Torchwood – Season 3

For once, Torchwood episodes will be shown in North America at the same time as in Great Britain.  Season 3 (5 episodes) start on Monday July 20 and run for 5 nights.  That’s all we get, hopefully there will be more Torchwood soon.

Children of Earth

Day One An ordinary day becomes one of terror, as every single child in the world stops and delivers a message to all the governments of Earth: “We are coming.” As a trap closes around Captain Jack, the sins of the past are returning and long-forgotten events threaten to reveal an awful truth. Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto are helpless as events escalate to such a degree that mankind faces the end of civilization itself.

Day Two As the new Torchwood adventure continues, members of the team are hunted down, Britain risks becoming a rogue state, and only one person holds the key to Torchwood’s salvation.

Day Three The eyes of the world turn to Britain and members of Torchwood must battle to protect their own families, as the fight gets personal.

Day Four The eyes of the world turn to Britain and members of Torchwood must battle to protect their own families, as the fight gets personal.

Day Five As violence erupts and anarchy reigns, an ordinary housing estate becomes a battleground where the future will be decided. Torchwood is defenseless – can Gwen Cooper save the day?

The Torchwood Team

Gwen

Jack and Gwen try to find out what is causing the children to behave as they are.

Like other families with children, Ianto’s sister and her family are powerless in the face of the 456.

Every single child on Earth stops and unbeknownst to them, become messengers for an alien race.

Highway of Heroes in Pictures

From a powerpoint presentation making the rounds.

Arrival of first Soldier

Honour Guard claiming the body

Procession Leaves Trenton for Toronto

Trenton pays its respects

Firemen honouring the procession

Police Stop to Honour Heroes

One of 50 Overpasses where people gather to salute Heroes

Greetiing our Heroes

Another overpass, another tribute

Not just on overpasses do people show respect

Oshawa greets the procession

Durham Police honour procession

Ajax says thank you

An individual shows his respect.

The Final Salute in Toronto before arriving at the coroners office.

Highway of Heroes-The people say Thank You!

I recently received a great powerpoint presentation showing how we as Canadians have made the Highway of Heroes an important element in our honouring and paying tribute to our fallen soldiers.  The average Canadian was not fully aware of the sacrifices that our military have made until Afghanistan.  The governments of the day had no use for a military but time and circumstances proved this neglect to be horribly wrong.  I served in the RCHA in the early 70’s and it was a joke, we had a regimental strength of around 176 men when it should have been over 1,100 yet we had the same roles and responsibilities of a full regiment.  We were part of the A.C.E. Mobile Force for Norway and also member of the C.A.S.T. Combat Group which was responsible for re-enforcing ACE.  In other words, we were supposedly replacing ourselves which would have been  a bit difficult since we’d have been dead or wounded to require re-enforcement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afghanistan has brought respectability for the Canadian Military and a sense of pride for the people of Canada.  It was public pressure that brought about the designation of the stretch of Highway 401 from Trenton to Toronto to be known as the Highway of Heroes.  For it is along that path that our fallen are repatriated to Canada and transported to the Ontario Coroner prior to being returning the remains to the families.  The people have spoken and speak everytime we lose a combatant.  As of today we have lost 116 service personnel both men and women.  We honour their ultimate sacrifice and pay tribute to the family members who have lost their loved ones.

Members of Fire Station 44 in Barrhaven salute returning fallen soldier Cpl. Kenneth Chad O'Quinn on the Fallowfield-Strandherd Bridge just outside of Barrhaven, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Viewer photo submitted by: Kellie Jennifer Adams

Ottawa is home to the National Military Cemetery at Beechwood and many families are choosing to bury their fallen loved ones there.  It is a beautiful place for a cemetery.  Now the Ottawa Fire Department has chosen to follow the lead of the Highway of Heroes and they provide firefighters and police officers along 12 overpasses of  Highway 416 and 417 on the route to Beechwood where the soldier will be interred.  District Chief Dave Capstick said firefighters will make the effort to show the respect and solidarity they deserve. 

The U.S. has adopted a similar policy to Canada’s on repatriation and finally make it possible to show the flag draped coffins if the families allow it.  That gives the ordinary people the opportunity to sit up, take notice and show their apprciation and sorry for the fallen.  A recent movie on HBO called “Taking Chance” is based upon  A personal narrative by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl (you can read his story here). 

The Highway of Heroes and the actions encountered by LCol Strobl show that the people understand and want to honour the fallen who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Lest We Forget

I am a soldier far away from home.

My 15 year old grandson Josh wrote this poem:

I am a soldier far away from home.

I wonder if I will live to see tomorrow.

I hear gunfire and explosions.

I see my friends die in front of me.

I want to see my family and live happily.

I am a soldier far away from home.

I pretend that someday peace will come.

I feel horrible because of all of the lives I have taken.

I touch my guns trigger without hesitation.

I worry about my family and how they are doing.

I cry every night from what I’ve seen the previous day.

I am a soldier far away from home.

I understand that what I am doing is for the greater good.

I say what I’m doing is for justice.

I dream of a world where everything is peaceful.

I try to enforce justice and make peace come.

I hope one day peace will prevail. 

I am a soldier far away from home.

Canada’s Contribution To the World

***Revised post!!***

As we closer to remembrance day, I received a version of this story in an Email and thought it was relevant.  It still is but as one comment came in it goes back to the friendly fire incident when we lost the 4 soldiers from the Pats.  So I did as suggested and found the original article.  We’ve been supporting the Afghan mission for almost 7 years pulling more than our weight in NATO – why is it that some countries won’t let their soldiers out of their bases lest they be in harms way.

The country the world forgot – again

By Kevin Myers

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 21/04/2002

UNTIL the deaths last week of four Canadian soldiers accidentally killed by a US warplane in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops were deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will now bury its dead, just as the rest of the world as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.

It seems that Canada’s historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price which Canada pays for sharing the North American Continent with the US, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: it seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.

Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10 per cent of Canada’s entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular memory as somehow or other the work of the “British”. The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world.

The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign which the US had clearly not participated – a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.

So it is a general rule that actors and film-makers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality – unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer British. It is as if in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakeably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves – and are unheard by anyone else – that 1 per cent of the world’s population has provided 10 per cent of the world’s peace-keeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace-keepers on earth – in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peace-keeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement which has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace – a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the US knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost.

This weekend four shrouds, red with blood and maple leaf, head homewards; and four more grieving Canadian families know that cost all too tragically well.

Canada

Lest we forget.

Fox Program Red Eye – The Ugliest Americans

Canada has just suffered the loss of 4 more soldiers in Afghanistan and they will be repatirated today and travel the Highway of Heros.  So we now have to put up with ugly stupid Americans who have demonstrated why they are hated around the world.  The Fox program Red Eye chose to mock Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan not even knowing that we have been there from the beginning of this mission.  We are one of the few countries that answered the call for combat troops who would engage in combat and these idiot Americans have no understanding of their neighbour to the north.  They have no concept of the importance that Canada is to the success and prosperity of America.  After 7 years of conflict, most of the equipment is wearing out, um, I seem to remember reading about the US having equipment problems having a large percentage of its equipment worn out sitting awaiting action in Iraq.

See for yourself:

In this video, these people demonstrate how narrow minded and ill-informed they are about anything outside their borders.  They represent the last 8 years where America damaged its standing in the world.  No longer could America legitimately claim that they believe in freedom, liberty and integrity.  They set up the Guantánamo Bay detention where they were sheltered from their own laws and conducted torture and numerous human rights violations.   There was no due process – so much for the fair minded America.

The current world financial crisis can be laid at the feet of greedy people who ignored what few rules there were and managed to bring down the worlds economies. 

We can hope that theirs is a radical minority viewpoint.  If it is mainstream then America will have to continue to bully the worlds countries and use military force to impose its will.  We all know this works, just look at Iraq.

Their comments are disgusting and they would call for an invasion should someone else say things like that about America, oh wait they did call for an invasion of Canada and those silly Canadians.

We’ve developed our own ways to show respect to troops.

One of the things I look forward to each November 11th is at the end of the ceremony at the National War Memorial.  It is something that was started by we the people and it wasn’t scripted.  What moves me so much is the placing of the individual poppies on the tomb of our unknown soldier.  It has become a tradition that was not a part of the program setup by the organizers of the ceremonies.  It is a heartfelt show of respect for our veterans and war dead and a way of saying “thank you for our freedom”.

People put their poppies on the tomb of the unknown soldier

A new tradition has evolved with the loss of our service personnel in the Afghanistan action.  To date we have lost 97 lives to this war.  Originally, our government tried to keep the repatriation ceremony private similar to what happens in the U.S.  Again, ordinary people wouldn’t accept this.  Through their actions a stretch of the 401 from Trenton (where they arrive home from Afghanistan) to Toronto was renamed the highway of heros.

Signage on the 401 - Highway of Heros

People who live along this stretch of highway now stand on the overpasses and pay their tribute and respect to the hearses bearing the bodies of our fallen soldiers who are transported to Toronto upon their repatriation to Canada before their bodies are returned to the families.

The People Salute a Fallen Hero

This a an action by the people paying their respect for those who paid the ultimate price while serving Canada.

Things have changed a lot since I was in the military.  Back then we were underfunded, undermanned and greatly overworked.  My first unit had 176 active personnel with the same responsibilities of a regiment of 1,100, we were our own re enforcements in the event of NATO/Soviet hostilities.  Some of our equipment was older than the soldiers that used it.   Now we have some of the best equipment available and adequate staffing to carry out their mission.  What’s needed now is for the other NATO countries to step up and do their share to help resolve threat from Afghanistan.  Only then can we resolve the Taliban issue and maybe curtail the drug problems through helping their economy flourish.

Are we worthy of their sacrifice?

We are but one country in the community of nations.  We have shouldered the burden of war when others were in peril.  We have lost over 110,000 of men and women in their prime in two world wars, the Korean Conflict, United Nations Peace Keeping and currently Afghanistan.  There have been many more wounded and maimed as well as the victims of these wars, millions of innocent people killed because of this reason or that.

Mankind has shown that it is capable of horrendous atrocities and we must all be vigilant to ensure that they are kept in check.  We have a duty to our fellow citizens of the world to protect and show them that things can be good.  We in Canada a blessed with a great place to live, work and play.  We have opportunity.  We have security.  We have the prospect of living a life without fearing for our lives.  These things can’t be said for the majority of the world’s people.

We cannot change everyone – we are too small a nation to force our views on the world.  We can only lead by example and demonstrate that happiness and freedom is possible.  We have a responsibility to be the best world citizens that we can be.

We owe this to the world and we owe this to those who have sacrificed of themselves to allow us to be who we are.

This is our day to remember our past and honor those who gave the ultimate in protecting us.  In the Afghanistan conflict we have lost 97 service men and women plus a Canadian Diplomat.  We should also remember that for every one that we lost there were a number who were wounded.  They should be honored as should those that were lucky enough to come through their duty tours intact.  That last point may be a moot point.  There is a large percentage of those who have served who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress and they will likely relive their difficult experiences every day for the rest of their lives.

For those of us who had parents who served in the second world war, post traumatic stress was never diagnosed but it was real.  My father served with the 48th Highlanders during the war and he rarely shared his experiences except with another veteran like our neighbour who was a navy frogman.  It lead to a number of issues that continued throughout his lifetime and contributed to his early death at 52.

Personally, my service was during a peacetime army in times of significant financial restraint, we served but didn’t have the necessary tools to be much of a threat to our potential enemy.  The military wasn’t very popular during my time of service, still I am proud to have served for a total of 13 years.

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.  Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  At the going down of the sun and in the morning.  We will remember them.”

Canada to award “Sacrifice Medal” similar to U.S. Purple Heart

A new military medal has been inaugurated to commemorate soldiers and civilians who are wounded or killed while serving Canada.

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces, announced the creation of the Sacrifice Medal on Friday. It is to be awarded to members of the Canadian military, troops from allied forces or civilians working under the Canadian Forces.

The medal can go to anyone killed or wounded after Oct. 7, 2001 — the date of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan — “under honourable circumstances as a direct result of hostile action,” the Governor General said in a statement.

New Sacrifice Medal

This replaces the wound stripes and includes civilians which I think is a deserved given the nature of today’s dangers military and civilians face in theaters like Afghanistan.

George Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)

George Carlin passed away on June 22, 2008 at the age of 71.  He was essential listening for thinking people.  He loved language and used it with great skill.  His most famous routine was the Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television.  A big loss for all of us.

It is the Soldier, it was the Veteran….

The Soldier It is the soldier, not the minister,who has given us freedom of religion It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. copyright: Charles M. Provence not Father Denis Edward O’Brien as some people note.

The Soldier protects our freedoms, our Veterans won our freedoms. We owe them all our thanks and respect. We must remember.

What we don’t know about people….

I was watching the American Memorial Day celebration on PBS and they were telling the story of a true hero of the Second World War. It was the story about Charles Durning, he was not reading a story but he was telling us his story. It is an amazing tale of a wartime hero.

Here was a man who went through hell on Omaha Beach and was involved in a number of actions that are well know such as surviving the infamous Malmedy massacre, in which German officer Joachim Peiper had over 100 American prisoners shot dead without warning as they stood in a field. He notes in his biography that he still has nightmares about his wartime service.

He is a successful actor who is still active.

Here is a man to whom we owe our gratitude for his efforts in saving our freedoms during the second world war. He represents a whole generation that ensured that we would be free to be.

How many other people are like him, people who have giving of themselves to give us our freedoms and defend our way of life. We sometimes forget and only see the person who is in front of us. That person may be down on their luck or suffering from post traumatic stress disorder because they fought for our right to be who we are. We have to overlook some of the problems that our defenders face in current times because in a lot of cases they developed these problems while serving our country and us.

I look at my father and realize that a lot of his problems developed when he served with the 48th Highlanders of Canada during the Second World War. We owe them much more than we’ve given them. We must be ready to carry the torch of freedom and fight to keep it when it is threatened.

Canada unveils a new, top medal for battlefield bravery

This is our newest top military honour and it is perfectly tied to the past and still represents Canada. This article is from CP. In the second image, the clasp represents a second award.  Queen Victoria’s original award was a hand crocheted scarf made by the Queen herself although not considered to be equivalent to the VC, a total of 8 scarves were awarded.

Canada had at least one recipient of the scarf, Private RR Thompson of the RCR was awarded  the Queen’s Scarf for bravery during the South African Campaign.

“By John Ward, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – What’s old is new again as a link with Canada’s military past and a symbol for the future was resurrected Friday when the Canadian Victoria Cross was officially unveiled.

The new decoration, formally unveiled by Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, is almost identical to the original Victoria Cross. It has been modified slightly by adding fleurs de lis to thistle, shamrock and rose and changing the original English inscription to a Latin motto, Pro Valore. It retains its frowning lion and the royal crown.

It replaces a medal which for more than a century was the top bravery award available to soldiers, sailors and aircrew of the Commonwealth.

The medal, or VC, is a modest little thing about the size of a matchbook, a bronze cross with a brownish patina hanging from a bit of crimson ribbon. But it is the highest honour Canada can bestow for heroism in battle and even takes precedence over the top level of the Order of Canada.

The VC was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1856 as a way to mark exceptional courage in the face of the enemy and was the first such medal available to all ranks, from private to general.

It is said that when she was shown the first version of the cross, bearing the inscription, For the Brave, she rejected it, saying: “All my soldiers are brave.”

The motto was amended to read: “For Valour.”

The VC had been in abeyance for a generation, as Canada worked out its own system of honours and bravery decorations. In the end, though, it was decided that the historical links were too strong to be broken completely and so a Canadianized cross was born.

“Canada wanted its own Victoria Cross, a cross that would still resemble the British cross but would better reflect who we are,” the Governor General said.

The links to the past remain even in the metal used to cast it.

Since 1914, British and Commonwealth VCs have been made from pieces of two old cannon captured in some long-forgotten war.

When Natural Resources Canada was creating a unique metal for the VC, it took a piece of this gunmetal, along with a copper medallion struck in 1867 to mark Confederation, plus native copper and other metals from across Canada and melted them into a special alloy, a sort of “tinny brass,” one metallurgist called it.

The smelt produced 65 kilograms of ingots, which were locked away and which will provide the raw material for the cross for centuries.

“I think it was important historically to keep the richness of the mystique of the decoration by keeping the historical link in the metal itself,” said air force Capt. Carl Gauthier of the Defence Department’s honours branch.

“It keeps that link to those Canadians that came before us wearing the uniform, yet it is a medal for the Canadian military of today and tomorrow.”

John Dutrizac of Natural Resources helped oversee the creation of the alloy and the casting of 20 of the new crosses. It was a tricky job, using a “lost wax” technique that dates back thousands of years.

“The casting of the thin section of the Victoria Cross is a challenge,” he said. “There’s a large reject rate where you don’t get complete filling of all the fine detail . . . you have to cast more blanks than you really expect.”

The cross is only awarded for the most conspicuous bravery, or a pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice in the presence of an enemy.

Of the 1,353 crosses ( and three bars given repeat winners) awarded since 1856, 81 went to members of the Canadian military. About a dozen others went to Canadians serving in the British forces or to people who later moved to Canada.

One of the very first was awarded to Alexander Dunn of Toronto, who was honoured for his actions with a British cavalry regiment in the famous 1856 charge of the Light Brigade.

The last Canadian to win the VC was Hampton Gray, a Canadian navy pilot honoured posthumously after sinking a Japanese destroyer in the dying days of the Second World War.

The last surviving Canadian holder of the VC, Ernest (Smokey) Smith, died in 2005.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the heroes of the Victoria Cross “enshrined the reputation of the Canadian soldier as second to none.”

He also noted that Canadian troops are once again risking their lives abroad and one of them will likely end up wearing the decoration.

“We rarely hear about their everyday heroics, but some day, somewhere, one of those men and women will do something so brave, so gallant, so exceptional that we will hear about it and he or she will join the legendary group of Canadian forces who wear the pride of a nation on their chest.”"

The Ewoks Gospel Song – with special guest.

This is my Ewok – Hugo. Just like the ones in Star Wars.

Good Quotations by Famous People by Gabriel Robins.

Good Quotations by Famous People:

Famous quotes, witty quotes, and funny quotations collected by Gabriel Robins over the years.

Some samples:

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance”

– Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”

– Jimi Hendrix

“A clever man commits no minor blunders.”

– Goethe (1749-1832)

“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.”

– Richard Bach

“A witty saying proves nothing.”

– Voltaire (1694-1778)

“Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera.”

– James Stephens (1882-1950)

“The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore people they think it’s their fault.”

– Henry Kissinger (1923-)

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

– Will Durant

“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”

– Xenocrates (396-314 B.C.)

more…

Gabriel Robins has assembled the following:

The Legacy of Randy Pausch

My friend and mentor Professor Randy Pausch is a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, and creator of the Alice software project.

“> I have known Randy since 1992, and over the years I have been collecting and archiving his video lectures and newspaper articles, which I am happy to share below.

“> See also the background surrounding Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture”, and Randy Pausch’s Wikipedia page.

ABC ran a 1-hour special on Randy (with Diane Sawyer) on April 9, 2008. Randy’s book, called “The Last Lecture”, was published by Disney/Hyperion in April, 2008.