The Foreman Awards For Excellence In Humanity - December 4th

[ericcoleman]

Let's talk about Dennis Prager. He is in a tizzy about incoming congressman Keith Ellison because Ellison, a Muslim, wants to take his oath of office on the Koran. Well, duh, it is his holy book. Prager says, and I quote

"Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible."

Of course there is one little glitch, that being the US Constitution.

Article VI, Section 3 has this to say.

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

And second

Last year Bill O'Reilly went of on his yearly rant about the phrase "Happy Holiday" being a threat to Christmas. The best part of that was for a week or more into his nightly rants, you could go to the Fox News website and buy Bill O'Reilly holiday ornaments.

This year, he's off on IPods. He says

"I don't own an iPod. I would never wear an iPod... If this is your primary focus in life - the machines... it's going to have a staggeringly negative effect, all of this, for America... did you ever talk to these computer geeks? I mean, can you carry on a conversation with them?"

You can even download the podcast where he says all that if you want.




[Poll #881637]

A special thanks to democraticunderground.com for pointing out the links

Comments

[ericcoleman]

Read the article ... he says ...

"But for all of American history, Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament, and the many secular elected officials have not believed in the Old Testament either. Yet those secular officials did not demand to take their oaths of office on, say, the collected works of Voltaire or on a volume of New York Times editorials, writings far more significant to some liberal members of Congress than the Bible. Nor has one Mormon official demanded to put his hand on the Book of Mormon. And it is hard to imagine a scientologist being allowed to take his oath of office on a copy of "Dianetics" by L. Ron Hubbard."

All of which, of course, is total BS.

[pheltzer.livejournal.com]

Well damn... I guess I'll just have to get myself elected to Congress so I can take my oath on the Old Testament just to spite this guy. How's that for a platform... elect me so I can shove Prager's ignorance back in his face?

[ericcoleman]

The thing is ... people have ...

[pheltzer.livejournal.com]

Of course if my readings have been correct... the whole article is something of a farse anyway... since it appears that congressmen don't actually swear on any book, Bible, Koran, Dianetics, whatever. They just raise their hand and give an oath. So looks like Prager is just stirring up controversy for controversy sake. Either that or he's completely ignorant on the subject he's writting about. Which wouldn't surprise me.

[bammba-m.livejournal.com]

Assuming that it's not total BS, how is using a book you don't believe in a sign of how strongly you take your oath?

[ericcoleman]

This is one of the many reasons why Bamm's are wonderful folk ...

I hadn't thought of that ...

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I'd totally take my oath of office on the collected works of Voltaire.

[bammba-m.livejournal.com]

Oooh, can i take mine on a PB&J?? But only if it's strawberry preserves. (So i guess that's a PB&P...hee hee!!)

Then i get the oath, and to eat the evidence. Win-Win.