UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

So.... it will be exiled to the bitter pale where pariah nations like Norway and Switzerland reside? Unable to trade with the EU? Attracting no capital?

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

The thing is, for the UK the EU just doesn't offer very much in return for the annoyance of know-nothing technocrats regulating everything to death and carrying Mama Merkel's milk whenever she goes off her meds and makes a rash horrible decision.

Poland still has more to gain (subsidies, unemployment tension release valve) from membership and or crazy government policies so enthusiasm is still high.

Whatever sense the EU made at some point has run out. It is an overbloated and vastly incompetent body that has reached the point where its interventions usually do more harm than good.

It's kind of a shame, but really pull the plug already. I'm not an EU hater; in its day it did more to alleviate poverty than any other international organization in history but... its day is over and something else is needed now (and the EU is not capable of producing that).

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


By this logic the public supported Martial Law since most people voted against protesting it......

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


Only because the supporters of an unpopular and incompetent government refused to believe its collapse was due to its widely recognized unpopularity and incompetence.

Rather than realize their mistake in backing a bunch of incompetent boobs they (in infantile fashion) decided it had to be a conspiracy against the "true" Polish nation and began their war to return PRL conditions to Poland (which bore fruit in 2015).

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Only in the minds of the easily confused who think there's something sinister in an unpopular and incompetent government losing a vote of no-confidence.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


I'm so glad you agree.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


Well he's got a better record than a certain JK I could name.....

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


You are digging yourself into a deep hole.....

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

I support the rule of law.

You support the rule of party leader.

That's all there is to it.

Language / Problems Polish People Have with Learning English [63]


Don't sweat it. I still can't hear the difference (unless they're exaggerated in isolation) but the good news is you don't have to hear that difference to understand everything. If you can pronounce them differently enough most of the time then that's all that's required of a non-native learner.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


I'm no more a member of KOD than I am of the PiS party.


Lemme fix 'at one for ya, pardner!

The PiS scamster govt slid its way into a general election victory thanks to their clever manipulations and bait and switch campaign (vote for young christian democrats and get a boxload of toxic, crazy old people). People are finally catching on and will probably show them the red card well before their term in office is scheduled to end. As an oppostion grouping they will continue their their old and socially poisonous tricks.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


It's sad when adults work out their trauma though their children. Poor kid has terrible parents.

Language / Problems Polish People Have with Learning English [63]


The whole problem is that it isn't natural, it's language specific (and differs in some details in various national varieties) and there's no curriculum for sentence intonation.

To maintain the myth of English as simply (and neutral and international) most of the difficult stuff is simply omitted in high school and so students get four to six years of practice fossilizing their pronunciation so that fixing it later is all but impossible.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


Don't you mean PiS? Or do you seriously believe they can deliver on even a fraction of the tax and spend promises they made to buy the votes of the gullible?

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


That is democratically elected scamster PO govt to you, bud.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


In other words, the constitution is whatever the ruling party (in the form of the party leader) says it is. Long live the glorious and correct party line, towarzyszu!

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


So the Sejm could pass a law that the TK cannot declare any laws unconstitutional and the TK would be powerless to declare that law unconstitutional?

Help me out here, I'm kind of shaky on PRL logic.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


HA HA HA HA!!!! That has GOT to be the funniest thing ever written here. A bunch of PRL wannabe's scamming low information voters is "serving the nation".

By all means, keep your comedy career going!

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


PRL thinking.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


I'm in favor of 'rule of law'. PiS is all about 'rule of party leader' aka the second coming of the PRL (in style if not always content).

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


It's called "projection". He can't imagine a reason to be in government beyond raiding the public coffers so he naturally assumes that's all anyone else wants.

News / Roman Polanski accused of unlawful sex with a minor [403]

For once I agree with you. I'll even go further. If he ever does end up in US custody I predict he'll "commit suicide" before he's able to make the chronic child sexual abusers in Hollywood uncomfortable.

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]


The English Proficiency Index is a self-reported survey run by a company hawking correspondence courses, not very credible.

News / Roman Polanski accused of unlawful sex with a minor [403]


You know I love you delph, but you're not doing yourself any favors with this. As much as I hate Ziobro I don't think it's ethnic animus.

Most likely reasons are a combination of wanting to distract the public especially low information PiS supporters and to curry favor with Washington (not realizing that the US probably really doesn't want to deal with the sexual abuse of minors in Hollywood).

News / Roman Polanski accused of unlawful sex with a minor [403]


Sexual intercourse with a person below the age of consent (even if the person 'consents') is statutory rape. The most credible evidence is that the victim did not consent (though again, she was not capable of giving legal consent).

That said, I think technically he's wanted for fleeing the country before he could be sentenced.

I can understand being against his extradition, but please don't trivialize what he did, it was truly horrific and I don't mind making him stay in France until he dies. I'm quite okay with him being persona non grata in Poland.

News / Poland directly threatened by ISIS. Do Islamists planning terrorist attacks in Poland? [390]


True the vast majority of muslims are not terrorists. But... a much, much higher percentage of terrorists are muslim than any other religion.

So, almost all muslims a person is likely to meet are not terrorists, but if a person does cross paths with a terrorist that terrorist is most likely going to be muslim.

News / Roman Polanski accused of unlawful sex with a minor [403]


I don't necessarily think he should be extradited (since the victim has said she does not want that to happen)

But I'm completely okay with him having to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life (and/or not being able to leave France - they want the filthy child rapist? they can have him! France).

Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]


In the middle east religious minorities seem to do best when under the implied or direct protection of some kind of strongman government.

As bad as the Assad dynasty is (or Saddam or Mubarak were) religious minorities were relatively safer, far safer than under more 'democratic' systems where the Sunni majority usually votes to crack down on religious minorities..

One (of many) stooopid aspects of US foreign policy is its blind insistence of elections as starting and ending points for political evolution. The democracy threshhold is very real and almost nowhere in the middle east is the population materially secure and/or well educated enough to make rational choices in the voting booth.

Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]

It has to do with a split in early Islam IIRC about who would be the ideological heir of Mohammed (and other significant differences have since accrued).

From what little I know Shi'a is a little bit more like the RC church with more a hierarchy among theologians but they also have some other beliefs (and of course there are internal divisions) Extremist Shi'a stuff can get weird with stuff like the 12th Imam but I don't know how many take it that seriously.

Wahhabism the toxic strain of political Islam behind Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State is more like fundamentalist protestantism in the southern US - they're obsessed with literal interpretations of the koran and hadith with no thought given to changing technological or social development since the time it was written.

Before the rise of Saud-funded fundamentalism relations were often okay between the divisions (and intermarriage was frequent in places with both types like Iraq) but that's over now.

Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]


Sunnism (sp?) is currently dominated by a nasty, intolerant strain of political Islam that does not think of Shi'a as 'true' muslims and harbors all but genocidal thoughts toward them.

AFAICT the Shi'a aren't nearly as intolerant toward Sunni, but politicized Sunni Islam is so far this century's communism - a failed, morally bankrupt ideology whose adherent refuse to give up on.

I can totally understand a Shi'ite not wanting to visit a Sunni mosque, it would be a little like a RCatholic to go to a protestant church in Ulster in the early 1970s.