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

@Spike,
Frankly speaking, neither "offer" sounds that great. One is merely the evil of the two lessers:-)
Germany can never live down her role in both the instigation of two world wars within a space of just twenty years of each other, as well as the near systematic annihilation of a people from within their very midst. The latter is something which cannot be squared, either with one's own conscience (something of which Hitler and the Nazis roundly disapproved!) or especially, The Almighty, I don't care how fine their engineering, scientific accomplishments, proverbial cleanliness, or great contributions to the arts.

Because a people are cultured, doesn't have to mean they are necessarily enlightened.
Read a history some years back entitled "Dark Continent", and, ahemmm, they weren't talking about Africa, folks.

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

Did your wife stuff your family members and friends into an oven, turn on the gas and waive bye-bye, to guffaws of laughter in the process??!

Boy, that must be some marriageLOL

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

Considering what happened, Rich, too much is never enough. Tough to compensate a people by saying in essence, "Hey, we're sorry my relatives blew your whole family away, but maybe we can offer you a consolation prize!"

Kinda makes ya wanna barf, the pure chutzpah of it all.

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

Germany is with assurance begrudgingly "admired" by both friend and foe alike! Israel does business with her (heck, her distinctive siren alarms can be heard

throughout all her major cities), Barenboim even broke the so-called anti-Wagner law which for decades until the 2000's banned his music....

The country you love to hate has made good, entering into a sort of Fourth Reich, a nation which lost the war, but won the peace.

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

True enough, Delph!

As the German-speaking world for centuries was bound solely by her German mother tongue, Poland for nearly the same length of time always sought, indeed found, unconditional refuge in her Catholic faith.

Poles may joke about plenty both in public, even in private, Catholic dogma though is still strictly OFF LIMITS, especially to foreigners:-)

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

@NoTo Foreigners,

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Without German industrial grit, ingenuity, and sheer, raw strength of will, all the Marshall Plan money would have yielded squat!

No, face facts, the Germans triumphed economically, and we know it!

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

Germany remains truly THE NO 1 post-war comeback success story. Yet the rest of the world hasn't forgotten the terrible price of that success, nor should she ever!

Much pain and suffering went into the prosperity assured every German citizen after the Zero Hour, when a country was physically and psychologically was brought to her knees as probably no other since the sacking of Rome. And such was not without some justification, although we all realize in hindsight that the sweetness of revenge quickly sours when the consequences have been fully taken in. I am probably as moved to tears by the allied footage of the liberated Camps as I am by those appalling

scenes of ordinary Germans eating from garbage bins and realizing that their whole world has practically be reduced to rubble.

History always carries a warning.

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

As I've been saying all along,a certain degree of national pride is healthy, in so far as it doesn't degenerate into empty jingoism!

The Third Reich for Germany, occupied collaborators for other countries, is for sure a source of bruising shame, as well it should be, no question.

The issue is to what extent are the sins of the parents eternally visited upon their children. Germany has a long shadow to jump over.What country doesn't?

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

You're right, Bratwurst Boy.

However, you also know the (not so) old saying: "Vom Volke der Dichter und Denker zum Volke der Richter und Henker" - From the nation of poets and thinkers,

to a nation of snitches and stinkers....freely translated by yours trulyLOL

My take on new-found German pride is mannifold. As a Jew, proud of his German heritage, one certainly can, indeed should, revel, if not bask, in the achievements

of Germany. They're a lot more than just bratwurst and beer at Oktoberfest every September, they're also deeper than merely fast cars and gleaming, teaming industrial

glass-and-steel mega structures, such as adorns Frankfurt am Main.

Regettably, as with the US, rarely do Germans of today sing the much deserved praises to their greatest voices, such as Goethe, Schiller, Fontane, Heine, Beethoven,

Duerer, Cranach, Kepler......, but instead solely to post-war material successes. Here at home, what do Americans do on Walt Whitman's birthday??!
Damned if I know. Most never even heard of the dude.LOL

As far as Germany preserving her "Germanness" as compared with similar posturings in contemporary Poland, I don't think modern Poles have the same sense of

latent shame as the Germans. "Polishness" is more a state of mind, rather than a reflection of economic accomplishments, of which, incidentally, there are many. Ever heard of the "Comeback City on the Vistula"? For generations, roughly from around '45 up through the end of the '80's, Germany had her nose rubbed royally in the Third Reich, 'till

it was comin' out of their ears, making the vast number of average folks out there sick and tired of hearing about the whole sordid business.

Pride is good, so long as it's tempered by reason:-)

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

Your pride with surely go before your fall, sir!
:-)

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

And it's Britain which needs those imports....desperately.

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

Easy for you to say as a Brit!

The actuality though may not match the idealism. Remember, where does much of Britain's food and resources come from? The Continent!
Things aren't as black-and-white as you make them appear.

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

Britain may well be the resilient nation of Churchill and "There'll Always Be An England And England Shall Be Free", but smack up against cold reality, the UK NEEDS the EU, there's no two ways about it. No single country at any time in history could go it entirely alone!

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

What's perverted, pray, about tolerance, Rich? Did I honestly miss something in your post or was I seeing things? Please straighten me out here!

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

Still, BREXIT was rather short-sighted and thought up precipitously, without figuring the long-term consequences.

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

@Bratwurst Boy, I never killed a Native American, nor did my family ever own slaves (even a housekeeper until the late '70s). Yet, as a thinking, enlightened American, I too am keenly aware of my nation's past and behave accordingly when in the presence of Native Americans or African-Americans!

Although this scarcely means I'm on tenterhooks twenty-four seven whenever I'm around the latter, it does mean however a heightened awareness and
a tendency to eschew racially-charged humor which in fact puts the other person down.

Germans today fall into several categories: the Merkelites who cringe if anyone as much as mentions that they're Jewish, the Holocaust etc., making extra

nice with embarrassed, s***t-eating grins and nervous gestures, looking extra ridiculous in the process. Then there are the "older generation" who went through the war or are now the former " '68'ers", facing the music, and not afraid to debate endlessly the reasons for Hitler 'till you puke. And finally, there are people such as yourselves, unabashedly, unashamedly German simply for being German's sake!

The generation of "We're the people of poets and thinkers.." is basically dead in the water.

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

PC in Poland, most likely is less fine-tuned than here in the States, or in Germany for that matter. I've gleaned this from reading Polish journals from Poland daily, such as "Rzeczpospolita", "Gazeta Wyborcza" and other such papers of the educated set.

Anybody can point fingers of partisanism, but they reflect a liberal mind.

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

@Bratwurst Boy,

Fine and well that you're apparently "happy to be German", only in as far as such happiness continues to be filtered through a critical lense!

As with any nation, the US included, history let's NOBODY off the hook of culpability:-)

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

BREXIT has already threatened the UK with rations and food shortages, since much of the Island's foodstuffs are imports from the Continent.
Nobody could have foreseen what was going to happen, scaring Britons by making them think their food supply and vital medicines will run out??

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

You're an original, Bratwurst Boy:-)

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

Yes, it's a tough call, I'll grant you.

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

This might have a double meaning here:-)

To be special = to be unique in greatness
To be special = to be slightly odd (..but expressed in a euphemistic way)

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

One usually though thinks of Germany historically as a country which praised strength and authority, seeing kindness and the like as "weakness"!
Times sure have changed:-)

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

Humans usually walk the path of least resistance. The Bible sadly offers no quick fixes to such a question!

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

Bingo, which begs the question as to why those special interested groups were protected in the first place!

In the case of African-Americans or other minorities seen as a threat, it was fear of riots, I suspect.

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

Takin' the easy way out as usual, Rich ol' man! You and that little guy with the mustache ought to have teamed up, you couldn't lose:-)

Christ's eternal lesson for all of us was that it's when times are BAD that his teachings are most invaluable! It's a cinch to be loving when things are going great guns, but it's during the hard times that the meaning of "Love Thy Neighbor" is most significant, even it "love" really should be replaced by "respect"!!

This is what supposedly distinguishes out country from that of many others throughout history.

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

Political correctness doubtless exists everywhere nowadays, including Poland.

Originally, it started with euphemisms such as "physically challenged" for "crippled", or "vertically challenged" for "short of stature" etc...
The road to hell was paved with good intentions as well:-)

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

Hate is a cancer that destroys the spirit and the soul of man.

Try focusing on what Jesus said, "Hate the sin, but not the sinner."

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

I can tell ya one thing, buddy boy! Hate the offenders as we all do, I sure don't lump 'em all into one basket.

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

"Latino scum" is merely venting, Rich. You can do a lot better than that, I'm sure!