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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂
Last Post: 27 Aug 2025
Threads: Total: 74 / In This Archive: 51
Posts: Total: 24933 / In This Archive: 10045
From: In the Heart of Darkness
Speaks Polish?: Tak

Displayed posts: 10096 / page 111 of 337
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jon357   
26 Apr 2016
Work / No ZUS paid (no national insurance) means no NFZ healthcare and (for EU citizens) no EKUZ card in Poland [7]

and I have no idea how it is in the UK.

It's a grey area, however as far as I know (but there could of course be exceptions), no British person has been billed for their healthcare since 1948 and even if someone was neither paying their stamps nor registered in the UK as unemployed and used their EU health card abroad for emergency treatment, say, in Poland, the NHS would pick up the bill.

They do give you the card even if you aren't paying into the system or claiming any benefit.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

undermining the heritage and values of the country

The problem with that, Po, is that Poland is and has always been a plural society with a rich and very varied heritage and values. Not just your skewed interpretation of a Poland that never was.

gave you safe haven

Safe haven from what?

One thing about Poland (the side of Poland that you despise), that same Poland that gave you safe haven, is that it has both a centuries old liberal tradition and a respect for privacy, the law, the constitution (which you pretend to loathe) and, of course, human rights. Including for people who identify as LGBTI.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

equality

Is a very important principle in Poland. Sometimes it falls down, however essentially the law is observed and above all human rights are respected, however much that scares you.

even following me to church one Sunday.

Really - I wonder why you think that. In fact I don't even know which church you attend.

snooping, lurking in the shadows at night

Likewise. Though as you know, we were neighbours once and you don't exactly have a low profile in that bit of Warsaw for various reasons best not gone into here.

Evidently accuracy and truth matter little to you; this has been proven by your 'sharia zones', 'armed attack dogs', 'cosy corners' etc, etc...
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

Laws for harrassment of people should be applied evenly. I don't think homosexuality was ever outlawed in poland?

Yes, they're applied evenly and Polish laws have generally been fairly sensible - ahead of a lot of other places.

who still in the 60s were castrating war hero's for being gay?

We should all of us be very angry about the persecution of Alan Turing. The guy invented computers and cracked the wartime Enigma FFS, if he'd lived a few more decades the world's technology may have been very different.

But pre-natal murder and calling abnormal sexual hook-ups marriage

Based on some of the things you write and the appallingly inflammatory language you use - intended to offend, the internet term is 'flaming' - you come across here as very much a bitter and unpleasant individual disappointed with life, utterly without redeeming features and perhaps with things to hide. Sooner or later someone less discreet than myself will first take offence at your comments and then take pleasure in discussing certain things here on the forum.

So far, you've ranted on about 'sodom and gomorrah', 'excretory orifices', 'perversion' and now you've inexplicably started banging on about the evils of family planning, another of your favourite subjects.

Anyone sensible and moderate who reads those rants is likely to take the opposite view - as I've said before, you do yourself no favours.

And although you'd doubtless like there to be no human rights in Poland, as it was in your heyday, there is no going back at all, and reforms in Poland - as in the rest of Europe - will continue in a direction that you dislike.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

In every myth there is a kernel of truth

And in that particular myth, the whole point is about hospitality to newcomers...

A human rights concept without Christian religion to back it up

No single religion 'owns' human rights - in fact the greatest progress has always been made in the face of religious objections, nor are most people so fanatically obsessed with the subject as organised homophobes.

And human rights are still respected in Poland, as is the rule of law.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

b*gger other blokes

There you go again, Po. Interesting that you fixate on that aspect of the myth, and not any of the other parts of the story. But then again, you are fixated on the subject. I wonder why a 75 year old American would spend his days online ranting about such things.

~And it doesn't for even one second alter the cold hard fact that human rights are respected here in Poland.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
Travel / Taxis from Gdansk airport? [65]

There's a railway station at Gdańsk airport now (not long open!) with a shuttle to Gdańsk Wrzeszcz.

The best way is to get a train from the airport to Elbląg (you'll need to change at Gdańsk Wrzeszcz) and the journey will take about 2 hours (a bit less if you're lucky). Prices for Polish train travel are low.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

lunatic fringe?

The 'lunatic fringe' are very much those who want to turn the clock back.

Is that good?

'Broken' families? Yes, much better than staying together for the sake of respectability or whatever and making the whole family miserable.

drug and HIV-related deaths than in the 1950s.

And far fewer deaths from various other reasons.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
Food / Vegetarian/Vegan restaurants in Warsaw [18]

Are you a vegetarian or is it just your guests?

Guests. I don't eat that much meat and never ever chicken (having lived opposite a battery farm and seen how they are treated) but I'm not vegetarian, especially if there's a nice rare steak nearby or a delicious sucking pig (not in the David Cameron sense) with an apple in its mouth.

I actually found that online list already but am looking for actual recommendations from experience. It has to be fairly nice - not some 'green canteen'.

edit

If you pick up a copy of this months Insider there are 3 or 4 pages in an article about vegan food in Warsaw.

Thanks - I didn't know that was still in print. I'll have a look. Their restaurant reviews used to be appallingly prissy however they were at least neutral and unbiased - certainly they didn't hesitate to give a bad review to places that had paid to advertise in it.

Personal recommendations are still very welcome.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

Well, for a start, you, obviously

Indeed...

but why pollute public space with such garbage?

As long as extremist loons spout things like that, either online or more rarely in real life, the response from those they try to deliberately offend (and yes, Po, you try to deliberately offend) will be all the louder.

And the world has consistently moved towards freedom and liberalisation.

Just saying'
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
Food / Vegetarian/Vegan restaurants in Warsaw [18]

Can anyone recommend a good vegetarian restaurant in Warsaw? Vegan would be good, but it doesn't have to be?

I used to sometimes have lunch at the Hare Krishna place behind Kino Femina but that's not really somewhere to take guests for an evening meal (which is why I'm asking).

I'm not especially interested in food faddish places doing raw food, organic-only macrobiotic etc (my guests aren't Gwyneth Paltrow!) - just somewhere nice that serves only veggie food. One with a good wine list would help.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

Except some citizens, the ones with money, connections and a powerful politcal nachine behind them, somehow fare better in the judicial realm than the poor working stiff with a court-appointed defence councillor

This much is true, however the law in Poland does afford human and civil rights without regard to sexuality.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / The only three normal cities with any respect for humanity in Poland [99]

I want to associate and surround myself with people that share the same values and hold the same mental capacity

Hard to know what the amount of melatonin in your skin would have to do with that.

mediocrity

Why not? Racism is certainly mediocre.

And nothing to do with the three cities in Poland preferring a Christian response to migration.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
Life / Number of church attendees in Poland [54]

It's actually a neurological thing. This has been proven by experiments. Regardless of the religion involved, when people are praying or otherwise attending worship, the same part of the brain is working.
jon357   
25 Apr 2016
News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

Most Solidarity activists who were interned, beaten, persecuted and blackballed got zero compensation,

That doesn't actually have much to do with the issue.

And yes, the rule of law is very much respected in Poland. The legal protection that the law affords all citizens and residents is very real, no matter how much some individuals wish it wasn't.
jon357   
24 Apr 2016
Life / Father moving back to Poland - about half way between Rzeszów and Ukrainian border [6]

It may just be fear mongering, or are they really coming in from Ukraine?

No - that doesn't happen. There would be no need to come to Poland that way, since anybody who wanted to could come in via Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany which have open borders with Poland. With Ukraine, the border is tightly controlled. Most of the refugees who have entered Poland (not many) are en-route to Germany etc where the support structures are better.

Any migrants who come won't be in that region - there's little there to attract a newcomer who doesn't have an income. There are plenty of Ukranian refugees (usually though not always with some Polish roots) from the war zone in East Ukraine, however those people head to various reception centres run by the government, the Red Cross or the church and then either study (many are young) or move to places where there is employment.