History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


It remains the correct explanation. This man's story was plucked out of the hundreds of thousands of such stories precisely because of the unique coincidence of his daughter's paintings. The BBC and Voice of America are not unsophisticated organizations. They're practiced at these things, for more than half a century now.

Even overzealous state security workers eager to please the Kremlin understand how arresting people because of their kid's drawings would draw outrage even amongst docile Russians. This was clearly a miscalculation, and it clearly backfired.

It's not policy, and therefore it doesn't bother me.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


If everything Russia does is a bluff, then how should Russia communicate to ensure it is heard? The last couple posts in this thread are pure insanity. It's crazy to me that it's 60+ year-old dudes that are writing this insane sh!t to me. You guys are completely off your rockers.

We are talking about the destruction of everything, literally everything. For what?

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


He had a recent change of heart. He wrote about it.

History / What do Poles owe to Czechs? [89]

Czechs are famous nihilists. Czechs believe nothing. It's enough to read Kafka and Hašek to understand this is a nation of heavy drinkers and jokers.

However, I have never seen so many empty churches as when I was in France. Truly only the very ancient were present.

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


I realized I had not appreciated the meaning behind your words here... On the one hand - yes - they are all the same to me. Crazies, freaks, etc. However, one cannot compare David Koresh, Jim Jones, or some desert Mormon prophet to the guys that wrote the Bible. I'm a little wary of giving them all the credit, since perhaps it was the centuries of scholars toiling over the texts that gave them the beautiful form they exist in today, but still... what's written in the Bible is some of the most important literature written in the history of our species. Though an atheist, I frequently turn to the Bible. Usually to come up with some especially creative insult for my girlfriend (I read to her from the Psalms on how a woman should behave), but sometimes also to find answers to questions that are vexing me. Most of these are in the realm of HR and conflict mediation, since most actual HR departments and mediators are parasites.

One time, in a bookstore in New Orleans, I found an old critique of the Book of Job which was maybe 750 pages long. That book travelled with me on several vacations before I got through it. It was a moment in my life when I was daily "eating glass" trying to get my business off the ground. Having a more nuanced appreciation for Job was good help in working through the troubles of business.

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


You are asking me - an atheist - this question? If so - then receive your answer: "YES!".


This is an easy one. The answer is because Christianity is a Jewish sect.

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


Only what was assigned to me. The person leading discussions was a skeptic, and he imparted the same POV to us, his students. We read a bit from Swedenborg's "sane" days, and then a bit from his "schizophrenia" days. That's all I know.


How so? In each case we are dealing with a self declared prophet that has a direct line to our Maker?

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


About what? If he were around today there'd be new Waco Sieges, and Jonestown Mass Suicides. What could a guy that claimed to visit Heaven and Hell, nightly, teach us?

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


In other words, the people that saved Christianity from being yet another Jewish sect that disappeared into the ether of history.

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]

Is it just me, or is JR a lot more coherent than usual?


I've never seen you write this way. Oh well, no matter. I'm no theologian, but I think Jon is right. Peter did not speak Greek, while Paul did.

My understanding of Peter is that he was sort of a dummy. A loyal, pious, naive dummy. Judas and Paul were the smart ones.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


I am sorry to keep you waiting! I felt I made a generalist statement which should have encapsulated all of my issues with your line of thinking. I was lazy to provide a point by point response, but now that you have distilled your own position it's an easier task.

So....

1) In general, again, I have no issue with your position as a Polish person. If you recognize that this is an alliance of opportunity with yesterday's butchers - then that is fine in my book.

2) I disagree that Russia is the bigger threat. Old Pawian also seemed to think so. Russia attacking Ukraine has made you paranoid compared to your ten-years-ago self.

3) Old Pawian would understand that Poles protecting Ukraine would make a Russian invasion of Poland MORE likely, rather than less likely.

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


Ok, I can't do this anymore... I can't defend those a$sholes.

I was trying to stir up trouble, as I do, and thought I found the right thread :)

Fact is, I hate religion as mentioned many times in the past. All religion, except maybe Tengriism. Perhaps the proximate reason is because of how the religious bureaucracy behaves in my country of birth. The Patek Phillipes, S-Klasses, yachts, and palatial mansions is just the peak of the iceberg. You correctly pointed out their servile attitude towards the state. On the one hand, you could think - who can blame them? Peter the Great broke them, and put them under a Synod. Stalin broke them again. Now they're trying to get back on their feet, but they don't know where to start.

Sellers of opium, the lot. Parasites on the body of society. Conmen who exploit the vulnerable.

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


How the hell do you explain things like Vatican 2, then?

The Orthodx Church is THE church because it has barely changed, whereas the Catholics are only a few steps behind their Protestant colleagues in rewriting the book. One of the reasons the Orthodox Church is unchanging is because of its conciliar form of government. Everybody has to agree for a change to be made, and that never happens.

The next reason is because of all the churches listed in the Bible, only one remains in the West and all the others are still Eastern. So if 80% of the churches still follow something, then it must be the other one which is too smart for its own good.

In addition to the above, Tradition anchors the Orthodox faith, passed down by the Fathers, not some Pope.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]

Really? Orcs, Meat, Mongols, Beasts, Slaves - who uses these words?

Back to the topic of the thread please

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]

@GefreiterKania

Hahaha! One of them, the one my family happens to belong to, is 200M people strong. Is that Microdox? Your Big Brother Church is of course bigger... but only because it subsumes the planet.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


what has changed is that you were willing to be objective in 2013, but now that the war has come around you have become a TASS/VOA correspondent.

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]


This is what I am reacting to!

The only thing you have going for you is what Jesus happened to say to Peter at some point, in passing.

We have 2,000 years of tradition and everything else.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]

@pawian

Ok - fine - I apologize. But I don't think I hallucinated this, I just can't find it.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]

@pawian

I think it's in Polanda, I can't find it. I felt that what I found was better, but ok!

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]

@GefreiterKania

Stalin was too clever by half. He thought he would permanently sow discord between the Poles and Ukrainians by annexing Lvov. Lvov turned out to be a time bomb under the Soviet Union itself. Much more shrewd would have been to give the Carpathians and Lvov to the Poles, and earn eternal alliance of the Ukrainians and Madyars :)

Life / Relation in Poland to Orthodox Christians? [117]

Poland missed a huge opportunity by deciding to be Catholic. One may argue that all the problems Poland has encountered, is because they decided to join the ranks of the Roman schismatics. In this way, Grace was lost.

Any person with a brain understands that through apostolic succession the Orthodox Christian Church is the spiritual successor to the original body of believers in Christ that was composed of the Apostles. This apostolic succession manifests itself through the unbroken succession of its bishops back to the apostles.

Quoting from Orthodox Wiki here:

The unbrokenness of apostolic succession is significant because of Jesus Christ's promise that the "gates of hell" (Matthew 16:18) would not prevail against the Church, and his promise that he himself would be with the apostles to "the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

By reading pre-schism Fathers, such as Saint John of Damascus, or Saint Basil, specifically what they wrote about religious rituals - you can see that the Orthodox Church is the only modern church which can claim to still follow those traditions.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


Go and find a thread called "East Europe's Wild Nature - flora and fauna (zoological thread)".

There you may find such pearls as below:


... and more interesting quotes. I understand that this war has made everybody emotional, but we should not forget to use our reason.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


Are you not a member of the Church of Ukraine? In this past year you have told me I'm an agitator for claiming there are Banderists in Ukraine. When the former UA ambassador to Germany, Melnyk, said Bandera was a fine man and that the Poles had it coming - you didn't believe me until I provided you a link.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]

I see you have no appetite for discussing Ukrainian nationalists and their heinous crimes.

Perhaps I should have tried a different angle... What is the proper name of the largest city in Western Ukraine? Options:

1) Lvov
2) Lwow
3) Lemberg
4) Lviv

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


If it evolved towards Peace, as you say Jon - then Poland is truly the Christ among Nations.


How Pawian has changed)

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


Now, as we approach the 80th anniversary of the massacre in Wolyn, it is appropriate to reflect on how things have evolved over the past ten years.


No, no! This is incorrect. A bullet to the head, or a rocket falling on your apartment, during war, is still most cruel genocide. This is what the Russians do now. Using pitchforks to toss babies shows that the Ukrainians maintained brotherly restraint throughout.


Uhmm, excuse me? It is most definitely genocide. If it's children that are being resettled away from a war zone, then it's genocide squared!

Off-Topic / Russian Views On Poland and Vice Versa [414]


Mhmm. In cities less and less, but in villages many houses will have their own unique recipes. Some add hard candy, others add jam, some dump straight sugar.

Travel / Hiking and Camping Trails in Poland [51]

Merged:

Camping in Poland

It's all in the title of the thread. How does camping in Poland, work?

Here on the East Coast of the US, I have been camping primarily in three different areas. The Delaware Water Gap (PA), The Adirondacks (NY), and The Catskills (NY). Usually my trips are focused around a river, and involve a kayak or a canoe. The canoe is for carrying the big backpacks, equipment, and the 80L cooler for beer and food. Whoever gets the canoe will be slower, and much more tired than the rest, but it is an important job.

As we go down the river, we look for little brown signs that are nailed to trees facing the river. The signs have a maple leaf and a number on them, indicating a campsite. If there are already kayaks or canoes parked in front of the sign, we continue rowing until we find a site that's not occupied. If we can't find one by sundown, that's when people begin getting nasty (this is why it's important to be on the river by 8:30 AM latest).

At these marked sites, there is typically a fire ring prepared by a ranger (metal or made of rocks), and a nice clearing (ticks are a big problem here). No toilets or water. The sites are free to use. However, if you pay a small amount you can also book campsites online. Those are typically better set up.

The fine for camping "wild" is not large, but if you get a ranger who's in a bad mood, you may be forced to pack your things in the dark, after a long day, and follow the ranger to a preapproved site to rebuild your camp. This is for when camping on public land.

Camping on private land can get you into all sorts of trouble, including getting shot. It's not always clear if you are on public or private land.

So, how does it work in Poland?

History / "Westerner's" most ridiculous beliefs about the time of communism in Poland [73]


Your brother should be reported to the ICC for crimes against humanity.

I joke. Thanks for sharing that.

History / "Westerner's" most ridiculous beliefs about the time of communism in Poland [73]


That's fascinating! What did he do?

Recently I surprised a Western friend simply by telling him that it was Western and Japanese finance that paid for most of the gas and oil pipelines which the Soviet Union constructed in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was giving me the normal spiel about what a turd Merkel was for buying into "Putin's lies", and I told him - "Bro. Western governments were providing billions of dollars of loans to the USSR at the height of the Cold War in order to secure energy supplies." He didn't believe me at first, but after a quick Google search he almost fell of his chair.

In his head it did not make sense that governments would send billions of dollars to a country which had 15,000 nukes aimed at them.

The world is a complex place.