#Poland's reforms

[chicago-geniza]

Trying to find one of those salacious, period-typical sex position guides from the 1920s because I don't know what the straight sexual imaginary was doing beyond the basic missionary/doggy/cowgirl trinity. I have, naturally, a sex manual for young adult women from interwar Poland, but it's more a Facts of Life guide than a latter-day kama sutra, ya dig. Want to write a couple of scenes for this fic but realized I have no idea how straight people fuck, let alone how they fucked in a much more conservative and convention-bound past, but a past that was in some ways more "liberated" by virtue (or vice) of its relative innocence, that is to say, ignorance. Some things were so new they were just novel, they hadn't been socially codified as Good or Bad yet, or they simply weren't mentioned in polite society, so there was no basis for comparison. Idk why Downton Abbey made my brain fixate on "how people fucked in the past" but I'm interested, as I said, like, epistemically and phenomenologically, if that makes sense

[rudegoose]

currently googling “how to survive thanksgiving dinner with my dad’s polish-jewish family and my mom’s italian (sicilian)-catholic family”

[theshatterednotes]

Rosa Luxemburg

[postcard-from-the-past]

Reformed Evangelical Church in Warsaw, Poland

Polish vintage postcard, mailed in 1917 to Paris

[dunilefra]

Admirable Articles of Poland's Constitution

Article 18

Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland.

Article 32

● All persons shall be equal before the law. All persons shall have the right to equal treatment by public authorities.

● No one shall be discriminated against in political, social or economic life for any reason whatsoever.

Article 33

● Men and women shall have equal rights in family, political, social and economic life in the Republic of Poland.

● Men and women shall have equal rights, in particular, regarding education, employment and promotion, and shall have the right to equal compensation for work of similar value, to social security, to hold offices, and to receive public honours and decorations.

Article 39

No one shall be subjected to scientific experimentation, including medical experimentation, without his voluntary consent.

Article 53

● Freedom of faith and religion shall be ensured to everyone.

● Freedom of religion shall include the freedom to profess or to accept a religion by personal choice as well as to manifest such religion, either individually or collectively, publicly or privately, by worshipping, praying, participating in ceremonies, performing of rites or teaching. Freedom of religion shall also include possession of sanctuaries and other places of worship for the satisfaction of the needs of believers as well as the right of individuals, wherever they may be, to benefit from religious services.

● Parents shall have the right to ensure their children a moral and religious upbringing and teaching in accordance with their convictions. The provisions of Article 48, para. 1 shall apply as appropriate.

● The religion of a church or other legally recognized religious organization may be taught in schools, but other peoples' freedom of religion and conscience shall not be infringed thereby.

● The freedom to publicly express religion may be limited only by means of statute and only where this is necessary for the defence of State security, public order, health, morals or the freedoms and rights of others.

● No one shall be compelled to participate or not participate in religious practices.

● No one may be compelled by organs of public authority to disclose his philosophy of life, religious convictions or belief.

Article 54

● The freedom to express opinions, to acquire and to disseminate information shall be ensured to everyone.

● Preventive censorship of the means of social communication and the licensing of the press shall be forbidden. Statutes may require the receipt of a permit for the operation of a radio or television station.

Article 67

● A citizen shall have the right to social security whenever incapacitated for work by reason of sickness or invalidism as well as having attained retirement age. The scope and forms of social security shall be specified by statute.

● A citizen who is involuntarily without work and has no other means of support, shall have the right to social security, the scope of which shall be specified by statute.

Article 68

● Everyone shall have the right to have his health protected.

● Equal access to health care services, financed from public funds, shall be ensured by public authorities to citizens, irrespective of their material situation. The conditions for, and scope of, the provision of services shall be established by statute.

● Public authorities shall ensure special health care to children, pregnant women, handicapped people and persons of advanced age.

● Public authorities shall combat epidemic illnesses and prevent the negative health consequences of degradation of the environment.

● Public authorities shall support the development of physical culture, particularly amongst children and young persons.

Article 73

The freedom of artistic creation and scientific research as well as dissemination of the fruits thereof, the freedom to teach and to enjoy the products of culture, shall be ensured to everyone.

Article 74

● Public authorities shall pursue policies ensuring the ecological security of current and future generations.

● Protection of the environment shall be the duty of public authorities.

● Everyone shall have the right to be informed of the quality of the environment and its protection.

● Public authorities shall support the activities of citizens to protect and improve the quality of the environment.

Article 76

Public authorities shall protect consumers, customers, hirers or lessees against activities threatening their health, privacy and safety, as well as against dishonest market practices. The scope of such protection shall be specified by statute.

Article 77

● Everyone shall have the right to compensation for any harm done to him by any action of an organ of public authority contrary to law.

● Statutes shall not bar the recourse by any person to the courts in pursuit of claims alleging infringement of freedoms or rights.

Article 127 (Part of it)

● The President of the Republic shall be elected by the Nation, in universal, equal and direct elections, conducted by secret ballot.

● Only a Polish citizen who, no later than the day of the elections, has attained 35 years of age and has a full electoral franchise in elections to the Sejm, may be elected President of the Republic. Any such candidature shall be supported by the signatures of at least 100,000 citizens having the right to vote in elections to the Sejm.

● A candidate who has received more than half of the valid votes shall be considered elected President of the Republic. If none of the candidates has received the required majority of votes, then a repeat ballot shall be held on the 14th day after the first vote.

● The two candidates who have received the largest number of votes in the first ballot shall participate in a repeat ballot. If one of the two such candidates withdraws his consent to candidacy, forfeits his electoral rights or dies, he shall be replaced in the repeat ballot by the candidate who received the next highest consecutive number of votes in the first ballot. In such case, the date of the repeat ballot shall be extended by a further 14 days.

● The candidate who receives the higher number of votes in the repeat ballot shall be elected President of the Republic.

Article 178 (Part of it)

● A judge shall not belong to a political party, a trade union or perform public activities incompatible with the principles of independence of the courts and judges.

by Dunilefra, working for Political Reform

[witekspicsbanknotes]

POLAND - design of a commemorative banknote, 100th anniversary of money reforms in 1924 by W. GRABSKI.

[marietheran-archived]

There is a known letter by Tolkien that starts with “The news today about ‘Atomic bombs’ is so horrifying one is stunned" etc, and it really got me thinking about the reaction common people (or not common per se, but not heads of state either nonetheless) throughout history would have had to its unfolding. Because it struck me that I cannot imagine waking up and learning that humanity now has the power to level cities with one push of a button — and yet, for a million people, this was their reality.

Or, since I've been reading a lot about Catholic-Protestant relations recently... my country holds the distinction of not having been the scene of much religious persecution at the time — that said, if you read into historic record, there is a lot of evidence that it must have been a period of strong unease, given that a significant portion of the nobility had converted to different protestant denominations, and were at times even trying to convince the king to follow in the footsteps of his neighbours in rulership. And that is enough for simmering disquiet, but then you realise that people connected with the court must have also known about all the horrors happening elsewhere in Europe, and — it was a different period so perhaps they were not as appalled as I am, but to them it was happening now. And how many of them thought "For now we are more or less tolerated, but how long shall this last?" or "Well, if they come to power, won't it be exactly like in England?". Did people pass themselves in the halls of the Senate with murder in their eyes, knowing that they would want the other person dead if only the situation allowed for it?

[magnusraydar]

Idea that the Batfam all have a weird talent that isn't really vigilante stuff.

Bruce- is oddly good at remembering dates (hey, Bruce, what's today? "Todays September 27, the day where New York first passed a bill for housing reforms in 1920" ...how do you know that?)

Dick- Really, really good at crocheting, specifically birds, he randomly gifts them out to everyone.

Jason- Can identify any car just by looking at it, doesn't even need to see the logo, he just knows.

Tim- knows at least 13 languages, his parents decided he needed to know them for family and chose other languages so he could take over Drake Industries.

Steph- Speaks perfect pig latin, the one thing Tim can not correctly speak. She's also weirdly good at naming types of random items correctly.

Cass- She's awesome at naming different types of dancing. ( That's a dance from Poland called Oberek. " Have you seen it before Cass?" No.)

Damian- really good at identifying different animals. (No, Todd, that's a borzoi, not a greyhound, you fool.)

Duke- He's really, really good at riddles, puzzles, and overall mind games, and it freaks people out. He's able to solve a rubiks cube in under 15 seconds.

[niveditaabaidya]

EU’s Von Der Leyen Praises Amazing Pace of Ukrainian reforms. eu #nato #...

[dragoneyes618]

During Hitler's first five years in power, the Nazis did a great deal to make the lives of Jews miserable. They revoked their citizenship, ejected Jewish students from German schools, boycotted Jewish stores, and banned Jews from a large number of professions. On occasion, individual Jews were sent to concentration camps; the Nazis, however, had not yet created death camps and, remarkably enough, people were sometimes released from concentration camps and allowed to go home.

On the night of November 9-10, 1938, the Nazis' discriminatory policy toward the Jews changed to wholesale violence as they carried out the largest pogrom in the history of the world. The official pretext for this action was the killing in Paris of a low-level Nazi diplomat by a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, Herschel Grynspan. The boy's Polish-born parents had been deported several weeks earlier from Germany back to Poland. The Poles, however, refused to accept Grynspan's parents, along with seventeen thousand other Polish-born Jews deported by the Nazis. These unfortunate Jewish refugees were left to rot, penniless, in the no-man's land separating Germany and Poland. Cut off from contact with his parents, Gwynspan shot the German official in retaliation. When the man died, the Nazis decided to punish all of German Jewry for Grynspan's deed.

The pogrom that ensured became known as Kristallnacht, the night of the broken glass. On that night, the glass windows in almost every German synagogue, and in most Jewish-owned businesses, were shattered. Shattered, too, were the lives of almost all German Jews. Ninety-one Jews were murdered during Kristallnacht; thirty thousand more were arrested and sent to concentration camps, where hundreds of them died.

World leaders denounced the Nazi pogrom, and American Jewry reacted by forming the United Jewish Appeal, which soon became the greatest fundraising organization in Jewish history. The Nazis scoffed at the protests. They announced that Kristallnacht had been carried out in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther, the sixteenth century antisemitic religious reformer whom Hitler greatly admired. The Nazis also announced the imposition of a one-billion-mark fine against the Jews; they would be forced to pay for the damage the Germans had inflicted on their synagogues and property.

German Jewry now knew that their situation was hopeless. While large numbers of them had left Germany during the first five years of Nazi rule, half of the community of 600,000 had remained, hoping that Nazi antisemitism would moderate. After Kristallnacht, they recognized that such thinking was illusory; between that event and the outbreak of World War II, less than ten months later, virtually every Jew in Germany tried to emigrate. Few countries, however, were willing to accept them. The British imposed a White Paper in Palestine to ensure that it not become a haven for Jews fleeing Hitler. Some of the Jews who tried to emigrate to the United States succeeded; most did not. In Canada a high government official was asked how many Jewish immigrants the country could accommodate. "None is too many," he answered.

It is no coincidence that Kristallnacht brought about the formation of the United Jewish Appeal, later to become a major financial supporter of Israel. More than any other event of the time, Kristallnacht converted large numbers of Jews into Zionists; the price of not having a Jewish state, they realized, was too, too high.

- Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, pages 390-391

[napoleonic-sexyman-tournament]

(limited to Europe because there are limited slots per poll)

*The Long 19th century is the period between the French Revolution and the The First World War.

The French Revolution: The original, the classic. It's got Robespierre and Marat and a Guillotine.

The Serbian Revolution: Resisting Ottoman Rule? Forming a new state? Creating a Constitution? Serbia kicked it off in the Balkans nevermind that it took three tries and three decades.

The Greek Revolution: Have you become hopelessly invested in the idea of Greece as the cradle of civilization? Do you want to die fighting for it in a way that is tragic and romantic? Then you might be Lord Byron.

The Carbonari Uprisings: Secret societies are more your speed? Here is one in Italy doing their best to try to make liberal reform happen.

The Decembrist Revolt: So, a bunch of officers came back from Napoleonic Europe wanting to see constitutional change and possibly the abolition of serfdom. Sounds reasonable, right? Right??

The July Revolution: Can you hear the people sing? You know the one, barricades and the most iconic painting in French history. Louis Philippe ends up on the throne and he is....sexy to someone.

The November Uprising: Congress Poland decides that they are sick of the tsar. Poland undertakes a tragically doomed struggle against Russia.

The Belgian Revolution: The Belgians decide to file for divorce from The United Netherlands. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg ends up on the throne and he's sexy.

The 1848 Revolutions: The Springtime of the People! Revolutions everywhere: France, Hungary, Poland, Austria, The Italian and German States.

The January Uprising: The third time is the charm on kicking out the tsar and making a Polish state, right?

The Paris Commune: Napoleon III abdicates and leaves after being thumped by the Prussians. For two months, a communist people's regime rules Paris.

The Russian Revolution of 1905: This is not the one with Lenin yet! This is the one that forces Nicky to create a Duma. Some consider it the dress rehearsal for what would come next.

[cryptotheism]

Moving to the continent to do highly illegal magic with a wizard and a mad Polish aristocrat would be stressful for anyone, and Kelley had the emotional stability one would expect of an earless alchemist who talks to angels. 

While serving as patron to Łaski, Kelley became incredibly angry with a servant named Alexander, and threatened to cut off the man’s head. After a momentary apology, Kelley learned that Alexander spoke ill of him, and subsequently attempted to kill Alexander in the street with a rapier. It took Dee and two other men to stop Kelley from killing the man. The stress was clearly getting to him.

This was a bad time to be a traveling wizard in Europe. The Protestant Reformation just happened. Witch burnings were at an all-time high. The Catholic Church in the 1580s was, in a word, touchy.  So as the pair and their families traveled Europe, receiving patronage from Rudolph II and King Stefan I of Poland, they gradually attracted the attention of the Catholic Church. On 27 March 1587 the wizards were required to defend themselves in a hearing with the papal nuncio (a diplomatic representative of the Pope). While Dee weathered the questioning with composure, the nuncio found Kelley infuriating, and at one point considered throwing him out a window. [3]

More Dee and Kelley on Patreon today

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - June 20, 2023

🐕 - Meet Sheep Farm's Newest Employee: Collie Hired After Ejection from Car!

1. Border Collie ejected from car during Sunday crash found on sheep farm, herding sheep

Tilly, the 2-year-old Border Collie who was ejected from a car Sunday during a crash, has been found. He was found on a sheep farm, where he had apparently taken up the role of sheep herder. 

According to Tilly's owner, he has lost some weight since Sunday's crash and is now drinking lots of water but is otherwise healthy.

2. After 17-Year Absence, White Rhinos Return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recently welcomed the reintroduction of 16 southern white rhinoceroses to Garamba National Park, according to officials. The last wild northern white rhino was poached there in 2006.

The white rhinos were transported to Garamba, which lies in the northeastern part of the country, from a South African private reserve. In the late 19th century, the southern white rhino subspecies was believed to be extinct due to poaching until a population of fewer than 100 was discovered in South Africa in 1895, according to WWF.

3. UK to wipe women’s historic convictions for homosexuality

Women with convictions for some same-sex activity in the United Kingdom can apply for a pardon for the first time, the Home Office has announced.

The Home Office is widening its scheme to wipe historic convictions for homosexual activity more than a decade after the government allowed applications for same-sex activity offences to be disregarded.

It means anyone can apply for a pardon if they have been convicted or cautioned for any same-sex activity offences that have been repealed or abolished.

4. Study shows human tendency to help others is universal

A new study on the human capacity for cooperation suggests that, deep down, people of diverse cultures are more similar than you might expect. The study, published in Scientific Reports, shows that from the towns of England, Italy, Poland, and Russia to the villages of rural Ecuador, Ghana, Laos, and Aboriginal Australia, at the micro scale of our daily interaction, people everywhere tend to help others when needed.

5. In a First, Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Coal in U.S.

Wind and solar generated more electricity than coal through May, an E&E News review of federal data shows, marking the first time renewables have outpaced the former king of American power over a five-month period.

The milestone illustrates the ongoing transformation of the U.S. power sector as the nation races to install cleaner forms of energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

6. Iceland becomes latest country to ban conversion therapy

Lawmakers in Iceland on June 9 approved a bill that will ban so-called conversion therapy in the country.

Media reports note 53 members of the Icelandic Parliament voted for the measure, while three MPs abstained. Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, an MP who is a member of the Liberal Reform Party, introduced the bill.

7. The temple feeding 100,000 people a day

Amritsar, the north Indian city known for its Golden Temple and delicious cuisine, is also renowned for its spirit of generosity and selfless service. The city, founded by a Sikh guru, embodies the Sikh tradition of seva, performing voluntary acts of service without expecting anything in return.

This spirit of giving extends beyond the temple walls, as the Sikh community has shown immense compassion during crises, such as delivering oxygen cylinders during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the heart of Amritsar's generosity is the Golden Temple's langar, the world's largest free communal kitchen, serving 100,000 people daily without discrimination. Despite a history marred by tragic events, Amritsar continues to radiate kindness, love, and generosity.

----

That's it for this week :)

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BUY ME A COFFEE ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog.

[potato-lord-but-not]

I know this has gotten mentioned a few times on your blog, but I recently did a deep dive on the headcanon that Noel is Jewish, and I didn't know if the fans of this blog would be interested so! Here it is!

I REALLY like it actually! And it does fit. It is very possible that Noel's parents came to the US during the large wave of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in 1880-1924. A large chunk of these immigrants settled in New England which places Noel where we need him to be. According to the wiki, Noel was raised in Harper's Hill which is a town in Massachusetts. Perfect. We are golden. Additionally, many of these Jewish immigrants were from the Russian Empire which held a great deal of Poland, aiding in the co-headcanon of Noel being of Polish decent. Noel also would have been able to find a LOT of comradery when he moved to become a detective in New York. Due to this placement in history and where he likely came from, it's the most probable for Noel and his family to have been Reform Jews which stepped more into blending Judaism with the current culture around them. Additionally, there is more of a focus on ethical laws rather than ritual laws. They began a new life in the areas that they immigrated to, finding their local worship as a part of the divine plan and shifting away from hoping for a Jewish homeland (at least in the present). I think this fits Noel quite well. We don't see these high levels of piety with his character which I see associated with Orthodox Judaism. Rather there is very much a theme of justice and forgiveness with him which goes hand in hand with this headcanon. Additionally, if Noel had lost faith in God during his time in the Dreamlands, much of these focuses would still come out of his identity as a Jewish person apart from the religion. Anyway! This is my little deep dive into this! I hope you all enjoy it!

IM EATING THIS ACTUALLY THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD ABSORBING THIS INTO MY NOEL HEADCANONS

[postcard-from-the-past]

19th-century Evangelical Reformed Parish in Warsaw, Poland

Polish vintage postcard, mailed to Rotterdam, Netherlands

[f1ghtsoftly]

All The Women’s News You Missed This Week

3/3/25-3/10/25

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump delivered a joint Congressional address. Democrats wore pink to protest this and two female Democratic leaders Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Alexandria Occasio Cortez delivered notable rebuttals.  You can watch Slotkin’s address here and read an opinion about AOC’s Instagram live rebuttal here. The world celebrated International Women’s Day with protests both inside the US and abroad, most notably in Latin America. Giselle Pelicot’s daughter has also accused her father of rape, tragically, without her mother���s support. 

The news was filled with feel-good stories about women’s rights, particularly in the Global South, and a variety of interesting investigative pieces centering women’s voices, which left me wondering why those stories aren’t covered as heavily 11 months out of the year. 

Fights continue in the US and Poland for reproductive justice. Women continue to make news for leadership lead on a variety of political issues, both as world leaders, like Mexico’s Sheinbaum, or as activists, like the Berlin Women’s Day protesters who were brutalized by police due to their support of occupied Palestine, Serbian women leading protests against government corruption and a Caribbean woman who founded a nonprofit to fight for disability justice in Antigua. 

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International Women’s Day

Feminists express anger, outrage at Women's Day marches in Mexico, Argentina and Peru

We now have an actual DEI Watchlist

Opinion and Investigative: 

The Women Who Wanted to Leave Their Husbands Over Politics

Three women grieve their dream jobs after being fired by the Trump administration

Reproductive Justice: 

Woman, 74, charged under abortion protest law

Young People Are Fleeing States With Abortion Restrictions 

Trump has dropped a high-profile abortion case in Idaho. Here’s what that means

Ultrasound now needed for pill abortions in Wyoming after lawmakers override veto

Women in the News: 

Trump didn't want to talk about Medicaid last night — so AOC did

Heather Hill is running for governor of Ohio. Who is she?

Professor Fiona Raitt: Dundee champion of legal reform and women’s rights, dies at 68

Azerbaijan’s Imprisoned Women Journalists 

Who is Elissa Slotkin, the Democrat who responded to Trump's speech? 

Arizona lawmaker who announced plans in a floor speech last year to get an abortion is resigning

As US and Canada trade barbs, it's so far so good for Mexico's Sheinbaum

LGBTQ: 

California’s Gavin Newsom opposes trans athletes in women’s sports, splitting with progressives

Prosecutors say there’s no evidence so far that torture and killing of missing man was a hate crime

Male Violence Against Women: 

What if m23s struggle was also a feminist one?

Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter: She abandoned me as a fellow victim 

Palestinian women come forward with allegations of increased sexual violence by Israeli forces since Oct. 7

Authorities in the Dominican Republic search for missing American university student

An Israeli woman and her Indian host were gang raped in southern India, police say

Canadian serial killer's victim found in landfill

Mother's murder left irreplaceable void, court hears

Women Getting Justice???

Andrew Tate, social media influencer who faces trafficking charges, sits cageside for UFC 313

Italy approves draft law targeting femicide with punishment of up to life in prison

Jay-Z sues woman who dropped rape claim against him

Women Fight Back: 

WATCH: Massive violence against women by Berlin police at the international women’s day protest 

Diagnosed with arthritis at 24, she set out to hike... and change an unequal society

The Dems' 'Let's All Wear Pink' Stunt Fell Painfully Flat. Here's Why.

‘I screamed and the world listened’: how astronaut Amanda Nguyen survived rape to fight for other victims

Female students mark International Women’s day by leading protests in Serbia against corruption

Activists open abortion center in front of Polish parliament on Women’s Day

Maasai girls take up self-defense as protection from sexual abuse and early marriage

Activists in Trinidad and Tobago push to include women’s occupations on Hindu marriage act

Feel Good Stories: 

‘I’m still dancing’: Derbyshire woman has 105th birthday rave at care home 

A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers

 Cyndi Lauper ‘cried’ after song title was made into feminist slogan for protests

‘We had all this energy’: the landmark gathering of women that unnerved the Chinese government

Arts and Culture: 

Pamela Bach, Baywatch Actress and David Hasselhoff's Ex Wife, Dies by Suicide at 62

Music Review: The Lady Gaga you loved and missed returns with pop ‘Mayhem’

Movie Review: A reckoning in surreal, riveting ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’

Movie Review: In ‘My Dead Friend Zoe,’ a dark comedy about PTSD

Alanis Morissette’s furious feminism lives on  

As always, this is global and domestic news from a US perspective covering feminist issues and women in the news more generally. As of right now, I do not cover Women’s Sports. Published each Monday.