Amsterdam, NL-KLM Airlines is running a contest for videos where people like me have to pronounce the Dutch translation of Royal Dutch Airlines .  I know that there is nearly always humor in watching people struggle through pronouncing words and phrases. It’s a cute marketing idea.  I have entered the contest and I MUST win! More importantly the Netherlands is a terrific summer destination that offers terrific art, culture, flowers and food.  There are historical places everywhere and the World Court is at the Haag.  The Dutch worked very hard to protect victims of Nazi tyranny during the war and nothing demonstrates that better than the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Please watch my video below so that it gets lots of hits .   I’d love doing some video blog stories from there.  I will also try and get a video interview of my favorite actress Carice van Houten too while I’m there. Okay Please  watch and share my video below so of...

Chicago, IL —As a young man I wound up drafted into the Army, trained and given orders for combat duty in Vietnam in an Air Cavalry unit.  That would have put me in the thick of the worst time of the war in 1968. Somehow I was the only member of my Light Weapons Infantry unit at Fort Ord to get derailed to Germany instead.  I was able to win a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) change to a medical corpsman.  I had great test scores and got the spot despite not having attended medical corpsman school at Ft. Sam Houston.  I got a crash course from doctors and nurses and loved that assignment.  After I was discharged I wanted to return to being a cop.  What a mistake that was. Okay I was a poor kid with no parents to help me financially and I was afraid of the massive math I would be forced to learn before calculators were available.  I would have to conquer the slide rule that was viewed by me to be an instrument of the devil.   ...

Berlin's Sony Center Berlin, Germany -Just outside the beautiful and spectacular Sony Center Shopping mall here there is a simple sidewalk brass marker.  It is a reminder of terrible time in history when total judicial tyranny was practiced under National Socialism 1933-1945.  Murder under color of law was the mission of the Chief Justice, Roland Freisler .   Freisler served in the WWI German Military where he was wounded and captured by Russians.  While in captivity, Freisler embraced Marxism turning his back on his homeland.  He joined the Communist party upon release but once again switched his allegiance joining the burgeoning Nazi Party.  Frisler proved to be quite a social climber. Dr. Roland   Freisler Freisler was a lawyer and was later appointed by Adolph Hitler as the People’s Court President.  It has been said that he Freisler constantly proving himself as a super Nazi to counter those who questioned...

Dennis Farina  Chicago, IL--Dennis Farina was bigger than life as a a cop and actor. He made lots of friends and never forgot his roots in the Windy City.  I know a lot of cops that will want to pay their respects. The schedule of events are as follows: Monday, July 29, 2013  – Wake,  4:00 – 9:00 p.m. Montclair-Lucania Funeral Home 6901 West Belmont Avenue Chicago, IL 60634 773.622.9300 Tuesday, July 30, 2013  – Service,  10:00 a.m. Assumption Catholic Church 323 West Illinois Street Chicago, IL 60654 312.644.0036  (Phone) 312.644.1838  (Fax) Burial private   

Chicago, IL —The laws that were in place here for decades made carrying a concealed weapon by anyone other that a sworn peace officer, and few others a felony ( UUW Unlawful Use of a Weapon ). It was after police encountered mass killer Richard Speck with a concealed gun in 1966 that attitudes significantly changed.  Speck had just  slaughtered  eight student nurses and was not yet identified as the killer.  Just days later he was at the old Raleigh Hotel on the near North side,   where he got into a fee dispute with a local prostitute and threatened her with a gun. Mass Murderer Richard Benjamin Speck The police were called and it was not handled as an emergency.  Cops responded, confronted and frisked Speck.  They found his .38 snub-nosed revolver.   Rather than arrest Speck the simply did what cops did in those days.  Since nobody was injured they just confiscated Speck’s gun and sent him on his way.  Rathe...

Scottsdale, AZ —I’m sad to report on the death of 18 year Chicago police veteran and accomplished actor Dennis Farina .  He died suddenly this morning in Scottsdale from a blood clot in his lung. Farina enjoyed life as a burglary detective at the old Area Six headquarters at Damen and Grace Avenues.  He along with others in his unit handled the follow-up investigations to countless high-dollar burglaries on the Windy City’s North side.   I first met Farina when I was asked to cover for another cop at an off duty job working security for Goldbaltt’s Department Store located in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.  Like most cops we both had a second gig to make a few bucks. Farina attended St. Michael’s High School on North Sedgwick Street as I did until my mother could not pay the tuition.  I was quickly exiled to public school. Around 1979 legendary film director Michael Mann was putting together his film Thief , starring James Caan .  Man...

Here I'm standing at the Bendlerblock memorial for the fallen 20 July conspirators.   Berlin, Germany — July 20, 1944 was the day that the first of many fine German men were executed for the last known attempt to kill Adolph Hitler .  The war was a total disaster bringing dishonor and blight on the German people.  A madman with absolute power had caused the needless deaths of nearly 9,000,000 good Germans .  That does not take into account the Holocaust or the deaths of non-Germans. A group of brave men took on the responsibility to kill Hitler risking all.  There were different failed attempts to Kill Hitler and this was the last of them.  Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg became the leader of the group and brought a briefcase bomb to the secure field headquarters called Wolfsschanze near Rastenburg East Prussia. Von Stauffenberg lost an arm and part of his remaining hand.  With only three fingers he was only capable of arming half o...

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Washington, DC—Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. served on the United States Supreme Court from 1902 until 1932.  Still today he’s probably the most quoted jurist to ever walk the face of the earth.  In 1921 Justice Holmes weighed in on the concept of Stand Your Ground : "The law has grown, and even if historical mistakes have contributed to its growth, it has tended in the direction of rules consistent with human nature. Many respectable writers agree that, if a man reasonably believes that he is in immediate danger of death or grievous bodily harm from his assailant, he may stand his ground, and that, if he kills him, he has not exceeded the bounds of lawful self-defense. That has been the decision of this Court. Beard v. United States, 158 U. S. 550, 158 U. S. 559. Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife. Therefore, in this Court at least, it is not a condition of immunity that one in that si...

Washington, DC —Our forefathers sacrificed so much so we would have freedom, prosperity and the tools to prevent government from again becoming despotic.   As a nation our citizenship has been the envy of the entire rest of the world.   We have allowed freedom to slip away and the value of our citizenship has rapidly declined. We built a system where free enterprise created wealth and jobs.  That in turn gave Americans the ability to consume the fruit of their labor. Productivity and excellence was rewarded and accordingly America became the wealthiest and strongest nation on earth.   Today productivity is punished with extortionate taxation at every level of government. Nearly 100 years passed and Socialists and Communists floated new ideas about government.  These ideas failed in nation after nation but for a few party leaders that could live like royalty through corruption while their citizens were starved, confined and enslaved....

Sanford, FL - Media pundits have suggested that George Zimmerman faces a possible federal Civil Rights criminal prosecution and a wrongful death civil lawsuit.   I have to ask, when will the hogwash end?  These are incredibly vicious but hollow threats. Let’s talk about a criminal Violation of Civil Rights action.  The facts are not there nor have they ever been outside of the wild imagination of the race baiters. The actual code, Title 18, U.S.C., Section 24 is at the bottom of this article. The case against Zimmerman will not somehow get better with age.  It’s been investigated to death and the only evidence of race related hate came from Trayvon Martin’s own lips when he referred to Zimmerman as a “ crappy assed cracker .” A prosecution here cannot begin with thin air but will require evidence.  It’s just not there.  Public opinion can’t rewrite the law to law somehow snag Zimmerman now. A civil action for a wrongful death under F...

George Zimmerman Sanford, FL --This sad case began with a tragedy.    Travon Martin was a troubled lad who made terrible choices.  The data recovered from his cell phone and was later unlawfully hidden from George Zmmerman’s defense lawyers by prosecutors showed that Martin was heavily involved with illegal guns, drugs and fighting.  Judge Debra Nelson later ruled that cell phone evidence inadmissible and that was not at all unusual in our courts.  It may seem unfair to some but that’s what they normally do. As for Martin he apparently had personal issues with what he called, “crappy assed crackers” and was the one actually profiling Zimmerman clearly by race.  To me it’s logical and believable that Martin caused his own death by assaulting Zimmerman.  However we all must recognize that there are no witnesses or video to establish this fact with absolute 100% certainty. We must not never lose sight of is the fact that we don’t req...

Covington, KY —A federal court jury just awarded former Cincinnati Bengal’s cheerleader, Sarah Jones $338,000 over anonymous third-party comments posted to a Scottsdale based website, thedirty.com . The site operator, Nik Richie took a well-deserved litigation beating when he did not screen or delete the nasty comments.   The posts defamed the woman with malicious and unfounded allegations of sexual activities with the entire football team. Richie’s unsuccessful defense was to suggest that Jones should have take the unknown third part posters to court instead of him.   Bloggers everywhere have been watching his case.   Jones had a rather sticky brush with the law related to a sexual relationship with an underage student when she was a teacher.   Reportedly Jones is still in a relationship lad who is now 18 and plans to marry him.   Often people post allegations about others that I cannot or won’t try and verify.   Some are true...