PolishForums LIVE  /  Archives [3]    
   
Posts by Polonius3  

Joined: 11 Apr 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - Q
Last Post: 9 Apr 2018
Threads: Total: 980 / In This Archive: 576
Posts: Total: 12270 / In This Archive: 6848
From: US Sterling Heigths, MI
Speaks Polish?: yes
Interests: Polish history, genealogy

Displayed posts: 7424 / page 129 of 248
sort: Latest first   Oldest first   |
Polonius3   
17 May 2015
USA, Canada / 10 things that show you are Polish [24]

This was posted in the Polonian USA/Canada category so it has to do with our dear Polish diaspora. In America, in case you didn't know, kiełabsa = Polish sausage. It is not a generic term for sausage as it is in Poland but an ethno-specific one. After all, there are also bratwurst, pepperoni, bologna, salami, Italian, Cajun and other sausages on the market. Looks like you should sign up for US Immigration History 101.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
USA, Canada / 10 things that show you are Polish [24]

One's name is one's most precious possession. Of course if you don't mind yours being twisted and distorted, that's your prerogative. If it's Zaleski, Duda, Ordon or Makoski (Makowski would be a bit problematic and contain a "cow"), there's hardly a problem. But what about Chojnicki (chodge-a-NIK-ee), Szczęsny (CHEZZ-nee) or Przybyszewski (purs-a-SOO-ski)?
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Check out what a hack called Cichy wrote about the AK on the pages of GW. Or what Michnik himself wrote about Kukliński, a sterling patriot, who lost his two sons to the long arm of the Kremlin. Also GW will support any renegade priest or anyone else that tries to discredit the Church. They don't write about the massive charitable and humanitarian activities of Caritas. No, that doesn't fit their twisted agenda, But a paedophile vicar will get highlighted and receive huge play day after day. Objective, balanced journalism, eh? Maybe put some of the GW copy into google translate to find out what they're actually writing about -- now and in the past.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
USA, Canada / 10 things that show you are Polish [24]

If you ain't been there, don't knock it! You must have zero imagination is you can't grasp why a Wojciechowski would hate going through life Anglo-mangled into something like wodge-si-CHOW-ski or a Czarnecki being called zar-NEK-ee.

And your knowledge of American immigration history must be equally abysmal if you don't know the Czech dance known as the polka has become something quintessentially Polonian. But what can one expect from a Brit?
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
Study / German v.s. Russian, language usefulness in Poland? [54]

The average Pole cannot understand much of what Russians are saying to each other in rapid colloquial speech. But when a Pole and Russian are trying to communicate, they speak slowly, look for common wors that are mutually intelligible, throw in some sign language and usually get the gist of what they want to communicate. That is the case of all kindred language groups -- Spanish and Italian, for instance, or German and Dutch, although in the latter case both would probably switch to accented English.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Calling AK freedom-fighters anti-Semites and Soviet-trained traitors Kiszczak and Jaruzelski "men of honour" is definitely anti-Polish. Dwelling on Polish misdeeds (and such did occur) whilst whitewashing or ignoring Jewish ones (and such also occurred) is definitely anti-Polish. And constantly attacking the Polish Church which aided and abetted the KOR-ites in their time of need is definitely anti-Polish.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
USA, Canada / 10 things that show you are Polish [24]

Don't kill the messenger. Just sharing something I stumbled across on the net and do not neccesarily agree with. But it does show how many US-born PolAms perceive their Polishness -- largely nostalgia and comfort foods like busia, er, um, oops, -- I mean -- babcia used to make.

YOU ARE POLISH....

1. When no one knows how to pronounce your Polish name or surname.

2. When you sing for 1000th time "Sto Lat" on your families birthdays.

3. When you see Kiełbasa as most perfect form of sausage.

4. When your family after some good food and drinks start to polka.

5. When you are stubborn even when you are not right (those Slav genes)

6. When you see Pierogi as the most perfect form of potatoes.

7. When you have picture of John Paul II in your house.

8. When you post on internet forums how awesome Hussar Winged Calvary were.

9. When you have the most complicated Language

10. Because you're incredibly proud to be Polish.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

Dunno how expats interact with real Poles, but if PF is any indicaiton, they seem to be constantly in the Dutch Uncle role, teaching, instructing and spreading their one-sided views. Maybe they don't do that in real life and only get their jollies off on the forum.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Some people when they lack bona fide arguments put alien words in their interlocutor's mouth. Michnik was not responsible for the regime nor his parents' and brother's sins. He is responsible only for the anti-Polish nonsense written in GW. Like calling the AK an anti-Semitic organisation or labelling Col. Kukliński a traitor, calling Jaruzelski and Kiszczak "men of honour", hobnobbing with the Polish Goebbels (Urban) or badmouthing the Church which enabled the KOR-ites to survive. They played up Jedwabne but strangely enough have regularly soft-pedalled or ignored Jewish misdeeds and treachery such as the Judenräte, ghetto police and Jewish kapo incineration squads or the Jews in Soviet-annexed eastern Poland that turned Polish patriots over to the NKVD. That is just a small snippet of the GW's anti-Polish programme. And only that is Michnik responsible for, not for the Polish patriots his brother sent to their death or the young Polish minds mama Michnik tried to poison.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

It's the expats in Poland that are the know-alls and try to tell Poles how to live and what to think. The election showed that expat-style leftism,libertinism and the lot are out. But for some reason the expats are still all for the lunatic fringe of Polish society which includes the Palikots, the ex-commie SLD and Greenies. The ultra-nationalists and korwinites are also lunatic-fringe groups. The reason for that is they do not feel the TRUE SPIRIT OF POLAND. Only someone raised in that atmosphere knows what that means. Explaining it to guests and outsiders is a waste of time because they have been raised and steeped in a totally different system of likes, dislikes, values and anti-values.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Hey, that's how all totaliarian systems work. Amerca's PC dictatorship is neither truly stalinsit nor nazi, but people can lose their job is they are opposed to homo marriage or even dare publicly disagree with the pro-homo lobby. And most keep their mouth shut so as not to lose their job or get bypassed for promotions. Sure there are some who heroically stand up for what they believe, but to many putting food on the table, paying the rent and buying clothes for the kids are the top priorities. It's human nature.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Michnik was very much a public figure as an activist of KOR and an MP. He became editor under false pretences, because Wałęsa appoitned him to edit the official Soldiarty daily Gazeta Wyborcza. But wily Adam soon turned it into the KOR-ite Courier mainly supporitve of his own cronies with similar post-stalinist roots. The paper had strayed so far from it was supposed to be that Wałęsa had to withdraw its right to use the Solidarity kogo on the front page. But by then he had turned the paper into a publishing corporation Agora run by his ethnic cronies and started introducing seductive supplements, gadgets, contests, how-to inserts and gifts which an unsuspecting post-communist public could not resist. With that headstart and preferential initial bankrolling, no other paper could compete. You expats can read about this if you want, but I was actually there and covering all this as it occurred.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

No, only a low opinion of the scam & crony party -- PO. Voters are only human and can therefore err like when they vote for the oldboy-scam artist menagerie.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

He bears responsibility only for being soft on communism probably due to the friends of the family he was raised among, He was buddy-buddy with the Polish Goebbels -- fellow-Jew Jerzy Urban and he called Soviet puppets Jaruzelski and Kiszczak "men of honour". He also badmouthed the first Polish officer in NATO, Col. Kukliński. That is all he's repsonsible for. Why he thinks the way he does, we can only speculate that it resutled from the milieu he grew up in, but only his shrink knows for sure. He was in thick with the KOR-ites who did not want to overthrow communism, only reform it. Only after they saw that Solidarity and the pro-independence opposition wanted no part of socialism in any size, shape or form, did they see the writing on the wall. The hypocrisy of the KOR-ties was that they got to power behind the protective cassock of the Church which lent them its premises for meetings, lectures, laternative education and clandestine printing as well as providing food, clothing and shelter when they were being hunted by the SB. But was soon as they got to power they showed their true colours and began badmouthing the Church -- literally the hand that had fed them.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Even if that is true, what does that have to do with anything? Michnik bears no responsibility for the red slime of his loved ones, but it has made him soft on commies. If that holds for Michnik, then it also holds for Kaczyński who has never been soft on commies. Where's the problem? If the Rajmund business were true, the PO hate factory would have trumpeted it loud and clear from the rooftops. Since they haven't, the materials looks suspect and tabloidised. And we can expect to see them promoted mainly by the likes of the PF's mainly expat Pole-bashers.
Polonius3   
16 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

There is no collective guilt. The son of Hans>Frank (Nazi governor fo Poland) has spent his life revealing and discrediting his father's misdeeds, but there is no law compelling anyone to do so. Michnik comes from an especially unsavoury background -- father a leading member of Stalin's Comintern, mother a textbook author sovietising Polish schoolchildren in post-war Poland, and brother a desktop murderer- a stalinist prosecutor with blood on his hands, now a fugitive from justice hiding in Sweden. Michnik chose not be be another son of Hans Frank and has never been known to issue blanket condemnation of his stalinsit family. But he was raised in that climate, friends of the family were all former stalinists. None of this can legally prrevent him participating in free Poland's politicaa life, but it si good to know these facts. They explain why he is soft on communsits and buddy-buddy wth Jaruzelski and Kiszczak and down on Kukliński. And his nationalitsy explains why he thinks Hitlerr was worse than Stalin. Most ethnic Poles either beleive both were equally evil or even that the USSR was worse than the Thrid Reich.

Pole-basher and snitch all in one?
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

The problem is the amount of time that has elapsed. That's another offence of the Magdalenka conspiracy: You take the poltiical power - the commies told Solidarity-led oppositon, and we (the commies) take the loot. In that way the regime holdovers wormed their way into the economy, privatisation system and govt administration at different levels. Lustration was half-heated to say the least and many regimists made it through the cracks into the police, military and special services. They have become so embedded that they are now difficult to dislodge, and therein lies the problem. Considering that the ex-commies twice had a government and twice a commie president, it'd be difficult now to hold them to account. It's something like prosecuting Kiszczak -- he deserves to be and yet his age and infirmity makes this also a humanitarian issue.

I believe when PiS returns to power the most they can do is prosecute PO-era scams and prevent new ones emerging.
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
History / Are there still communists in Poland? [58]

Because behind all the cleverly phrased slogans the III RP and its ruling camp has mainly become a cover for old post-commie and new capitalist corruption of every kind. The reason PO and SLD mobilised all their forces in 2007 to defeat PiS because PiS's main objective was to expose and sweep away the dirt, the scam artists who had feathered their nests and hidden behind a mask of respectabiltiy since Magdalenka. That the powers that be could not allow.
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

A president who continues to support the oldboy crook & scam clique is hardly an encticing proposition. Suddenly signing things that had been shelved for months. pulling 100,000 youth jobs out of a hat, going about with a female prompter to tell him what to say to crowds -- that is hardly a head of state anyone would want around much longer. Fresh blood is needed. The PO has gone stale and is now only concerned about keeping its fatcats in power. The high-sounding rhetoric is only window dressing. They're quite good at that! But they can start packing their bags, because the autumn Sejm election will put an end to their 8-year monopoly. PiS in coalition with the Kukiz grouping may well have a constitutional majority that will keep the Tuskites and Millerites from causing any more damage. All those with things on their conscience should tremble as the Fifth RP approaches!
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

if President Komorowski wins,

...if President Komorowski wins he'll continue rubber-stamping PO ploys like raising retirement age, increasing VAT, bulgralising OFE (Open Retiremetn Fund), etc., etc.
An oppositon president woudl keep the anti-Polish legislative madness in check.
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
Life / Is this your Polish mamusia (mum)? [4]

Found this on the web and thought I'd share it with you. Does this reflect yoiur own experience and observation?
1.
A normal mom will let you eat frozen foods on occasion.
A Polish mom will spend time cooking naleśniki, gołąbki, bigosz, fasolówkę and biały barszcz or żurek.

2.
A normal mom will compliment you on your outfit.
A Polish mom will tell you everything that is wrong with it, and only when you change or cover up the offending item, will she say, "A tak dobrze wyglądasz."

matadornetwork.com/life/17-differences-normal-mom-polish-mom/
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
Life / Little-known facts about Poland [45]

The commies also claimed that unlike the capitalist West, they had the true democracy because everyone had "the right to work" -- no unemployment. In the States that's called featherbedding: 3-4 people assigned to do work that 1 person could easily accomplish.
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

You could count on the fingers of thsoe hand Ameircans visiutng in Polish elections with no knowledge of Polish. Despite living in Poland sicne the war their Polish is better than that of most PF expats. It is the Polish émigré and at times his Polish-speaking offspring that feel committed enough to the Polish cause to vote. Unless one lives near the NY, Chcago or LA Polish consulate, voting is not that easy and requries added effort. Those Poles who bother to vote despite the hassle should be commended and admired, not badmouthed. Unforutnely, the latter seems to be an expat speciality.

Because Polish law extends them that right. When your Bejgowski-turned-Grodzkas, Senyszyns, Palikots, Biedrońs and a few other "progressives" get into power, they can try to change it. That, of course, will never happen. Bogu niech będą dzięki!
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
Life / Little-known facts about Poland [45]

Why all the mystery? If you know of an older constitution in the south of Europe, why not name it. San Marino, Vatican, Macedonia or whatever? Why all the p*ssy-foting?

This isn't about Americans but it was compiled FOR Americans, hence it relates to their familar frame of reference.
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

To disenfranchise means to deprive of the right to vote. Your Oxford or Webster will clue you in. It's not like a KFC or Burger King franchise in case you didn't know.
Polonius3   
15 May 2015
History / Chance of Lwów once again became coming part of Poland [344]

Under Austrian occupation only from the late 18th century till 1918. But Lwów has always been a major Polish cultural centre, a pearl of Polish literature, music, architecture and beaux arts regardless of what alien force was occupying it.
Polonius3   
14 May 2015
History / Chance of Lwów once again became coming part of Poland [344]

In love and politics everything is possible. In a state of conflict nothing can be ruled out a priori. There could be a situation where Russia has annexed not only Donbas but also chunks of central Ukraine and the Ukrainian autorites turn to Poland for assistance. They themselves might offer Poland the return of Lwów in compensation if they thought Moscow was bent on absorbing all of Ukraine. Not very probable, but it or some other scenario now difficutl to imagine canot be ruled out entirely.
Polonius3   
14 May 2015
News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

But they do contribute. They send $$$$, they invite Polish relatives to the USA for visits, cultural immersion, travel, studies, etc. Life is not always as simple as you'd like to make out. The post-war political émigrés could not return to a Soviet-ruled Poland. The fact that not only they but many of their kids, although born in the US, still identify with their Polish roots, is a feather in Poland's cap. Every diaspora is an asset, not a liability. Those who feel strongly enough about it and want to vote, should be able to. The post-Solidarity emigration also votes in Polish elections. Since they left for America, many put down roots there, married, set up families. It's not always easy to pull up everything and return permanently. But they usually visit Poland often, send their kids for summer holidays with relatives to keep up the language and are active in PolAM organisations. Should such people be disenfranchised as some frustrated expats would like? Hell, the EU allows foreigners from EU countries (many of them birds of passage) to vote in local-council elections. Maybe that privilege should also be rescinded.