1984 - Arnold Schwarzenegger                          Home


It was in 82 that I became aware of Arnold again when Conan the Barbarian came out. I was busy with my new business and wasn't going to movies and sure had no interest in seeing that movie.

As you know from reading my history since I had last seen Arnold in 68 I had become involved in the Libertarian Party and was a delegate at the 79 LP Convention where I voted for Ed Clark. While I was out there I wondered if Arnold was involved in politics and aware of the LP Convention. Ed had gotten 5% of the vote running for governor of California in 78 so it's likely Arnold was already aware of him and might even have voted for him. Later I helped finance Ed's 1980 abolish the selective service registration campaign.

As you know from the Ronald Reagan episode I had  written a letter to the editor around 82 objecting to the CIA's tactics in fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, particularly the assassinations. I had no love for the Sandinistas. I was just objecting to the means being used. The Boland amendment was passed not long after that attempting to prevent the executive branch from overthrowing the Nicaraguan government by prohibiting public funding.

In an attempt to bypass the Boland amendment the administration tried to fund the operation through private sources, thus entangling themselves in the Iran-Contra scandal.

In the letter I didn't use the word assassinations. I knew from the many far-right newsletters I was reading that the CIA internally referred to assassinations as terminations. This was not widely known at the time. So I said I did not understand how the CIA terminating civilians and blowing up power stations was going to lead to anything positive down there and that if the God, Guns, and Guts people wanted to interfere in Nicaragua's internal affairs and wanted to take “THEIR god, THEIR guns, and THEIR guts” to Nicaragua I had no objection, but not to tax me for it as I didn't want to support it.

When Arnold came out with his first Terminator movie in 1984 I thought about the letter I had written criticizing the CIA for “terminating” civilians and what a coincidence it was that my former acquaintance had named his movie “Terminator.”

Around this time I was pretty serious into jogging. I began to run out on interstate 75 between Bonita Springs and northward to Estero, a small community some 11 miles up the interstate. Many times I would run late at night with my dog and a pistol just in case.

I eventually began to make the complete 22 mile round trip, all the way to Estero and back. I must have ran out there for a year or more around 81, 82. After that I continued to jog around my neighborhood but not on the interstate.

When Arnold came out with his “The Running Man” movie in 1987 I thought it was quite a co-incidence. From then on every movie he made I was curious to see the name and theme of to see if there were any more coincidences. I have to admit when “Total Recall” came out I thought maybe Arnold was complimenting me for my excellent memory.

After I got out of prison in 2005 I went to work as an electrician of sorts for a company that wired primarily schools and one was being built near my old neighborhood. It was at that time that I heard that Arnold owned a condo just up the road; a road that in the 80's and 90's had been rural and the one I jogged on for some 30 years when not jogging on the interstate. Maybe I should have Arnold arrested for stalking.

I have to wonder if my quitting my job in 1968 over the Vietnam war rather than moving in with Arnold's friends and later being involved in the Libertarian Party has influenced Arnold's political views. From reading his bio I know when he got here in 68 he became a Republican and already had a belief in free market principles. He has expressed Libertarian type beliefs often in the past.

With my life long interest in the JFK Assassination his marriage into the Kennedy family had some interest for me also.