History / Seen "teutonic" in my history book and i was just wondering what it was? [4]

Interestingly, the lands conquered by the Knights of the Cross (aka Teutonic Knights) were named after the pagan Prussians the Teutons had slaughtered. That area came to be known as Prussia, and that was the name of the 19th/20th century . Kingdom of Prussia, also known as the Second Reich, which fought in WW1. Hitler prefered the name Deutschland (Germany) for his Third Reich, of which Prussia (Preußen) was one of its regions.

Some say inviting the Krzyżacy by Duke Conrad of Masovia was the biggets blunder ever committed in Polish history. The alien enclave festered like a cancerous growth until 1945. Then, rather than splitting the area up between Poland and Lithuanian, Stalin put his fiothy paw on Królewiec region and turned it into the Kalininrgad enclave. He needed a warm-water port that did not freeze over and the doddering old FRD and usually shrewd and crafty Churchill gave in.

Life / "Protestant" or Non Catholic communities in Poland [18]

There's a big Lutehran church just a stone's throw from the Hotel Victoria (I think it's now called Sofitel). My impression is that there are some 90,000 Lutherans in Poland, but the majority live in Cieszyn Silesia. Former PM Jerzy Buzek is a Lutheran.

One of the most colourful denominations are the Catholic Mariavites of Felcjanowo near Płock who have not only women priests but also bishopesses. There are also Old Catholic Mariavites but they do not have female clergy.

Life / "Protestant" or Non Catholic communities in Poland [18]

That church at Solidarności was rolled back in the late 1940s or early '50s to make way for the Trasa W-Z. It was quite an engineering feat back then.

USA, Canada / Feminine surname endings in America? [48]

So an Icelandic lady emigrates to Canada. At the immirgtration offcie in Toronto when they see Helga Olaffsdottir in her passport do they automatically write down Helga Olaffson in their computer? Or if its Halina Dobrowolska, do they change it to Dobrowoslki right then and there? Anyone know for sure?

Life / "Protestant" or Non Catholic communities in Poland [18]

Even on Sundays? Is it an abandoned or disused faciltiy?

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Admittedly PO is the perpetual poll-leader, but the percentages vary. In a TNS Polska poll taken in the fiurst half of September (presumably when the odium of the Amber Gold scandal finally hit home), PO had a backing of 28% and PiS trailed behind with 26%. SLd – 7%, and Palikot & PSL each 5%.

This is not the first time. In a May survey by MillwardBrown SMG/KRC PO enjoyed 29% and PiS 28%. It all depends what the situation will be like (economic crunch, new scams and scandals, etc.) as the election approaches.

For lanmguage practiuce: Gdyby wybory odbyły się w pierwszej połowie września, największym poparciem cieszyłaby się PO (28 proc.), a drugie miejsce zajęłoby PiS (26 proc.) - wynika z najnowszego sondażu TNS Polska. Do Sejmu weszłyby też: SLD (7 proc.), Ruch Palikota (5 proc.) i PSL (5 proc.).

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Cant argue with that. The constructive no-confidence vote being proposed by PiS might succeed because it enjoys the support of Palikot and SLD, but only if some PO members abstained, voted for the measure* or called in sick. The problem would be to assmble a governent afterwards. It is supposed to be non-political and techocratic cabinet, but in Poland that sounds highly unlikely. If Solidary Poland (Ziobro & Co.) had 12-15% backing, that might make a difference.

For instance if in the 2015 election both PiS and PO got 32% and SP got 15% that would constitute a PiS-SP coaliton of 47% and those two parties could form a government . If the PSL got 5% (as currently) that would give a PO-led coaliton only 37%. If they were power-hungry enough they might attempt adding the SLD (7%) which would give them 44%. If they also added Palikot that would push them ahead of PiS-SP with 49%. However, Tusk may be slippery but he's no fool and would probbaly be wary of an exotic coalition, mindful of the headaches it caused PiS (with LPR and Self-Defence).

*Anyone know if the Sejm monitors how whic M P votes, or is it truly secret balloting?
** Zdolność koalicyjna - what would that be in English -- coalitionability?

They would have SLD got 7 and Palikot 5 then the PO-led ci'+oaltiuon would have. , of the vote*Does anyone know whether the Sejm monitors how which MP votes, or is it truly a secret abllot.

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News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

That's the problem with a 2-party system. Neither cnadidate is any good. Still I prefer a Mormon to a poser who attended church every Sunday with his fmaily during his campaign when the TV cameras were whirring away but after getting elected spends Sunday mornings at the golf course. How's that for hypocrisy? And many of my countrymen suspect him of being a crypto-Muslim. Something far worse than a Mormon.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

CNN has repoted it on several occaisons over the years. I don't recall the exact dates. But do you doubt it? Are you saying Obama is a devout Christian who never misses a Sunday in church and deny that he used it as a vote-getting gimmick to gain respectability?

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

This has been noticed by many Americans: ca.answers.yahoo/question/index?qid=20120820063129AABthTU

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Delph is wrong again. Veteran White Hosue reporter Keith Koffer, who knows the ins and outs of American politics far beeter than you or me, made teh following oibservations:

Obama Heads to Church – Again
by Keith Koffler on January 15, 2012, 12:16 pm

President Obama and his family headed out to church this morning for the third time in a month, the latest sign that the president may be using religion to boost his image as the campaign heats up.

Obama has rarely gone to church since becoming president. But last month he and his family walked across Lafayette Park in front of the White House to attend services at St. John’s Church. They attended Christmas services at a Marine Base in Hawaii and today were at Zion Baptist Church in DC.

While it’s possible the trips to church a part of some kind of renewed personal religious commitment, they are also consistent with Obama’s increased use of religious imagery as part of his public profile.

During two recent annual events – the televised Christmas in Washington gala and the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, Obama invoked specifically Christian themes he had shunned in the past.

The Christian narrative is appealing to a key demographic that fled Democrats en masse during the 2010 midterm election – white working class voters. Obama will need to bring as many members of this group back into the fold if he hopes to prevail in critical swing states like Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, and other must-win states in the Midwest and the South.

News / Rest in Peace Anna Walentynowicz or is it...?! [63]

The Polish media are having another field day, this time about the suspected mix-up of coffins in which the remains of Smolensk victims were placed. More and more families are requesting the exhumation of their loved ones. Today Marshal of the Sejm Ewa Kopacz (who back then was health minister) tearfully proclaiming on TVN24 that she did everryxthing in her power in Moscow in April 2010 but that she was only in charge of comforting victims' families. How could Walentynowicz's mortal remains have been placed in the wrong coffin? Her son saw them in Moscow and everything was OK. The ugly red Russian coffins were changed in Warsaw to handsome wood-grain ones. That might suggest that they mix-up took place in Poland. So overall political responsibility for the chaos falls to the ruling Tusk clique.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Your game is the curve ball or red herring -- start talking about soruces, evidence and various peripheral things without ever addressing the question. May seem clever to you but it's highly transparent and banal. You rarely provide a counterargument -- in this case 'proving' or providing the iron-clad evidence you demand of others that Obama is a weekly churchgoer and never prefers golf to Sudday worship. Unable to do so, you latch on to peripheral issues as to how the information was presented and who presented. It must be the common trait of those who idolise the GW clique.

I recall the GW gang criticisng Glemp a while back: 'The Cardinall is again attacking the West' they wsrote and provided a few of his quotes. Like Delph they preferred to ignore the merits of the argument and latched onto who was doing the criticising. That way they got off the hook (or so they thought!) and did not have to analyse whether the cirticsm was justified or not. It's enough to empahsise that a churchman or republican blogger was the source to completely skirt the issue at hand. If it had been a demcoratic blogger that would have made him credilbe, right?

News / Rest in Peace Anna Walentynowicz or is it...?! [63]

Re Poland's funeral industry, are there any American-style funeral parlours in Poland where mourners come to view and pay respects to the deceased displayed in an open coffin? There is a viewing room at Wólka Węglowa (presumably also at other cemeteries) but that is usually about 30 minutes before the Requiem mass. And not all families opt to have the open coffin displayed. There's an extra charge for that (rental of the viewing room).

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

PRINCETON, NJ -- Just 34% of Americans think U.S. President Barack Obama is a Christian, while 44% say they don't know Obama's religion and 11% say he is a Muslim.

gallup.com/poll/155315/many-americans-cant-name-obamas-religion.aspx

The Washington Times wrote:
American Catholics are mobilizing for the biggest campaign of mass civil disobedience since the end of segregation. U.S. Catholic bishops are calling on Catholics to defy the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate. This comes in addition to numerous lawsuits launched by 46 plaintiffs from dioceses, universities and hospitals against the administration's order that compels religious organizations to subsidize birth control, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. The mandate is an unprecedented assault upon the Catholic Church's conscience rights and religious freedom, blatantly usurping the First Amendment.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

It's their country. What right do aliens have to say what's good for America?

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

What do youi mean by interfere? How are American citizens of Catholic persuasion 'interfering' in democratic processes when they are using their democratic right to lobby, redress greivances, protest and put pressure to bear on the authorities to back their demands through legal means unlike those groups that resort to violence.. An alien is a non-US citizen in this particular ontext. Anyone from a place like the UK would do well to exercise a bit of humility and first clean up their own coutnry's act before smartt-arsing about how other countries should run their affairs.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Again define terms -- what is meant by involved? I would think that means joining a Polish political poarty, stadnign for publici office and the like, and my answer would be No. That right is reserved only for citizens.

Aliens in Poland or anywhere else are guests and should nto try to take over. Those in Poland in refugee centres or working legally or illegally have no right to engage in Polish politics unless they acquire Polish citizenship. Same in the US. Unfortuantely, many illegal aliens act is if they should have unlimtied rights and the Gringos should leave them alone.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

It's a passing thing. The EU will soon collpase anyway (good riddance!), so it's not worth making a fuss about. It was anotehr utopianist experiment which did not work. Thank goodness Poland did not let itself get roped into adopting the euro. Long live the złoty!

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Commenting is not interference. You are even free to say what an a*sehole Obama is. As long as you don't try to vote in the USA.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

delphiandomine: the Złoty has been around for what, 17 years?

Your grasp of Polish hsitory is getitng better by the day. The złoty has been around for 350 years.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

KOSIECKI: probably a topo nick from the village of Koski in the Podlasie region. The toponym may have been dervied from kos (blackbird) or kosa (scythe).

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Gowin would say he's got letter-of-the-law nitpickers like you 'w nosie' (if not 'south of the border' -- you probabyl won't catch that!)).. Every currency has changed in value, appearnce, and certainly buying power due to poltical events, wars, etc. but in historical terms a penny, guilder, franc, schilling, lira, złoty or whatever has been around ever since the term was first coined (no oun intended).

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Poles call them 'szkiełko i oko'* types -- all calculators, columns of figures and e-gadgets but no heart or soul.

There was once a bloke called Mickiewicz, but you wouldn't know about that.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

delphiandomine
I heard you and rejected your sophistic (as always) justification. It'd be like saying the British monarchy began with Elizabeth II. Some hair-splitting nitpicker could surely find some minor points and peripheral reasons to allege that the preceding monarchies were different and therefore it really all began in 1950s.

News / Poland marching for faith and freedom [43]

Invovling oneself in politics could mean joining a poltical party, speaking at or attending a political rally, standing for public office and the like. It does not mean simply observing the poltical scene and expressing one's views of it. There's a difference between participating in a march or rally from covering one.

ok

News / Poland marching for faith and freedom [43]

Or the political scene can be viewed as the crooked oldboy PO clique telling the people between the lines: if you play ball with us, give us free rein, let us force through increased retirement age and don't make too much fuss about Amber Gold, then maybe you'll get cut into the loot. Some Poles are saying of Kaczyński: Wracaj Jarku do koryta, lepszy bliźniak niż bandyta!

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

I'm clinging to the złoty heritage going back to the 1660s. The Soviet-installed communist episode was but a passing nightmare.

Following, observing, expessing opinions or covering events in a given country is not interfering. If you lay down Rejtan style in the road to block Saturday's Freedom Marrch that would be interfering. But just praising that crook Tusk is simply stupid, but not interfering.