Blog Posts - ROBERT E DUNN

Towering inferno

3/16/2023

555 California is the location for the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. My brother was a tiller driver on an SFFD truck that appeared in the opening scenes, while I was a Bank of America employee on the 9th floor, not in the film. In the news video you will see a tiller and Mr. Ortiz, a witness who shot video of the falling glass. He is interviewed at the exact location where I often parked my patrol car.

I recommend the movie if you like the disaster genre or movies set in San Francisco. This one gets five out of five stars, and one of them is Steve McQueen. Spoiler alert: here is the fire engine scene and more, but my brother, Tom, age 27 at the time, was not a member of the screen actor’s union, so his face could not be on screen. You can see his back at about 6:20 and his blurred face a few seconds later.

His son, age 10, faced the same problem when he did a commercial with Reggie Jackson, so a fictitious name was used, my brother’s name! I think his son was paid $600.

Thomas George Dunn 1946-2017

latin unveiled

3/15/2023

Here are some Latin roots right out of 1962 Missal, the best source for learning.

locum location; refrigeri refreshment; lucis* light
*Satan was Lucifer before he flunked.

Et dormiunt in somno pacis - and who sleep the sleep of peace

De multitudine miserationum tuarum sperantibus - who put our trust in the multitude of Thy mercies (tu is you and spe is hope)

Intra quorum nos consortium largitor admitte - into their company do Thou admit us

The language has a sound of finality to it. Perhaps, that is why Latin orations are so good. For example, nunc means now. The closest sound to nunc I could think of, is fulcrum. Whereas “now” is whiny, nunc sounds angry, demanding, or militaristic, thus more dramatic and convincing. Some of our politicians would have better luck giving speeches in Latin.

The first video comes from a tutor at Oxford.

In the midst of life we are in death
What helper do we seek except you, oh Lord
You who for our sins,
Holy God, holy and powerful
Oh holy compassionate savior,
Do not give us over to the harshness of death,
In you our fathers placed their hopes,
They placed their hopes and you freed them
In the midst of life we are in death.

The last line found its way into rock and roll in the 1986 single, “Sweet and Tender Hooligan” (The Smiths).

stalwell

3/15/2023

The dem from CA seems to think that members of the US military abroad should not be allowed to watch Fox News. What a merrymaker he is. I propose a name change: stall well to stifle well.

de anza college

3/15/2023

The event at Stanford in which a sitting judge was verbally attacked is what Elon Musk was referring to when he said our children are receiving a Soviet level of indoctrination at elite private schools and universities. Stanford had such a stellar reputation.

Stanford is 13 miles north of De Anza College. I played in a tennis match at De Anza in the early 70s. Tucker interviews a former dean there. The purpose of a community college was to remediate a high school education or provide a 2-year technical training program.

The left has hijacked it all. Now, they are dismembering each other.

Tucker ranked #2 in the nation in 2022. Not surprising. He is getting the best interviewees.
www.adweek.com/tvnewser/these-are-the-top-rated-cable-news-shows-of-2022/521247/

washing machines

3/15/2023

iTunes or Looney Tunes

Joe would do better if he hired an illegal alien to do the laundry.
The alien might have trouble finding the ON button the first time, but for Joe, it's every time.

pronouns on trial

3/14/2023

The judge enters the court.

“Human unit, you may speak.”

“Uh…”

“Shut up, you dumb turtle. I find you guilty of eleven counts of impersonating a two-legged. You’ve been doing it for too long. Into the shark tank you go. One day for each count.”

“She/it.”

“One day added for profanity.”

“Thems is guilty. They is changing their pronoun.”

“Your pronoun is guilty.”

“As whatever’s attorney, I object on the grounds that the higher court will overturn. I cross-examined the starfish, and I still have no idea how many people of which sex the starwitness witnessed do something. Remember, your honorific person, the other witness identified as furry and demonstrated 40 different kinds of meows. This is paw-inspiring for such, and inclusive, and the higher court will be jubilant.”

“Em. Yo, stand up...yes, on two legs.”

“Sí?”

“New trial ordered on the grounds I don’t know who’s on first, second, or third…or should I say ‘multiple, diverse bases’?”

The audience of fluid neuters broke into interrobangs.

musk education

3/14/2023

Today he tweeted, “Parents don’t realize the Soviet level of indoctrination that their children are receiving in elite high schools & colleges!” I don’t do Twitter, but I get notifications about what is going on there.

Check out the list of colleges provided by The Cardinal Newman Society and recheck those colleges to be assured that your families are not Soviet indoctrinated. I have doubts about a few. All are Catholic schools, but non-Catholics are welcome and receive a good education. The list also provides job openings, including STEM.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/college/

I tutored a boy who is not Catholic and has been in Catholic schools from the beginning. I kidded him, “If I saw you in the hallway, I would ask, ‘Sooo, when?’”

In the context of taking tests, my current student and I looked at what Musk had to say about the challenges he faced in his life and how he dealt with associated anxieties.

Then get off social media!

shark tank

3/14/2023

journalists speak

3/14/2023

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has primary responsibility for determining whether specific advertising is false or misleading and for taking action against the sponsors of such material. In my world, independent journalists are writers, not advertisers.

Tucker Carlson: “If you have no privacy, you have no freedom.” He is referring to communications.

A fifth journalist is harassed. “Today News Africa reporter Simon Ateba was booted out of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA).” https://americandigest.com/simon-ateba-removed-from-whca-claims-karine-jean-pierre-was-behind-it/?

nypd resignations

3/14/2023

“According to the Daily Wire, the rate of resignations this year is astonishing.

“‘In the first two months of 2023, 239 officers left the New York City Police Department, substantially more than the 176 who left in 2022 and the 110 who left in 2021 during the same time period,’ the outlet wrote, citing data obtained by the New York Post.”

Defund-the-police callers are guilty.

There are instances of suicidal people who want a cop to do it for them.

married priests

3/14/2023

Vision of St. Bridget (c. 1303 - 1373)

The Mother of God said to St. Bridget of Sweden that a pope who would allow priests to marry would go to Hell.

“But now I shall tell you God’s will in this matter.

“Know this too: that if some pope concedes to priests a license to contract carnal marriage, God will condemn him to a sentence as great, in a spiritual way, as that which the law justly inflicts in a corporeal way on a man who has transgressed so gravely that he must have his eyes gouged out, his tongue and lips, nose and ears cut off, his hands and feet amputated, all his body’s blood spilled out to grow completely cold, and finally, his whole bloodless corpse cast out to be devoured by dogs and other wild beasts.

“Similar things would truly happen in a spiritual way to that pope who were to go against the aforementioned preordinance and will of God and concede to priests such a license to contract marriage.

“For that same pope would be totally deprived by God of his spiritual sight and hearing, and of his spiritual words and deeds. All his spiritual wisdom would grow completely cold; and finally, after his death, his soul would be cast out to be tortured eternally in hell so that there it might become the food of demons everlastingly and without end.”

If you think the Mother of God is some sort of benign sap, or Our Lord for that matter, think again. Consider the view into Hell she gave the three little children of Fatima.

alex epstein liberating energy

3/14/2023

Per Website Stats under the More Tab, I let someone else speak for me when I have no expertise. Alex Epstein. Wikipedia provides background and citations for his published works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Epstein_(American_writer) It is not believable that Alex, who is Jewish, is a racist. He is a conservative, and that is when slanderers and libelers attack. When I was on Facebook, I read a poster’s claim that conservatives do not give to charities, hence they are uncharitable. They give.

Update: Alaska drills https://americandigest.com/joe-biden-does-about-face-on-domestic-oil-drilling-set-to-permit-alaska-drilling/?

green light

3/13/2023

Ready to go, but not there. Able to sing, but not higher.

G2-A4, need practice, you?

an arm and a leg

3/13/2023

In George Washington’s days, one’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington have him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back, while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were based not on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are limbs; therefore, painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, “Fine, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.” Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint. At the Academy of Art University (SF), there is a stand-alone class for hands and heads.

masculinity

3/13/2023

Images are dated, but I post to undo confusion over the immutable characteristics of boys as illustrated by frame one, and I was there at one time, and what I have observed as their tutor.

diaper

3/13/2023

obrador/crenshaw/Bouguereau

3/13/2023

Congressman Crenshaw is a former Navy Seal and represents a district in Texas. Born to American parents in Aberdeen, Scotland, Crenshaw grew up in Katy, Texas. His father, Jim, is a petroleum engineer who has worked abroad, and his mother died of cancer when he was ten. He developed proficiency in Spanish during time spent in Ecuador and Colombia, and in 2002 he graduated from Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogota, Colombia.

There are many entries in the Crime Blog about illegal drugs coming from Mexico. We are not too clean, either. At least $276 billion of government funding intended for “virus relief” was fraudulently taken or wasted. Needing some poenitentiam, Latin for repentance. https://www.patriotnewsalerts.com/inspectors-general-finds-276-billion-worth-of-fraud-and-waste-in-covid-relief-funds/

Premier Deuil
The First Mourning (of Adam and Eve over Abel)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), oil on canvas, 1888,
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires

“At the age of twelve, Bouguereau went to Mortagne-sur-Gironde to stay with his uncle Eugène, a priest, and developed a love of nature, religion, and literature. In 1839, he was sent to study for the priesthood at a Catholic college in Pons. Here he was taught to draw and paint by Louis Sage, who had studied under Ingres. Bouguereau reluctantly left his studies to return to his family, now residing in Bordeaux.”
…

“In 1856, William began living with one of his models, Nelly Monchablon, a 19-year-old from Lisle-en-Rigault. Living together unmarried, the pair kept their liaison a secret. Their first child, Henriette, was born in April 1857; Georges was born in January 1859. A third child, Jeanne, was born 25 December 1861. The couple married quietly (as many assumed they were already married) on 24 May 1866.”
…

“…[A] French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work.

“As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of many are still unknown.”

Wikipedia with citations

His figures are idealized to some degree, but they are also models for healthy body image and intimacy. I don’t think the family had time for extreme sports, and I don’t think Eve had a flat stomach. In case you don’t know the story of brothers Cain and Abel, Cain killed Abel. If the painting does not cause grief and sorrow in you and contrition for what you have done, what would?

gregorian writing

3/13/2023

It is hard to gain access to visuals of Fontgombault monks singing. They are the premier singers of Gregorian chant. Fontgombault is an abbey of the Congregation of Solesmes. Fons Amoris is a documentary I posted previously, but that’s it.

So, I elected to upload this video, which explains how Gregorian chant is constructed, and the beautiful thing is that creative writing mirrors the same rise and fall: introduction, climax, and conclusion (denouement).

Fontgombault interior, monk-priests with servers saying Mass at their individual altars, https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2022/08/abbaye-de-notre-dame-de-fontgombault.html

paniolo

3/13/2023

Hawaiian cowboy. My sister lives in Paniolo Country. This is a high school competition honoring the paniolo. Both sexes hula. I told Kathy I liked it when girls did hula in heels. Here they are barefoot. The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters: a e i o u h k l m n p w. When they were very little, my brother could not pronounce her name. He called her, “Kaki”, short a. The Hawaiian word for child is keiki, long a. Participants Beth Maile Wong and her daughter were my sister’s students. Kathy taught combined kindergarten/first grade, and her husband is a Kamehameha alum.

Honolulu, March 10, 2023

Hawaii did not have the horse until certain “invaders” arrived. In 1803 Richard Cleveland, an American trader, brought the first horse to Hawai`i and presented the animal as a gift to King Kamehameha I. After seeing a riding demonstration, the king was so impressed that more horses were soon ordered.

In 1810 he unified the islands into one kingdom. There are a total of 137 islands, though the eight largest are the ones we think of: Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Ni’ihau, and Kaho’olawe. Seven of the eight are the only inhabited islands, so that excludes Kaho’olawe.

taibbi

3/13/2023

This is how Democrats ask questions. Anyone can ask leading questions, but her questions are statements, not questions, because she cuts him off when he attempts to answer. Moreover, she makes a lot of nasty accusations against Matt Taibbi, a very fine journalist who describes himself as an atheist/agnostic, hardly a proponent of religiously motivated inquiry. As a representative of the left, she is cutting off her own ally. Here is an example of his alt views. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1976365/

Also, she repeats the phrase, “MAGA extremists.” Is she implying Taibbi is an extremist? It’s there in her speech. In the 2020 election, Biden received 81.2 million votes (306 electoral votes), and Trump received 74.2 million votes (232 electoral votes). Thus, Biden received 52% of the vote, and Trump received 48%. In using the phrase, which is a false euphemism for conservative, she lumps 48% of the American people together and so maligns almost half the country.

What an awful phrase “reclaiming my time” is. Reclamation pertains to dirty water and garbage. I don’t argue with or cut off people on my side: example – people who attend, or are sympathetic to, the Latin Mass. That would be a dumb move. But leftists are in the process of dismembering each other. Once the process is completed, we can return to reason.

dying detective

3/12/2023

vp's confession

3/11/2023

When one has mental health problems, one sees a psychologist, not a climatologist.

derek lennox

3/11/2023

Josh Alexander is 16 and a Baptist.

From the National Catholic Register, Susan Klemond, World, February 16, 2023
…

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in Paragraph 355, quotes Genesis 1:27 as ‘God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.’ This fundamental male-female duality of human beings is referenced in Paragraphs 383, 2331, and 2334, as well. …”
…

“The 11th-grader … approached the school’s principal [Derek Lennox] to advocate for female students who shared with him concerns about biological males using their bathrooms. When the administration didn’t address the issue, Alexander led 200 students in a walk out.”

[The student body is 550. Two hundred out of 550 means that almost 40% of the students walked, which is extraordinary, given that students in Catholic schools exercise self-restraint and don’t challenge authority.]
…

“The Renfrew County Catholic District School Board is one of many Canadian Catholic school boards that have given in to pressure from the government, media and liberal board members in promoting transgender bathroom and other policies, Fonseca said.

“‘By and large they have all bowed to this transgender ideology and are allowing biological males into girls washrooms and not only that, but actively persecuting any faithful Catholic who speaks out against it,’ he said.

“The school board, which governs 21 elementary and secondary schools, said in a Feb. 13 statement on its website that as an inclusive learning community, it takes a pastoral care approach in supporting transgender youth, which may include walking with them as they decide to ‘access the washroom of their lived gender.’”
…

“The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops did not respond to several requests for comment.” [weak]

https://www.ncregister.com/news/why-was-a-canadian-student-expelled-from-catholic-school-for-opposing-transgender-bathroom-policy

Now we are seeing how important journalism is. In the years of the 20th century, we perused page one, obituaries, cartoons, and sports and that was about it, but now the written word itself is under attack. How does one live a gender? Do blue-eyed people live blue? One time a girl said she liked my blue pies. I just live day by day hoping they’re not red.

4th station

3/11/2023

Zvonimir Atletić

Mother/Son
I attended the 14 Stations of the Cross yesterday. I have never seen such piety anywhere else, the kind where there is absolute silence, and I reflected on the love between a mother and son. At the 4th Station, Jesus meets his mother. Every boy is born with a love of his mother that is basic and intense. He will defend her before anyone else. I know this to be true.

killed going to confession

3/11/2023

Born in 1852, Antoni Gaudí is the architect of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Begun in 1882 and with a completion date set for 2026, the basilica uses the basic engineering principle of compression without tension, as found in the arch. On June 10, 1926, Gaudí, who had remained single, a fact that some say was due to unrequited love, died after being hit by a tram three days earlier on his way to confession, which was a daily routine. He was 73. I hope his journey was a success.