Ahnold In Da Nooze

I'm used to certain people hating Arnold Schwarzenegger. At a party last week a guy next to me for no reason started punching a fist into the other open hand and saying something about people who voted for Arnold. I said I voted for both Arnold and Bush and asked what he was going to do about it (in a friendly way, of course). It was funny how quickly the subject changed.

I have little interest in local politics and I've made it a point not to take an interest. National politics are bad enough so I don't care how sausages and laws are made locally. I barely knew the last governor's name until the recall election. Anti-Arnold forces, led by the ironical MoveOn (they came to be to protect Bill Clinton from charges of rape and adultery) hammered Arnold as a serial groper. If that eliminated Arnold as a candidate, then what of Gray Davis, who verbally and physically assaulted his staff on a regular basis. The LA Weekly uncovered the story that Davis violently shoved his loyal, 62-year-old secretary out a doorway. She suffered a breakdown and refused to ever work in the same room with him. I don't like hypocritical standards.

Arnold was in the news last week for signing and then dropping a multi-million dollar contract that attached his name to various bodybuilding magazines. If this is ethically wrong he shouldn't have done it but, my god, Arnold created modern bodybuilding almost single-handedly. There's an exercise named after him and his annual bodybuilding competition, The Arnold Classic, has been a premier event since 1989. He takes no salary as governor and whatever involvement he had with the magazines would have taken very little time.

Here's a before and after shot featuring Arnold on the beach last year, an unflattering photo used to mock him. He's like 58 years old and not training, What do you want? It's his off season. Here's Arny in his prime.

Here's what made me write this long rant. Someone in a giveaway newspaper wrote he could take steroids and become Mr. Universe like Arnold. Rarely do you come across such a pure statement of ignorance. If there were no steroids Arnold would still have been the best. In Arnold's day everyone was on 'roids. Even with steroids you have to be gifted genetically and train like a fiend. Dieting for competition is a 24/7 torture few can accomplish. To say it's as easy as eating a can of spinach disqualifies you from ever being taken seriously.

Dislike Arnold all you want. Both I and Arnold don't care. I'm no fanatic but I do give him credit for what he's accomplished. He decided as a teenager to be the best in the world at something and he chose bodybuilding. He came to America with $20 in his pocket and made it happen for himself. He trained for a week at a gym where I worked in the early 90s. He wasn't over 6' and he doesn't displace water like Lou Ferrigno, but every muscle was a steel cable and when he touched his toes his bicep was a bowling ball. He was also the most gracious person, talking to everyone and making everyone feel good. He radiated charisma and confidence.