Apparently some people who do not understand the point of swearing an oath on something sacred to the oath taker are unhappy Mamdani swore on a Koran rather than a Bible. John Quincy Adams swore on a law book. What book would you swear on if you were being inaugurated?
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@heidilifeldman
Fannie Farmer cookbook, 1965 edition
Still thinking it over.
Of note, no one has yet used the Jefferson Bible to swear in, Thomas Jefferson didn't use a Bible either time he swore in, and Rep Keith Ellison used Jefferson's copy of the Koran.
@heidilifeldman I think either a copy of the constitution (or the original, if I was there), or a copy of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Finding someone that can lift the handbook could be fun. Or both!
@heidilifeldman @lowqualityfacts Douglas Adams, "Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy", obvs. #ZaphodBeeblebrox
@heidilifeldman Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World."
@heidilifeldman Le Morte d'Arthur
@heidilifeldman
I affirmed with my hand, but if a book were necessary, the obvious choice seems “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” However, the “Doomsday (Domesday) Book”might be more accurate.
The Chronicles of Narnia 😂
@heidilifeldman
I would swear with my hand on a stack of Gary Larsons Far out comics.
@heidilifeldman The Gospel Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
@heidilifeldman The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
@heidilifeldman
Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein.
Or maybe Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
@heidilifeldman would Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed be too on the nose?
I'd bring in a shaman to burn copal.
@heidilifeldman
Anything by John LeCarre
@heidilifeldman Fahrenheit 451
@heidilifeldman Copernicus’ On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres
@heidilifeldman Arendt. On Revolution, or The Origins of Totalitarianism, depending on the days we are living through.
Kepler's Harmonice Mundi.
Parts of it rival Revelations, or possibly PK Dick. And some stray bits here and there are actually true. Though not otherwise distinguishable from the rest (certainly not stylistically).
@heidilifeldman I would choose Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chödrön
@heidilifeldman Probably just the Constitution (or the Charter, if I was being sworn into the Canadian government), for obvious reasons.
If I had to pick a book, though, I'd definitely pick Blood and Vengeance by Chuck Sudetich. It's a true story of the Bosnian genocide illustrating how racist violence is encouraged by hardship and bottled up grudges, and kicked off by powerful people with an agenda. Also a case study on the uselessness of unsolicited intervention.
@mikelovesbikes @heidilifeldman Suzi Levine used an e-reader displaying the 19th Amendment to the Constitution while swearing in as US ambassador to Switzerland/Lichtenstein.
Love this. My own life.
@heidilifeldman Strunk & White
@heidilifeldman The Silent Miaow.
@heidilifeldman Rovelli's Order of Time, or St. Exupery's Little Prince.
@heidilifeldman the Commodore 64 Programmers Reference Guide
@heidilifeldman A copy of "To Serve Mankind". IYKYK
@heidilifeldman
The Joy of Cooking
@heidilifeldman If it means more to my constituents, I’d swear in on a bible, but that’s not meant to disrespect Mamdani’s choice. It’s that, to me, the choice is insignificant. I do not need to make that choice.
@heidilifeldman id swear on a copy of the Earthsea Trilogy
@heidilifeldman - I worked as a Court Services Officer in Superior Court. We had a selection of religious tomes (and an Eagle feather for First Nations to hold) for swearing in, but really, a person could choose to use none of them and simply ‘attest’ to the statements being true.
End result has more to do with individual’s moral compass than a visual representation of their indoctrination. More so for those representing constituents and not just themselves.
Me? A dictionary.
@heidilifeldman Newton's Principia or Einstein's 1905 paper on electrodynamics.
@heidilifeldman
The complete works of Robin Wall Kimmerer
@heidilifeldman
Nothing.
As an apathetic agnostic, I don't know of any power higher than humanity. I would make the promise to uphold duty to the office and that should be good enough.
The others' use of some "holy" book is meaningless to me. I don't mind if they use their old traditional ways, but it doesn't make them any more trustworthy.
@heidilifeldman Signed copy of TNG Q-in-Law by John de Lancie
@heidilifeldman The Guinness Book of World Records, 1983.
@heidilifeldman
On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit
@heidilifeldman
I swore while raising a hand. No book at all. It is not required. And for those who do not swear, the word "affirm" is acceptable.
@heidilifeldman I choose this book... https://books.google.com/books/about/Googolplex_Written_Out.html?id=6BDvnQEACAAJ
In entirety or it doesn't count.
For those that don't know it's literally just a complete googleplex in print . They can't give each volume a isbn as the number of volumes exceed the number of possible isbn values. The number of pages exceeds the number of atoms in the universe. It starts with 1 and everything else is a just 0 after 0 for an insane amount of books.
@heidilifeldman I'm one of those solemn affirmers. No swearing, no book.
@heidilifeldman @tchambers
The Dover edition of Last and First Men || Starmaker.
Or The Sefer Yetzira
@heidilifeldman White Pages. At least you'd know who my loyalties were to.
@heidilifeldman *Principia Mathematica*.
@heidilifeldman Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, apparently.
@heidilifeldman The Fellowship of the Ring, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Word for World is Forest, Slaughterhouse Five. To be fair, literally almost any book means more to me than the Bible. Lol
@heidilifeldman a hamburger wrapped in a flag
@heidilifeldman An anthology of Octavia Bulter, as a message to say that we'll understand the problems of the worlds in her stories.
@heidilifeldman Star Fleet Technical Manual
@heidilifeldman
How about 'Sick Puppy' by Carl Hiaasen?
@heidilifeldman
Clean Code by Robert C. Martin.
wonder just how much furor it would cause if i did it with a copy of the US constitution...
seems like we should be switching from bible to constitution for SCOTUS swearings in, just to remind them which is preeminent...
@heidilifeldman Anything by Vonnegut
@heidilifeldman
The Phantom Tollbooth
@heidilifeldman Wittgenstein tractatus logicus
@heidilifeldman A Star Wars novel.
The cat in a hat
@heidilifeldman
Beard on Bread or possibly On Tyranny.
I would follow Adams… no doubt about it.
@heidilifeldman Margaret Bloy Graham's "Be Nice to Spiders"
@heidilifeldman I would use the treated copy of the Constitution that was in my pocket for every day of my military service.
@heidilifeldman Hm. Would seriously consider East of Eden. Reading that book made me a better person while I was reading it. Or maybe an Emily Dickinson collection.
@heidilifeldman I'm torn between Class by Paul Fussel or A Confederacy of Dunces.
@heidilifeldman A manuscript copy of Bach’s Chaconne from the 2nd Partita for solo violin in D minor. I can’t think of a document that would bind me to a commitment to truth more than that.
@heidilifeldman Jake Tapper is a jagoff, but this clip is for the ages. He's interviewing a spokesman for the paedo Roy Moore, about swearing-in props. It's the only time I've ever seen actual visual proof of a human brain cease functioning in real time.
@heidilifeldman MURDERBOT of course. 😊 The entire collection. :)
@heidilifeldman Either 'the book of swearing' by Jason Hadden or 'oh the places you'll go' by Dr. Seuss
@heidilifeldman RESTful Web Services by Richardson and Ruby, published by O'Reilly. Or the Python standard library documentation web site.
@heidilifeldman The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
@heidilifeldman An ebook. I'll write the shrink-wrap license, too! ;-)
@heidilifeldman I haven't thought about the historical origin/development of the practice before. Is it truly just "something sacred to the oath-taker"? Or might it have started as a religious thing and become (relatively) secularized under freedom of religion principles?
I'd probably pick a book for the context. For president, Library of America's Debates on the Constitution, as "sacred" to me in context. Though LoA's collection of James Baldwin essays might be even more sacred and better.
@heidilifeldman I dunno, the OED maybe?
"Sacred" can mean different things based on one's view of/relationship with religion.
Maybe:
- US Constitution
- Darwin's "Origin of Species"
- Thoreau's "Walden"
- Kant's "Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics"
@heidilifeldman Jesus says I shouldn’t swear oaths at all. Let your yes be yes etc.
But if they make me, I’ll swear on the most American text of all: the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.
@heidilifeldman Tristram Shandy seems right.
@heidilifeldman Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.
@heidilifeldman The US Constitution would be good for me.
@heidilifeldman Finnegans Wake.
@heidilifeldman Do you have to swear on anything? Does it have to be a book?
I wonder if I could be sworn in on a copy of “Sgt. Pepper”…
@heidilifeldman Frog & Toad are Friends
@andybrwn @heidilifeldman An honestly excellent choice. Also, Ramona the Brave, or A Wrinkle in Time.