They are talking about that torture memo the White House sent out in 2002 or so saying that torture was now OK. This is when that guy from Sixty Minutes was at Guantanamo Bay and also when the tortures at Abo-grave occurred. Christie says this is more than coincidence. Of course a lot of problems are mis-perceived. For instance apparently Bin Laden's mentor, who was an even older man, has come out and said it would be a good thing is Iran would be destroyed. Apparently in that part of the world they still refer to Al Qaida as the Muhajadib, which fought the Russians in 1979. As to the drop of "sectarian violence" in Iraq urban areas this is because the various sects are all segregated and it's harder for death squads to get to various people, as well as there are fewer spontanious interactions between people of opposing sects that could flair up into violence.
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Christmas of 1993 was a strange one because David Stanley did not spend it with his family. This was a rare occurrance though it had occurred before a few times. It occurred in 1991 and in 1984. Bill, as with those times, celebrated Christmas with Bobby and Lilly Haden, as we refer to them in ZAC alias. Among the other guests were Henry, as well as "Pike" with his white-bread wife Carrie, and their two or three year old son. The menu was almost invariably the same, featuring turkey. The best thing about the Hayden dinners were the vast array of deserts people bring over such as pies and cakes and ice cream. But this day David had a headache hangover that would not go away. Lilly gave him some Advil and suggested he take two, "three, if it's a real bear." Apparently she's had experiance in this area. This was the Christmas that Bob Dornen on the radio said that it was the 2000th. anniversary of Jesus's birth. "Well, doesn't that just beat all!" Stanley mused. The two thousand line has come and gone.
On Newyears David Stanley went to some Christian night at Knott's Berry Farm to ring in the year 1994. But the next day David's storage area was broken into yet again. Somehow the lock was picked but fortunately the lock was still lying on the ground and nothing appeared to have been taken. The weather in January of 1994 was unusually sunny and warm. It was a good thing too because they were painting the wrought iron railings and also the front doors, and the paint smell would waft in the apartments. David called Henry about how he had a headache now. Yeah, blame the paint. On January 17th. at 4:31 in the morning a powerful earthquake struck. As with other quakes they'd had pool water was sloshing out of the pool. He was talking with Ken who said he'd seen a whole bank of transformers explode out his back window in a big blue flash(es). David had KROQ radio on of all stations for a bit of news.
Late January was punctuated by two events. The first was that the heater again went out. It had gone out in December and David had wondered if this was a trend. He'd had the screen door open on a cool day watching the final Dallas Cowboys game on CBS. The manager said call the gas company if there was a problem. The other event was a return to sender message on an envelope from his Pastor, whom he had written a letter to. I thought things were "Kopesetic" with the pastor now with no outstanding conflicts. In his letter he'd written that the Christian education program of his denomination sucked and that it ill prepared them for the world. Also there was this mystory holiday his denomination celebrated he couldn't find anything out about it. Finally he launched into his "Why don't you come clean and admit you knew my parents before you came to our church." There were lines almost hinting at the Police song about "Every claim you steak - - every vow you break- - every outrage you fake" kind of thing. But David assumed something had gotten screwed up in the mails. Either that or else someone like the secretary had croked suddenly and they didn't know what to do with the mail.
It was mid February or so when David's Dad took him to his own personal eye doctor to have his eyes examined and new glasses so he could see and read better. The following Sunday at the house, his Dad grilled him on his alcohol consumption, having smelled alcohol on his breath.
It was late February when David finally called Pastor Asshole back to find out what had happened with the letter. David was outraged to hear the Pastor admit the truth. He had returned the letter. The funny thing is that the glue on the letter was no weak and could be easily opened. He suspected the pastor had already read the letter. The pastor said "Your letters are abusive". David was put off by the word "abusive" as a really inflamitory word. Also within a day of that David got a phone call to the effect that Debby, a girl whom "The Lord" said he would marry way back in January 1988- - -that she had a boyfriend. Despite what her mother clearly told him David assumed that their union was iminent. David increased his drinking of white wine. During this weekend David also tape recorded a lot of music off the radio.
It was just the next week when David's apartment got yet another on site manager and David and Ken both got off to really bad starts by playing their TV's too loud. David said he was only competing with Ken- - but the land lady didn't take kindly to his excuse and her husband resorted to various types of mind game threats concerning this matter. It was just a few days later when Pete Richards suggested that David watch "What About Bob?" on TV. People had been telling David that he needed "therapy". If so this is the last movie you'd want to watch. Certain movies like this movie and "Anger Management" are just NOT funny for those people who have actually been in that situation. David had begun listening to the surf music station and one Saturday night was up drinking Meisterbrau (a weak beer) at twelve or one at night and the next day, a Sunday, his mother had smelled beer on his breath. This didn't go down well.
Re-enter Bill Gunderson in mid March. Bill Gunderson was a friend who seemed to show up in spurts and then disappear for months. He had been around from about late February of 1993 till the week before Mother's Day. They had sent the rock compilation "re-issue" of "Strawberry Fields Forever" (orig. out Feb. 1984) but now the CD version had new added songs plus a few that were taken off. Bill Gunderson was also around from about mid September to late October of the previous year. This time they worked on a remake of the Protigal Son story in the Bible and unlike June of 1991 this time at Bill's suggested they decided to side with the younger son. In early May they also put out that thing where Homer Simpson turned into an evangelist and moved to Arizona and his oldest son ( ) Bart decided to murder him out of pent-up rage and the younger son ( ) found out about it the following Saturday morning and was shocked.
In late April - - it was a Friday late afternoon and he thinks it was the same day he learned about Richard Nixon's death but before the funeral, that Angie, remember her, told David that she was moving to Carona and "staying with friends". To David this meant she had a secret boyfriend stashed away. About the same time the heater crapped out yet again and David called the gas company who showed him that his flame curled upward when it should be sticking out straight at a 45 degree angle so the thermostat wasn't closing. It was a good thing, too because the weather in late April just got colder. Richard Nixon's funeral made David physically ill. "All that fawning over a crook" he thought. It was Sunday May first early in the morning when Michal Benner on his radio program said that at seven he would list every law that Richard Nixon had violated. This day sticks out in David's mind because he got sicker and sicker as the day progressed and he didn't know if he had a hangover or what. He'd felt fine the night before. He recorded "Sea Quest" on his VCR and at nine finally decided he needed more alcohol and went out to get Mickey's. But walking down there this light headed-ness came over him and he had this "out of breath" feeling like he'd just run a marithon & thought he'd faint if the feeling got any worse. Fortunately he got his beer at the store and then he felt better.
One time at a Calvary Chappel, this pastor's son spoke whom David had known as a little kid. What struck him was the shallow, narrow-minded adult this kid had grown into and David wondered what happened. It may have been the same Sunday that David had chicken noodle soup and went out to Alpha Beta to shop and cash a check. His hand was shaking so bad he could hardly make out the check and he was sweating, and the clerk wanted to know if he were going into shock, or something. Often during this period David had this "worm in the brain" feeling like something was crawling around in his brain, irritating it. On May 10th. (backing up a week or two) there was a total but anular eclipse of the sun he coined as the "Rout 66 eclipse". It was kind of a bomb, but Rush Limbaugh spoke about it because it affected people in New York.
There were lots of good shows on in 1994 but David in retrospect regards the final smash boom ending of The Next Generation now in retrospect. David was learning Fortran now studying it on his own. Six months earlier in the fall he'd honed in on Prolog and studied that, and six months earlier in the spring of 1993 it had been P L / 1. But he had no computer.
There was no shortage of news entertainment. There was the Tanya Harding "hammer" affair with Nancy Kerrigan. There was Laurena Bobbit and her acquittal for you know what. And there was the Menendez brothers case getting off for killing their parents. Of course in the coming months there would be the ultimate justice misscarriage of the OJ Simpson murders.
In June on the day before Father's Day David on the way to the liquor store met a black prostitute named Marcie. She had a really hot, tight body that wouldn't quit. She was so attracted to him she said she wouldn't even charge him. David turned her down at this time but kept her in mind. This night was notible because it was the first time ever that David bought fortified wine, Thunderbird. And it would be the last for a long time, till ironically four years to the day - Fathers Day eve of 1998 when he now started buying the Cisco and Thunderbird on a regular ongoing basis. In late July or sometime and he's not totally sure- - he began having sex with her. Although it was usually a freebee, she would sometimes ask him for money for "expences". It was now about the first of August and David decided to write his other pastor, the Calvary one, a letter saying that he was "having a faith crisis of a magnitude that might jeopardize his Christian salvation". The pastor wrote back with the words, "I'm so sorry you are thinking about leaving the church". David was insulted. It's like if a guy is afraid of falling off a cliff this pastor will be the one to push him over. But that didn't stop David from writing another letter where he "called God" on a lie God had told him. The pastor responded by labeling David as a false prophet and also had these choice words, "If something doesn't happen it's only because that's how God willed it. Nothing happens that isn't in God's will" But David knew he had to get a handle on his drinking problem, and he did. He set rules for himself. He remembers one of them was there would be no drinking before nine PM. This happened to be the time that Metallica came on KNAC at nine PM. David remembers recording a lot of Metallica songs in early and mid August of 1994. One might say things were looking up a bit. David had one conversation with his father that may have been early fall of 1994. (David would continue sexual relations with Marcie till about the fall of 1995) David was talking to his Dad (early fall 1994) and saying he was thinking of writing him another letter about developments in his life and his Dad just said, "Some topics are better just to be left alone". David thought about that. "That actually makes sense", he mused.
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