Vistula oil spill

100 tons of fuel oil have leaked into Poland's biggest river.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Some 150 emergency workers and firefighters have contained a spill of approximately 100 tons of fuel oil that leaked into Poland's Vistula river after a pipeline malfunction, officials said Tuesday.

The oil spilled Monday from an underwater local pipeline linking a refinery in Plock, in central Poland, with its storage facilities, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) away, said Krzysztof Zalewski, spokesman for the state pipeline operator PERN.

The pipeline was closed and experts were looking for the source of the leak, he said.

Firefighters said there was no major contamination of the Vistula, and that no dead fish or birds were found in or around it. The spill occurred in the lower part of the river, near the town of Wloclawek.

For Poland's sake, I hope the spill can be contained. The Vistula is the country's longest river, it passes by many of the nation's biggest cities including Warsaw before emptying into the Baltic by Gdansk. The damage a spill can do can't be underestimated. Look at the pictures from this recent accident in South Korea.

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Lights, Camera, Cardinal?

Some news from Poland-

WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's Cardinal Jozef Glemp is playing himself in a film dedicated to Father Jerzy Popieluszko, the Solidarity chaplain killed by the communist secret police in 1984, producers said Tuesday.

Glemp, who is the primate, or head, of the church in deeply Catholic Poland, reenacts real conversations he had with Popieluszko, Julita Swiercz-Wieczynska, the boss of the Focus Producers company, told AFP.

"We have already filmed the scenes with the primate. Cardinal Glemp is a natural when he's in front of the camera," said Swiercz-Wieczynska.

"He's also been a consultant, sharing his memories with us. We're making a historical film and we want to get as close as possible to reality," she said.

Make-up artists helped to take two decades off Glemp, who is now 87, so he looked more like his younger self.

The film, entitled simply "Popieluszko", is due for release late in 2008.

It stars 33-year-old Adam Woronowicz, who is mostly known for his television work, and who bears an uncanny resemblance to the eponymous priest.

The death of 37-year-old Popieluszko turned him into an enduring symbol of opposition to Poland's communist regime.

It also highlighted the crucial role played by the church, which was one of the few bulwarks against the communist authorities in this country of 38 million, where more than 90 percent of the population is Roman Catholic.

Popieluszko stood shoulder to shoulder with Solidarity, the communist bloc's first free trade union, which was founded in 1980.

After the regime's martial law crackdown on December 13, 1981, Popieluszko won renown for his sermons, which drew thousands of people to his parish chruch in Warsaw.

Popieluszko was kidnapped and tortured to death on October 19, 1984 by a three-man commando from the communist SB security police, who dumped his body in the River Vistula.

Sounds like an interesting subject for a movie. I wasn't aware of Popieluszko's story before today.

As for Actor Cardinal Jozef Glemp, any good reviews for his acting are unlikely to go to his head. After all, eighty-seven is a late age for a career change.

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Trade War

From AP-

MOSCOW (AP) -- Poland warned Monday it would block Russia's entrance to the World Trade Organization if Moscow did not cancel an embargo on exports of Polish meat and produce.

Russia imposed the ban in late 2005 after uncovering what it said were violations of food safety regulations. Polish officials maintain that the country's food quality standards meet EU norms and that the embargo is discriminatory.

"If Russia's position toward Poland doesn't change, we will have to vote against Russia's membership in WTO," Deputy Agriculture Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski told a news conference in Moscow, according to Russian news agencies.

Poland also warned it would continue to block a strategic EU-Russia agreement if the embargo was not lifted.

Russia hasn't at all been shy about bullying its neighbors in recent memory. So Poland wanting to fight back in any way it can is pretty understandable.

Relations between Poland and Russia have been frosty in recent years.

Someone at AP apparently doesn't know Polish history too well. Russia-Poland relations have been frosty for years. The Soviet imposed communism on the heavily Catholic country only been one source of hard feelings. You must also remember that Russia took part in several partitions of Poland in the 18th century. There was no Polish state for almost 125 years after the last partition in 1795.

I think the Poles have understandable reasons not to trust Russia.

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Disobeying orders

From AP-

KAZIMIERZ DOLNY, Poland - Police pushed their way into a Polish convent Wednesday and began evicting about 65 rebellious ex-nuns — arresting the mother superior and a monk who had occupied the complex with them illegally for two years.

The women had taken over the building in a rebellion against the Vatican, which had ordered the replacement of their mother superior, Jadwiga Ligocka.

"They were disobedient," said Mieczyslaw Puzewicz, a spokesman for the Lublin diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican formally expelled the women from their Sisters of Bethany order last year.

Police arrested Mother Jadwiga and a former Franciscan friar, Roman Komaryczko, who had been living with the nuns, police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said. He would not say what the specific charges were.

Are these women really ex-nuns or are they just being displaced or moved? Disobeying the local Bishop or Vatican is serious business. Ask the father whose wife was on pregnancy bedrest and faced the loss of their health insurance. The mother was an almost ten-year employee of the diocese. The Bishop of Palm Beach through the actions of his employees clearly showing what he values most. The dollar or a human life? I think my readers can infer the correct answer from what I wrote above.

Note- Nuns are female monasitics or the equivalent of a monk.

Several hours into the operation, the women, in black habits and each escorted by two policewomen, began filing out of the building. Some carried musical instruments — guitars, a tambourine, a drum — while others bore simple backpacks or carried large blue garbage bags apparently packed their with belongings.

Almost sounds like a traveling band to me. If these women are really ex-nuns now, maybe they have a career in music ahead of them. As you can imagine, TFM has a name for their groups.

Nuns and Rosaries.

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Ducks or.......

First the headline-

Linking President to Penis May put Pole in Prison

Which Pole are we talking about? For a surgeon may be needed.(Sarcastic laughter time)

Now as Paul Harvey might say, here's the rest of the story.

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish computer programmer could face up to three years in jail for linking a Polish word for penis to the presidential Web site.

Marek W., 23, created a programme that caused the official home page of Polish President Lech Kaczynski to rank first in the list of results on the Google search engine when "kutas", a vulgar term in Polish, was typed in by an Internet user.

The computer programme did something similar to a practice known as "Google bombing" that links the Web sites of politicians and companies to insulting words or phrases.

He has been charged with insulting the president and prosecutors said on Friday he could face up to three years in jail if convicted.

"This is not a matter of freedom of speech," said Andrzej Holdys, a regional prosecutor in the southern town of Cieszyn, where the programmer lives.

"If somebody uses a derogatory word to libel the head of state than it's a clear insult which violates the law."

Police said the suspect confessed to writing a programme to test his skills at creating a Google bomb. Police and prosecutors did not give the programmer's full name, as is usual when someone faces charges in Poland. He has not been detained.

President Kaczynski and his twin brother, the prime minister, have been popular targets for jokes and caricatures both in Poland and abroad. They are referred to as the "ducks" because their name is related to the Polish word for the bird.

This should be a matter of free speech, and a criminal offense. I always feel there's danger when the government or any official can decide what is allowed and what isn't.

James Joyner notes-

More seriously, this isn’t exactly a strong indication that Poland has fully embraced liberal democracy. The former Warsaw Pact nation was one of the first to stand up against Soviet domination and has been admitted to full membership in the EU and NATO. It’s about time for them to get on board the free speech bandwagon.

Yes one Russia is enough. I guess old habits are hard to break in that part of Europe. Polish politics were much simpler when this man was President. I got to look through our old photo albums. My wife had her picture taken with Aleksander Kwaśniewski in 2000 when we visited Poland.

Update- The photos we have of Kwasniewski don't include my wife but I have put them below. The Polish President signed a postcard for Leonita, but the signature is hard to decipher. Leonita did talk to the President for like two sentences. Something about her being from Florida.

The photos were taken in Hel Poland, August 2000. See how close we got to a President. I'll never be that close to whomever is elected in 2008. Go to the
wikipedia link above if you don't believe that is President Kwasniewski. Besides don't all those men in sunglasses remind you of the US Secret Service?

If you want to see my Filipina wife ride a Polish pony, click here. LOL.

Linked to- Adam, Morewhat, Right Wing Nation, Third World County,

Socially unjust

From the Times Online-

Pope Benedict XVI is working on a doctrinal pronouncement that will condemn tax evasion as “socially unjust”, according to Vatican sources.

In his second encyclical – the most authoritative statement a pope can issue – the pontiff will denounce the use of “tax havens” and offshore bank accounts by wealthy individuals, since this reduces tax revenues for the benefit of society as a whole.

It will focus on humanity’s social and economic problems in an era of globalisation. Pope Benedict intends to argue for a world trade and economic system “regulated in such a way as to avoid further injustice and discrimination”, Ignazio Ingrao, a Vatican watcher, said yesterday.

The encyclical, drafted during his recent holiday in the mountains of northern Italy, takes its cue from Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples), issued 40 years ago. In it the pontiff focused on “those peoples who are striving to escape from hunger, misery, endemic diseases and ignorance and are looking for a wider share in the benefits of civilisation”. He called on the West to promote an equitable world economic system based on social justice rather than profit.

This week the Italian centre-left Government of Romano Prodi began a concerted crackdown on tax evaders, saying that it would target individuals with second homes and other signs of “conspicuous wealth”. If the black economy is included, unpaid taxes amount to 27 per cent of Italy’s gross domestic product.

I blogged a week ago about the Italian Prime Minister's request for the Catholic Church's help with those who evade taxes. Apparently Pope Benedict got the message.

Regretfully I have to say this. Pope Benedict has lost his marbles or gone senile. This is just the latest, and may I add sad, proof. First we'll address a world economic system based on social justice rather than profit.

It's already been tried. The name for it is communism. How free is a society and people that lives under the control of such a government. If he was still alive, Pope John Paul II could have given Benedict the answer.

Instead I call on Captain Ed to do it.

Benedict should take a lesson from his predecessor, who came from an economic system that theoretically based itself of "social justice". John Paul II understood what happens in systems where the state manages of economic systems for their idea of social justice -- and no other management can be possible without the profit motive. Once profit gets removed from economic systems as a regulator for investment and control -- i.e., the one who invests and profits makes the decisions controlling the investment and use of the profit -- it takes an autocracy to decide the goals of investment for the purposes of social justice.

It didn't work out well in Poland for John Paul, nor in Soviet Russia and China, where millions died in famines thanks to ridiculous central agricultural planning. State-run economies always claim to champion social justice and equitable distribution.

If anyone needs an example of how unjust a Communist regime can be today, all we need look at is the state of North Korea. The people of the Hermit Kingdom have no profits, they also have no food or freedom either.

Could I remind the Pope how just the country of East Germany was?

BERLIN - The agency that manages the records of former East Germany's dreaded secret police has uncovered an order for border guards to fire on escaping citizens that is far more explicit than others on record, an official said in remarks published Saturday.

Though the official East German border regulations said use of a firearm was to be considered an "extreme measure in the use of force," the Oct. 1, 1973 order to border guards from the Ministry for State Security, or Stasi, is much less reserved, Magdeburg's Volksstimme newspaper reported.

"Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm, including when the border breakouts involve women and children, which the traitors have already frequently taken advantage of," the order instructed.

Before the 1990 reunification of Germany, more than 1,000 people were killed on the eastern side of the highly fortified border as they tried to escape to the West, including more than 125 at the Berlin Wall, which was erected in 1961.

Over 1,000 people died seeking their freedom to profit in the West. How just was the East German government who murdered them. You'd think Pope Benedict would see that. He having grown up during the days of Nazi Germany.

Another recent example of how Pope Benedict is losing it, is this news.

ROME (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI met briefly this week with a Polish priest who has been accused of making anti-Jewish comments.

Photos showing the pope at his summer residence with the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, along with two other Polish priests, were published in Polish newspapers Tuesday.

The Vatican has not commented on the meeting. But a Vatican official confirmed Tuesday that the three were brought to the pope, along with other pilgrims, after the pontiff's weekly public blessing Sunday in Castel Gandolfo, his summer home.

Rydzyk, who runs a conservative media empire that includes the Catholic station Radio Maryja, was allegedly caught on tape suggesting that Jews are greedy and Polish President Lech Kaczynski is subservient to Jewish lobbyists.

Rydzyk is a jerk. It isn't alleged what he said about Jews, but fact. As leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict shouldn't have anything to do with this priest, instead the pontiff meets with Rydzyk. Do you think that conveys a message that Rydzyk's anti-semitism is acceptable.

Don't forget Pope Benedict's remarks on Muhammad from 2006.

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

I've blogged before about how remote the church leaders are from their flock, but the Pope I feel isn't just out of touch. If we were just talking one example of poor judgment, we could say Pope Benedict had made a mistake,(I don't believe in the infallibility of the Pope. There was just one perfect one, and look what happened to him) or maybe the reporting by the Times is off in some way. Sadly, we have three examples of how 'lost' Pope Benedict is. The day for a new man to rule the Catholic Church can't come too soon.

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Sgt. Bilko lives

In the Polish Air Force

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's anti-corruption police have detained an air force commander for allowing private companies to grow crops at an airbase, PAP news agency said on Sunday. He could face 10 years in prison.

"Since at least 2000, airbase commander Col. Eygeniusz G. had allowed private firms to raise crops free of charge on nearly 100 hectares (250 acres) of airbase land," the Central Anti-Corruption Agency (CAA) said in a communique.

The airbase is at Malbork in northern Poland.

The CAA, set up last year to spearhead the conservative government's across-the-board war on corruption, did not rule out additional arrests connected with fuel abuses at the airbase, the communique said.

Even a base commander has to report to superiors. Other heads in the Polish Air Force may roll because of Colonel's Eygeniusz's entrepreneurialism.

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Tennis gambling probe

There is a controversy brewing involving a match #4 player Nikolay Davydenko quit last Thursday.

WARSAW, Poland - Nikolay Davydenko "has nothing whatsoever to do" with the suspicious betting patterns on his second-round match at the Prokom Open, the player's agent said.

ATP Tour officials are investigating the fourth-ranked Davydenko's loss Thursday to the 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina in which the Russian retired because of injury in the deciding set.

In an unprecedented move Friday, British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets placed on the match, saying the market wasn't fair.

Betfair said it received about $7 million in bets on the match — 10 times the usual amount — and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set 6-2.

Eckhard Oehms, Davydenko's agent, denied the 26-year-old player had any connection to the betting.

"We've got nothing whatsoever to do with that," Oehms told The Associated Press by telephone Saturday. "Neither Nikolay nor his coach nor me nor anybody out of our entourage has been involved in this.

Tennis officials are already reacting.

Underlining the importance of protecting tennis' "appeal and integrity," the head of the men's professional tour promised Saturday to use "all means available" for an investigation into suspicious betting on a match involving No. 4-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.

Etienne de Villiers, the ATP's executive chairman, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "independent, external resources" would be used to look into why a British online gambling company received about $7 million in wagers on the match, 10 times the usual amount.

*****

"It is important that we not jump to conclusions, especially when players' reputations could be unfairly tainted," de Villiers said. "What we must do is carry out a comprehensive and immediate investigation, and that is what we are doing."

Villiers promises are vague but to preserve his sport's reputaion, he has to take this news seriously. Fans and sponsorship money could be lost if a player was implicated in fixing matches.

Tennis hasn't been without recent controveries including gambling.

In 2003, bookmakers reportedly suspended betting six hours before Russian player Yevgeny Kafelnikov's match in Lyon, France, against Fernando Vicente after a big wager was place on the Spaniard. Vicente, who had been winless for several months, won in straight sets. There was no suggestion either player was involved in wrongdoing, and no investigation was made by the ATP.

Several Russian tennis players were photographed a few years ago with Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a suspected mobster from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan who was accused of fixing the pairs and ice dancing events at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

Photographs of Tokhtakhounov with Kafelnikov, Safin and Andrei Medvedev were taken off Medvedev's Web site in 2002 after the man's arrest. Tokhtakhounov spent nearly a year in a Venice, Italy, prison but escaped extradition to the United States in 2003 on the Olympic rigging charges.

The same article did note irregular betting at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships.

It is too early to draw conclusions, but I’ll make one small point. If a match was fixed, it would be pretty darn foolish to place bets in the manner that happened while Davydenko and Arguello were playing, in addition to the large amount being placed through betfair. It would seem wiser to bet large amounts spread between multiple betting outlets. That to my untrained eye(I watch little pro tennis, rarely gamble and don’t work in law enforcement or as investigator), would look too damning for a criminal if there was cheating. Like those old television detective dramas, if the case against a suspect looks too good, maybe its time to look elsewhere.

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Foiled

Some news from Poland. Knowing how some people feel about their mother-in-laws(I get along great with mine.), was Krystyna Zbyszynska's daughter-in-law hoping for a crash landing?(Cue the sarcastic laughter)

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WARSAW (Reuters) - Krystyna Zbyszynska, 84, became Poland's oldest parachutist when she made her first jump with her daughter-in-law, news channel TVN24 reported on Sunday.

"I survived World War Two and wasn't afraid, so what's there to be afraid of now?" she said after clambering out of her jumpsuit this weekend.

"Babcia (granny) Krysia is not your ordinary gran," explained one of her teenaged granddaughters.

"She tells me I'm not playing my music loud enough and comes into my room and wants to dance."

Asked whether she planned another jump Zbyszynska, from the northern city of Olsztyn, told the channel: "Yes, the day I turn 100."

Weekends Only

Some news from Poland-

WARSAW, Poland, July 25: Poles sentenced to prison terms of up to 12 months for minor offenses could serve their time during weekends only, a Polish Cabinet minister said Wednesday.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said new regulations should allow minor offenders jailed up to 12 months and convicts imprisoned not longer than six months to serve their terms in periods of two days a week, preferably during weekends, Polish Radio said.

Ziobro said with this system of serving jail terms, convicts could take care of their children, keep on with their jobs or study during the week.

And not the least important, the Polish government would also benefit from savings in the state budget, Ziobro said.

He didn't say when the new regulations would be introduced.

If a person is sentenced to a year in jail, to complete his or her sentence on weekends only, will take over three years.

Combine that with the processing that a person being jailed must undergo both on his way in and when released, makes me question if any real savings will take place. Otherwise this method for a minor criminal to serve his sentence would seem a solid alternative to straight line incarceration.

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A Jewish museum in Poland

From AP-

WARSAW -- An empty lawn in the heart of what was once the Warsaw Ghetto will soon become a place not only of mourning, but of celebrating the Jewish life that flourished in Poland before it was destroyed in the Holocaust.

President Lech Kaczynski will break ground tomorrow for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. It sits on a highly charged site -- next to the city's monument to the Jews who resisted the Nazis during the 1943 ghetto uprising, and just down the street from the rail siding where many were deported to their deaths.

The multimedia museum will have exhibits on the Holocaust, but organizers say its primary purpose is to remember the vibrant Jewish community that flourished in Poland for a thousand years despite varying degrees of anti-Semitism and discrimination.

*****

The building, an austere glass and limestone structure designed by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamaki and Ilmari Lahdelma, will feature a jagged chasm that cuts through the entire museum, and an interior of undulating forms that alludes to Moses's parting of the Red Sea while fleeing slavery in Egypt -- symbolic of Jewish survival in the face of catastrophe.

When it opens in two years, Polish and Jewish leaders hope it will become a cultural landmark in a league with Jerusalem's Yad Vashem, the United States' Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Berlin's Jewish Museum and Holocaust Memorial.

To many, such a center is long overdue in a country that had Europe's largest Jewish community until World War II, numbering about 3.3 million, or 10 percent of the total population. The society produced a vibrant Yiddish-speaking culture and a string of great scientists, writers, and thinkers.

Poland is also where Nazi Germany built Auschwitz, Treblinka, and the other extermination camps where 6 million Jews -- half of them Polish -- were killed.

Yet Jewish history and suffering were taboo themes for decades under communist rule, which collapsed in 1989. Only about 30,000 Jews live in Poland today.

Dear Wife and I have a number of Polish born friends. All of whom are Catholic, like most people from Poland. These friends while horrified by what was done by the Nazis, at the same time don't miss the Jews that lived in their country. I don't know if that's a widespread feeling or not.



Dear wife and I visited Poland in 2000. While there we saw Auschwitz, the gloomiest place I ever been to in my life. While in Krakow, we also briefly entered a Jewish synagogue. There aren't many left in that city, and a rabbi shooed out of the place of worship after only a few moments there. Frankly, neither I or the Polish priest accompanying the wife and I, were wearing a yarmulke. Which all males are supposed to wear in a synagogue. My BIL Marty is Jewish, and I wore a yarmulke at my sister's wedding in 1983. When in Rome or a synagogue.....

Also note, Warsaw was flattened by the Nazis during WWII. Very little is left of the city prior to 1939. Krakow on the other hand suffered suffered much less damage from the war. Like St. Mary's Square pictured here.

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Lost car keys

Some news from Poland. Didn't anyone think of putting one of those beeper gizmos on them.

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WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's 1,200 troops assigned to NATO forces in Afghanistan will not achieve full combat readiness for up to several weeks due to stolen vehicle keys, the defense ministry said Thursday.

"We had been told a 10 percent theft rate was likely in convoys brought in from Pakistan, but we had not expected the spare car keys to go missing," defense ministry spokesman Jaroslaw Rybak told news channel TVN24.

"We shall have to send away for spares, so it may take from several days to several weeks for our contingent to become combat ready."

According to media reports, Polish troops taking part in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan have been assigned to patrol the mountainous border area with Pakistan to search for Taliban guerrilla activity.

The military vehicles used by Polish forces include Poland's Land Rover-like Honkers and U.S.-built Humvees.

Polish health care revolt

Some news from Poland-

WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Sunday suggested a referendum on the privatisation of health care, two weeks into a strike by hospital doctors seeking better salaries.

"It is only a plan, but the question is important and it must be put," Kaczynski told journalists.

Meeting the wage demands of the doctors would, he said, "be equivalent to ruining public finances, which would be totally irresponsible.

"In this situation, you have to put the fundamental question to the Poles and decide according to their response."

Doctors have been on strike in a third of the country's 600 hospitals since May 21, providing emergency cover only, said Krzysztof Bukiel, head of the OZZL doctors' union that organised the strike.

They make a basic salary of 9.9 zlotys an hour -- meaning a take-home pay of just 1,500 zlotys (399 euros, 535 dollars) a month.

In contrast, the going rate for a cleaner in Warsaw is around 12 zlotys an hour.

The OZZL is campaigning for large pay rises, for example demanding 7,500 zlotys a month for specialists.

In a fair world, everyone would have the healthcare they need. Unfortunately the idea, of centralizing or nationalizing this service is no answer. If the government is going to insure everyone, healthcare will always be at the whim of politics and rationing(bureaucrats saying we have this amount for this type of care. Which will almost certainly never be enough, causing waits for healthcare services including vital surgery) just to mention two problems. Here's an article on Polish healthcare. A perfect healthcare system is an ideal, but making it bad for everyone but the super rich is not a solution but a disaster.

Disclosure- TFM has worked in healthcare jobs for over 20 years. By the way I don't side with the Polish doctors. Their strike is certain to have adverse effects for some patients.

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Save your toasters

That's what Polish PM Kaczynski pretty much is telling GLBT folks.

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's conservative prime minister rejected European Union criticism Thursday of a proposal to fire teachers for ''homosexual propaganda,'' saying it was not in the interest of society to have more gay people.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said homosexuals did not face discrimination in his country, responding to an EU parliament vote to send a mission to Poland to investigate recent anti-gay comments by senior officials.

''Nobody is limiting gay rights in Poland,'' Kaczynski told reporters hours after the vote.

''However, if we're talking about not having homosexual propaganda in Polish schools, I fully agree with those who feel this way,'' he said. ''Such propaganda should not be in schools; it definitely doesn't serve youth well.''

''It's not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals -- that's obvious.''

TFM is no arch conservative when it comes to GLBT issues. Read this post of mine for example. I don't think there is any education that can make one gay. Its one's sexual orientation, which unless I'm wrong, can't be taught. So what 'propaganda' is going to teach a man or woman to be gay?

If anyone wonders what the toaster line is about, I once read a lesbian gets a free toaster for recruiting a straight woman. I don't recall where I read that, and I do believe its a joke. Anyone have a peach colored one I can have?(Cue the sarcastic laughter)

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Nearsighted mother, nearsighted law

From Bloomberg-

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- A Polish mother who was denied an abortion after disagreement among doctors in the staunchly Catholic country over the risks of childbirth was awarded compensation by the European Court of Human Rights.

Alicja Tysiac, who is severely shortsighted, was granted 39,000 euros ($51,834), mainly payable by the Polish government. In 2000, she was told by a gynecologist she was able to give birth through caesarean section even after gaining a certificate saying the pregnancy would harm her health, court documents showed.

A danger to the life or health of the mother is one of three exceptions to a general ban on abortion in Poland, an issue at the center of a current political debate. The Polish Families' League, the junior partner in the governing coalition, wants to change the constitution to protect life from conception. Such an amendment would ensure future governments couldn't relax abortion laws.

*****

Tysiac, 36 this year, was in the early stages of her third pregnancy when she was told there was no need for an abortion. The child was born in November 2000.

She suffers from myopia, or nearsightedness, and her eyesight has since ``deteriorated considerably'' and she fears eventual blindness, according to the court.

*****

The court in Strasbourg, eastern France, said the legal prohibition on abortion in Poland together with the risk for doctors of incurring criminal responsibility ``can well have a chilling effect on doctors when deciding whether the requirements of legal abortion are met in an individual case.''

Abortion is also allowed in Poland when the pregnancy results from rape or if the fetus has an untreatable disease.

*****

The court awarded Tysiac 25,000 euros for the ``considerable anguish and suffering, including her fears about her physical capacity to take care of another child'' that she must have endured and 14,000 euros for legal fees and expenses.

Whatevery your opinion is on abortion, someone tell me how myopia can be the medical basis for terminating a pregnancy. Nearsightednes isn't life threatening to a mother or anyone else for a matter of fact.

There is this other news out of Poland.

WARSAW, Poland - Thousands of Poles took to Warsaw’s streets Wednesday to demand a complete ban on abortion, including in cases of rape or incest.

Two separate marches merged into a demonstration of 4,000 people in front of parliament, where lawmakers were debating amending the constitution to tighten Poland’s anti-abortion law, already among the most restrictive in the EU.

”I am for life,” said Miroslawa Kledzinska, 64. ”God gives life and only he has the right to take life away.”

Poland’s abortion law allows termination of a pregnancy until the 12th week if the mother’s life is in danger, the fetus is irreparably damaged or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

President Lech Kaczynski has put forward one of three separate proposals to amend the constitution to prohibit abortion completely.

However, none has a chance of being adopted while the main opposition Civic Platform party remains opposed. A two-thirds majority is needed in the 460-member lower house to change the constitution.

Again, no matter what your views on abortion, there is an instance where a pregnancy must be terminated. An ectopic pregnancy, where a fertilized ovum is implanted in any tissue other than the uterine wall, is life threatening to a mother. Either drugs or surgery is needed to treat the mother and terminate the pregnancy. The life being carried by the mother with very rare exceptions will never be born.

Therefore a complete ban on terminating pregnancies is insane.(The mother's body in the case of ectopic pregnancies, aborts the baby on its own but medical care is required) There are legitimate medical reasons(a very very few) out there. Myopia just isn't one of them.

Linked to- Pursuing Holiness, Conservative Thoughts, Right Voices,

Honorary King

Some news from Warsaw.

WARSAW, Poland - Lawmakers have drawn up a resolution naming Jesus Christ as the honorary king of Poland, but have failed to win support from the country's powerful Roman Catholic church.

Lawmakers for the ruling Law and Justice party and League of Polish Families as well as the opposition Peasants Party back the resolution, said Szymon Ruman, spokesman for parliamentary speaker Marek Jurek.

However, the proposal currently has the support of only 46 members in the 460-seat parliament, well short of the necessary 231 votes to pass. Ruman said the resolution would likely be voted on sometime after Jan. 1.

Backing from the church in this strongly Catholic country would be crucial for building support for the proposal, but on Wednesday several bishops criticized it, and said parliament should stay out of religious affairs.

"Let parliament deal with passing better laws that we need," Gdansk Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski said.

"This kind of action, although it may stem from good will, sounds a bit like propaganda," said bishop Tadeusz Pieronk.

I agree with the Polish Bishops. Honorary isn't good enough, absolute ruler is the only position Jesus should take.

The big benefit I see- We won't have to worry about ballot controversies anymore.

Linked to- Stuck on Stupid, Random Yak, Jo's Cafe,