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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 49 mins ago
Threads: Total: 73 / Live: 22 / Archived: 51
Posts: Total: 24805 / Live: 14760 / Archived: 10045 		From: In the Heart of Darkness
Speaks Polish?: Tak

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jon357   
19 Jul 2015
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

In Switzerland it is required by law that every family have a gun and trained how to use it
The gun crime rate is zero

WTF. If you look at the first chart, you'll see that the gun crime rate is high there.

The facts don't lie.

You however do.

Fortunately there is no desire within Poland to relax the current gun control laws. We do not want to be like America.
jon357   
17 Jul 2015
Law / Weed laws in Poland [25]

Very strict. Locked up for 48 hours while they process it and zero tolerance. A friend was prosecuted for having less than 0.1 grams (basically residue) in the end of a pipe. Screwed up his career as a nurse.

Dealers, even dealing tiny amounts, are jailed.
jon357   
16 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

Every audience is specific and untypical to some exten

That's no answer. As well you know, he is a cynical politician addressing a largely elderly and sentimental audience.

And meanwhile, religious adherence plummets. Poland existed before the Christian era and will exist after it.
jon357   
16 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

It stand to logic that if the statement of the political leader wouldn't have been acceptable to the majority of Poles he wouldn't said that.

No it doesn't. He was speaking to a very specific and untypical audience. He's an opposition politician - he plays to the crowds.
jon357   
16 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

People who are rich, fat, flabby,self-satisfied and conceited feel they are their own gods.

All of those descriptions actually fit yourself, off forum. Remember we have met and were neighbours...

Religion gives solace to those in need, the downtrodden, sick and abandoned.

Or provides a pulpit (literally) for people to expound their views and frankly behave very badly. This is why it's declining so fast - in Poland they simply went too far...
jon357   
16 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

That makes no sense, Pol3. We've proves conclusively in this thread that JK was talking out of his arse as usual, that Poland gets on very well indeed without religious interference and that in any case, religious observance is declining.
jon357   
16 Jul 2015
Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

I think she means it's 10,000zl in banknotes, just a guess. Probably not as used as you or I to using different currencies.

Unless it's old dewizowa coupons from the PRL, but either way, they're worth more as fire kindling.
jon357   
16 Jul 2015
Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

just go to the nearest money exchange.

10,000 dollars in polish money from 1988 all 100 dollar bills

I'd like to see the look on their faces.

Hard to know what she means by '100 dollar bills' if it's Polish money. Does she mean those dewizowa coupons? Also worthless now.
jon357   
16 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

History has shown that Poland is the strongest when it's people were more conected with God.

I'd say it's more that when Poland was at it's weakest, for example during the fascist occupation during WWII, religion provided a rallying point.

our szlachta fought amongst ourselves and the church became a political tool

Much as it is now.

If the RCC was better behaved, if they towed down the absolutism and the nationalism, focussed the politic side on social justice rather than some of the pronouncements of recent years, dealt with the Torun Redemptorists etc they might not be haemorrhaging adherents so fast.
jon357   
14 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

hat little bit of privacy is in fact guaranteed by Polish law.

Yes. It's when people try to politicise it - not because of the core values but because of the peripherals - that problems start.

Maybe a lot of people are to lazy or busy to keep up their church attendance.

So not living as catholics...
jon357   
14 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

And you haven't been outside of Warsaw much?

Lots, and 'packed' still doesn't mean that the majority, or anything like a majority, attend or are even interested.
jon357   
14 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

As I have said many times, the vast majority of Polish Catholics are very nice people; the problem is that the people who shout loudest about being patriotic Polish Catholics are very often simply not good Christians.

Bingo. It's the ones who shout loudest that are the worst examples to others.
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

Laughable. I am the poorest man on my street, and according to that "table" I am in the top half million wage earners :) ROFL

Likewise. I'm also probably one of the poorest in the street except for domestic staff and also one of the poorest in the neighbourhood and according to that misleading tosh I'm well in the top 0.2%! I certainly don't feel it. Even when I was teaching English in Warsaw I fell into the top half million and very definitely didn't feel it. Those figures are distorted by people with multiple incomes, the asset rich/cash poor and undeclared/overseas incomes. I will say though that the local parish church isn't particularly busy and that also goes for the church in the notoriously rough housing estate down the road - that isn't busy either.

Slippery slope fallacy.

This is a recurrent theme in some of these threads. A kind of irrational fear that things are always going to get worse rather than better. People often do turn to religion and/or reflect on faith and the transcendent in times of difficulty. Poland has had a century of that and, together with the JPII effect and political currents that opposed all religions created something rather unhealthy. This is now passing to the despair of the ultra-reactionaries.
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

if there is no Poland without the RCC

Poland as a culture certainly predates the RCC - when Christianity was introduced in the 10th Century it was pre-schism and therefore not RCC. Even before Christianity (which came late to Poland, around 700 years later than it did to Britain), Poland existed. Probably none the worse for having whatever religion predominated.

propagandisti

your freak parade!

And with opinions like this oozing out of conservative catholics, do you wonder why it's becoming increasingly a minority sport?
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

we can all look forward to more unwed mothers, bastard births, broken homes, confused fatherless kids, desertions

You seem to see it as an either/or situation. Not that there's anything at all wrong with a one-parent family; Poland has plenty, whether religious or not...

maybe it would be better to raise our children with wife and child beating, alcoholism, and children's money being spent on booze?

The good old days, all that evil progress stopping morally upright husbands from physically chastising their wifies who are barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen...
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

so you are baptized, married in church, and currently agnostic? me too, me too, and me too. Nice to hear your story and opinion.

This is pretty much the urban Polish story, and increasingly so out in the sticks.
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

Many young Poles don't believe in the value of church nowadays.

Exactly and the behaviour of the clergy and certain politicians had in very large part facilitated this...

Polish chruches are definitely fuller on Sundays.

But certainly not jam packed with crowds standing in the rain, as the poster idly and misleadingly suggested..

You will find that PF despite the name is populated largely by expats and non-Poles

Well, Pol3, there are plenty of Polish language fora waiting with baited breath for an extreme right-wing American misanthrope to come along and tell the majority that they should start attending churches again.

do you believe PF posters reflect a representative cross-section of Polish public opinion?

Is it meant to be? Is any forum?

not only Poland B but also outside of Poland A cities, most (including younger) Poles are unfortunately

chewing straw ;-)
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

If you visit Polish churches you will see, big city or small village, that the churches are full. Full as in, stand outside in the rain, full.

So you haven't been in Warsaw much lately?

Neither John or Dominic are Polish or church goers

Religious affiliation and/or nationality make not one fig of difference.
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

@jon357 so JK adjusted his speech to the audience.

Even more than that - he was playing to the gallery and the audience were an untypical bunch.

Like I said before, the guy is not stupid. He's just offensive.

Most realise that - hence dumping him as quickly as the electorate could - he didn't even complete a term of office. The mohair berets gathered at the event he turned up to were among the minority who think he's a lovely person.
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

I'm curious, do both of you speak Polish fluently? Can you read in Polish? I take it both of you are in Poland.

In my case yes - at home we speak no other language and yes, reading isn't a problem. Writing is a not so easy.

We need to be very aware that JK was speaking at a very special event - one with religious people and he was telling them what they want to hear. The audience was far from typical.
jon357   
13 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

Probably most. Others were "spiritual, but not religious"

This is very true.

I'd add that there has always been antipathy among the educated and apathy among hoi polloi and this is increasing. Much of that increase is due to:

concept of "cultural Catholicism"

which has been overplayed in recent years to the point of becoming off-putting.

customs to mark life stages such as entering the world, maturity, marriage, and death

These are just rites of passage. An average bride cares more about her dress than the underlying philosophy behind the priest, shaman, minister, imam, houngan or pastor who performs the ceremony.
jon357   
12 Jul 2015
News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

the Polish nation since AD 966.

Interesting about the time before that. So much of a mythology promoted that the adoption of that particular religion a. happened to the whole country overnight in that year and b. that there was nothing cohesive before.
jon357   
11 Jul 2015
History / Lech Walesa - Happy Birthday! [54]

experienced it personally.

Experienced what? He had a normal journey like any other traveller.

Why are we writing about it in this thread. It isn't his birthday for a while yet.
jon357   
11 Jul 2015
History / Lech Walesa - Happy Birthday! [54]

He survived London airport

Following airport procedures isn't much to 'survive', is it.

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