News / Three Poles beaten in front of family. The supects are American soldiers [36]

Yes, as much as I don't like what they did, they are my countrymen and I'm not going to pretend they're not, since I'm not a paid Russian troll who displays profound misunderstanding of Polish and American culture.

Law / Need help about Poland's partner visa for LGBT [45]

In English (American English especially?) a sexual meaning applied to a word drives out other meanings and people avoid using it in non-sexual contexts.

Lots of americans avoid formerly innocuous words like come, pussy, cock because of the sexual meanings they have acquired, do people do that in the UK? Intererstingly drug meanings don't do that so no one avoids using grass or pot or acid or horse (etc etc etc)

I don't know if that happens in Polish, do people avoid 'lody' because of its secondary sexual meaning?

Law / Need help about Poland's partner visa for LGBT [45]


Of course the word 'gay' can be used of women as well as men, didn't they teach you that in troll school?

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


No, just migrants unwilling and/or unable to assimilate to Northwestern European norms....


In other words, noticing who those in 1) are...


In the short term development increases migration rather than decreases it.

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]

Years ago a colleague who drove from Swarzędz to western Poznan several times a week described her process of adaptation: "I just expect the worst possible behavior from other drivers.... and it's what I get"

Life / Have any of you ever been to any of the Pijalnia bars in Warsaw [19]

Like many things, alcohol is fine in moderation and terrible when abused.

Again, there is a very big difference between guzzling down spiritus (or straining denaturat through old bread) and moderate social use. A fine Italian or French meal is structured so that a good quality wine complements the food. The wine makes the food taste better and the food makes the wine taste better. Beer can work in a similar way (with different foods of course).

Completely being afraid of drinking any alcohol because some people abuse it is like people who think that social dancing between unmarried people is bad because it can lead to sex.

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


The desire to integrate has to come from the arrivals, without that no programs can work, with it, no programs are necessary....


You do realize that sub-saharan Africa is forecast to undergo a massive population explosion from 1 billion to 4 billion within the next 100 years or so, those trying to cross the mediterranean now are just a few drops of a coming flood....

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]


I also realized long ago (after a few terrifying long distance rides) that Polish people drive the same way they walk.


I decided long ago that there's no need for me to ever drive in Poland because my US defensive driving skills (looking around, not always going as fast as I can, yielding the right of way, paying attention to pedestrians) would make me a danger. The only way to survive would be to start driving like locals and..... no, just no. no no no no no no no no no no no...... no

And bad Polish driving has been in the news with the horrific accident in Slovakia where three Poles were driving recklessly and one of them careened head on into a local family in their car.

What's also weird in a it-would-be-funny-it-it-weren't-so-awful way is how Polish news coverage focuses on the cars (luxury models!) as if the cars were more important than the people.... and expert commentators brought in to discuss the case all have an air of "if it had been me, I totally would have been cool and avoided the accident..."

News / Three Poles beaten in front of family. The supects are American soldiers [36]


Etymology does not determine modern meaning, if it did then 'nice' would mean 'silly' as do its cognates in modern Romance languages (like necio in Spanish)

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]


Polish drivers can be pretty bad but not the worst in Europe by any means. Vehicle per vehicle Maltese drivers are awful beyond all imagining...


Neither article mentions a phenomenon I've heard about (maybe it's further south in California) of rehab clinics getting federal money for treating addicts from other places and then kick them out on the street once the federal money gives out. Drug dealers knowing a good deal when bureaucrats are setting it up for them followed to prey on this convenient group of vulnerable people with a history of weak willpower.

The bigger problem is that in real life progressives are terrible at reigning in dysfunctional behavior and in fact usually end up increasing it with their non-disciplinarian solutions.

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]


Being a negative jerk about every possible topic =/= being "real"

I'd far rather live in any city in Poland than the homeless junkie encampment currently known as San Francisco (do some research, it's a pit unless you have gazillions of dollars)

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]


For god's sake, give it up, your non-stop whining about every single thing is beyond wearysome, why don't you join rich in a b1tch fest?

Your gripes would have more impact if they came from within a general positive attitude rather than wanting to lift the roof off of Poland and move a new country underneath...

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]


A friend who visited Ireland told me it took her _forever_ to buy anything as soon as they heard her accent: "Oh and where are you from? Bumflap, Arkansas! Well my isn't that interesting! Now what brings you hear to Ireland? Let's discuss it in great detail!" She didn't mind a time or two, but the same routine X times a day got old in a hurry.

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]

There is no immigration within the European Single Market, there is the free movement of citizens, one of the. Immigration to an ESM country can only come from outside the EU. Polish people who go to Ireland are not immigrants and Germans who move to Poland are not immigrants.

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


And someone made a very wrong call when they let the sex-criminal into the country (or decided to 'tolerate' his stay|). I very much doubt this was the first blemish on a spotless record...

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


He's an idiot, pay no attention.

Dirk.... adult talk, stay away!

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


And that's the reason for AfD....

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


If it came to my children....... HELLLLLL YEAH! You touch them at your peril! Good to know you don't care much about your children.....

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Saying there are police officers everywhere doesn't help if you can't actually see any. Okay you've got an aggressive stranger trying to feel up your kid, what do you do? Start screaming (and maybe the aggressive stranger turns violent?) Let the stranger feel up your kid while you wait for a nearby police officer to come and sort things out?

Leave your kid to find a police officer (while the aggressive stranger does who knows what with your child?)

For a person with nothing at stake, there might seem to be lots of other options, for someone trying to protect their child from sexual assault.... not so much.

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]

I think people find what they expect to find. I've had my fair share of experience with rude people in stores, but... I can barely remember when the last time was. But also my attitude has changed, when I go to a store it's to buy something and not have a personal interaction with the sales staff....

Travel / So I went to Warsaw - my thoughts after visiting Poland [88]

There is no such thin as universal ideas of 'polite' or 'good-mannered'. What's polite in one culture might be rude in another. I remember once being in a cukiernia with a Polish friend and the lady behind the counter was super-polite and smiling. After we left, my friend said "She smiles too much, I don't trust her".

Politeness in Poland, means, among other things, keeping your distance from people you don't know. If you go to the same store often enough that they recognize you there is a subtle but real change in how they behave toward you.

I think some people (those from the British Isles seem especially prone to this) just have major problems in adapting to different cultural norms. It's been years since I've thought that a cashier in a store wasn't being friendly enough....

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


you let strangers molest your children while you go off in search of police who may or may not get there in time...

the wild west has its virtues....

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


Is there any reason to believe they would actually do something? Someone tries to diddle my kid they get a beatdown first and questions after....

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


Which immigrants are those? Technically there's no immigration within the EU, just the free movement of people.

Is this a case of the government massaging the numbers for propaganda purposes?

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


The German taxpayer was told to pay for bad investment decisions by private German financiers... of course they blamed that on the Greeks.

And the Euro is fatally flawed with no common fiscal union and/or transfers.... there was no reason to let Greece in the first place (or Spain or Italy for that matter) and the decision should be made to cut them all free softening the short term consequences as much as possible. The Euro is not a currency it's a debt creation scheme.

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


Because they are a supposed ally of Germany which has treated them like a defeated enemy? Two elections in a row had their results put aside in favor of Germany. So... that's why.

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


Yes, countries on the continent are mostly pro-eU. But... even so, do they want Merkel and her policies to take precedence over their own? In their hour of need do they want to be treated the way she treated Greece? At a moment of crisis do they want her making decisions for them?

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


I don't blame it on her or anyone (since I don't think blame is the appropriate response). But neither she nor her vision of Europe appeals to many people beyond those making a living in Brussels and maybe? some Germans? It's hard to look at her actions in 2015 beating Greece into eternal debt servitude (treating it essentially as a defeated enemy) and then slobbering over a bunch of random non-refugees from Morocco to Bangladesh (treating them as a essential to Germany's future) and see much appealing there (except for ideologues who agree with her).

The leave campaign was based on emotional arguments that British people feel/felt about the UK. You don't beat emotional arguments by chirpling about economics (esp when most people assume that said policy will only benefit financial scamsters and bankers). You beat them by more resonant emotional arguments and for the remain campaign fell short and was essentially pathetic.

The UK public was never crazy about the EU and the EU should recognize that and try to remain friendly relations as it gravitates to a Norwegianish or Swiss kind of status.

News / Poland's PIS party and the UK Tories [25]

You're not the person I expected to put forth a stirring defense of Viktor Orban, but.... politics makes strange bedfellows....

The model shouldn't be England or Spain, but maybe more Scandinavia and its very low key monarchs...

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


Your vindictiveness is a bit puzzling, why is it so important for countries to stay (or to punish them if they don't want to?)

And the harder the Brexit the more other countries are wonder if they want to stay at the tender mercies of the petty Brussels bureaucrats or make a break for it, even if it hurts a bit in the short run...

The EU should be a matter of free association and not a ball and chain!