News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]


Here's a thought you don't seem to understand: The goals of policy do not necessarily determine the outcome of policy.

Don't judge a plan by it's goals, but by its methods and results (foreseen and unforesoon).

History / Why is the Diary of Saint Sister Faustina Kowalska still unknown to Polonia and other countries? [29]

I always thought Feliksa Kozłowska was the more interesting figure. She founded the Mariavite movement (with women priests as well as monks and nuns who could marry). She also thought the church should be self-sufficient and didn't collect money from parishoners.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feliksa_Koz%C5%82owska


I knew someone who went there by mistake (she didn't realize it was a pilgrimage until the voyage was well under way). The group was there a week and she had to spend all day every day in the middle of town with nothing except stores selling rosaries and pizza(!)

Added as an additional post because I ran out of editing time (a stupid feature of this site which is full of them)


I read an article in an anthropological journal that laid out the whole time line (while carefully remaining neutral about the central apparition experience). Short story: there was a conflict in the local structure of the church and local resistance to being absorbed into another dioces (or whatever). A local priest carried out an extreme evangelization effort with daily mass rosaries and the like and then the kids claimed to have the visions and he took that and ran with it. The children's supernatural experience (real or imagined) was used by local authorities to forestall their own redundancy.

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]


Hey, socialists are gonna socialist until they run out of other people's money (see Venezuela, or..... see the PRL).

The PiS leadership claims to hate the PRL yet they seem to be hell bent on recreating as much of it as possible - how much longer before we start getting ration cards?

Bottom line: Don't vote for socialists unless you want your economy to be wrecked.

News / Poland's Prime Minister Szydło keeps American bulldogs on short leash [36]

The question is.... who needs/wants more from the other side?

Poland wants a NATO base as a Russia-deterrent and would really like visa-free travel from the US

What does the US want from Poland? (genuine question I'm not up to the second in these issues)

"Shup up and do what we want!" is rarely an effective negotiating tactic by the side that wants more from the other (even if it is a common Polish tactic - negotiating is not traditionally what I'd call a Polish strength).

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


They have plans, just no good policies....

Life / Queues in Poland - everyone in line is sandwiched [44]


Germans have a truly amazing talent for antagonizing people. How many other nationalities can drive people to rage with nothing more at hand than towels?

Life / Queues in Poland - everyone in line is sandwiched [44]


I assume they were hoping to make you uncomfortable enough that you would relocate...

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


Yes, they would have needed years of retrenchment and retooling and rethinking before they could begin to think about being solvent (and would have needed ginormous cash pillows to do that). If they had the cash then they would have been solvent already but the entire country was broke, broke, broke in 1990 (what being run by socialists does to a place, for other examples see Venezuela and ..... maybe Poland in a few years).

At the time, neither the time nor cash was available. Some of the negotiations could have been carried out better (I think everyone realizes that) but there was no way to keep a giant zoo full of white elephants afloat at the time.

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

And Poland is doing much better economically than most of the countries that did that. Why is that?

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


This phrasing clearly implies that PiS is chomping down heartily at that trough.... Which is more or less what I expect.

The fact is essentially that trying to settle accounts to your satisfaction in the transition from communism to capitalism would have amounted to a blood bath.

There are essentially two ways such a transition can be made:

Soft landing - in the short term it means a lot of people who should be punished aren't, but it gives better longterm prospects for positive development

Hard landing - immediate attempts to bring the guilty to justice inevitably lead to lots of innocent people being hurt and does not help longterm prospects for positive development.

Of course there were mistakes made (esp with 20/20 hindsight) in the change in government structure from 1988-1990. Trying to fix all those now at the cost of the future is ..... not a good idea.

Poland came through the communist period about as well as could realistically be hoped for. I'm all in favor of punishing those guilty of actionable offenses in that time but I'm not in favor of a witch hunt (which is what JK effectively wants).

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Probably the same place he heard about cashiers having to wear pampers (which he would still be repeating if he hadn't been called on it).

Some folks are just way too ..... gullible.

Life / Going to Poland in a hijab - Polish people and Islam [154]


Most (if not all) Christians divide the Old Testament from the New Testament. When there is a contradiction they follow the New Testament which has primacy.

(nb I'm not a Christian though I was raised in a protestant milieu)

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


It's the question maybe for the 1970s, back when Polak potrafi was a slogan. It's irrelevant for the modern world. Building a real business class takes generations and can't be rushed or helped by trying to run foreign run businesses out of the country (who will then prevent Polish companies from entering their market). You create favorable conditions for smaller businesses to take chances and grow but taxing everything in sight to pay for kiełbasa wyborcza will not do that.


That's vulgar Marxism. Why is a supposed anti-communist parroting basic Marxism?


I think that would be great too, I thought it was great when I saw Lech beer for sale in Berlin (in a Turkish run kebab place). But it can't be done by mandate. Yelling at the seedlings and keeping the forest mowed down is not going to help any trees grow faster, it'll just keep any new trees from growing at all...

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


It's the Putin model, say patriotic things will impoverishing people and being belligerent and they'll love you (I think Poles will wake up faster than Russians have but it's no secret why the PiS stronghold is the more Russian influenced East.


No matter what the government does.... magic thinking at it's most destructive.


here's a nice radio story that shows how companies work and how slight hiccups can have huge consequences

thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/365/another-frightening-show-about-the-economy?act=1#play

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


They have a duty to make a profit (or they go out of business). Many people (comme vous par example) seem unable to distinguish the need for profit from being a greedy profit-obsessed bloodsucker. But again, most business (esp ones with large constant turnover) usually run on very small margins which can easily be wiped out by small changes in the tax codes or small downturns in their customer base.

PiS, in it's search for power, has not incentive to educate voters on how economies actually work but there's no excuse for you.

If you really wanted to help Polish businesses thrive, you wouldn't obsess about punishing foreign companies but should work on policies that encourage people to start businesses and to hire people. Nothing PiS has done (or is likely to do) will accomplish that.

You can blame greed or foreigners or whatever, but it's like blaming gravity when you can't fly....

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


the bottom line of what you're saying is that you think that private business interests have a duty to support the policy goals of a particular party - that is philosophy straight out of the PRL...

Life / Going to Poland in a hijab - Polish people and Islam [154]

As of a couple of years ago 88% of Egyptian muslims supported the death penalty for apostasy...

I realize that sometimes people say things to pollsters they don't believe, but that has got to worry anyone who would like for Egypt to join the 21st century. There is no way that a country with that type of belief system (no matter where it's from) can dig itself out of poverty.

washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/01/64-percent-of-muslims-in-egypt-and-pakistan-support-the-death-penalty-for-leaving-islam/

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


They seem to believe in the silver bullet theory of policy making. That is, if they pass legislation with worthy goals then those goals will be achieved. Meanwhile, on planet earth things are a lot more difficult.

Life / Going to Poland in a hijab - Polish people and Islam [154]

A moderator, assuming my identity (identity theft! identity theft!) wrote


Just add "In Poland as in other countries... to the first paragraph

and

"Very much unlike Poland..."

to the beginning of the second.

El problemo es solvado!

Life / Going to Poland in a hijab - Polish people and Islam [154]


Religious fanatics who want their faith to extend to all areas of life are seldom able to live peaceably alongside those with even slightly different ideas....

Saudi is a cesspit of violence and primitive backwardness (if anything the royal family is more progressive than most of the population). Iran has tremendous potential if they could just get rid of the mullahs and get on with things....

This discussion has to be about Poland

Life / Going to Poland in a hijab - Polish people and Islam [154]


In winter people probably won't notice (outdoors at least). In better weather I really doubt that anyone would bother her (but again they won't think better of her or respect the idea behind wearing it). If anyone does say anything it might be more women than men (Polish women have a habit of being very vocal about things they don't like).

Most British people (non-Muslims) probably also felt the same - they'll be tolerant, but they don't respect the practice (though they would be very hesitant to say that out loud).

Life / Going to Poland in a hijab - Polish people and Islam [154]

And especially Arab countries mostly have terrible, terrible education systems that do not prepare most people for work (because their societies are mostly terrible at creating jobs).

Turkey and Iran have much better education systems though the latter is still stuck in theocracy (despite indications that a lot of people would like to dump it) and the former is regressing socially into backwardness....

Life / Going to Poland in a hijab - Polish people and Islam [154]

An interesting article, pointing out that hijab as a non-negotiable part of islam for women is a very recent idea (the word is apparently never used in the koran with the idea of head covering) and aligned with the poisonous creed of theocracy which has caused so much suffering in the muslim world.

washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/21/as-muslim-women-we-actually-ask-you-not-to-wear-the-hijab-in-the-name-of-interfaith-solidarity/

I have no intention of harassing any women wearing the hijab but it's not anything I can pretend to respect....

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


But when you're a socialist every problem looks like something that needs to be taxed....

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


God forbid, that Polish shoppers should have a choice.....

And.... you're saying that Polish shops and businesses being forced to close their doors due to unwise tax policies is better?

You're either pro-businesses (in which case chains are going to gobble up a big part of the market - see economy of scale) or you're anti-business and long for the days of ration cards and standing in line for hours every day to do normal shopping....

Which is it?

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]


True enough.


No, it's much older. It's impossible to build such divisions in such a short period of time.


I'd want definitions. For me, post communists are those who have moved on from communism while many nationalists seem stuck in 1988 forever. The forming division all over Eruope and the world is between globalists and localists. I'm more in the latter camp but can't get on board any train that Polish nationalists (as currently construed) are running.


I really need to watch Sami Swoi again, possible the definitive cinematic work on Polish national character..... (if I could just get past the accents....)

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]


if they say they're seeking asylum then no, EU regulations say they can't. "Asylum seeker" is the immigration equivalent of "diplomatic immunity". Also, general Eruopean ignorance of the Arab world and a lack of qualified translators means it can be hard to determine where a person is from and their own countries don't want them back and make it difficult or impossible to repatriate them.

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]


You've been ragging on Greece but what can they really do? If they make it ashore and say 'asylum' they can't be kicked out under horrible, outdated and dysfunctional asylum laws that were meant to be applied to individuals and not masses of economic migrants/bounders.

I've said right from the beginning that if they were allowed to intercept rafts and drop them off on Turkish soil then the flood would have stopped (not entirely but mostly) but they're not allowed to do that either.

Rather than devote themselves to refugee care full time Greece is simply getting a little revenge on Germany by sending them en masse there as they threatened as Merkel was pummeling them on the behalf of private bankers (perhaps Merkel's folly was an attempt to call their bluff that backfired?)

One of the doomed ideas of the EU is this idea that states can be humanitarian to everyone. They can't. at some point they have to prioritize but no western EU government has actually come to this very sane realization.

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


JK as Petyr Baelish? Chaos is a ladder...

youtube.com/watch?v=FG3H9E-B464

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]

A referendum is a good idea as a symbolic statement that might make it through the thick heads of EU leaders that they are actively working against the wishes and interests of the electorate. (They clearly don't care about European citizens' interests, but voting might get through to them).

Latests polls are that only about 10% of the German public want the current policy to continue but Merkel seems to have the voters in her αss as the Poles say.