Blog Archives - ROBERT E DUNN

infanticide

3/31/2022

If one does not accept Catholic dogma on life, one might want to know what natural law teaches. One explanation of natural law comes from Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the best explanation of all. His explanation stands against California AB 2223, a bill to legalize killing during the perinatal period. According to medicinenet.com, “Perinatal: pertaining to the period immediately before and after birth. The perinatal period is defined in diverse ways. Depending on the definition, it starts at the 20th to 28th week of gestation and ends 1 to 4 weeks after birth.” AB 2223 would permit legally killing babies after birth. This is infanticide.
www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2021/08/77294/

jefferson

3/31/2022

The video comes from a good friend. The party Jefferson founded was known as the Democratic-Republican Party, the Jeffersonian Republican Party, and the Republican Party.

austria-hungary

3/31/2022

Joe Ketzer said, “Written by Joseph Haydn, this is the old anthem of Austria-Hungary, and many British and American hymnals also contain this tune, titled, ‘Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken’. It’s a ‘Tantum Ergo’, which I often sang in church on special occasions. The Latin verses fit perfectly to the tune.”

You will see the source of many English words in the song. The origin of Kaiser is Caesar and sounds the same as the classical Latin pronunciation of Caesar, and the connection between the two becomes clear with an understanding of the title, Holy Roman Emperor. His chancellor was the famous Metternich.

telegram style

3/31/2022

Joe Ketzer referenced “telegram style” in a “Cogito” post comment 3/30/2022. That got me looking, and I found a copy of Orville Wright’s telegram, dated Dec. 17, 1903. Notice there are no pronouns, or articles the, a, an, which are used in Germanic languages, such as English, as Joe pointed out.

In the public domain. “Telegram from Orville Wright in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to His Father Announcing Four Successful Flights, 1903 December 17”, created 20 July 2013, 21:00:21, source http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11372/ author Orville Wright [***the source is not secure***]

nocturne c sharp

3/31/2022

View of Dresden by Moonlight by Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857)

cogito, ergo sum

3/30/2022

“Cogito, ergo sum.” “Je pense, donc je suis.” “I think, therefore I am.”

Did René Descartes (1596–1650), the father of modern philosophy, say it? Not exactly. “I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Does it now follow that I too do not exist? No: if I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me. In that case I too undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I think that I am something. So, after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.” (AT 7:25, CSM 2:16f)

iron curtain

3/29/2022

Alexander (8) gave me a book to read from his library of approximately 400 titles, The Wall, Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sís, an artist born in Czechoslovakia in 1949 and an American citizen since 1988. The book is a memoir filled with photographs of family and American rock band culture, numerous drawings from his youth, and a timeline of events in the place of birth. I recommend the book, which is entirely in English, to children who are good readers and adults.

Perhaps, that arises from the fact that his parents are immigrants.

promises

3/29/2022

What are the most important things in my life? Not writing. Not being loved or remembered. Loyalty and keeping promises. I hope I never fail these immortals, the Roman god, Sancus, and his Catholic better part, St. Expeditus.

clerihew

3/29/2022

Edmund Clerihew Bentley, a friend of Chesterton from schooldays, issued his first clerihew, which is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem that he invented, in 1905, on Sir Humphry Davy.

Bentley was also president of the Detection Club, a club for mystery writers, which included Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Ronald Knox. Chesterton was its first president. Per Wikipedia, “In addition to meeting for dinners and helping each other with technical aspects in their individual writings, the members of the club agreed to adhere to Knox's Commandments in their writing to give the reader a fair chance at guessing the guilty party.” Knox just happened to be a Catholic priest, and Christie just happened to sign a 1969 letter requesting that the Latin Mass not be abolished.

This time period is called the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Most of the writers were British, but included are Americans Ellery Queen, Erle Stanley Gardner (of Perry Mason fame), Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler.

Sir Humphry Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

chesterton on the world

3/29/2022

crt exposed

3/28/2022

Critical race theory (CRT) teaches that all white people are racist, and who the hell are white people, anyway? They are people in a box to be checked on a questionnaire. The people behind CRT do not belong in any government position or on any corporate board of directors. Above all, they do not belong on any school board or in any school, and don’t they love their worldly goods.

On a personal note, I received communion and absolution from the hands of a Nigerian priest more than once. A brief romance many, many years ago had me staring admiringly into the face of an Asian refugee. Through the years, boys and girls of different backgrounds sat beside me as we did schoolwork.

Any Catholic who endorses CRT is not Catholic. Any American who embraces this evil theory that hurts children will face judgment in the end. What then?

chinese emperor

3/26/2022

Flag of the Chinese Empire under the Qing dynasty (1889-1912), details per the restoration of Beiyang fleet researcher, 2 May 2015, Original work: 1889. Own work. [Public domain in US, not everywhere]

Puyi (Chinese: 溥儀; February 7, 1906 – October 17, 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch.

He became Qing emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on February 12, 1912, during the Xinhai Revolution. His era name as Qing emperor, “Xuantong” (Hsuan-tung), means “proclamation of unity”.

He was later installed as the ruler of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo during World War II.

He was briefly restored to the throne as Qing emperor by the loyalist General Zhang Xun from July 1 to July 12, 1917.

He was first wed to Empress Wanrong in 1922 in an arranged marriage.

In 1924, he was expelled from the palace and found refuge in Tianjin, where he began to court both the warlords fighting for hegemony over China and the Japanese who had long desired control of China.

In 1932, after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the puppet state of Manchukuo was established by Japan, and he was chosen to become the chief executive of the new state using the era name of “Datong” (Ta-tung).

lockheed martin

3/25/2022

This is what Americans do to advance freedom.
No casualties on our side.

swticheroo

3/25/2022

Hail Mary, full of grace, help me find a parking space.

writing challenge

3/24/2022

Ars longa, vita brevis.
Skillfulness takes time, and life is short.

path to his heart

3/23/2022

Son: “I’m so glad you’re a good cook.”
Mom: “I don’t cook anymore. I’m so glad you’re good-looking.”

appointment missed

3/23/2022

According to interestingfacts.com, “A sidetracked teenager changed the course of art history when she skipped an 1871 portrait-sitting. James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) — a Massachusetts-born artist living in London — was commissioned to paint Maggie Graham, the 15-year-old daughter of a member of Parliament.

Although James had prepared a canvas during his initial studio sessions with Graham, his creative process moved too slowly for her liking. When she failed to appear, James asked his mother, Anna McNeill Whistler, then living with him in London, to be his subject.”

I saw Whistler’s Mother up-close in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Deuteragonist

3/22/2022

Deuteragonist [doo-də-RAH-gə-nəst] is a person second in importance to the protagonist, the main character, and a new one on me. This word originates from the Greek deuteragōnistēs, which comes from deuteros, meaning “second”, and agōnistēs, meaning “actor”.

Wordgenius says, “A deuteragonist isn’t necessarily the same from one story to the next. A deuteragonist may be on the protagonist’s side, like a sidekick or a love interest. Or they can be a villain, foil, or primary rival the protagonist must defeat. The deuteragonist can simply serve a neutral role, too.”

If one of my students finishes second in anything, I will call him or her a deuteragonist. After all, there is agony in finishing anything but first.

philosophers

3/22/2022

I first encountered Aristotle in college philosophy. All I knew was that he was a Greek philosopher before Christ. As I read his Ethics, I thought to myself, “This guy is Catholic.” Thomas Aquinas had the same reaction and incorporated Aristotle into Catholic philosophy.

Thomas wrote Summa Theologica in Latin. There are a number of translations. Estimates are that it would take 50 to 80 hours to complete, depending on how fast one reads. I scan stuff on the internet to get through the material quickly, but I would not scan Summa. I don’t scan the Bible, either. That book requires reflection.

There are many lists of the greatest philosophers of all time. These guys appear on almost every list: Aquinas, Aristotle, Confucius, Descartes, Emerson, Foucault, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Lao-Tzu, Locke, Machiavelli, Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Plato, Rousseau, Sartre, and Socrates.

The faith enlightened some of them.

harvard catholic

3/22/2022

The 1.8 meter Alice P. Lennon Telescope and its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), is a Gregorian telescope observing in the optical and infrared situated on Mount Graham in southeast Arizona, United States.

It achieved its first light in 1993. Source – Wikipedia.com The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), the main telescope of the Vatican Observatory. The dome to the left houses the telescope itself; the space to the right are the control room and the living space for the observers.

Author: Jjstott: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VaticanObservatory_VATT.jpg

waitor - i was my dad's waitor

3/22/2022

“Just Lather, That’s All”

3/21/2022

"Just Lather, That’s All” Today, Altan (13) and I read the short story, four pages, published in 1950 and written by Hernando Telez, a Columbian journalist. There’s a surprise waiting for you inside.

nature's power

3/21/2022

upper left: tree fell over and cloned four more trees
upper right: tree is growing through a speed limit sign
lower left: tree still has leaves because of a light shining on it
lower right: tree grows from third floor window

**don’t get so worked up over the environment**

oil over the ocean

3/20/2022

I have not fact-checked these numbers, but, um, you get the point. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after a text is published (post hoc or ad hoc). While this is true, I listen to experts who can handle a measuring stick. A ruler to the knuckles of propaganda gushers. For the real deal, visit Canadians who are in the business -
https://www.capp.ca/explore/oil-and-natural-gas-pipelines/
Then check the Comedy Category for unctuous relief.

oppressed vs oppressor

3/19/2022

Who could have invented Catholicism?

Sometimes, I will hear a person say to me, “That’s your opinion.” They are wrong. I didn’t invent a whit of Catholicism. It was handed to me. People are not imaginative enough or beautiful enough to invent truth.

Who could have invented Marxism, communism, critical race theory, and gender theory?

That question has an answer: power-hungry people and their suckers, mostly people without melanin…

Equally importantly, no religious or secular leader is brilliantly organized enough to turn Catholicism into a personal tool of oppression before it is resisted and rejected by Catholics and/or others, which debunks the theory of peoples being oppressed by Western Civilization. The Catholic Church seeks salvation of souls, not domination.