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:-)

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

@Wulkan, one converts from a religion to another, one adopts an alphabet to fit the prevailing need:-)

@DominicB, you're correct. Poland though remained far more Western in her Christianity than either Greece or Russia, but for a variety of other reasons.

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

As with the Trump upset "victory" here in the US, I feel simply that the advent of a new, emboldened rightist agenda nowadays, from Denmark to Russia, reflects a long smoldering empathy fatigue among an electorate gradually fed up to the gills with the problems of the disenfranchised in society. They want to finally, once and for all disconnect themselves from the problems in the human condition with which they'd somehow been putting up for thousands of years, and now, the far right has come back...once again on a new broomstick, catering to the impatient, defiant, yet passively demanding Millenials. They just want to relax and enjoy life! LOL

I ought to have seen it coming some time ago, in the early '90's in fact, when a New York TImes article appeared, "Even G_d Needs a Vacation", concerning the growing trend among even seasoned clergy of all faiths to shut down their cell phones, beepers etc. and stop fielding calls from those whom they considered "problem parishioners".

Pretty ghastly stuff.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Poland adopted the Latin alphabet simply to feel closer to European Catholicism.

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

Merged:

Curious as to whether Kurz' victory will embolden European Ultra Right

Just wondering what members think about Austria's Peoples' Party and Sebastian Kurz as Chancellor. How it affect Germany, Hungary, and Poland?

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

Merged:

How Will Kurz' Victory in Austria embolden Far Rightists in Germany, Hungary, and Poland?

As Sebastian Kurz seems poised to become Austria's Chancellor in the biggest right swing upset in that country since the end of WWII, I'm curious as to how this will affect people like Alexander Gauland, Orban Viktor or Poland's PiS leaders.

Any thoughts on the subject?

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Right, Vesko!

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Do some research yourself, kaprys:-)

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

That's what I've been saying all along.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Incorrect, if you go far back enough to early, especially religious, texts.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Return to the very start of the thread for further enlightenment.

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Untrue, kaprys! Then again, you entered the thread discussion a bit late:-)

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Reminds me of that classic education best seller "Eye kant reed, kan u?"

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Would you say that Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian or Bulgarian written in Latin script also look "cool"?

History / Terrible past for the Jews in Poland? [930]

Merged:

Polish-American Historian Takes Issue With Goldhagen

A US historian has come out with a book contesting Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's assertion that gentile Poles were largely complicit in the mass murder of Poland's Jews!

Be interested in hearing the Forum's views on this matter.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

Hungarian sounds to me, a native Anglophone, almost like steady, rhythmic chanting, intense and almost relentless:-) Quite intoxicating actually to listen to, especially the poetry.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

@Koszonom, Baloghbacsi.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

If abortion is the only thing which will save the woman's life, then naturally, it should be permitted. Like collecting unemployment benefits and abusing the privilege, abortion too is a privilege, but not a right which the abortor should take lightly.

Why throw out the baby with the bathwater(no pun intendedLOL)?

Genealogy / Need some help with Bublitz family origin. [23]

There's the Jewish leader of Berlin, Ignaz Bubis, born in Poland but an immigrant to Germany as a youngster. Perhaps his name is related to your search.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

"Fake" people??LOL I'm quite real, I assure you. As to the rest of your message, I merely take it for what it is worth....not terribly much.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

@kaprys, you're clearly mistaking criticism for hostility, a typical psychological defense mechanism, if you're up on your Freud. Haven't you ever fought tooth and nail with your best friend, calling her every name in the book, only to make up several hours later after you both have cooled off a little?? 'Course you have!

So have I, so have most of us.

You and several others here only focus on the negative instead of the positive posts I've written about Polish food, music, science, and literature. Germany has a similarly noble tradition, and yet I too criticize their recent past. Does that mean I'm some Germanophobe, hell bent on their ruin??!

Use your head, for heaven's sake!!

@Baloghbacsi, I'd love to practice my Hungarian, if you are available. Legy szives irni: tarsape@gmail

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

@kaprys, I really don't understand how you can assert that I don't "like" Poles! You must be trolling, brain dead or somewhere in between. Because one criticizes someone or something is no reason to assume that they are necessarily hostile to it! This is fallacious reasoning. As far as my not speaking Polish, what was I posting you in private, Turkish, Spanish..???! lol

@Baloghbacsi, many Slavs have a surface understanding of other related languages in the Slavonic group. This though doesn't mean that, say, a Pole automatically understands Slovak, Russian or Czech, for instance, without having at least studied those languages. Often, related languages are NOT mutually intelligible.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

Baloghbacsi,

I too have made inroads in my Hungarian. I knew a Pole who speaks fluent Hungarian, but he refused to speak it with me, preferring to "impress" me with his broken English, which at the time, I was way too polite to either correct or even comment on:-) Eventually, he gave in and we spoke Polish together, a relief for me, as well as frankly, relaxation for him.

I can read Hungarian better than I either write or speak it, unfortunately. NAGYON SZEP A NYELV!!

Love / Polish women are the most beautiful in the world! [1718]

To quote the great Claude Rains in the title role, addressing Bette Davis from the movie "Mr. Skeffington"(1941), "A woman is beautiful, so long as she is loved."

:-)

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

For the umpteenth time, Poles, much as with many Northern Europeans, can superficially tend to look serious and focused in repose. This smiling vacuously at complete strangers is as unnatural for Poles as it is considered somehow "friendly" here in large areas of the rural US.

Thing is, people, just because an American may appear "friendLY" in no way means that they are being your "FRIEND"!! What we often term "friends", Europeans traditionally would simply call "acquaintances":-)

Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [377]

I concur.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Spaniards, Southern French, Greeks, and Italians give the surface impression of being more happy-go-lucky, more prone to break out into a smile or a spontaneous show of joy than perhaps one's initiial glance at Swedes, Dutchmen, the English, Germans and Poles.

Then again, it's all a matter of American expectations as well as the historical development of countries such as Poland, Germany etc.