Friday’s Gazeta Wyborcza carried a story under the above headline (more or less) on its front page. In it Bartosz Węglarczyk calculated how much time Kaczyński would have to talk to Bush on the latter’s visit here. The answer: 40 minutes, and since an interpreter would be needed that should be halved. Consecutive interpreting Węglarczyk […]
In an interview in this weekend’s Dziennik Noam Chomsky says that Hitler, when he invaded Czechoslovakia, claimed he was doing so to bring peace. The Soviets also claimed to have Poland’s interests at heart in the 1940s. The US claimed to be bringing democracy to Iraq. What is the newspaperman’s response? Imperialna Ameryka niczym się […]
There is a scene in “Boogie Nights” where the luckless ex-porn stars go off to do some drug dealing. The dealer spends a good part of the scene bragging about his mix-tape. It’s not a blunder on the part of the film makers. They really did have mix tapes in the 80s. I am reminded […]
Headline in last week’s Polityka: “How to demand a pay-rise that will give you a good living and not bankrupt your employer.” In the olden days employers were expected to look out for their own interests. Now it seems this burden is also to fall on the employee.
In the case against Dr. G, the doctor falsely and publicly accused by Poland’s minister for justice of murder, the prosecution intends calling on expert witnesses, from abroad if necessary. Marek Celej has this to say about it in last week’s Polityka Nie bardzo sobie wyobrażam, jak taki biegły miałby zeznawać w sądzie. Przecież język […]
With hindsight, I suppose it was inevitable that the ruling establishment in Poland turn its guns on the teletubbies. Inevitable, too, that I would at least mention it, even though Beatroot already has too. The Spokesperson for Children’s Rights, Ewa Sowińska, thinks one or all of them is propogating homosexuality. She thinks they should be […]
As chancellor it was his [Thomas More’s] duty to enforce the laws against heretics […] As he himself wrote in his “Apologia” (cap. 49) it was the vices of heretics that he hated, not their persons; and he never proceeded to extremities until he had made every effort to get those brought before him to […]
I don’t have the heart to explain all the “lustration” shenanigans in Poland so I will just throw out a few comments for those who have been following it, but perhaps not that closely, and perhaps relying on English language sources. Unsurprisingly, the lustration law was found to be largely unconstitutional on Friday by the […]
The front page of today’s Gazeta Wyborcza – apart from the strange claim that a 46.7% voter share for the left wing candidate in France’s presidential elections is a “crushing” defeat – re-runs the pensions time bomb scare story. The story is expanded on in the economics section and commented on by Witold Gadomski on […]
It’s the time of year when Polish schoolchildren don suits and take school leaving exams, wrestling with the incompetence of Poland’s Ministry for Education bureaucrats. The reason they dress up like Little Lord Fauntleroys is that until very recently their own teachers examined them and pronounced them fit or unfit for further education, imprisonment, poverty […]
