News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Some day, Poland will be an old democracy. We all want to see her make it before she does herself in from within:-)

History / Lusatian-Sarmatic obsession of Poles [153]

I'm not showing off, as you put it, at least I'M talking sense.

History / Lusatian-Sarmatic obsession of Poles [153]

Heck, I can only repeat that Guenter Grass was half-Kaszub on his father's, half-German on his mother's side and native to Danzig aka Gdansk!

News / Poland in the European Union. Polexit? [559]

@Tacitus,
Like Trump, Berlusconi is more of what we here in the States might term instead a successful "monkey-businessman" aka someone with many fingers in several different pots simultaneously, engaging in risky, questionable ventures:-)

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

A point well taken, dolno.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

While I have to agree in principle, this indeed changes the very nature of the concept "freedom of speech" then, doesn't it.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Interesting that it's illegal in Israel as well. Seems "free" speech is no longer so free!

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

In Poland, it is as of February now a punishable crime to even insinuate, either in speech or in writing, that the country was in any way affiliated with Nazi doctrine, rather that Poland was a, if not THE, victim of such crimes!

In Germany, correct me if I'm wrong on this, it is an equally punishable offense (either jail time, a whopper of a fine, or both) to make light of the Nazis, intentionally down play the impact of the Holocaust, or utter open anti-Jewish slogans etc.

In the US, as of Sept. 11, it is against the law to even as much as joke about bombs at an airport or (if Trump has his way!) besmirch the name of the US president. Freedom of speech, liberty of expression??! Give me a break!!!:-) Racial slurs are NOT as of yet legally punishable offenses; all one risks is either a mega tongue lashing, a couple of broken front teeth, or a combination of the two.

Interesting too, that in the wake of the Fla. massacre, guns are still allowed, and, on another note, flag burning cannot be punished, while destroying US currency CAN!!LOL

Thus far, it appears that Israel is the only country in which one can lampoon/insult the president with impunity, even spout Holocaust denial without fearing a jail term in most instances.

Crazy world we're living in.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

Fair enough. However, I've noticed that when I'm in the company of Poles, typically consulary staff, being as I used to teach at the Polish Consulate in Manhattan until we moved, there was a complete homogeneity of facial type, more so than when I've been among equally large groups of German, Austrian or French embassy employees.

As I stated prior, perhaps only the Hungarians are as homogeneous a racial grouping, where I saw no other type when I've been in the company of people from that country.

News / Poland in the European Union. Polexit? [559]

Yeah, but this sort if political upset's starting to remind me of the US. Well, we can all agree that Berlusconi's the Italian, perhaps the European, Trump incarnate.

Only difference is, Berlusconi's probably got a better singing voice:-)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

Let's hope so, jon.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

You mean "conflating" issues, Ironside. You see, it's the wrong image. Rather like confusing Emily Post with Funk & Wagnals:-)
Since when do I have a problem with Europe? My family's European. My grandparents were native German speakers, what are you talking about?
I'm the one who should be sorry for YOU, that there are people here who actually take that sort of stuff seriously!

News / Poland in the European Union. Polexit? [559]

Indeed. Grillo's party lost to the Populists! Bad times for democracy, my friends.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

Well, Ironside, at least you and I agree on the standard definition of "homogeneous". You admit then that I'm right, that is, in contrast with the racial demographic of numerous other places which we all know:-)

There are though, two schools of thought on this subject. One is that heterogeneity is good for a society in order that it not atrophy. The other is that in fact excess immigration, indeed any foreign admixture whatsoever, is bad for a society, as it weakens the existing gene pool by introducing so much "outsiderness" into that society that it loses her historical identity and becomes nearly unrecognizable to her inhabitants.

If that be the case, then one needn't travel to Poland to find folks out there fighting foreignization tooth and nail. Just take a trip to the American deep South and watch the expressions of the locals when a run-of-the-mill bi-racial couple come a-saunterin' into the town pub. It ain't pretty, I can tell y'all that much!

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

@Ironside, I realize that while you, along with certain others on this Forum, do enjoy playing Devil's Advocate, no intelligent, well-read person denies that Poland has to be sure a vastly homogeneous population among the countries of Europe, in comparison even with Germany, certainly Russia, France, except perhaps for Finland or Hungary:-) Italy and Spain, by comparison both had colonies, particularly Spain, something which Poland never had. They are therefore quite used to non-native, usually black, people living in their midst, thank you very much! The only group today throughout Europe which is the most marginalized remains the Sinti-Roma, otherwise known as the Gypsies.

Concerning my observations with regard to the "typical Polish look", I speak from my experience (as I'd prefaced heretofore), in the same way you undoubtedly speak from yours.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

Once more, facial features, rather than size alone, are for me the dead give away as to whether someone is Polish or not. Nearly every nationality and ethnicity has certain charactaristics peculiar to that particular group. I'm simply sharing my observations which have usually proven me correct as to my guess.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

@Kaprys,

Nonetheless, I've never as yet encountered a black-haired, brown-eyed, short (meaning under 1 meter 20/5 ft. five inches), round-faced Pole who was not of some foreign extraction and/or a Polish Jew.

Then again, this is only my experience:-)

As far as Jews are concerned, there's been so much intermarriage between Jews and gentiles over the centuries, all bets are off!

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

I see what you're saying. However, the only truly dark-eyed Poles whom I've encountered, both here in the States and Poland, claimed to be mostly of Kaszub extraction, thus not "pure" Polish. This again, their words, not mine:-)

Radislaw Sikorski has what I would consider a representative "Polish face", without appearing in any way disrespectful; tall, angular-featured, light-eyed and light-haired.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

Most Poles in general, being Poland is still a by and large homogeneous gene pool, tend to have high cheekbones and square jaws. Although frequently, one might mistake Poles for Northern Germans, it's the sometimes almost Asiatic-looking, intense pale blue eyes and those high cheekbones which give them away, despite a typically tall stature:-)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

And then our Prez has the temerity to advance the notion that those armed teachers should receive PAY RAISES for being able to wield firearms???!!

Geez, whatcha gotta go through to earn a few more measly bucks. For a gentile, he shows lotsa chutzpah.

You need a license and degrees for just about everything nowadays! A certificate to protect us from a bad haircut, poor teaching, quack doctoring etc, yet NOTHING to protect us from an awful presidency:-)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

A majority of our US population in the Western as well as Southern and Southwestern states are STILL living in the days of Manifest Destiny, westward expansion ...and never moved onLOL

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

It's what I've been saying all along, Dirk! America never really wanted immigrants, it was merely under the aphrodisiac of cheap labor from abroad:-)

Being a capitalist society, if someone can get something for nothing, while making a killing in the process, few can or would resist such irresistible temptations, would they?

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Heck there, Delph! We in the US have tried, though alas unsuccessfully, to bar the Chinese from coming to our country since a law in around the 1880's, publically prohibiting Chinese from either living or working in the States.

Shenanigans? You bet. Undercutting their competitors by aggressively outbidding on cheap labor is but one of numerous dirty tricks up their sleeve.
Once upon a time, and only within two generations or so, such was seen as 'Unamerican". These days, I'm not so sure:-)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

@You got that one right on the money, Johnny!

In the end, it's a basic culture in this country that's got to change, gun "laws" or no gun laws. My opinion anyway, for whatever it's worth.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

All right, but at least see if certain aspects of those laws can be implemented here, not just chuck out the baby with the bathwater!!

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

Spot on, TheOther!

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

...ahemm, most places in our country, save for East Coast metropoli like New York, Boston, possibly D.C. included, laugh and merrily give the middle finger to rules, laws, regulations etc. as the stuff of sissies, Dirk, hate to disappoint ya!! Tell the Clyven Bundy Bunch about the need to follow rules and they'll take shotgun to yer butt, dude:-)

Sure. concealed carry classes are offered, but are they attended, except by the instructor?LOL

Hell, guns are still readily "available" for purchase at a bleedin' Wall Mart, they can be demonstrated at gun shows (of which there are many) and look at the numbers of people, Nikolas Cruz as a prime example, whom our wonderful FBI allowed to slip through the cracks, including Dylan Roof etc.....

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

The Jews share this trading facility they acquired with that of the Chinese, one reason perhaps that the relationship over the centuries between those two peoples has been so cordial...and so free of anti-Jewish feeling among the Chinese people:-)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

In countries such as Germany, most of Scandinavia as well I imagine, the ONLY way in which any private citizen (the operative word here) can ever hope to legally obtain a weapon is by taking a mandatory aka certified course in how to operate such a firearm, then through the application for a state-sponsored license accurately attesting to the individual's proven ability to operate said weapon!

America is about the laxest country in this regard among the industrialized nations today, not to mention that her primary care for all is basically in the toilet.......on the same level as Costa RicaLOL

Along with with many other issues regarding standardization, this country's become a joke, and the joke's on us.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

...for the unflattering, but simple, reason that Jews were among the more numerous of the white settlers. As they were typically called upon as traders, small wonder again that they would have lent their skills to the slave trade, looked on as merely one more kind of transaction...UNFORTUNATELY.