vintage strongman and the 300 workout. (The actors of the movie, 300, underwent this special workout). Two partners run the business: the dude is an ex-Olympic weight lifter and the woman a former collegiate rower. Their business has been growing at a decent rate over the last three months. I introduced myself and found them to be nice people. They told me that they hoped their good friends occupy the unit next door-also personal trainers but with a more traditional workout regimen.
Three months later which brings us to yesterday, I met the other trainers as they moved into their unit. A couple of nice guys both fit as the butcher's dogs...to borrow a British phrase. They were supposed to move in at the same time as their Crossfit pals but were forced to jump through several hoops. The city (re: permits)ran their credit several times, and demanded several references. After this they were made to play the, hurry up and wait game. The trainer told me that both of their credit ratings were far better than their weight lifter buddy from Crossfit.
The landlord handed the new tenants a legal-document sized and extremely redundant application form that made them jump through more hoops. One of the hoops being, a larger deposit than his Crossfit colleagues. ($900 more). When he looked at his buddy's application he noticed a major difference. It was only one page and contained little more than a signature. Do you know where I'm going folks? You guessed it. It is 2008 and racism is alive and well in America. It makes me wanna holler!

The Crossfit trainers are white. The two new personal trainers are black.

Hear Hillary Roar!

I don't have cable t.v. and because my building lies within some mysterious 'no tech zone' I cannot even receive the basic four channels everyone else does. It has been this way for over two years now and I miss television, not in the slightest. I wanted to spy some of the democratic convention speeches so I headed for Bush's internets, or is it McCain's interwebs? I found Matt Lauer and heard him begin his broadcast with, and I paraphrase, "...Well Hillary and Barack had a brutal battle during the primary it'll be interesting to see if Hillary unites the Party or uses her supporters to...blah,blah,blah and I walked away for fear of tossing my laptop into the pool. Most news stations and talk radio ran with this empty, pathetic pseudo prediction. Which, for the record is not news at all. Anybody who thought that Hillary was going to somehow lash out at Obama and tank the Party is an idiot. Hillary ended up giving a great speech. And I'm here to tell you that I expected nothing less from a woman of her intellect; a woman of her experience as a former first lady and current senator, and a woman who, although she let her ambitions get the best of her during the primaries, has had ample time to reflect and compose. During those primary months I often cursed Hillary for her dirty politics, but I knew that inside lived a decent person and politician. This is why it came as no surprise at all when she gave a dynamite speech. She is a democrat for chrissake. And, she wanted to run the country as a democrat. It would make no sense to throw the Party under the bus. Besides, it was advantageous to 'do right' (or left) by the Party in the hopes of securing a nice cabinet position for herself. Furthermore, if she acted the fool it would have told the remaining 282 million Americans (the other 18 million are her supporters) that they were right not to support her. Can you imagine the field day twin blowhard morons; Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly would have had? Any and all of you who thought she'd go up there and make an ass of herself bought into today's media and you should never do that for we live in a time when the current media is irresponsible, biased, uninformed, lazy, bumbling, bought, and for the most part useless! Please pardon the sugar coating and always try to remember what is said about making assumptions.
And as to Hillary's holdout supporters who feel cheated and continue to whine about losing, you should be happy about one thing. You have received the most media attention in history of any political voting body that has come in second place. Enjoy the accolade ye bitter supporters and rest assured you've been heard. Now please, have a seat and be quiet! And if in November you decide to NOT vote for Obama; know that Hilary who is intelligent will have voted for Obama where as you who are imbecilic will have voted for McCain.