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Posts by delphiandomine  

Joined: 25 Nov 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - Q		 Last Post: 17 Feb 2021
Threads: Total: 86 / In This Archive: 69
Posts: Total: 17813 / In This Archive: 12419 		From: Poznań, Poland
Speaks Polish?: Yeah.
Interests: law, business

Displayed posts: 12488 / page 370 of 417
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delphiandomine   
9 Sep 2010
News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]

THEY saw the true position of the plane in relation to the ground, not the pilots who were gauging it from the canyons.

We don't know this - because we don't know what equipment was installed at Smolensk-North. There are some educated guesses based on what's actually visible, but no-one has confirmed anything for certain.

Also - timewise - think of it like this. They were cleared to 100m, but in reality, were only cleared to 120m or so (due to the rules surrounding the operation of the Tupolev). The ATC guy doesn't know or care about the Tupolev rules - all he knows or cares about is that the plane shouldn't go below 100m without permission. So - the plane goes below 100m. By the time the radar updates, the plane will already be below 100m - and by the time the ATC guy realises what's going on, he issues the Horizon command - which is consistent with the plane already being too low to recover due to the well-documented inability of the Tupolev to pull up without losing height.

In fog and in the absence of proper equipment, they had to be guided in.

One thing to bear in mind is that they were guided to 100m and no more.

Also, please explain to me this shortcoming as military airports must be better equipped than civil airports like Okięcie. A simple radar reading was needed and for the Russian ATC to stay on the ball and alert.

Smolensk-North officially is/was all but decommissioned. It's highly unlikely (not least due to the lack of ground equipment) that there was much in the "tower" - why would the Russians bother to keep it equipped when it was decommissioned? Still - we have to wait to see what the Poles say about the equipment installed there.

I keep telling you, they didn't stick to the rules as they were being read incorrect info. A 50-metre difference between the canyon base they were going over and the ground level is material, wouldn't you say?

That's why they should have been using the barometric altimeter and not the radar altimeter. But either way - no matter what altimeter they were using, it still doesn't explain why they went below 100m. Even 100m above the canyon base would have been enough to survive - the real, crucial question is "why did the Captain appear not to react to hearing 90m called out?".
delphiandomine   
9 Sep 2010
News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]

You mean to tell me the fact the Russians have not given back the black boxes (just their transcript version of what was said) and that the Russian airtower personnel all of a sudden resigned never to be heard from again and that other pilots find inconsistencies with those Russian transcripts like the length of time, mysterious 16 seconds missing, etc doesn't at least make you think there is at least a CHANCE of something is fishy here?

As a true Polish patriot, I choose to believe that the Polish investigators will reveal the truth.

The fact that you choose to believe conspiracy theories above the work of Polish patriots - who have sworn to uncover the truth, whatever that truth may be - makes you nothing less than a traitor.

Tell you what MediaWatch - why does Poland need the black boxes? The investigators, to our knowledge, haven't asked for them back. The only people asking for them back aren't connected with the investigation - why is that?

Tell me honestly, hand on heart, do you really believe that the jary (canyons) had nothing to do with it? The Russian ATC must have known that the readings from the land were different from those to the canyons. The crew were under the impression that they were a certain altitude from the ground but they were actually a certain altitude from the canyons which were significantly lower.

We still don't know (the Polish investigators, nor MAK, have said anything) about what was actually installed at Smolensk-North. There's a good chance that they were using very, very rudimentary radar - which by the time they realised that the plane was below 100m, it was too late. From the time transcripts, it looks very much like they had a matter of seconds to get out of trouble - not enough for ATC to step in as well (as it wouldn't have been immediately obvious).

The canyons certainly had something to do with it - but it doesn't explain why they went below minimums for the TU-154M. If they had stuck to the rules, the plane wouldn't have crashed - rather simple, I'd say.

The thing that I keep saying - they flew the flight fine up until the last 15 seconds or so. Well, apart from attempting a landing after being told that Smolensk-North couldn't accept them.
delphiandomine   
9 Sep 2010
News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]

dam fine piece of flying..these guys are heroes....!

Bloody excellent piece of flying, I think :)

New news. They are going to run a simulation of the Smoleńsk incident. It shouldn't have been so hard for him to land it and they are gonna draw some conclusions from the simulation.

It'll be interesting to see what they conclude from it - they should be able to replicate the exact conditions (and information given) - but I suspect that we'll still be left with one huge question mark - why did the pilot go below minimums?
delphiandomine   
8 Sep 2010
Genealogy / Polish nationality? Which of the following (if any) determine being Polish. [231]

but if your great grandfather was from Poland than you can consider yourself part polish, if 2 were from Poland than you are Polish.

But they weren't from Poland. Most Polish-Americans really, really struggle to grasp this - there was no Poland for them to have been from!

Saying you must have been born there and speak the language is offensive, especially to me since one of my great grandfathers came here from German owned Poland, and the other had to flee Russian owned Poland after he was drafted into the Russian army, and had to change his name and hide in America.

And what stopped him teaching the language to his children, and to their children, and so on? To me - you can't claim to be Polish if you don't speak the language. It's really that simple - how can you claim to be part of a nation if you can't even understand how that nation thinks? The Polish language has such a big influence on Polish behaviour - and anyone proclaiming themselves as Polish should be able to understand the thought processes that people have.

Ultimately, to be Polish, you need, at the very least, to be a citizen and be able to speak the language. I wonder how many Polish-Americans would serve the Polish state in a time of need? Not many, I bet.
delphiandomine   
7 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

So are the millions of 4th and 5th generation Irish Americans weak for identifying closely with their tribe by celebrating their Irish heritage? To the point where they feel the need to make the river of a major American city green?

Don't get me started on that lot, they're just as bad as the Polonia, if not worse. They "identify" with their "heritage" by getting absolutely blind drunk on St Patrick's day - yet none of them would be able to tell you what St Patrick did with the snakes!

If they were really "Irish", they would be able to speak the language to at least conversational level. Then again, I wonder how many of them know if they were from behind or beyond the Pale?

You are missing a point here, its about human feelings and self-identification - its personal and fragile matter :)

The truth is that many of the Polonia, as well as the others would drop the "Polish" label in an instant if it suited them. Why is it that many of them only discovered how Polish they were in 2004? I mean, it was nothing to do with the way that it granted the right to an EU passport, was it? Course not. And let's not forget that many of them only wanted Polish citizenship once the conscription requirement was dropped - I mean, they identified so strongly with their country, yet they weren't willing to serve their time. Very...patriotic, don't you think?

At the end of the day, they're mostly Plastic Poles - proud to claim Polish ancestry, but completely unwilling to actually invest the time/energy needed to actually be Polish. They'll talk about kielbasas (completely not understanding that "kielbasa" is the Polish word for sausage) and pierogies (again, not understanding that pierogi is the plural) - but when it comes to actually *being* Polish, barely any of them will bother.

Ultimately - they might be Polish-Americans, but they're not Polish and never will be. The truth hurts, I guess :)

(and quite frankly : no self respecting Pole would want anything to do with a kielbasa waving American anyway)

Whatever happened to the ordinary Americans who were living the American dream? I like those ones...
delphiandomine   
7 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

because he has written every single one of those things.

Last time I checked, 25-30 hours a week was considered "full time" for teaching.

Apartment? Last time I checked, I pay the bills and the girlfriend pays the rent. Works out equal due to the hideously large administration charges, and is the easiest way to split it.

Business? Teaching is more lucrative than attempting to start a new business in a difficult economic environment. It's sound economic sense to stick with something tried and tested - I'll probably restart it in good time, but right now, I'm much more involved with teaching - so the business is on the shelf.

He is not a native speaker of English which means that he may have Scottish blood but he wasn't born and raised there

Not a native speaker of English? Fuzzy, have you never heard of sarcasm?

In fact, there are several people on this forum who can vouch for me. Can we say the same about you? In fact - is it YOU that isn't the native speaker? You certainly have a serious complex about the whole thing. If I could be bothered, I'd point out the numerous mistakes that you've made on this forum that could potentially betray you as a non-native.

As for MediaWatch - my, my, my. Someone has Russians on the brain!
delphiandomine   
7 Sep 2010
News / Huge costs of preparing for EURO 2012 in Poland [38]

95 billion? That's 24 billion Euro - which doesn't seem like a realistic price. Anyway, if that's the quoted price, that'll include all the massive infrastructure projects such as new motorways, stations, airports, etc - stuff that benefits everyone.
delphiandomine   
7 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

At least I don't lie about living in Poland like you do.

Anyone who knows anything about Poland knows that the last election was a choice of two candidates - the Thatcherist Komorowski vs the backed-by-trade-unions Kaczynski. I wonder who was better for business? I mean...seriously.

So you think somebody like yourself who hates Poland thinks he knows more about the Polish people then me who is pro-Polish? LOL

Being Pro-Polish means that you've probably got your eyes completely closed to the reality of life here. In fact, you seem surprisingly positive for someone who is pro-Polish - probably because you've never been or lived here.

So you mean to tell me that an anti-Polish Russian Bigot like you who trashes Poles and Poland on a steady basis knows more about Poland then somebody of Polish ancestry like me?

Because unlike you, I actually live and work here. You on the other hand are just another kielbasa waving plastic Pole - someone who goes on and on about being Polish, yet knows nothing about the country and hasn't ever visited.

You read it in your Russian newspapers.

Uh...I wouldn't call Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita "Russian" newspapers. Then again, you wouldn't know - you can't read Polish.

But of course an undercover Russian like yourself who pretends to be a Pole who has called Poles, Poland, Polish Americans deragatory names is more endeared by Poles in Poland then Polonia LOL!

Uh, I've never pretended to be Polish. If I did, I wouldn't earn as much money ;)

Anyway, I only insult Polish-Americans, mainly because they're Americans and not Polish at all.

The only reason why you are on the Polish forum is to monitor what Poles say about your Russia.

You honestly think that Russia cares about Poland that much? Come on, Poland is nothing but a poor EU country of little interest to Russia - about her only interest here is in energy. Then again, Plastic Poles don't understand this ;)

I do know Polish its just nowhere as good as my English.

Really? I live here - you don't. I doubt that your Polish is any good - especially if you use terms like "Busha" - LOL.

So who was the Scottish guy coming over for PolishForums meetings in Poznań? :D

I'm wondering why my driving licence says "place of birth : Aberdeen" ;) I'm starting to get a complex though - first Asian, now Russian - what next, German?

It's amusing - the Polonia seem to be far more patriotic and sentimental than the Polish themselves. Probably because if they actually lived here and saw the desperation and social divide for themselves, they'd kill themselves ;)
delphiandomine   
6 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

I don't understand your attitude toward voters which have chosen other party than you, must be european thing.:)

When you see what the Kaczynski twins stand for, you'll understand.

I would say that you aren't nice!

Yes, I am. :)
delphiandomine   
6 Sep 2010
Genealogy / Polish nationality? Which of the following (if any) determine being Polish. [231]

What traditions, values, history etc.??

Traditions? Plenty of them - the pledge of allegiance every morning being the most notable one in my view, but there are plenty of others.

Values? Well, American values are one in which hard work is rewarded. In fact, the very essence of America is hard work.

History? Well, right back to Colonial times, then an interesting civil war, an interesting history in terms of expansion (how Alaska was purchased, for instance) and even their role nowadays as a superpower.
delphiandomine   
6 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

Close? Not at all. Komorowski won by a decent margin.

And yes, I'm prejudiced against people who religiously vote for a small minded, egotistical maniac who has absolutely no shame in using the death of his dead brother for political purposes. And the same man is also condoning the use of the cross for blasphemous purposes - are you surprised that I think their voters are idiots?
delphiandomine   
6 Sep 2010
Genealogy / Polish nationality? Which of the following (if any) determine being Polish. [231]

Americans are especially guilty of this.

The worst thing is that I'd say that being American is something to be proud of. I cannot understand why they so desperately want to be something else - what's wrong with being from a strong, proud country with proud traditions and a fairly interesting history, along with a huge amount of diversity?
delphiandomine   
6 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

What a bunch of baloney.

What do you know about Poland? That's right - nothing. You didn't even know about which candidate was better for business in Poland during the recent election!

If my Polish family in Poland saw all the crap you write they would say you're nothing more then an anti-Polish Bigot troublemaker trying to divide Poles and Polish Americans.

Polish-Americans did a pretty good job of that themselves during the recent election. It was actually quite widely mentioned here that the Polish-Americans had gone against the rest of the world (including Poland) when it came to the election.

Anyway, most Poles don't regard the Polonia as being Polish. Waving a kielbasa around, talking about Busha's pierogies (the fact that they use the word "pierogies" says it all!) and so on doesn't really endear them to most ordinary Poles.

You have virtually nothing good to say about anybody of Polish ancestry but you are VERY QUICK to find fault and criticize Poles which says a lot about you.

I have no time for those who go on about being Polish when they -

a) don't speak the language
b) visit for, at best, two weeks every few years
c) complain about the country without living in it

As for ordinary Poles living in Europe, Asia or elsewhere, they're mostly fine. The younger ones in Belarus/Ukraine are a bit strange and not really Polish at all, but the rest are fine. Then again, what would you know, yankee?

Any fair minded Pole that read ALL your rants about Polish Americans AND Poles would think you are the LAST person to past judgement on anything pertaining to Poland or Poles.

How many real Polish people do you know? You know, ones who actually live and work in Poland?

Just admit it. You are a Russian who is on this forum to "monitor" anything anybody says about your Russia.

So, what's it like sleeping under the stairs with your tinfoil hat on?

Just admit your ancestry. At least half the people on this forum are not of Polish ancestry. We have other people on this forum who are honest about who they are and have no problem saying that they are Russian, Serbian, German, English, Scottish, etc, so why don't you just admit you're Russian. Aren't you proud of your Russian heritage?

I wish I had some Russian ancestry, it would be nice to be something other than a plain cabbage Scot :(
delphiandomine   
6 Sep 2010
Genealogy / Polish nationality? Which of the following (if any) determine being Polish. [231]

As per the 2nd generation they're not Poles anymore, they are Americans. Americans of Polish anchestry, but that's the only thing Polish they have.

Exactly.

I know someone who was born to a Dutch father and Belgian mother. She's Belgian. She even grew up 5 minutes away from The Netherlands, but she regards herself as Flemish and Belgian, not Dutch.

To me, the whole thing is just idiotic snobbery. No wonder "Polack" is an offensive term in the USA, but completely inoffensive in Europe.
delphiandomine   
5 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

Interesting. According to poznan.pl poles costituted about 57% of all inhabitamts of Poznan in 1918. There was also this economical rivalry betwen Poles and Germans prior to WWI that we are being taught in school, that apparently Poles won... Could you expand more on this subject. All educational systems use propaganda and i want to know whether I am in a wrong or not.

I can only go on the evidence from historical pictures - there seems to be little to no trace of Polish businesses at that time. If there was an economical rivalry, why is the old town at the time of 1900-1910ish covered in "German" businesses? Although - I suppose it's possible that Poles adopted "Germanic" identities at the time.
delphiandomine   
5 Sep 2010
Genealogy / Polish nationality? Which of the following (if any) determine being Polish. [231]

Well, you might find yourself in a jam in one of the bars in Hamtramck, MI, Buffalo, NY, Parma, OH, Brooklyn's Greenpoint or one of Chicago's Polish sections if you told someone he wasn't Polish because he didn't know the lingo. Them would be fighting words to many 3rd, 4th and 5th generation PolAms, especially after a few rounds of boiler-makers (shot & a beer).

Sounds like to me the kind of people that mostly emigrated to America - uneducated peasants with little knowledge apart from how to use their hands. The ones with brains stayed and built the 2nd Republic - the ones with nothing but brawn left. Fits right in with the way that many of them came from the very poor Eastern (formerly Russian) territory.

Anyway, they sound like redneck Americans to me - not Poles. For what it's worth, someone of the 4th or 5th generation who can't speak Polish, who has never been to Poland and who knows nothing about what it's like to be Polish cannot be Polish - it's that simple.

Why?Isn't enough if your ancestors were polish?

Nope. If you want to talk about bloodline, it should be pure and uncontaminated by "other" blood - otherwise you can't claim to be Polish based on blood alone. What is Polish blood anyway? As someone said on here - many great Poles were arguably not Polish at all if you want to use blood as the sole factor. Look at Mickiewicz - he was descended from Lithuanian, not Polish nobility.
delphiandomine   
5 Sep 2010
Genealogy / Polish nationality? Which of the following (if any) determine being Polish. [231]

-- blood (genetics, DNA)

Blood is tricky - there is no such thing as "Polish" genetics or DNA due to centuries of mixing.

-- place of birth and/or habitaiton

Without a doubt. Someone who was born in America and lived there his entire life isn't Polish, no matter what he says. Look at the Poles in Ukraine/Belarus - many people living in Poland simply don't regard them as being Polish, and many of them cannot speak Polish fluently. I've seen first hand evidence of this - many of the younger ones speak a very broken Polish.

-- culture, religion and/or language

Culture? No. Anyone can embrace a different culture and still not be part of it. Religion? No. Language? Yes - you cannot be Polish if you can't speak the language. Language is so essential to understand the subtleties of a country - and if you can't communicate with them, how can you be one of them?

-- personal preference/declaration

Not a chance in hell.

If you ask me, being Polish is to live in Poland, to experience Polish life as it's lived by locals, to fully integrate with the society, to speak the language perfectly AND to life here long enough so that you become one of "them". And really, you have to be born here to have a chance of getting it.
delphiandomine   
5 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

that is probably the case and there nothing one can do about it since there are many Poles living in Poland who can be described the same way, they are out of touch for different reasons: lack of interest, too busy working and caring for families, tired of the confusing and complicated Polish politics and bickering and so on.

That's the thing - people here are relatively ignorant about what's going on - what hope does someone in America, who doesn't speak Polish, have of understanding what's going on?

It depends on the group, some read Polish papers and the one I know in Canada are right wings and don't provide an objective view on the Polish politics, some (who probably don't read Polish) would resort to English Polish news- I am not sure how many of those there are, but not to many.

There are some sources - but the problem is that many of these English speakers base their opinion on Poland on what they read in the English press - which usually labels (completely wrongly) Kaczynski as a conservative and Komorowski as a liberal. Heck, some of them online seem to believe that Kaczynski stands up for Poland - forgetting that his own brother signed the Lisbon treaty!

It does tell me thing or two but only about you:) Your criteria of evaluating people according to their political choices is "nice" but tricky - lack of objectivity.

Well, it's only what was seen in Poland as a whole - PiS voters are older, less educated and rural while PO voters are younger, more educated and live in cities. Unless of course, the American Polonia are so far removed from Poland that they don't actually mirror what's going on here anymore.

To be fair, my problem with the American Polonia is simply that many of the 3rd generation go on about being Polish, yet none of them speak the language, nor do they know much/anything about Poland itself. Heck, this thread alone proves that many of them know little to nothing about the history of the country, as well as the way that it's virtually impossible to state with confidence that you are in fact 100% TRUE POLISH.
delphiandomine   
5 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

It's a very interesting statistic though - either the American Polonia are out of touch with what's happening in Poland (very likely) or they're uneducated. I suspect it's a lot to do with the fact that they read about Poland in the English language press - the English press in general being absolutely unable to describe Polish politics!
delphiandomine   
5 Sep 2010
USA, Canada / PolAms -- do you regard yourselves only as 'white Americans'? [187]

The fact that North America was the only place where Jaroslaw Kaczynski won should tell you a thing or two ;)

(Actually, if we look at the election results, Jarek clearly won with the uneducated part of society, whereas Komorowski won with the educated side. What does that say about the American Polonia?)
delphiandomine   
5 Sep 2010
History / Today is the 1st of September (WWII start in Poland) [138]

Their airforce and navy wouldn't had stopped them from being blockaded into surrender... Destruction wasn't necessary...isolation would had done the trick!

I think Hitler wasn't going to make the same mistake twice in regards to blockades - the blockade was what took American into WW1 and he may not have wanted to provoke the Americans further in doing so.