The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by mafketis  

Joined: 31 Mar 2008 / Male ♂
Last Post: 5 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 43 / Live: 23 / Archived: 20
Posts: Total: 11926 / Live: 7224 / Archived: 4702
From: tez nie
Speaks Polish?: tak
Interests: tez nie

Displayed posts: 7247 / page 52 of 242
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mafketis   
22 Apr 2024
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

Why do cops in Poland carry guns?

Because they are entrusted by the state (which has a monopoly on the legally sanctioned use of force) to carry out duties that may require force. And the overwhelming majority of the citizenry (probably well over 95%) are okay with that.

Why are American police so incompetent that a large percentage of the citizenry feels compelled to carry around guns?
mafketis   
21 Apr 2024
Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

No, he was wrong

A specific question was asked... about the meaning of the Polish idiom 'nie w sosie' "not in (the) sauce"

You contributed a completely irrelavant point without guessing the meaning of the idiom.

You were wrong.
mafketis   
20 Apr 2024
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

unless you an American

A lot of Americans are incapable or realizing that different countries.... are different and people in different countries have different values. They're heavily invested in the idea that their values aren't shaped by history or culture but are universal ur-values that all humans share.... nonsense but that's what many Americans believe.
mafketis   
20 Apr 2024
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

this is a thread about Poland.

Yes and the self-defense reasons for gun ownership that might (I repeat... might) make sense in the US don't apply in Poland.

Similarly the reasons that guns aren't necessary for self-defense in Poland don't apply in the US.

Different countries, different norms...
mafketis   
19 Apr 2024
Language / Cult statements in the Polish language [31]

far more often HWDP

Back when it was most heavily used in graffiti, the spelling with samo h (plain h) was used more or less 100% of the time.

The first time I say the version with 'ch' in print it looked wrong and awkward....

What about

Mam to w dvpie! (I have it in my @ss = I don't give a sh!t)

previous proposals by me (with translations)

Nie chcem ale muszem? (I don't wanna but I gotta = I don't want to, but I have to)

Polak potrafi? (A Pole can! or more freel Poles can get the job done! or Poles get it done!) slogan from Gierek times

teraz kurvva my! (It's _our_ fvkking turn now!)

śpiewać każdy może (anyone can sing) iconic song from 1977 performed by non-singer Jerzy Stuhr

widzę ciemność! (I see dark) from the iconic 1983 sci fi comedy Sex-mission

Einstein była kobietą! (Einstein was a woman!) from the same movie

Niemcy mnie biją! (Germans are beating me up! by former politician Jan Rokita during a disagreement with staff on a Lufthansa flight)
mafketis   
18 Apr 2024
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

Anytime you want to compare Warsaw's crime rate

total or per capita?

I'd say Warsaw compares _very_ favorably with any comparably sized American city.

And the Polish countryside compares favorably with your neck of the boonies.... (per capita probably a bit worse than the cities...)
mafketis   
16 Apr 2024
News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]

Phillip Bobbit apparently thinks of everything from WWI to the end of the Cold War as a single conflict the goal of which was to determine which socio-economic system was supeior, communism (actually socialism), fascism or capitalism.

Capitalism easily won.

The current challenge to the constitutional order is about the ideology that will be used to justify the coming order (fluid no borders capital and intense bio-surveillance of individuals).

the US, UK, russia and China all agree about the basics and mostly disagree about a few specifics....

The challenge is to support (as much as possible) countries that are trying to hold on to some version of the nation state like Poland and Ukraine...
mafketis   
15 Apr 2024
Work / tram driver foreigner [31]

some ukrainian drivers are now working in poland, could this be a plus?

In showing that foreigners are accepted as drivers yes.

it's very similar to polish so it would be "easy" to learn

Look at it the other way, any Ukrainian you know would help you learn Polish very quickly.

But beware about mixing slavic languages. For non-native speakers, a second or third slavic language is liable to interfere with those you already know in weird and unpredictable ways.

This is unlike Romance languages where knowledge of one mostly helps with others and where interference (dropping Italian words into Spanish or vice versa) doesn't make you sound crazy.

Especially Polish and Ukrainian are just similar enough and just far enough apart that it will be tricky to keep them apart but randomly using words from one in the other will sound.... very weird.

Learn Polish (not so hard if you know some Ukrainian) and start contacting the mass transit authorities in cities with streetcar networks, see here for the larger cities with trams to enquire about feasability of your plan:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Poland#Tram

nb. Very often in Poland the first answer to any request or enquiry is "No." Don't take that too seriously... often it means "I'm busy now" or "Let me think about it" or "Convince me".... persistence pays off!
mafketis   
14 Apr 2024
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

do not see any stories of Parents gunning down their children

Urban folklore mostly.

There are tragic cases but they're pretty rare. What's a bit more common is kids getting into guns.... this is largely the product of guns being made forbidden fruit (and so tantalizing to children).

I grew up around guns and my father made sure I knew how to shoot and knew basic gun safety and I was never tempted to play around with them....
mafketis   
13 Apr 2024
History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]

One thing russia could do is take responsibility for russian and soviet crimes.... but russia, so.... no....

russia just 'discovered' secret documents that indicate nazi and not soviet guilt after all!

how long before russia apologists go all in supporting this new 'evidence'?

twitter.com/POMAHMOBA/status/1778745414759391638
mafketis   
13 Apr 2024
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

In Australia today/yesterday a man began attacking people with a knife, starting with a young mother and her baby (mother died, baby's in the hospital in serious condition).

Fortunately a lone policeman entered the building and shot him dead (heroine!) some might bemoan the loss of a mass murderer but not me.

So far IINM 6 dead a bunch injured. If someone else had been armed the chances are there would be some people alive now that aren't.

The shooter's identity has not been revealed but is likely a local Jewish man with mental and drug problems... or not.

And the one person to confront him was apparently a russian citizen who held him off on an escalator using a metal stand.