Not really blogging yet, but I can’t resist the story about theHonorable Keith Ellison not only making a (private) affirmation of his oath of office on a Quran, but on Thomas Jefferson’s Quran. Registered users can read the Washington Post article that broke the story. Or you can read John Scalzi, who says
That's like stuffing Dennis Prager and Virgil Goode into a trash can, and then rolling the trash can down a steep hill, and then when poor dizzy Dennis and Virgil crawl out, covered in each others' bile, there's Thomas Jefferson, laughing and pointing at them. Some days, I just love my country.
For those curious, it is an English translation. I’m not sure how Mr. Ellison feels about the English translation, or whether an oath on an English translation of the quran should be considered more binding than one taken on an actual quran. Or what. It’s nothing to do with me; I trust him on the first oath, the one without any book at all.
And this is as good a place as any, probably, to link to psongster’s LJ, where she has been writing some very interesting notes on reading the quran.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.