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Cemetery Civics in Poland
As the European Union hashes out yet another charter, Poland is demanding that six million dead Poles be considered in the allocation of voting rights:
Under the EU's new voting proposal, which aims to streamline decision-making in the now more cumbersome union, the population of a country is critical. The Kaczynski brothers, right-of-centre populists [and leaders of Poland], have argued that 20 per cent of the Polish population was killed, mainly by Nazi Germany, during the war and that this handicap should be compensated for.
"The situation still does not satisfy us," Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Prime Minister, told the Polish newspaper, Rzeczpospolita today. "We should do everything to push through our proposal or to obtain some other solution that would equally satisfy our ambitions. Either we obtain that, or there will be a veto."
thoreau|6.21.07 @ 11:58AM|#
See, I always thought that the dead Polish guys voting in
Chicago was just a Chicago thing.
But now I'm thinking it's a Polish thing.
|6.21.07 @ 11:59AM|#
Hmm...considering that the city with the second-largest number of Polish speakers in the world is Chicago, I think I see a pattern...
|6.21.07 @ 12:03PM|#
Sounds like a new way to exercise the ADA.
ADA Lawyer: So why again are we suing Mr. Smith?
Client: Because Mr. Smith's grandfather killed my grandfather when
he was only 35. If my grandfather had lived a full life, I would
have gotten a kick-ass inheritance. But because of the murder, I
was disabled.
VM|6.21.07 @ 12:11PM|#
Well spake, hr. Doktor T.
(and the Polish announcer at Chicago Fire games at Soldier Field
sounded really wasted)
|6.21.07 @ 12:11PM|#
Ordinarily, I'd be in favor of anyone trying to stick it to the E.U., but this just sounds a little nutty.
|6.21.07 @ 12:26PM|#
How about compensating for those killed under the Warsaw
Pact?
While we're at it, I want the leaders of the 1916 Easter
Rebellion in Ireland to have veto power.
And we can't forget about the Jews slaughtered during the Spanish
Inquisition, the Muslims killed in Kosovo, the Carthaginians
slaughtered during the Punic Wars, anyone who pissed off Nero or
Caligula, victims of the plague...
I think there's enough dead souls spread about Europe that it
likely ends up even. I'm sure there was plenty of killing done by
even the Polish (see: Jagiellon Dynasty).
|6.21.07 @ 12:38PM|#
GK Chesterton said that a society's traditions are the voting rights of the dead.
|6.21.07 @ 1:05PM|#
If I were Polish, I'd ask for cash. Not only did millions of Poles get slaughtered by the Germans and millions more oppressed by the same, the war also resulted in Poland living under the horrors of Soviet rule. Nice.
|6.21.07 @ 1:48PM|#
We need some sort of statute of limitations or a sunset clause
for national/ethnic grievences. I'm of Irish ancestry (Yeah!) so
can I hate the English until ??? We have people bitching and
complaining about crap that happened more than a millenium ago.
Hell, they're killing each other over ancient history. That's way
too long to hold a grudge. On the other hand if the injustice
happened last year, I can understand a little resentment.
My tentative propsal is 50 years. Not that anyone will pay
attention to it, but it does limit who I have to dole out my finite
amount of sympathy to.
Russ 2000|6.21.07 @ 2:00PM|#
Isn't this the kind of reasoning that gave every state in the US
2 senators?
It doesn't surprise me that with Merkel in charge the Poles would
demand reparations of some kind. When a German is in cahrge of
"further unifying social and foreign policy across the continent"
it makes sense to be extremely leery, but as was the case 70 years
ago, the rest of Europe outside of Britain and Poland just goes
along with it.
|6.21.07 @ 2:05PM|#
. . . Irish ancestry (Yeah!) so can I hate the English until
???
Scientists have identified a new mental illness call Irish
Alzheimer's . . . you forget everything but the grudges.
|6.21.07 @ 2:09PM|#
When a German is in charge of "further unifying social and
foreign policy across the continent..."
...he can express that goal in a single word?
|6.21.07 @ 2:13PM|#
How many of those dead Poles were Jews that everyone else
enthusiastically helped round up?
That's some chutzpah, right there.
|6.21.07 @ 2:32PM|#
This could get really interesting considering who killed whom in
Europe's religious wars (and all the other wars as well.)
Germany asking for reparations for the 30-years war? Hot
damn.
And I guess the Brits can ask for at least a slice of Normandy and
Brittany back.
Considering how many times Russia got invaded by others during its
history, I guess they could use this as a good argument to claim a
sizeable percentage of Europe.
Where's Jack Vance and The Blue Prince when you need them?
|6.21.07 @ 2:41PM|#
J sub D,
I agree with a statute of limitations. I just think that 50 years
is too short. Global life expectancy is 68. How about 75 or 100
years as the statute of limitation?
Granting extra representation in perpetuity doesn't make sense.
Equal representation for each country for say the next 25 years and
porportional representation after that could work. They could also
set up a bicameral system.
|6.21.07 @ 2:46PM|#
I'm all for letting dead people be represented -- so long as they're represented by dead people. Talk about gridlock -- hard to get a quorum. And then there'd be the Nonspeaker of the House ...
thoreau|6.21.07 @ 3:11PM|#
The Kaczynski brothers are a couple of thugs.
Don't they play for the Green Bay Packers?
Or are you referring to somebody else?
Seriously, though, I think the idea of twin brothers running a
country could make for an awesome romantic comedy. "What happens
when a woman who never follows the news gets a secretarial job in
Warsaw and falls in love with her boss's brother?"
LarryA|6.21.07 @ 3:53PM|#
Seriously, though, I think the idea of twin brothers running
a country could make for an awesome romantic comedy.
More likely adventure. See The Man in the Iron
Mask.
|6.21.07 @ 4:37PM|#
LarryA,
It is a sin to cite the recent movie "version" of Dumas'
The Man in the Iron Mask. It was a travesty, albeit with
some really good actors in the roles of the musketeers.
As penance, please go read the unabridged book. In the original
French.
Pepe|6.21.07 @ 8:23PM|#
"How many of those dead Poles were Jews that everyone else
enthusiastically helped round up?"
3 million of them. The other 3 million were ethnic Poles and other
Slavic groups that are largely forgotten about as victims of the
holocaust.
And for as many Poles that might have helped the Nazi's round up
Jews, there were those that risked their lives to save them. Poland
was one of the only Nazi occupied areas where hiding Jews held a
penalty of death. Poland has more members listed under "Righteous
among the Nations" in Israel, than any other country.
Under Hitler's philosophy, Poles were as much Untermenschen as
Jews, and the complete eradication of the Polish people was one of
the Nazi's stated goals. They needed the Lebensraum, you know.
Sean Healy|6.22.07 @ 7:50AM|#
Under Hitler's philosophy, Poles were as much Untermenschen
as Jews, and the complete eradication of the Polish people was one
of the Nazi's stated goals.
It must be comforting to believe that, but it's untrue. Apart from
maybe the gypsies, the Jews were the only people explicitly
scheduled for eradication. Jew-hatred was the touchstone of Nazi
ideology; it pervaded everything they did from the 1920s until the
end. And while Hitler had diabolical plans for Poland, too -
acquisition of territory, enslavement - the death of 3 million
Poles was incidental to his program. That's not meant to mitigate
the horror, only to make the important distinction between what
happened to the Jews and what happened to everyone else.
|6.22.07 @ 9:28AM|#
The Kaczynski brothers are a couple of thugs.
Ted, sure, but don't you think you're a bit unfair to David. David,
after all, is the guy who pointed the FBI to Ted.
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