News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


And the marks ate it up and asked for more..... (knowing how professional wrestling works is an amazingly good key for figuring out how politicians do things).

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


Did anyone say it was? Did he make any kind of formal complaint? Attempt to bring the matter to the floor of the Sejm?

Or did he grandstand for publicity?

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


Evolution can deal with that.... which is why many impressive people come from unimpressive parents and why high achieving parents often have average (or below) children.

What Poland (many countries actually) need is better ways of spotting and nurturing talent as well as finding graceful exits for the failspawn of elites.

The US came close to that during a few long stages in the 20th century but that's over....

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


When's the last time the US turned Israel down?

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


You're a mark and you support members of parliament vandalizing displays on public property that they disapprove of.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


Israel (that is, Netanyahu) doesn't care. All he cares about is staying in office so he can stay out of jail.

He knows the US will do anything he wants and so.... the situation will just get worse and worse.....

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


I think it's simpler than that.... he's just an attention vvhore who gets regular supply when he does crap like that.

The idea that he actually believes that he should have a personal veto over displays in the Sejm is just nuts.n Who appointed him the arbiter of what's permissable to display?

People that approve are just marks (the type that takes professional wrestling seriously). He winds them up and profits from them.

He's a grifter.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]


Hipster Warsaw is mostly made up of young trendy consumers....

Hipster Krakow is a bit more rough around the edges.... just compare Saska Kępa and Kazimierz... some similarities but very different vibes.

History / Greatest Polish and Slavic scientists, their discoveries, inventions and achievements [63]


I've heard Z'z (american pronuniciaton) used the same way by American residents... I won't say i've never done that but in English I usually say 'zla:di / 'zla:di:z

History / Greatest Polish and Slavic scientists, their discoveries, inventions and achievements [63]


What do you mean? The phrase is most likely American in origin and I've heard it used by Americans for decades..... the first representation of sleeping/snoring with ZZZZ was in an American comic strip.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]


Think Berlin.... is Berlin more like Dresden and Dusseldorf or more like Paris and London?

Germans have told me in the past Berlin "isn't really Germany".... (meaning it's not representative of the country).

Warsaw seems to have accelerated that process. Find some remote spot and you'll see lots of people who don't look or sound Polish but who are acting like they live there. Lots of things that are of marginal interest to people in other cities (how many sushi places does Warsaw need?)

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [816]


Basically, other terms for rain while the sun shines include 'sun showers' and 'rainshine'.... I prefer 'sun shower'. The devil is beating his wife is more of a folk explanation... (there are others... something involving a horse but I forget the specifics).

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


Depends on the definition of 'appropriately'....

History / Greatest Polish and Slavic scientists, their discoveries, inventions and achievements [63]


It's more a case of hysterical overuse of the word has drained it of meaning.... for years now when I hear someone refer to others as 'racist' I hear: I have severe unaddressed mental issues....

There is racism but probably over 90% of public accusations of racism are nonsense and/or lies....

It's not longer a term that adds any clarity to public discourse.

News / Karol Nawrocki - the New President of Poland [495]


Yes. No 'winning' party is ever happy about recounts but when they go into meltdown mode.... that might be a clue something's up.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [816]


Yes... too easy....

Maybe also easy.... when do people saydiabeł bije swoją żonę?

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [816]

New reverse riddle!

pakować upał

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


Then why do they force those who don't want to to wear it?

If a woman wants to look ugly in hijab then great... if another doesn't want to then let her be and stop making excuses for those forcing her.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


IIRC it only began being used of head coverings with the cursed muslim brotherhood. Before that the term tarha was used (and women were leaving it behind before the rise of political islam - the worst idea since communism).

If so many women want to wear it then why do laws force women to wear it in some countries (like Iran).

Whatever you call it it's.... not attractive, modesty through ugliness.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


One under-appreciated fact is that modern Iran is an urban place (with a low birth rate and rock bottom mosque attendance).

Also during the Iran-Iraq war women kept the country going (a bit like the UK during WWI) and once women enter the work force it's hard/impossible to keep them out.

I've seen no evidence that most modern Iranian women want to have to wear chadors or hijab (a modern invention of political islam).

Doesn't mean they're western but they're not their grandmothers either.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


The sad part was that most people had no idea how serious Khomeini was.... women wore chadors as a sign that they wanted the Shah out and were horrified that with Khomeini they were compelled to wear them....

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]

the always interesting Kamil Galeev has very sound thoughts on the relationship between the US, Israel and the coming Iran war....

x.com/kamilkazani/status/1935823134201909526

tldr: Israel's dependence on the US (and unconditional US support for whatever Israel does) has lead to the dysfunctional situation of the US being dragged into a war that's mostly about internal Israeli issues - namely Netanyahu's efforts to stay in power no matter what... part of this is about avoiding corruption charges that he faces when/if he leaves office....

At this point it would easier, safer (and cheaper!) to just pardon him and give him a couple of vacation houses in the US to retire in.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]


Was just in Kraków (work related but plenty of free time) for a few days... Decided to try to see part of Wawel so went pretty early (around 9 in the morning) and when I was leaving before 11 whole crowds were arriving... unreal. My hotel (not luxury but acceptable with a nice breakfast) was in Kazimierz which is both nice and kind of horrifying. The cultural scene of Krakow has always been strong and that's reflected in a more bohemian vibe in parts that aren't overstuffed with tourists.

Was in Warsaw in.... april? And it seems to be passing from the stage of being a Polish city to a European capital that has more in common with other capitals than with other cities in the country.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


Then why is Iran an ally of China which is oppressing Uyghurs?

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


The last thing on Earth that the US wants to promote is "Democracy", especially in the Middle East.

Under the right circumstances I do believe Iranians would be able to govern themselves far better than the mullahs do.

And one thing I don't get.... why is Iran 110% committed to the destruction of Israel?

Iranians are mostly Persians not Arabs and mostly Shia while Palestinians are mostly Sunni Arabs... why is this their special fight?

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


How many Trump voters wanted the US to start another military conflict in the Middle East for Israel?

Getting involved in Iran would threaten disintegration not only of Trump's administration but of the entire republican party.


The US made a commitment to Ukraine and has so far failed to live up to it....

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


Regimes with initial popular support can lose that over time... just about all the available data suggests that has happened in Iran.

Though despite that, trying to force regime change from outside is a stupid mistake...

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


I don't know of any populist politicians in Iran. for the record, regime change imposed form outside will pretty much always be a disaster.... so this Israeli-US jihad is... not a good idea.
I'd love to see the current Iranian regime fall if that's what most Iranians want but they need to do that themselves...


From what I've read/heard the lower the level the more democracy so at the top it narrows down to a couple of regime approved candidates while in local terms there's more choice.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


A very constrained democracy since the theocrats in charge severely limit the range of candidates

Talking to Iranians and reading dissenters online there seem to be lots of parallels with Poland in the 1970-80s the system is broken, everybody realizes it can't work but no one can see a way out (not least because there's no faction in the government that is willing to throw in their lot with the people and/or publicly recognize that it's a broken system.

In terms of theocracy there are more parallels with Poland (or later cccp) in that a large chunk (probably a majority) of the population does not believe in the official dogma - mosque attendance has plummeted and lot s of unofficial reports of people no longer self-identifying as muslim.

So very interesting and complicated society and russian involvement in the country, as often happens, is about shoring up minority rule against majority sentitment.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


In other words, entities that have no power to guarantee such a thing.