Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

Often, what constitutes a so-called "Polish look", is more the bone structure of the face than anything else! Someone can have dark eyes and dark-brown hair and yet still look Polish rather than, say, French, Italian, German, or Spanish, for instance. Poles tend to have distinctively oval faces, and even the women usually have a more squarely-shaped head than certainly in Southern Europe.

Generalizations though are often just that:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Austria, much as Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, Germany and the US, clearly knows something's rotten in the state of Denmark, but have convinced themselves outright that Sebastian Kurz is the answer to their prayers and the panacea for the problems.

If only real life were all that simple:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

What happened in Lower Manhattan yesterday afternoon is being blamed by "Blondie" in the White House on the Dems, especially the oft unjustifiedly beleaguered Sen. Schumer.

The man does think on his feet, when he reminded our Tweeter-in-Chief that it was HE, namely the Man With The Red Tie, who summarily cut funding for terrorist security, not the Dems!!

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

The Bolshies ain't "out to destroy" squat, Johnny! You oughta have joined that fella, Jim Forrestal, who jumped out of the window, allegedly 'cuz he thought a Red was under his bedLOL

Come off it, dude! The Cold War's over, Putin & al have bigger fish to fry.....like spying on our elections etc. important stuff like that:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

??? Whatcha been smokin'?? "Brown" refers to "Brown shirts", not brown skinLOL

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

True, dolno. Yet nonetheless, Stalin's crew were, once again, white, not brown:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Can't argue that point!

Yet, violence only begets (more) violence and while it'll sure make ya feel good for a while, it ain't gonna bring back the dead now, is it?

As far as the amount of killings, the equally white National Socialists probably killed more people (including their own as well) than almost any other single political group in modern memory, next to Mao, Idi "Dada" Amin, and Pol Pot.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Then again, a lone, (very) white, Nordic Anders Breivik massacred his own, in what is still one for the books as a completely unprovoked rampage.

Check out Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and then come back and say that you can't somewhat understand the Arab's ongoing rage at the West, especially the US.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

True, but only because our glorious politicians were sleeping at the switch for so long, by the time they finally woke up, the damage had already been done.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

During the '30's, Germany's Jews en masse were accused of the most heinous crimes, including rape, blood libel, using the blood of German children to make matzoh etc.. all of which turned out of course to be vicious, hateful lies.

Need we witness a repeat performance?

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Rape has nothing to do per se with the ethnicity of the rapist! This remained one of the big stereotypes during the '70's and '80's in Germany, whereby if a rapist attacked a German woman, it was usually thought to have been the work of a foreigner, specifically, a Turk:-) This led to the vicious espursions cast upon Turkish people as "Kuemmeltuerken" or "Dirty Turks".

Somehow, when a German attacked a Turkish woman, the incident was either not reported, or the woman was made to appear as a slut.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

The point I was making from the very outset of this thread is that Europeans, not only Austrians, seem to have short memory, forgetting the reasons that a people migrate from one country to the other in the first place! Many have forgotten as well, that the Austro-Hungarian Empire, though not multi-cultural as New York, for instance, DID represent a degree of diversity which was unique at that time.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Someone who disagrees with me I've never called a "Neo-Nazi", SigSauer! That's labeling, and I find such to be repugnant.
Someone who disagrees with me without a proper foundation I'll gladly call a moron, but that's called education, not labeling:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Nonetheless, the failed migrant policies, to which by the way, the Austrian conservative victory is but a reaction, lie squarely at her doorstep, despite her own party giving a thumbs down.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

There you're right on the money about that!

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

..and sends them off to Poland, no doubt, is that it??

Well, Poland is no longer the backwater of yore, my friend, and precisely for this reason, many Poles are doubtless justifiably concerned that importing too many asylum seekers from Georgia or Turkey will not necessarily raise the GNP once the former have become full-fledged members of the European Community.

That's the key point, I think.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

More backward??? I highly doubt that, sir.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

Georgia is Christian more in the sense of Orthodox Christianity as practiced in Greece as well as Russia:-) While not a Sunni Muslim nation like Turkey, Georgians are nonetheless not Western European Christians, and despite lying in what is technically Eastern, not even Central, Europe, Poland for instance is much more Western than Georgia! A point to consider.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

Their patience though will doubtless be tested to the max if Turkey's and Georgia's joining the EU will mean more of "them" at your borders:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

I think Austrians are reacting AWAY from mainstream liberalism much the way Britons by and large reacted AWAY from perceived Bruxelles meddling in their affairs in the guise of European imperialists, and thus voted en masse for Brexit.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Furthermore, individual European countries, particularly smaller, homogeneous states such as Austria, Sweden or Denmark for instance, are NOT a melting pot society as is the US said to be, never have been and if folks have their druthers, never will be either! Multiculturalism a la Merkel's failed migrant policies, has been foisted upon Germany, Poland to a far lesser degree, and the countries mentioned above. It is not something they either asked for or were consulted about beforehand. People are slowly getting tired of other such as "Mutti Merkel" forcing the spinach of "tolerance or else" on them and making them eat it, like so many an overbearing parent supervising their wayward charges!

As an AfD supporter recently quipped, "I've been an orphan for the past fourty-six years of my life, so why would I suddenly start to need a mother?"

Personally and as an American-born observer, I still see the need for tolerance, lest we repeat the mistakes of recent history. However, the way the EU has handled her migrant policies, were I an average citizen from one of the above countries, I too might have joined the pack, I'm sorry to say.

Language / "Poles" or "Polish people" - which is better to use? [200]

In English, "Polish people" sounds absolutely fine. Of course, we can also just as easily (and correctly) say/write "the Poles" or "the Polish", as one expresses the idea of "the Spanish", "the French", etc.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Perhaps had there been a referendum in any of the affected EU countries and the citizenry were able to decide for themselves, there wouldn't have been such an outcry nor this type of move by the Far Right:-)

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

@spiritus, nobody ever said life was always going to be convenient! Our own homegrown American former Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes publically decried the keeping alive of "a generation of feeble-minded", as it could infect the entire country.

What he forgot is that those feeble-minded had no choice in the matter and never desired to be born, much less as brain damaged:-)

A tough decision, yet not made any the easier by rightist fear mongers peddling quick answers.

News / Poland supporting potential new EU members - Georgia and Turkey [32]

Seems a bit dodgy to me, this whole business:-) Why would Poland of all places be courting Georgia or Turkey?
Don't like the looks of it!

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Hopefully, sanctus mal spiritus, the reactionary stench from the bowels of intolerance are merely a phase YOU'RE going through! And you people call yourselves Christians??! Christianity, the last time I checked, preaches unconditional love for ALL of G_d's children, even of those who transgress. That means, even when it hurts, even when it's not convenient, we don't fall into the trap of quick fixes and easy answers, merely to assuage your bad conscience, considering you have one.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

How right you are, Dirk!

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

@The Other, I agree. While Kurz' Peoples' Party and Strache's Freedom Party are no immediate cause for alarm, their agenda over time might be something to keep an eye on. And you're right, Hitler too was grossly underestimated in the beginning, by both his enemies as well as his friends!!

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

My view of politics is quite in depth, thank you very much Ironside, so quit trolling:-)

As a matter of fact, the Austrian election is a bell weather for what may well occur in European politics over the coming years!! If the lovely AfD party has become the THIRD single largest political faction within the German Bundestag, how can that bode better for the PiS in your Sejm, the far right in the French Parliament etc.?? Not too well, I fear.

Some boring backwater Austria ain't, my friend, but perhaps the crucible upon which the fate of conservative thinking in Europe might hinge.

News / Austria's swing to the far right on Poland? [229]

Oh, but the Young Republicans DID vote for Trump en masse! Similarly, it was clearly the youth of Austria who put Kurz over the top:-)