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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 10 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 76 / Live: 25 / Archived: 51
Posts: Total: 25270 / Live: 15225 / Archived: 10045 		From: Somewhere around Barstow
Speaks Polish?: Not with my mouth full

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jon357   
27 May 2012
Life / Racism in Poland - the future [558]

You are typical example of an extremist.
Well, try to go out, once in a while. In real world, the is no clear cut between good and evil, but many shades of gray.

Or more likely an example of someone who doesn't hate. Racism is never a 'shade of grey'. It is always wrong.
jon357   
27 May 2012
Life / Racism in Poland - the future [558]

Don't be so silly. There is no 'golden mean' where racism and other forms of fear and hatred are concerned. Something is either positive or negative, and all racism is negative.
jon357   
20 May 2012
Real Estate / Renting in Poland - tenants' rights? [51]

Re the monthly admin charge (czynsz) it is either included in the rent (in which case the landlord deals with it) or it isn't (in which case the tenant pays). The former is more usual than the latter unless the landlord lives a long way away. They don't always want the spoldzienie - or the tax office - to know they have a tenant.
jon357   
20 May 2012
Life / Polish people are the most ignorant people in the world! [335]

In effect,There is a grain of truth in what he says. But only a grain. The British, for example, often do speak foreign languages; we learn at least one from age 7 or 8 and often a second at high school. However wherever we go people want to speak English to us. You can't blame a busy shop assistant in Paris for replying to us in English when we ask for something in French but here in Poland they take it to an extreme.

A couple of examples. I've lived here for years and like to think I speak Polish well - certainly well enough to give evidence for an hour in court during a complicated lawsuit and to deliver U3A lectures in Polish. When I'm here, I don't usually speak English from one week to the next. And my accent is good enough for me to pass as Polish (for a while anyway) if I really try hard. Yet a few weeks ago I was in a restaurant and ordered for myself and my guest in flawless Polish. Yet the waiter (whose English was so basic as to be almost unintelligible - he didn't even know the word 'fork') insisted in replying every time in some sort of English. And about a year ago, I was in a bar that I've been a regular at for 12 years with my closest friend (who doesn't speak English). For around half an hour we were talking about betting systems and why they mathematically don't work. All in good Polish. Then a guy leant over and said to me "How you like stay? How long you are visit? What hotel you?"

So people are criticed for not making the effort to learn Polish but treated with extreme ignorance by a certain type of Pole when they do. In effect you're dammed if you do and damnedest if you don't. No wonder so many people feel they don't have to.
jon357   
14 May 2012
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

What makes you think that a. he'd be doing the same thing or that b. the government haven't thought about that? They aren't PiS, so they do actually think!
jon357   
14 May 2012
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

And the issue is that if he has what you describe as health problems then he is in any case unfit tor work. If he is fit for work, then being 66 is no longer a reason for the state to retire him on full pension.

Unless you know of some magic source of money.
jon357   
14 May 2012
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

That's just nit-picking. There's an aging population, life expectancy is increasing and there's a finite pot of money for social provision. The current government are working with the same situation that any other party would - except PiS would simply duck the issue or make promises that they could never fulfil. Or hope that prayer would solve the problem.
jon357   
14 May 2012
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Another factor I forgot to mention but quite obvious - where all those people will be working ?eh?
You do not expect 66 years old zipping up and down scaffolding ? or digging coal at the fore ?
eh?

There are always jobs to suit and given that the increase in retirement age is partly due to more and more people staying fit and healthy for longer, we shouldn't make assumptions. Anyway, nobody here is expected to perform a task at work that they are unfit for.
jon357   
14 May 2012
Life / Scars of Communism on Polish culture. [55]

Elbows.

Its not just the scars of communism but also the scars of Thatcher/Reagan.

Just as communism was touted as a belief system, some of them here think that capitalism is an ideology too.
jon357   
6 May 2012
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

but it wasn't necessary for mixing the DNA. :)

Exactly ;-)

Though as well as just hanky panky, there were also thousands of families who converted over the years.

I did a DNA test that reveals Askenazic Jewish DNA, but I alway thought I was Polish American.

Swings and roundabouts - you shatter an illusion but gain an Israeli passport.
jon357   
4 May 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

Lots of women love the real thing.
And all that nonsense about disease and cleanliness is just that.

So Poland is not backwards. In this.

Exactly
jon357   
3 May 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

because Charlotte apparently found an uncircumcised one very distasteful, and this is an indication of what all women think,

She'd probably never seen the real thing.
jon357   
29 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

I think some of the people from the US (almost certainly victims of genital mutilation themselves) are introducing this because they don't have much else to say in favour of it.

Really, it's bizarre to confuse any underlying anti-semitism (or lack thereof) with not mutilating a child - it's hard to imagine anyone even thinking about that.
jon357   
29 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

I responded to it.

Actually it was brought up a couple of pages ago, but never mind.

You actually cited Africa as a good example. Ridiculously suggesting that

a continent with the most 3rd world countries in the world where access to clean drinking water is rare and running water.

is somehow a citable source for complicated medical studies but incompetent to perform a particularly basic (and primitive) genital mutilation!
jon357   
28 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

Agreed 100%. It's part lt trolling, partly cultural imperialism and partly some individuals working off their own inadequacies about being mutilated.
jon357   
27 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

then there's a continent with the most 3rd world countries in the world where access to clean drinking water is rare and running water

You'd be surprised how clean it is, especially in hospitals.

the point being, choosing Africa as a reference for "circumcisions gone bad" is just plain silly.

So why choose Africa at all as an example to advocate genital mutilating. After all, you brought the place up.
jon357   
27 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

I've certainly been in hospitals in Africa - and none of them looked like, as you called it:

mud hut with a sharp piece of shale rock.

What things that you've seen 'countless times' helped form your sparkling insight into both international hospital practice as well as the pointless practice of circumcision, whether in Africa or elsewhere?
jon357   
27 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

due directly to all the case studies of tens of thousands of men in Africa, showing significantly lower rates of HIV among those who were circumcised before puberty.

Unfortunately they only show a short term lower rate of 1.3% as opposed to 3% who have nasty complications from the operation. Details cited in posts above.
jon357   
25 Apr 2012
Life / Scars of Communism on Polish culture. [55]

No, darling, it is simply a sign of cultural behaviour in this part in Europe (it also exists in other Eastern countries e.g., Russia) to take off your coat in certain public institutions.

Exactly. The weather and the fact that more people use public transport rather than warm cars have a lot to do with this.

Even if the original post is stupid... I think the topic is interesting, can't we just talk about it? ;)

I agree - however I'd say that the thread title is somewhat loaded - as if everything that came from the PRL was negative and everything in the US which he compares things with is positive.
jon357   
25 Apr 2012
Life / Scars of Communism on Polish culture. [55]

i give this thread just a few more hours till it turns into a Poland vs. USA thing (even though the OP isn't American).

It isn't. The values in the US may (or may not) suit the US, but in Europe we are different.
jon357   
24 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

women that grew up in countries where it isn't practiced.

No. Even where it isn't practised, you find the odd one, and even where boys and men are routinely mutilated you find people lucky enough not to have bits cut off them. I speak from experience ;-)

women that have boyfriends/husbands with unsnipped ones that are obviously going to be partial,

Not necessarily. Most of them are probably dreaming of an undamaged one.
jon357   
24 Apr 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

in particular the HPV which can cause all sorts of awful things.

In the UK they're offering vaccination now for teenagers - HPV is nasty, and the vaccination seems to be the best solution.
jon357   
24 Apr 2012
Life / Scars of Communism on Polish culture. [55]

More Polish people live outside of Poland than inside Poland.

40 million?

Creative thinking was a threat and punished

If anything, they had to be very creative indeed.

In many government and public buildings across Poland.

A lot of that was there before.

There are four or six cashiers at KFC and in other fast food places, and people still get in one communist line. What's up with that.?? If someone takes a risk and gets in that line, then there is a chance Jacek could be served before Agata. That would be capitalist.

Actually that's fairly recent - and a much fairer way.