Speaking of annoying whiners, Dennis Prager has a new column out. In it, he tries to justify his previous column “America, Not Keith Ellison, Decides What Book a Congressman Takes His Oath on,” and then asks for our sympathy because all decent people (well, the ones who’ve heard of him, at least) now think that he’s a hateful jerk.
As a public service, here’s a shorter version of Dennis’s “response to my critics”:
Later, Dennis defends himself against charges that he is “Islamophobic”
Anyway, let’s consider the question which Dennis posed in his previous column:
(But I also believe that Christianity will survive even if Best Buy uses the phrase “Happy Holidays” in its advertising instead of “Merry Christmas,” so maybe I’m hopelessly optimistic.
As a public service, here’s a shorter version of Dennis’s “response to my critics”:
“I never said that Keith Ellison should be legally forced to swear his oath of office on the Bible, I merely said that he, like all Americans, should pretend to be a Christian in public – you know, for tradition’s sake. Oh, and to all you stinky liberals who said bad things about me, the truth is that there is NO WAY that I could be bigoted against Muslims, because I am a JEW!”Anyway, here are a few passages from Dennis:
In addition, there was widespread coverage [of l’affaire Prager] on left-wing blogs, which, with no exception I could find, distorted what I said, charging my column and me with, for example, racism (see below), when race plays no role at all in this issue or in my column. For the record, because I deem this a significant statement about most of the Left, I found virtually no left-wing blog that was not filled with obscenity-laced descriptions of me.For the record, we have never filled World O’Crap with obscenity-laced descriptions of Dennis, because, frankly, he’s never done anything to merit filling an entire blog with descriptions of him.
Aside from the immaturity and loathing of higher civilization that such public use of curse words reveal, the fury and hate render the leftist charge that it is the Right that is hate-filled one of the most obvious expressions of psychological projection I have seen in my lifetime.See, if you used bad language when discussing Dennis’s column, it doesn’t mean you strongly disagree with Dennis’s expressed views or object to his wordsl no, it means you hate higher civilization. Oh, and you are also suffering from some kind of psychological problem, because only a crazy person wouldn’t agree with such reasonable thoughts as, “If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book [the Bible], don’t serve in Congress.” In case, when western civiization falls, I’m pretty sure it will all be TBogg’s fault.
Later, Dennis defends himself against charges that he is “Islamophobic”
All those who write that I “compared” the Koran to “Mein Kampf” are lying — deliberately lying to defame me rather than respond to my arguments. I simply offered a slippery slope argument that if we let everyone choose their own text at swearings-in, what will happen one day should a racist decide to use “Mein Kampf”? A slippery slope argument is not an equivalence argument.Except when Rick Santorum is talking about homosexuality and man-on-dog sex, of course.
Anyway, let’s consider the question which Dennis posed in his previous column:
Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” the Nazis’ bible, for his oath? And if not, why not? On what grounds will those defending Ellison’s right to choose his favorite book deny that same right to a racist who is elected to public office?Dennis, honey, when an open member of the Nazi Party is elected to Congress, I think the fabric of American civilization will have already been so damaged that cermonial books will be the least of our worries. But until the day when Congresman Lott announces that he’s actually a Nazi (and a Sith Lord) and asks to use his sect’s sacred text at his next swearing-in, I don’t think we really need to worry about this slippery slope. I believe that if a member of one of the major world religion wants to use his own religion’s sacred text when he is sworn into office, American civilization is going to be able to handle it. I guess I just have a little more faith in America than Mr. Prager does.
(But I also believe that Christianity will survive even if Best Buy uses the phrase “Happy Holidays” in its advertising instead of “Merry Christmas,” so maybe I’m hopelessly optimistic.
Posted by s.z. on Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 5:36 am.
24 Responses to “As My Mom Would Say, “If THAT’s All You Have to Worry About, Consider Yourself Blessed””
If Dennis is offended by the use of curse words when describing him or his column, then I shall refrain from using them. Instead of calling him a FUCKING moron, I’ll simply call him a moron.
There. Happy, Dennis?
There. Happy, Dennis?
What sillly nincompoopery. What proof is there that placing your appendage on some so-called “sacred” text is going to make a person honest, truthful, or trustworthy? Was Mr. Prager born stupid, or did he take lessons?
“I merely said that he, like all Americans, should pretend to be a Christian in public”
Because, really, isn’t that what America is all about. God Bless VespucciLand
Because, really, isn’t that what America is all about. God Bless VespucciLand
I cannot name any Western European country that does not have a document similar to the American Constitution and something akin to our Bill of Rights. It is, therefore, not the Constitution that has made America unique and a moral beacon to the world’s downtrodden.
Sheesh, what a typical right-wing hothouse flower the guy is! No wonder he flies apart the minute he’s not surrounded by people for whom he’s the Judeo-Christian house darky.
The casual reader is forgiven if he glanced through that column without realizing that underneath defending himself from all those nasty ad hominems he was too busy to cite, Prager just finished capitulating on everything he’d said the week before. (And Dennis, it’s particularly disturbing to hear a Jew describe the Torah as “The Old Testament” or treat it as a mere abridgment of the “real” Bible, even if he is just desperate to salvage an argument.)
For the record: the UK, you twit, unless there’s some malformation of the soft palate that prevents you from naming it, and off the top of my head I can name only three Western European countries whose constitutions were not written following WWII (Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy’s, which was re-written after). And we might get a different perspective from the people we trod on to take the land so we could give it to (almost exclusively, and de jure) the English and the Germans. But there I go being culturally relative again. And not coincidentally, Dennis, correct.
Sheesh, what a typical right-wing hothouse flower the guy is! No wonder he flies apart the minute he’s not surrounded by people for whom he’s the Judeo-Christian house darky.
The casual reader is forgiven if he glanced through that column without realizing that underneath defending himself from all those nasty ad hominems he was too busy to cite, Prager just finished capitulating on everything he’d said the week before. (And Dennis, it’s particularly disturbing to hear a Jew describe the Torah as “The Old Testament” or treat it as a mere abridgment of the “real” Bible, even if he is just desperate to salvage an argument.)
For the record: the UK, you twit, unless there’s some malformation of the soft palate that prevents you from naming it, and off the top of my head I can name only three Western European countries whose constitutions were not written following WWII (Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy’s, which was re-written after). And we might get a different perspective from the people we trod on to take the land so we could give it to (almost exclusively, and de jure) the English and the Germans. But there I go being culturally relative again. And not coincidentally, Dennis, correct.
Prager makes me frevently wish that one of my Quaker/Pagan friends would get elected to Congress. The collision of non-Christians who are part of a primarly Christian sect, *and* won’t take oaths would blow out his circuts.
Potty-mouth Bill S.! Potty-mouth Bill S.! Potty-mouth Bill S.! Potty-mouth Bill S.!
Oh, fine, I suppose you’re gonna say that I use crude words and crass phrases around here, too. Hmph.
I defy you to find one instance of me using naughty language on this blog, either its current incarnation or the old one*!
You’ll never manage to do it. Not one*.
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*mainly because my use of profanity is profligate ’round these parts. You’ll never find just one cuss-word! Bwah-ha-ha-haaa!
Oh, fine, I suppose you’re gonna say that I use crude words and crass phrases around here, too. Hmph.
I defy you to find one instance of me using naughty language on this blog, either its current incarnation or the old one*!
You’ll never manage to do it. Not one*.
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*mainly because my use of profanity is profligate ’round these parts. You’ll never find just one cuss-word! Bwah-ha-ha-haaa!
Yikes! I almost gave WO’C Sadly, No-itus!, a.k.a. Stuck Tag Syndrome. Fortunately, this seems more difficult to do on this version of WordPress. The Boiz ovah at S,N! are probably keeping their elderly, creaky version of WordPress ‘cos they so enjoy embedding YouTube vids. Ya win some, ya lose some.
Did, um, anyone get through to Dennis that Congressmen and -women DON’T swear in on a Bible, ever, unless they’re making a spectacle of themselves for their constituents (said ceremony is held off the House floor, usually in the office, and is not the official swearing in)?
Doghouse, there is an English Bill of Rights, from 1689, but you’re right about the constitution being unwritten.
What I don’t get is the failure to connect — in general, because as actor212 points out, no oaths are being sworn on books here — the choice of book to the truth of the statements on which it is sworn. If I’m a Muslim, and I swear on a Bible, that wouldn’t mean anything to me. Doesn’t it stand to reason that if you want Muslims to do what they swear, you should ask them to swear on the book they believe in? The point is to produce duty and truth, not to add empty ceremony.
What I don’t get is the failure to connect — in general, because as actor212 points out, no oaths are being sworn on books here — the choice of book to the truth of the statements on which it is sworn. If I’m a Muslim, and I swear on a Bible, that wouldn’t mean anything to me. Doesn’t it stand to reason that if you want Muslims to do what they swear, you should ask them to swear on the book they believe in? The point is to produce duty and truth, not to add empty ceremony.
Right you are, Flip, but then the conjunction and was Prager’s choice, and his customary slopiness combined with the one-sentence proof that the Bible is the reason Europeans emigrated to the US crawled under my skin and started itching like crazy. Hearing someone defend the social-contract supermacy of the Bible by blanking out the history of Christian Europe does that to me every time.
And you’re also right that Prager proposes fealty to the concept of Bible oath-taking at the expense of the sacred bond that is supposed to represent. Which would be odd if one didn’t know Prager beforehand.
And you’re also right that Prager proposes fealty to the concept of Bible oath-taking at the expense of the sacred bond that is supposed to represent. Which would be odd if one didn’t know Prager beforehand.
Why don’t we have swearers-in swear in on copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? We could print up nice, large-type, annotated editions and give them as party favors so our elected leaders could actually find out what’s in the documents.
May I just add that “Better Living Thru Bad Movies” makes a great gift this Festivus Season?
…and you could/should probably be sworn into office with your hand on it!
Wow, Doghouse, that quote! Does he not reaize that all those western European countries also have a document akin to (in fact, very nearly identical to) our Bible? Guess it can’t be that which made us a unique moral beacon to the world’s downtrodden, either. Maybe it’s the jazz?
If i ever get elected i’m using an Apple Pie.
challenge that!
challenge that!
Shout out to Chris:
There was a Quaker elected to national office some years back, and everybody wondered if he’d refuse to swear, or if he’d simply “affirm” per his faith, but he got up there and put his hand on the Bible and swore his oath.
His name? Richard Nixon.
Goes a long way toward proving Shakespeare’s point about oaths (see Brutus’ speech in Julius Caesar, Act II Scene 1.)
There was a Quaker elected to national office some years back, and everybody wondered if he’d refuse to swear, or if he’d simply “affirm” per his faith, but he got up there and put his hand on the Bible and swore his oath.
His name? Richard Nixon.
Goes a long way toward proving Shakespeare’s point about oaths (see Brutus’ speech in Julius Caesar, Act II Scene 1.)
He admits to using a slippery slope fallacy in his argument? Wow. I don’t understand how come there is a slippery slope downward starting with the Bible, slipping to the Quran, and culminating in Mein Kampf, but of course I haven’t read the latter. I’m Muslim and read the bible a long time ago so I don’t think the Quran is a step down in any case. What do I know.
There’s a very easy solution:
Since every word in the Bible is in the dictionary, along with every word in the Koran, and heck, even Mein Kampf, I think it’s perfectly fair to make people swear their oaths on a dictionary–the American Heritage Dictionary, maybe, for that “true patriot” feel. Whatever dictionary is used, though, it should be unabridged, and if the person breaks the oath, they get smacked with it.
Since every word in the Bible is in the dictionary, along with every word in the Koran, and heck, even Mein Kampf, I think it’s perfectly fair to make people swear their oaths on a dictionary–the American Heritage Dictionary, maybe, for that “true patriot” feel. Whatever dictionary is used, though, it should be unabridged, and if the person breaks the oath, they get smacked with it.
He acknowledges that some Jews have used the Tanakh (although for some reason he calls it the Old Testament) rather than the Bible. That he “of course” understands although he disagrees with it. But one Muslim uses the Koran and that “is ending that powerful tradition”, exhibiting “narcissism”, a decision to “jettison the Bible” for “the first time in history” (I guess those Jewish Congressmen were prehistoric) and “replacing the Bible with another religious text for the first time since George Washington brought a Bible to his swearing-in” (so the Jewish Congressmen were at least prior to the founding of the US if not really prehistoric).
A slippery slope argument is not an equivalence argument.
He is speaking truth, in the sense that it isn’t actually an argument at all. It’s a logical fallacy. Oops, Anna beat me to it.
He is speaking truth, in the sense that it isn’t actually an argument at all. It’s a logical fallacy. Oops, Anna beat me to it.
The only truly fair solution to this vexing problem is to cut the baby in half, and then give half-a-baby to both Pragers claiming it. Problem solved!
Yes, the slippery slope is a logical fallacy. What Dennis was trying to offer was a “reductio ad absurdum” or extending his opponents’ logic to a consistent but absurd extreme, thus showing that the original argument must be mistaken.
Reductio ad absurdum works pretty well as a refutational strategy. Here’s one: Prager would disallow the use of any other book other than the Bible. In fact, his logic dictates that any Congressperson who is holding something other than the Authortative King James Version Bible should be tackled as they walk up to the podium, taken to a hidden prison and tortured until said Congressperson relents and agrees to swear the Oath of Office on the Real Bible. Only in this way can the values of the country be upheld.
See? Isn’t that fun?
Reductio ad absurdum works pretty well as a refutational strategy. Here’s one: Prager would disallow the use of any other book other than the Bible. In fact, his logic dictates that any Congressperson who is holding something other than the Authortative King James Version Bible should be tackled as they walk up to the podium, taken to a hidden prison and tortured until said Congressperson relents and agrees to swear the Oath of Office on the Real Bible. Only in this way can the values of the country be upheld.
See? Isn’t that fun?
Would they allow him to choose Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” the Nazis’ bible, for his oath?
I think the Bible was the Nazi’s bible?
the truth is that there is NO WAY that I could be bigoted against Muslims, because I am a JEW!
This is the slippery cliff arguement.
I think the Bible was the Nazi’s bible?
the truth is that there is NO WAY that I could be bigoted against Muslims, because I am a JEW!
This is the slippery cliff arguement.
Men Kamph was more like the Nazi’s “Beattitudes”. just saying.
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