News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

I roundly concur, Ironside, and it's probably YOU!

In fact, those countries who were asked were undoubtedly coerced in some measure into going along with Merkel's plan. Being the head of Europe's economic super power does have certain advantages:-)

That being said, I emphasize, only those countries who were consulted. Poland might not have been among them.

Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [170]

In addition, among Slavs, the Poles are surely the most "Germanic" of the bunch, at least in terms of their outward appearance:-)
Many has been the time right here in the States when I've mistaken Polish tourists and visitors for German, even Scandinavian!

As I may have posted once before, Poles are more Western in their mentality, owing in large measure to their relatively early conversion to Catholicism, hence their adaptation of both the Latin alphabet as well as countless loanwords, most used in everyday language, such as "literatura", "restauracja" "inauguracja", "matura" etc....

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [337]

Poles may wish they were far from religion. The fact remains though that most consider themselves, at least nominally, Catholics.

Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [450]

Apart from some Kaszub admixture, while the majority of "ethnic" Poles may well be fair-haired and blue- or light-eyed, I've known Poles who have brown eyes (though never black in my experience) and coarse brownish hair, only their typically oval-shaped, lozenge-like faces and high cheekbones giving away the fact that they are Poles:-)

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

Names ending either in "-chuk", "-chak" or "enko" are Ukrainian! You may be right regarding Shostakovitch (actually of Polish descent partially!), but not about Yevtushenko:-)

Don't forget either, many Ukrainian nationals during the Soviet period tried to disguise their identity.

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [337]

Don't follow your question, nothanks! Poland is an arch-Catholic country, always has been.

??

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

See post #63, przyjacielPL!

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [337]

Or just...POLISH:-)

We are what we are. Would an American Forum be any different, that is, any less "American"?

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [337]

This Forum is much like the music of Chopin who represents "dusza Polski" (the soul of Poland): inconsistent, emotional, weepy, triumphant, groveling, yet defiant and ARDENTLY nationalistic even when it' no longer pc to be so!

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

Ukrainians have no culture.

Hmmm, what do you call Taras Shevchenko??? A street sweeper? Who was Yevgeny Yevtuskenko? A garbage collector?
And how about Shostakovitch? A burger flipper??

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [337]

G_d loves all his flock, even ignoramuses such as Ironside & Co. G_d's love is unconditional, rather like American democracy; all are guaranteed the right to be stupid, closed-minded, and foolish with umpunity....and believe me, we sure exercise itLOL Hear that Johnny R.??

:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Now we [FINALLY] understand each other, Ironman:-) That's what' I've been saying all along.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

If they are actually illegals, I would agree. Again though, it was political wheeling and dealing behind the scenes which took them to Europe in the first place, and not some romantic Emma Lazarus-style "yearning to breathe free"!

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Schmidt and Kohl had their Genscher, Merkel has her Schaeuble, her grey eminence and elder statesman upon whom she can always rely for some well-thought out advice:-)

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

Do they pay as well as green jobs??
lol

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Hate to be sarky, old man, but how much of that negotiation was in fact Schaeuble, and how much Merkel?:-) Tsipras needed both much more than they needed him.

I felt she acted too precipitously (voreilig) myself. That is only my opinion!

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Yet another informative, worthwhile post, Tacitus!

SPIEGEL aside for the moment, I happen to be a Merkel-fan (if such is pc to admitLOL) who also happens to feel she's been terribly maligned within her own party, as well as by her own countrymen. While scarcely a "perfect" leader, she probably has more ability in her little pinky finger than many a US-President of late has in their entire body. Even Obama, who surely differed on policy issues, praised her as a pragmatist.

A crying pity some of that "pragmatism" didn't extend to consulting her neighbors concerning the Greece-bailout or weighing far more deeply the impact of the migrant crisis:-))

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

Right!

@Dirk Diggler, as far as companies paying employees what they're "worth", this is a lovely ideal which perhaps held true in nearly all cases round about fourty to sixty years ago. Unfortunately, since Reagan became president, bosses now had old-fashioned carte blanche to lie, cheat, steal and rationalize firing a worker merely because the boss didn't like them, fair or not:-) Usually, said worker had little to any recourse... and the boss knew it.

Returning to women's pay scales, this is not as much of a fallacy as you might imagine. To this day, women in the US continue to protest for higher wages. In Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands, such protests are relatively infrequent, as the job-gender gap was closed a long time ago.

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

Why is it then across the board that women, even in management positions, earn less than a man? Is it a question of expectation? Age-old misogyny?

Statistically as well, according to Business Week magazine, Latino managers, for the same job, will earn LESS than a W.A.S.P male, while obviously still earning more than a female of the same rank or title:-)

For this, I've no answer, only lotsa guesses!

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

Dirk, while in essence, everything you've said is true, we also have to realize that immigration has little to do with some sort of "kumbaya- '60'sidealism", but with simple economics! Migrants, typically from poorer countries otherwise they had little reason to migrate, represent a form of cheap labor to rich, industrialized countries ever consumed by capitalist incentive which unfortunately often translates into simple, raw greed. A US, German, French, Swedish industrialist/business man or manufacturer would rather hire a dozen Syrian, Haitian or Chinese workers for every native born white, college-educated, multi-lingual or technically trained one to whom a top salary plus benefits, vacations etc.is required by law:-) Said business man merely skirts, rather than "breaks" the law and gets the "same work" (not really, though) for less than it'd cost him top pay for a high earner. Therefore, John Q. Capitalist, boss, can dispense with the vacations, sick leave and all that expensive, "wasteful" stuff while getting the lower-paid worker to make HIM more and more mullahLOL

"Immigration is good for business"?? Sad, but so.

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]

At least though Ukrainians share a similar Slavic heritage with the Poles.

Genealogy / Are Silesians people German/Germanic? [178]

The Habsburg Empire too was desirous of Greater Polish territory, indeed.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Thanks, Tacitus! A serious and well-written response to my prior post. To be sure, nobody's ever accused DER SPIEGEL of being (horrors!!) "objective" in her news reportingLOL Having lived in Germany myself, you know that when someone refers to said magazine aka "SPIEGEL-Deutsch", it's probably not a compliment, to say the least.

:-)

Much appreciate your giving my e-mails some attention and look forward to reading your reactions as soon as you have the time.

Genealogy / Are Silesians people German/Germanic? [178]

During the Big One, Hitler tried to annex ANY once or formerly held German-speaking territory. These included much of present-day Czech Rep., Western Poland, and what was once termed "Besserabien" (Besserabia), including Slask/Schlesien (Silesia) as well as "Sudentenland", right on up through Western Ukraine!

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

@Tacitus, you may be correct. The SPIEGEL however might not agree entirely, as apparently even your chancellor's fellow Coalition supporters have not been, what one might term, "uncritical" of her, for instance Gabriel, von der Leyen etc. I'm not even talking here about the conservatives, such as Horst Seehofer.

Oh well, as we say, politics makes strange bedfellows:-)

By the by, did you perchance receive my last two Forum e-mails?

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

I have that sinking feeling we're looking toward a PEGIDA-AfD coalition come end of autumn '17 if Merkel's party doesn't spruce up their act some!

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

I see now, Maf! That she didn't consult Juncker or the rest of those Eurocrats in Bruxelles is what's galling you about Merkel. Well, she's far from the only politician to "go it alone", and somehow, I don't expect she'll be the last either:-)

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [337]

Homophobia equals ignorance, pure and simple. G_d loves all, gay, straight, virtuous or sinners, WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION! We humans can never expect to live up to the highest standards of divine morality, but we can still try. That's supposedly why churches exist; man errs constantly, thus, needs constant reminding on the proper way to act, to live, to think:-) While there can be some degree of variation with such, the most important thing is thinking along common lines which bring us a little closer together. WIthout an unwavering standard, all is lost. When the church, temple etc. fails and gives into mere human prejudice, that's when we all better start praying!!

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

@Maf, I take your point and doubtless numerous Germans share your deep dissatisfaction with Merkel's clearly failed migrant policies! However, when you mention that the populace were never "consulted" regarding such policies aka were never allowed a plebiscite vote, for example, as exists (or at least existed) in , for example, Switzerland with their "Volksentscheid", I must remind you that almost never are citizens consulted directly concerning their government's policies!! It surely doesn't exist at present in today's America. It must therefore be regarded as a that rare exception, rather than the rule:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

I maintain that German has not lost its hegemony on the European scene, regardless of how hated or reviled both the language and people remain!

Vietnamese who survived America's unprovoked, undeclared war on their country doubtless hate American, Americans and American English with equal passion as much as anyone who survived the Shoah hates Germany, the former realizing though that American English as well as the United States is/are their economic as well as their social future:-) German and Germany represent the future, not the past, to those scores of "unwanted" migrants.

The analogy does hold up if one stops to think about it!