Gratitude:
Thank God
for Crown Royal drunk in moderation.
Acknowledgement:
I am a prig.
I don't know the exact nature and extent of how it is that I am a
prig, but I know that I must be.
Request(s):
Please visit my Casa
Kaulins Blog.
What
is Akicistan? It isn't a
place. It is more a state of mind that places cutting-edge
state-of-the-art sticks in mud. The word Akicistan is formed from
the initials AKIC
and the root stan.
Akicistan
news in brief: The K family is
thinking of going to Hong Kong.
Important
Akicistan Links:
In
Akicistan:
Some
of us can speak Chinese!
我不会说中文。我可以读一点点中文词。
There
is a Monarchy!
Jenny
is the Queen. Andis is the King, but really the consort. Tony is
the prince. King Andis proudly proclaims himself a loyal subject of
her majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
We
sometimes pay attention to China. Andis
doesn't want to be a know-it-all would-be Sinologist. The are enough
on the Internet already. Andis has nothing that he can add to that
pile.
We
are fond of Canada!
We are also fond of the USA which is a great country, perhaps the
greatest country there ever
was. But we have one thing the Americans don't have: the Monarchy.
We
are fond of Latvia! Andis is
well aware of the dark aspects of Latvian history.
The
Politics are Conservative and Reactionary!
Andis started out as a leftie. He even proudly proclaimed to some
girl that he was a socialist. He saw Billy Bragg in concert twice
and bought a t-shirt saying Capitalism is killing music. But then
listening to Rush Limbaugh, and reading the likes of CS Lewis,
William F Buckley, Frederic Hayek, and Milton Friedman smartened him
up.
English
is taught! I was reading in an
English grammar that the rule when to use “more” or “er” with
disyllabic adjectives is as follows: If the first syllable is
stressed, you use “more:” if the second syllable is stressed, you
use “er.” Example of the former is “helpful” whose
comparative form is “more helpful.” An example of the latter
would be “polite” whose comparative form is “politer.” But I
would have thought that “more polite” was okay. Reading about it
on the Internet, it seems that “politer” was the old form and now
most native speakers use “more polite.”
Citizens
aren't freaks! Akicistanians
are what normal people should be like.
Reading
is the #1 Pastime! Here
is what I had been working my way through the past week or so:
Don
Colacho's (Nicolas Gomez Davilla) Aphorisms. There are
2,988 of them in this book that I compiled for myself. I try to
read at least one aphorism a day. I cut and paste the better
ones -- they are all profound actually -- and I put them in the AKIC
Weekly. (See below)
The
Niomachean Ethics of Aristotle.
After this, I will read Aquinas's Summa.
Ulysses
by James Joyce. I am following along with Frank
Delaney as he slowly guides podcast listeners through
Joyce's hard-to-read novel. Delaney figures he will have the
whole novel covered in about 22 years. Delaney completed
episode #183 this week and is working his way through the chapter
that introduces Leopold Bloom. I am getting ahead of Delaney as far
as reading the book. I will be finished my reading of it, I
figure, in a year. I read the novel despite its many blasphemies.
It is best to be aware of this stuff because the world is full of it,
and the world will always find a way of slapping you in the face with
it
The
Holy Bible (RSV-C2E version, aka the Ignatius Bible, and
Douay-Rheims version). I will read the two versions in
conjunction. Last week, I was reading the Book of Genesis.
Is
Life Worth Living? by WH Mallock Finished.
I don't know why this book and this author isn't more known in
conservative circles. This book is a brilliant defence of Revealed
Religion, particularly Catholicism, against Postivism. I have pasted
a couple quotes from the book below.
Everything
That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor. Finished.
Good stories written from a Catholic world view.
Reclaiming
History：The
Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi. This
is a long book. I have no plan to read it in its entirety, but I
will read most of it. As I have written before, I am a JFK
assassination buff.
Mere
Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Finished.
I read this book twenty years ago. I will read again in another
year. It's a book like Road to Serfdom that changed my mind about a
lot of things. [Now, if it can only change me into a new man.]
Farewell
Fear by Theodore Dalrymple. Finished.
This book is a collection of recent essays that I am lucky to have
in e-book form. I will read anything by Theodore Dalrymple on any
topic. He is that good a writer. He is also very sensible.
Memorable
quotes are presented and discussed!
Nicholas
Gomez Davilla:
600
The Leftist is so worried about the problems of the 19th
century that he does not worry about the problems of the 20th
century. The problems raised by the industrialization of society
prevent him from seeing the problems raised by industrialized
society. [These days, American Leftists are fighting the racism
of the pre-1950s and ignoring the destructive effects of the welfare
state on black people.]
610
In an egalitarian society neither the magnanimous nor the humble
fit in; there is only room for pretentious virtues. [I have seen
more people who spend more time saying they are good than actually
doing or being good. Their actions belie their words.]
611
Man is nothing but the spectator of his impotence [I
could modify that sentence and turn it into my
personal motto. I could also use part of this aphorism in the title
of my autobiography. I once said I was a bystander when it came to
the raising of Tony.]
612
All satisfaction is a form of
forgetfulness. [So is a lot of
self-righteousness. I like how my memory will offer me flashes of my
past that I ought to be ashamed of. I could rattle off many
confessions. Once, for instance, I fired a rifle and its kick
against my cheek made me cry.]
615
The calculations of intelligent men tend to fail because
they forget the fool, those of fools because they forget the
intelligent man. [I don't know
if my calculations are those of the fool or the smart fellow. I find
my calculations fail because I forget the clever people and I forget
how insincere people are.]
Theodore
Dalrymple (on the reading of old books):
....history
should not be read as the backward projection of our current
discontents, or of our grievances, that we are not just the victims
of history but its principal beneficiaries so far. We have much to be
grateful for because people like Messrs. Hood and Jackson labored for
a better world, and others, more gifted or brilliant perhaps than
them, or with better opportunities, succeeded in freeing us from the
conditions that they described. If history is not merely the history
of progress, neither is it the history merely of injustice reaching
into the present. It should not be taught as it all too often is, as
one of the subjects covered in the largest of all university
departments, that of Resentment Studies.
WH
Mallock:
Science
is only possible on the assumption that nature is uniform.
[This sentence is so pregnant with
meaning for me.]
A
horde of intellectual barbarians has burst in upon it, and has
occupied by force the length and breadth of it. The result has been
astounding. Had the invaders been barbarians only, they might have
been repelled easily; but they were barbarians armed with the most
powerful weapons of civilisation. They were a phenomenon new to
history: they showed us real knowledge in the hands of real
ignorance… [Who was the first
of them? Rousseau... and they went from him.]
David
Warren:
As
the former prime ministrix of France, Édith Cresson, pointed out to
reporters back in 1991, there has always been something of a problem
with “Anglo-Saxon men.” Asked what she meant by an American
reporter, she explained that, “They aren’t really men, they are
all homosexual.” (As there was some surprise at this remark, she
then qualified it by saying, “Well, not all the
Anglo-Saxon men, of course. Perhaps only 35 or 40 percent. But you
know what I mean.”) [I am not Anglo-Saxon. So, I heartily
agree with this statement.]
We
take our Godless Marxism so much for granted, that we cannot see
through the class system. “Capitalists” and “socialists”
alike have come to subscribe to Marx’s most original error. As
Roger Scruton observed: “It was to Marx that we owed that first and
disastrous attempt to organize society on economic principles alone.”
[1)Marx invented the term
Capitalism? Capitalists shouldn't use that term, even if it is a
case of adopting the insult. Leftist pollution must be avoided at
all costs. It pollutes thought. 2)Strangely enough, China failed
first by attempting to organize a socialist society on economic
principles alone and now seems to be failing again by attempting to
organize a capitalist society on economic principles alone.]
CS
Lewis:
If
Christianity only means one more bit of good advice, then
Christianity is of no importance. There has been no lack of good
advice for the last four thousand years. A bit more makes no
difference. [I was going to read
a book called Quiet: the power of introversion. It was published in
2012 and was written by Susan Cain. But after reading CS Lewis's
Mere Christianity, it seemed like it was going to be a rah-rah self
help book. (It also didn't help that one of the heroes of the book
was Al Gore.)]
Lists
are made:
Here
are some interesting moments in the life of Andis Kaulins, the king
of Akicistan:
- Andis visited Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
- Andis visited the Trotsky Compound in Mexico City.
- Andis visited Tienanmen Square in Beijing.
- Andis saw Micheal Jordan and the rest of the Chicago Bulls in Vancouver, Canada.
- Andis saw Pope John Paul II in Winnipeg.
- Andis saw Queen Elizabeth II in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
- Andis saw the Sex Pistols in concert.
- Andis saw the Team Canada Junior Hockey Team beat the Juniors of the Soviet Union 7-0 in 1981.
- Andis had a blog entry mentioned in the Commentary Website.
- Andis got Billy Bragg's autograph.
- Andis got Maurice “the Rocket” Richard's autograph.
- Andis saw Prime Minister Jean Chrietien make a speech in Winnipeg.
Thoughts
are thought
- The more you know people, the more they decrease in your estimation.
