Will Carice van Houten Finely Make the Hollywood “A” List?

Los Angeles, CA— My favorite film of all times is Paul Verhoeven’s, Black Book.  It’s a subtitled German/Dutch film primarily in the Dutch language that’s based on a true story.  The principal protagonist is a sexy Jewish nightclub singer, Rachel Stein that fled the Nazis in Berlin for the Netherlands during the war.  She somehow winds up in the Dutch Resistance for some incredibly dangerous adventures.  It’s also a love story.

The leading lady playing that character is my absolute favorite actress, Carice van Houten who won this role of a lifetime.  The role required acting in different languages, singing and some dancing.  Van Houten was magnificent.  This was Verhoeven’s best film ever and the entire cast and crew were absolutely awesome. 

Van Houten was jaw dropping terrific! There was no emotion she did not absolutely own in this thriller film.  That kind of talent takes years of serious discipline and hard work to develop and master.   

As a result of Black Book and other films Van Houten is a huge celebrity in Europe. She also won a coveted role in HBO’s, Game of Thrones playing Melisandre, The Red Witch.  She’s won five Golden Calf Awards in the Netherlands for her acting.  She also has a great music album on iTunes called, See You On The Ice.  Take a listen and you will like it.  I play it in my car as I drive around L.A.

Getting cast in what I’d call hefty roles in American films has eluded van Houten.  She was recently cast as the Female lead in a Blumehouse production’s low budget horror film, Incarnate.  She plays opposite of actor Aaron Eckhart.  The release date for that project has not yet been announced.  Blumehouse Productions has found serious box office success for their films and I certainly won’t miss this one.

This incredibly talented woman slips into L.A. and New York virtually unnoticed.  She quietly gets off planes taking the shuttle to a car rental agency like the rest of us and goes about her business.  She shops, goes to inexpensive L.A. health clubs to work out with little notice.  

If I have my way van Houten will have a major star’s entourage and bodyguards!  I want to see this woman on the Oscar Award's Red Carpet where she belongs! 

Twice in the last year, van Houten has walked Hollywood’s lesser Red Carpets.  Once for the Third Season Premier of, Game of Thrones.  The last time was at the SAG Awards where Game of Thrones was nominated for an award.  

As van Houten walked the Red Carpet alone and the reporters and photographers are clueless as to just who she is without her character’s huge red wig.   Thankfully my friend Frank Fastner from the German TV network RTL spotted van Houten grabbing her for the only interview (She gave it in the German language) that I’m aware she gave.  At least it was exclusive!

Somebody somehow failed to send an advance publicist on van Houten’s behalf to prepare for the press gauntlet.  This is routinely done for lesser known stars so when they arrive so the media members could ask her the right questions and give them proper face time on the entertainment shows.  Instead of seriously needed interviews van Houten had to settle for a few pictures.

Van Houten is represented by Tracy Brennan at the powerhouse, Creative Artist’s Agency and has a wonderful manager in Amsterdam, Janey van Ierland.   CAA should do better for van Houten before their competition snatches this major talent away from them.

Frankly I’m disappointed that this talented lady is not put up for the kind of roles we see given to Cate Blanchet or Sandra Bullock.  In case you were wondering van Houten’s English is flawless and when she’s acting she masks her accent really well.

I hope that on van Houten’s next trip to L.A. she will find the time to do a video interview with me for my blog.  I want my visitors to love her talent like I do.  More importantly I want every film producer, director and casing director to know that she really rocks! 

If you’ve not seen Black Book, you must!  Here is the trailer:

Traditional Media Can’t Seem To Reinvent Itself For Survival

Newark, New Jersey-- New Jersey’s biggest newspaper, The Star-Ledger of Newark that also boasted being one of the nation’s largest is preparing to jettison 167 workers including 40 newsroom staffers. 

This paper attempted to transition into the Internet age with a website and addition of video reports. Obviously the problems with the newspaper’s bottom line were not cured. 

Traditional media as we knew it is on life support everywhere in the world.  Broadcasters and newspapers have billions invested in presses and broadcasting equipment that has become a stone around their necks.  Anyone can acquire adequate equipment for a few thousand dollars to send quality pre-packaged or live video around the world. 

Our new large television screens are rapidly making the transition to bring us web content along with traditional broadcast equipment.  It’s only a matter of time before TV broadcasting towers come down everywhere.  Cable providers are rapidly losing out to wireless providers. 

There are still those people to ignorant or otherwise trapped in a technology bubble, that rejects or otherwise has no access to computers.  Those that can read newspapers, listen to radio or watch television.  Those offline folk’s numbers are shrinking every day and soon they will have t accept the changes.   Internet navigation has never been easier and is getting simpler every day.

Broadband his improved and reaches nearly everyone.  A large segment of the population is satisfied to get their news on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.   They have abandoned the traditional sources.

The most difficult part of this media meltdown is the derailed careers, missed house payments and divorces ahead for unemployed journalists.  How do people that invested more than ten years in a career deal with an industry depression?  Those that are lucky to remain employed have shrinking paychecks and benefits.  

Twenty or more years ago the people unable thrive in a newsroom went to work for government agencies as public information officers.   Now solid reporters and TV anchors are begging for those PIO positions. 

The only good news here is that the singular Leftist lockstep slant of mainstream media is dying too.  News and opinion has become democratized by technology.  The problem is most of the bloggers are working for free or next to nothing.

Matt Drudge the granddaddy of bloggers made millions by aggregating news from multiple sources.  He created a single one-stop international news page with a Conservative flavor.  

Some bloggers have found lucrative careers like Alex Jones by over-sensationalizing every conspiracy theory to a hungry audience of believers.  Others that cater to a specific audience like firearm aficionados have built audiences and appropriate advertisers.

The greatest journalist in the world won’t succeed on the Internet with out learning web promotion as they navigate in a world of catchy buzzwords and meta tags. 

Who will pay for hard-hitting investigative news exposés of corruption, fraud and conspiracies?  Correspondents must travel, stay in hotels to get interviews and gather records and information for stories that sometimes just don’t develop. 

Breaking a huge news story is a waste if you don’t have an audience to appreciate it.  As other news providers learn of a big scoop they will plagiarize it and make it their own.  Copyrights are almost impossible to enforce on the Internet when the offenders are either off shore or don’t have deep pockets. 

The whole media thing will somehow shake out but where it ultimately goes is anyone’s guess.

An American Patriot has Passed on, Rest in Peace Otis McDonald

Otis McDonald Left and Paul Huebl Right

Chicago, IL—I remember getting a call from a gun rights lawyer asking me if I knew any potential plaintiffs with pristine backgrounds and a need to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense.  They were preparing a lawsuit to challenge Illinois ban on the carrying of weapons for self-defense.   

The candidates had to be legal residents of Illinois and be in possession of a valid FOID card.  I had some good candidates but these folks felt the publicity would endanger their jobs when their employers learned about the litigation and regretfully declined.   

Eventually a group of plaintiffs were properly vetted and the Second Amendment Foundation brought the lawsuit forward in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois.   The case was vigorously fought all the way by the defendant, City of Chicago.  Millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted fighting a something that was settled earlier in the landmark Heller case. 

Otis McDonald’s name was chosen by lottery when the Supreme Court Clerk chose to title the case.  McDonald became the standard bearer of a case that reestablished the right of the people of Illinois and Chicago to not only keep arms but to bear them as well. 

Otis McDonald has passed away but thankfully not before seeing concealed weapons permits issued to law-abiding folks living and working within the city limits of Chicago.  

I’m proud of Otis as I am all of the patriots that stood up and became plaintiffs and very public guardians of American freedom and Liberty.  Otis McDonald, Rest in Peace sir you will not be forgotten. 

Liberals and Conservatives aren’t What They Used to be

Chicago, IL--I can remember growing up in the Windy City.  The Democrats I was familiar with were the guardians of privacy and liberty.  President John F. Kennedy was a life member of the National Rifle Association.   You could enter any public building or airport without being searched like a criminal. 

Back then the so-called Conservatives were the ones complaining about the Liberal Warren Court that struck down most pornography laws.  The court upheld the rights of the accused from being bullied or tricked into making confessions in the infamous Miranda case.

The Warren court also set strict guidelines for cops in search and seizure with the Ohio cases involving Mapp and Terry.  That court would later define a controversial new right to privacy with Roe vs. Wade.  The cops were suddenly ejected from physician’s offices. 

I don’t think for a second that that Warren Court would have ever accepted the wholesale destruction of rights protecting us from unreasonable search and seizure.  That court would have reviled against the Drug War and condemned our cops for morphing into anti-drug commandos. 

That court would view TSA and their tactics as nothing less than an Orwellian nightmare.  Miranda has been watered down considerably in recent years and much of the liberty we once cherished is long gone.

The Warren Court understood the danger of the death penalty and the freakish way  way it was applied in Furman v. Georgia.  The court nearly removed the power of government to kill its own citizens.  Since we’ve brought the death penalty back with a vengeance.  However hundreds of condemned inmates have been removed from various Death Rows and cleared after exoneration by new DNA evidence.  We will never know how many innocent people have been killed under color of law because of lies and fabricated evidence.

Today it’s only the Libertarians and more Conservative Republicans that support the decisions of the Warren Court.  There is still division about abortion and the death penalty between many Conservatives.  I personally hate the idea of abortion however realize that there are exceptions. 

The death penalty is incredibly expensive and ineffective as a crime deterrent.  We’ve learned that too many cops, prosecutors and judges are not trustworthy of the power to kill citizens with premeditation.   It is not that some criminals don’t deserve to die it’s that the mistakes have proven our system is too flawed to determine actual guilt.

The Liberals and Democrats have never missed a chance in the last four decades to demand exceptions to our Bill of Rights curbing virtually every hard won freedom we have.  The Libertarians and Conservatives have taken on the role of Liberty guardians.  My how times have changed.

Democrats conveniently have forgotten how they cherished slavery and that they made every law they could from gun control and segregation laws to further victimize African-Americans.  The Ku Klux Klan was exclusively an organization for Democrats.  They also want to falsely claim Abraham Lincoln as one of their own! 

My Suggestion for the New Leadership of FOP Lodge 7

Chicago, IL—FOP Lodge 7 has failed miserably in the past to properly represent the men and women of the Chicago police Department.  The leadership of the FOP has been bedding down with city politicians and a couple of really lame appointed police superintendents. We can only guess what the tradeoffs have been.

The department is rapidly shrinking and the position of police officer grows more dangerous by the hour.  Pension funds have been mismanaged, stolen or otherwise compromised.  Officer’s retirement funding is in grave danger as bankruptcy looms.

The only real source for news about the matters that affect police officers come from bloggers.  The Second City Cop Blog is the primary source of news cops need to know.  The downside is that the some of the blog content creator/s are anonymous.  Publishing the truth about mismanagement, waste and corruption is hazardous to any working officer. 

The FOP should take on a role of reporting news to its membership along with the local taxpayers in a very public way.  The FOP should bring transparency to issues such as hiring, promotions and discipline matters that are based almost solely on political clout.

That means hiring a full time investigative multi-media journalist along with a producer/video photographer.  FOP needs to cover all events that involve officer’s lives, safety and careers. There should be no less than five news multimedia stories produced per week.

The FOP reporter needs to call out malicious or deceptive mainstream media reports about police officers.   The reporter can lawfully expose the criminal history of accusers using available public court records.  The reporter can also find and interview anyone with information that will expose the truth.

I’d create a special FOP News website and call it, “Nightly Windy City Police Reports.”  It would contain text, pictures and hard-hitting video reports.

The bloggers need to continue and call out the FOP if they fail to do their jobs.  The FOP can have all the power of a major newspaper or TV news organization.  The two media positions are not one for amateurs or beginners.   

I’d hire former WMAQ reporter Amy Jacobson who’s always been very fair and well liked by cops.  I’d let her pick the producer/photographer.   I’d take the producer spot myself if it was offered.  In any event there are plenty of great investigative reporters that can fill this position.

The FOP needs a bare knuckles reporter that understands public records laws and information sources.  That reporter should be trustworthy in order to protect department and any city employee whistle blowers.  

The names of the whistle blowers should be given to FOP administration only on a need to know basis.  Actually they don’t have a need to know.

It’s time to bring serious sunshine on the Chicago Police Board. They have inequitably and shamelessly saved or destroyed careers based on clout rather than evidence.  The FOP needs to examine its contract power to force reforms on the Police Board. 

The men and women of the Chicago Police Department deserve something other than lip service from the union that claims to represent them.   

Free Speech and Campaign Contributions

Chicago, IL—The United States Supreme Court has sent Liberals to their therapists in a panic.  The court made a significant ruling that voids some campaign finance laws that limit contributions to specific amounts.

One Liberal friend of mine proclaimed that our nation is suddenly ruined as a result.  Wait a second!  These outrageous and unconstitutional laws did not come about until 1971!  Our nation seemed to be doing fine without them until the Progressives put them on our books.  Sadly it took over four decades to strike some of these laws.

Most of our crooked politicians found loopholes or simply laundered money to get around the money limits.  The law seemed to benefit political scoundrels more than anyone! 

Free speech is just that.  Nazi. Communists,  Fascists and Progressives will always demand exceptions that limit speech as well as every other liberty.  They first attacked talk radio.  Today’s the Internet freedom has caused that Communist infiltrator in our Whitehouse to hand over control of it to foreign bodies controlled by his Commie friends.

With free speech all politicians have a level playing field and popularity rules because people can support the candidates they support as much as they want.  

Long live free speech!

My Dear European Friends Have Grave Concerns About Gun Liberty

Los Angeles, CA—I have a deep and unending love for Europe especially, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria and of course Switzerland.  The culture, art and elegance of Europe are only matched by their terrific and productive people.    

The 18 months I spent in Aschaffenburg, Germany in my youth serving as an Army medical corpsman as part of my compulsory military service was nothing less than pure joy for me. 

Many of my European friends don’t understand my position on gun freedom.  Some perhaps think somehow I’m perhaps violent because I own, carry and shoot guns.  For me guns insure that there is less violence at least within my eyesight.   My gun is a tool that serves as deterrence rather than a danger. 

As a Chicago cop and as a private investigator my gun has saved many lives including my own.  Criminals for the most part are cowards and they nearly always have ended their assaults, robberies, home invasions and such the second they saw my gun.  I’ve arrested hundreds of criminals for crimes like murder, rape and robbery without violence because I had a gun. 

Police are given guns because it has been proven that lives are saved as a result.  If that was not the case they’d all be disarmed.

My European friends must remember their own past to understand the future.  Between 1933-1945 Europe was on fire because of the political ambitions of Fascist and Nazi politicians.  Tens of millions of good people were needlessly killed.   Few families were spared from lost husbands, sons and brothers.  They helplessly watched the destruction of their homes and businesses.  That massive heartbreak and misery today is only a sad memory.

Since the beginning of time the leaders of nations have turned violent against their own populations killing millions.  Politicians are often deadlier that all the criminals in the world.  These are the same politicians that falsely lie to their people promising better public safety through bans on weapons.  Sooner or later every government goes bad.

I shudder as my own presidents Bush and Obama have allowed the tyrannical privacy invasion by our spying as revealed by brave heroes risking all such as Assanage, Snowden and Manning.  Why are we spying on our fellow Americans and European friends without warrants and court orders? We have become a criminal nation that routinely breaks the law!  Why can’t we seem to stop this behavior? 

Ambitious politicians like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini could not survive without first spying upon and disarming the honorable people of their nations.  The more dangerous politicians are, the larger the bodyguard army they must maintain.  Armed honorable people are always very dangerous to criminal politicians. 

The amount of murders by common criminals can’t begin to compare to that of politicians.  Politicians always begin with lots of smiles and handshakes.  They make lots of promises of hope, prosperity and peace.  After a trusting population hands them the power too many of them quickly change into tyrants. 

This is simply about politicians empowering themselves to simply plunder the property of their own population.  What always follows are informants, secret police, torture and murder under color of law soon replaces Liberty and Freedom.

One European nation has avoided this kind of disaster.  Switzerland has managed to prevent ambitious politicians from gaining too mush power.  A Swiss president for example serves for only a single two-year term.  Political corruption is much more difficult to survive this way. 

The Swiss people have the real power.  It’s in the form a fully automatic military rifle and stockpile of ammunition required by law in virtually every home.  Switzerland has a real Minuteman style defense system.  Because of this you have not, nor will ever see masses of Swiss refugees moving about like frightened and starving sheep.  

The Swiss stay out of efforts to colonize or otherwise invade other nations.  They’ve become trusted to protect much of the world wealth in their banks. 

In recent years the Swiss too have been poisoned with propaganda into ending gun freedom.  This through the lies of the world’s politicians that know guns will control their own rogue behavior. 

Every sane, sober and law-abiding man and woman on earth has a duty to train with and bear arms for the safety of their families, community and nation.  

Those clever politicians that demand gun bans for “public safety” are always up to no good.  Gun bans are the needed tools of Nazis, Communists and other Fascists.

I believe like the late and very wise, Anne Frank that most all people have good hearts.  We must believe in and trust each other.  If we do that we will never let another tyrant lead us into another government-sponsored bloodbath.

Please think about what I have written here and spread it around.  This is why I believe that plenty of guns in the hands of the well-behaved masses are the best way to insure public safety.

LAPD Has Bad Some Advice For Those Facing Armed Robbers

Los Angeles, CA—I spend a lot of time in L.A. when I’m not in Phoenix or Chicago.   The crime rate here is climbing because of prisoner releases by California Corrections and the Obama Administration dictating the mass release of criminal aliens.  I don’t know where this is going yet.  Hopefully, I’m as prepared as I can be if a thug or thugs actually select me for victimization.

The good news here is that in two separate rulings the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the current scheme that bars people from carrying concealed weapons for simple self-defense is unconstitutional.   

The current law is now unenforceable.  Some California Sheriffs already began processing thousands of new CCW permit applications because the Supreme Court settled this in McDonald vs. City of Chicago.  

The Mugger, Rapist Killer Protection Act (as I call it) in California is about to die a quick death.  The reasonable expectation that potential crime victims are unarmed will be a memory.   Darwin is about to begin collecting the tarnished souls of many really dumb criminals. 

L.A.P.D’s Wilshire Division just tweeted that if you’re confronted by robbers, don’t resist and to give up your property.  They suggest this may save your life.  There are plenty of things that can go wrong and despite full cooperation you still can be murdered.  I won't fault the advice if you are untrained and unarmed. 

I’m a believer in conflict avoidance.  I will for example avoid confronting suspicious people around my car or home.   That’s why we have cops.  However if I’m somehow in a trap I’ll never cooperate.  I will pretend and show fear and quickly give the bastards all the hot lead I can. 

There is absolutely no guarantee that with all of my military, police and civilian firearms training that I will survive.  Among cops I rank in the top five percent of our shooting scores.  The average gun owner never gets necessary training to deal with rapid fire, night fire and multiple assailants.  That brings me right back to conflict avoidance!

Even if my gun mortally wounds my attacker/s that does not mean they won’t succeed in killing me before they die.  Instant kills are very rare except in fictional motion pictures.  Once again, that brings me right back to conflict avoidance! 

My gun does not make me taller, stronger, braver or smarter.  It only gives me a much better chance of survival if the unthinkable happens. 

If you ever have to use a firearm in self-defense you must know what your, obligations, rights and responsibilities are.  Most people would rush to call police and tell them what happened.   Particularly in Leftist LA-LA Land, a jail cell will house you as you wait a jury determination that may take as much as three years of your life.   You’ll probably be bankrupt and homeless by the time you are cleared by a jury and released.

Here are the rules that will save you from the jaws of Hell if you’re lucky enough to survive a shooting!