Your video, A great escape of sorts, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Boo! That had nothing to do with Ayn Rand or Objectivism. This was anti-pacifier, whereas John Galt & Co had their cigarettes stamped with the sign of the dollar.

But, Horray for the Great Escape homage. It just had no teeth for a smackdown against the GOP/Right Wingnuts. I expected more...

The father-in-law of a fellow Toastmaster actually participated in the Great Escape. He was a penguin... responsible for distributing the dirt dug from the tunnels throughout the prison yard via pockets built into their pants. Fortunately, he was NOT one of the ones chosen to escape. Aside from the fact there were no Americans at the POW camp, he said the movie was reasonably accurate, i.e. three tunnels, the one used came up short of the treeline...
The camp commander was imprisoned after the war. Some of his POWs went to visit him to let him know that they bore him no ill will. They were all soldiers and they considered the base commander to be a fair man who treated them well under the circumstances.
He refused to see them. Via an intermediary he relayed to them that he simply couldn't face them. He said that he never felt more ashamed to be a Nazi as when he heard that the SS had executed the 50 escapees from his camp.
The most fascinating part of Jim Lang's story though was the story BEFORE he arrived at the POW camp. Too long to relay here but he was shot out of the sky when returning from an air raid. Spent a few weeks on the run in the Belgium countryside.
He has since died but I fortunately recorded his presentation... just a great slice of history.

The real life Great Escape happened 70 years ago today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III_escape#The_.22Great_Escape.22

76 men escaped, and all but 3 were recaptured. 50 of the those recaptured were shot on the personal orders of Hitler. For me, if you do something that pisses off Hitler so much that he personally orders you shot.... well, you're just a Fucking Awesome Human Being.

*promote pissing off Hitler

Music is from The Great Escape which is fitting and probably why chosen.

2 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

So says YouTube.

>> ^nock:

Is this from The Great Escape?

Is this from The Great Escape?

Yeah, great scene and another great escape by Dexter. I'm really liking this season so far.

Oh, I really don't know about turning off tvs for good. I have an issue with any knee-jerk, "get rid of 'X' entirely" responses.

There is a lot of good on TV. There are wonderful documentaries of the wonders of our planet, there are fantastic shows full of imagination and joy.

And, yes, there is an AWFUL LOT of utter, utter, utter dross.

Pick and chose and watch a little TV and you'll be ok. Watch the mainstream brain numbing rubbish hour after hour and you will indeed become part of the problem rather than the solution.

I limit the amount of TV my kids watch and encourage imaginative play, and active play, and my wife and I watch, on average, about 1 hour of tv a night, and that's pre taped or downloaded shows that we have discovered or sourced... and that hour or so is a great escape after the kids have gone to bed and before we get stuff ready for school the following day. Sure, we could play board games, or read, or learn a musical instrument etc. But the energy just isn't there (plus I do read on the way in and out of work on the train).

If we all do our part by making conscientious choices about what we buy and use and do with waste, then we're being part of the solution, not problem. But, as you said, you have to give yourself some slack and know that sometimes the things you use/buy/do will have adverse affects on others, whether you intentionally mean them to or not.
>> ^peggedbea:

i think i mostly agree with the sentiment of this comment. being a former traveling, vegan, animal rights, social justice hippie that i was...i tended to get too wrapped up in caring about shit. i tried hard not to be a zealot, but it's just like... if i cared about the way we treat and exploit livestock, then also have to care about the environmental impacts of livestock production, and also the impacts of globalization on 3rd world countries, and then poverty and hunger and disease, and then how every single product i use daily exploits someone or something somewhere etc etc etc on and on and on. i'd spin myself into a tizzy of caring about everything until my heart was broken and i couldn't go anywhere or do anything.
so, we can't do everything. and no, there's not enough left after taking care of ourselves and our families to care about everything. but i do think we'd all be a hell of a lot better off if we just turned off our televisions. and for good.

Did you ever get a chance to see Return to Oz?

In reply to this comment by geo321:
Return To Oz - Great Escape
that looks like a freaky movie. thanks for the link. I can't wait to see it. I'm about to find the movie

Return To Oz - Great Escape
that looks like a freaky movie. thanks for the link. I can't wait to see it. I'm about to find the movie

The creepiest scene from Return to Oz. Gave my nightmares meaning as a child, leading to what I am today. Nothing quite like '80s dark fantasy:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Return-To-Oz-Great-Escape

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Patrick Watson, Great Esacpe, draw' to 'Patrick Watson, Great Escape, draw' - edited by my15minutes

thanks

In reply to this comment by berticus:
*promote