Issue 61
News: AFA up in arms about Ellison's oath.
Recently, Keith Elison became the first ever Muslim to become elected to Congress. When he swore an oath on the Koran, the American Family Association was up in arms and wrote a coulumn condemning the action, which has to be their most noteworthy editorial since they blasted the movie Shark Tale for being too gay-friendly. The writer, Dennis Prager, was angered at this supposed embrace of multiculturalism, which he noted as a "my culture is better than your culture" thing, which is ironically the tone he took for the entirety of the article. Prager's main complaint was that using the Koran to perform an oath instead of the Bible was un-american, claiming that it was "the only book America's interested in", and claiming that every other elected official has sworn his oath on the Bible (which is untrue, since John Quincy Adams swore his Presidential oath on a book of law), and that they are only letting him swear on the Koran out of fears of reprisals by muslims. One major problem with his outrage is that it is implied that Prager believes that it is required for any American Elected official to swear on the Bible (which it is not, and requiring it would be unconstitutional (see Article VI of the Constitution) ). Fortunately, he managed to not claim that America was founded on Christian ideas or that the founders of America were all christians (which many of them clearly weren't). Anyway, if and when I finally get elected to public office (which may or may not be soon, since Illinois state law allows state representatives and Senators to be 21 or older), I may seriously consider placing a copy of "The Catcher In the Rye" as a compromise between placing oath on the Bible and a book I feel just as reverently about.
Band Name: The Plastic Jesii. From the title of a song which I got into after watching the movie Cool hand Luke.
Film Idea: A student recounts her days as a pianist with a terminal illness at a school and how she spends her days with the roommates at her college. This is an expansion of a fictional chick flick seen by Peter and Lois in a recent episode of Family Guy.
Review: Falling Down. Michael Douglas appears in this 1993 film as Bill Foster, a man in LA trying to get to his ex's home in Venice, CA. He walks out of his car in the middle of a traffic jam and goes on a rampage against the nuisances of everyday life, including a Korean storemaster whom Foster believes is charging exorbitant prices, a Latino Gang which accosts him after he unwittingly tresspasses on their land, a fast food restaurant a few minutes after they stop serving breakfast, and actually killing a neo-nazi store owner. Meanwhile, a retiring police Detective named Pendergast (played by Robert Duvall) has to deal with his crime spree on the last day of his retirement. When they finally meet in the end, the film climaxes to an amazing finale. The film was made during the LA riots, and making a film like this at that time can be seen as nothing short of coureagous. Thumbs up!
Quote of the Day: "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."
___________The third paragraph of Article 6 of the Constitution, which should reduce AFA's complaint to a moot point.
Link of the Day: The aforementioned AFA report on Shark Tale being pro-homosexual
Recently, Keith Elison became the first ever Muslim to become elected to Congress. When he swore an oath on the Koran, the American Family Association was up in arms and wrote a coulumn condemning the action, which has to be their most noteworthy editorial since they blasted the movie Shark Tale for being too gay-friendly. The writer, Dennis Prager, was angered at this supposed embrace of multiculturalism, which he noted as a "my culture is better than your culture" thing, which is ironically the tone he took for the entirety of the article. Prager's main complaint was that using the Koran to perform an oath instead of the Bible was un-american, claiming that it was "the only book America's interested in", and claiming that every other elected official has sworn his oath on the Bible (which is untrue, since John Quincy Adams swore his Presidential oath on a book of law), and that they are only letting him swear on the Koran out of fears of reprisals by muslims. One major problem with his outrage is that it is implied that Prager believes that it is required for any American Elected official to swear on the Bible (which it is not, and requiring it would be unconstitutional (see Article VI of the Constitution) ). Fortunately, he managed to not claim that America was founded on Christian ideas or that the founders of America were all christians (which many of them clearly weren't). Anyway, if and when I finally get elected to public office (which may or may not be soon, since Illinois state law allows state representatives and Senators to be 21 or older), I may seriously consider placing a copy of "The Catcher In the Rye" as a compromise between placing oath on the Bible and a book I feel just as reverently about.
Band Name: The Plastic Jesii. From the title of a song which I got into after watching the movie Cool hand Luke.
Film Idea: A student recounts her days as a pianist with a terminal illness at a school and how she spends her days with the roommates at her college. This is an expansion of a fictional chick flick seen by Peter and Lois in a recent episode of Family Guy.
Review: Falling Down. Michael Douglas appears in this 1993 film as Bill Foster, a man in LA trying to get to his ex's home in Venice, CA. He walks out of his car in the middle of a traffic jam and goes on a rampage against the nuisances of everyday life, including a Korean storemaster whom Foster believes is charging exorbitant prices, a Latino Gang which accosts him after he unwittingly tresspasses on their land, a fast food restaurant a few minutes after they stop serving breakfast, and actually killing a neo-nazi store owner. Meanwhile, a retiring police Detective named Pendergast (played by Robert Duvall) has to deal with his crime spree on the last day of his retirement. When they finally meet in the end, the film climaxes to an amazing finale. The film was made during the LA riots, and making a film like this at that time can be seen as nothing short of coureagous. Thumbs up!
Quote of the Day: "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."
___________The third paragraph of Article 6 of the Constitution, which should reduce AFA's complaint to a moot point.
Link of the Day: The aforementioned AFA report on Shark Tale being pro-homosexual
Labels: Religious Right
posted by DerekAxe at 12:29 PM
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