News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [812]


USians who support her don't want her--they just don't know it.

Off-Topic / Best posters [886]


You should hear what I think, but don't write. :)


Bobko Bobkovich has the characteristics of a poster that draws one to an internet forum: humorous, intelligent, opinionated, and wrong 75% of the time. :D


Yeah, Irish chicks are alright. A certain elegance mixed with a slight touch of the acidic. I should probably invite her over to USia for a week, though, to show her that USia and USians aren't as bad as she appears to think.


I would not be shocked to find out that he spends his Friday and Saturday nights outside random pubs picking fights. Matter-of-fact, I'd be shocked to learn he doesn't. He then spends his Sundays in prayer, of course, because it's his duty. :)

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [812]

It seems that the dems internal polling is causing them some heartburn. The public polling may be giving some credence to that heartburn. It seems that almost every Presidential election cycle the repubs win, the polling shows the repub candidate losing up until October, then the polls start to tighten. Same is happening now, so there may be some credence to the dem's heartburn.

I've been paying attention to the reporting of Selena Zito, she seems to have her finger on the pulse of PA. Zito is seeing more organic support for Trump. Who knows what that means when it comes casting ballots, though.

The election is tight, I don't think anyone can make a prognostication of who will win.

Off-Topic / Music Thread - part 2 [982]

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Off-Topic / Music Thread - part 2 [982]

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Off-Topic / Music Thread - part 2 [982]

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Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

@Paulina

Give Doig a look-see.

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

Any of you familiar with Peter Doig?

He has some good stuff. There's balance in his work.

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

@Bobko

Haha! I genuinely like your screed, but it is a caricature, not the reality of monastic life throughout the ages, including those that remain alive today. Ora et labora.

Christianity is not dead--shrinking, but nowhere near dead.


I'm out for rest of day, but we should.

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

It's not the still life aspect, it's the technique. Again, it's incredible skill--just doesn't draw me...at all

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Yet, it seems the western monks did contribute to saving Western culture, as Eastern monks did to their cultures (disclosure: I'm not well educated on Orthodox history).


I may seem to be belaboring the point, but I think your distinction is upside-down. The dedication to prayer, contemplation, and pursuit of holiness in not put a barrier between oneself and the world, but the barrier is to provide an environment for one to pursue a life of prayer, contemplation, and pursuit of holiness.

If the monastery was about the former, I'd agree it's a stupid thing, perhaps I'd even call it anti-Christian. The latter, however, is of enormous value.

I'd argue that the monk doesn't enter the monastery to save the world, but to save his soul--that holiness then has a mystical effect on the world because we are inter-connected on some level.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Don't be too impressed, I've walked past that thing at least 100 times over the past 20-odd years.

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

In the Western monastic tradition it is more about seeking communion with God. Atoning and confronting sinfulness is part of it, but it's more about confronting the obstacle which impedes one's union with God.


Which is certainly a good, but merely an ephemeral good. I'd be willing to bet the farm that a young man as yourself hasn't quite settled with absolute certainty the "is life ephemeral?" question.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

*bows

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

@GefreiterKania

Is that relief of the soldiers from Poznan?

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


I did not know that.


Maybe over entering the monastery, but one is never over what one seeks in a monastery...even when one thinks he's rejected that which is sought in a monastery. ;)

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


I agree. I just think that art has varying degrees of redeemability and value (to the human soul--not monetary).


I like all different types from all different periods.

I don't necessarily have a favorite artist, but if you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose, I guess I'd have to flip a coin between Cezanne or Ver Meer. Although, I very much like Bobko's references.


That's probably why I find it soulless, it's more commercial/advertising art.


:D So you wouldn't be shocked to know that I actually considered becoming a monk.

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Agree that the skill is incredible, but I strongly dislike the finished product. I find it soulless. It doesn't really have anything to say.

History / Why American military aid to Europe and Poland is important to America itself? [227]

@Bratwurst Boy

Project 2025

You are wise to be cautious about what others have to say about it.

I guarantee you most, if not all, who comment on it haven't actually read it. It's a large document.

I suggest going to the horse's mouth to get the actual gist. Then, you can disagree or agree with what it actually proposes as policy recommendations.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


I didn't know that. I thought Norm told only his son and his one close friend.

Letterman was OK. Once he moved to CBS he lost something. The show he had on NBC after Carson was great. I was a devotee of it. Me and my buddies would talk about the show all the time.

A friend I met at chicken restaurant I worked as a teenager and I formed a band that we called Dave.

Norm is top 5 all time stand-ups. Did you know he was a huge fan of Russian literature?

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


It was Norm's last time on the Letterman show as Letterman was retiring and Norm gets a little emotional after the Germany joke. Here's the entire episode:

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


Which reminds me of this:

History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]


Does this make you at least a tad nervous, Milo?


Yeah, he was a Jew. The dems are solidly anti-semitic. Hopefully, the majority of Jews in this country recognize and finally cross the aisle.


We? We need a counter force to beat back the cultural-Marxist socialists, such as Harris and Walz.

What policies of Harris do you support and why, Lyzko?

Off-Topic / Music Thread - part 2 [982]

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History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]

New Deal capitalism, ie government driven economics, or Crony Capitalism, ie government driven economics for the favored. In other words, socialism or favoritism? Two crappy choices.

You think you need to be Warren Buffet to have children? I serve as a correction to such thinking: my bank account is not remotely anywhere near Warren Buffet's and I got three kids running around.

I do agree the birth rate is a culprit, but is the plummeting birth rate the result of sheer economics or moral norms having changed? My parents made a fraction of what most households make today and my mom squeezed six of us out.

Does government subsidies to the able bodied unemployed in the form of perpetual unemployment benefits, welfare, and ssi have any bearing on the jobs filled by migrant not going to western-born workers?

It's not simply a plummeting birth rate but also that government enables the unproductivity of unskilled westerners to stay away from the work force as well as the infusion of millions of migrants into the job market competing with productive western unskilled workers for jobs.

It's a manufactured crisis and its not because of traditional conservative policies, but government intervention and liberal morality.

History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]

@Lyzko

So, what you are saying is the Swedes are p!ssed because they are suffering an identity crisis because their snow is melting?

History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]


The Brits engaging in a little civil unrest-not entirely shocking. But, the Swedes? Now that catches one's attention.

I'm not big on conspiracy theories, but there is way too much of this all throughout the western world to not make one wonder what exactly is going on behind the scenes and who is behind these waves of foreign illegals crossing our borders.

History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]

@pawian

How is your example German pressuring Turks to stay in Germany? Looks like a typical foreign worker visa law that governs how long a guest qorker can stay in a country.

History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]

@Bratwurst Boy

Absolutely. They are not only stifling but also grotesquely expensive.

History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]

That's always been one of the two big reasons I'd hate to be in the EU: regulations on top of regulations on top of regulations on top of regulations.