Justice Scalia gives the thumbs up...Wait, that's not his thumb!
 

Justice Scalia Flips The Bird

In another birding incident gone awry for another conservative, Justice Anton Scalia displayed his middle digit, coming out of church with Christ's body still on his tongue, and his blood still wet on his lips.

He joins the ranks of other like minded people who have flipped the bird (Bush) or told folks to go ef themselves (Cheney), or just point blank shooting them (Cheney again).

What has happened to conservatives in this country? Are they extremely cranky that they're falling out of favor? Or do the feel emboldened to display their true personality - that of an old coot who yells at people to stay off of his lawn?

Personally, I see this as a true display of the saying, "what’s born in the beast will come out in the flesh." These are truly distasteful people who basically snarl at the American public whenever they have the chance.

As long as I've paid attention to anything scalia has said and done, it's not unusual for him to speak his mind.....about anything. This isn't that much out of character for him.

But the finger in church?

God was probably working on entirely different file, looked down, shook his head, and called St. Peter to issue C&D order.

Your post was mostly pretty funny - the joke about another birding incident was a good pun. However, I feel that the last sentence (which I snipped) is a complete exaggeration. More likely, some of these conservatives are people who are in the public eye and have critics taking potshots at them all the time, even when they are in places like churches. Obviously it's rude, and clearly the point might have been made differently - but I don't think there's anything here that's remotely analogous to "snarling at the American public whenever they have the chance".

edit:

I've actually met Scalia when he came to my school to give a talk on first amendment restrictions and artists - judging by what I saw then, I suspect his demeanor in this incident was one of crass, but wry humor, not the rancorous malcontent that people are assuming.

Wow... you guys are so behind the times.

When Trudeau was Prime Minister (back in 1982) he was shocking the nation by flipping the bird at a bunch of western protesters, hassling him while on vacation with his kids.

There was also the time when Trudeau told a Conservative MP to "Fuck Off", known to the public as the "fuddle-duddle" incident.


Of course, we don't hold a candle to the Aussies... they are bad ass.

I should have added that it's this specific group of conservative leaders. Bush and Cheney have been making their crude comments, such as “major league a-hole” since day one.

But the bird.... in church? As Carmela Soprano would say, "can't you be a good (ef'in) catholic for 15 minutes?"

the funny thing is that he was being asked if he was too loyal to the church to be independant about church/state issues.

i guess he is, as he's secular enough to use such a gesture in what others would consider holy ground.

This post is...awkward. The joke about Cheney was great but the rest of it wasn't. This specific article doesn't really have to do with any policy per se but with the general perception of an individual who is aligned with conservatives. It's only "politics" because what the man does for a day job can be detrimental to political discourse. If the guy punched the reporter who asked him the question, that would be different of course. Still, I prefer to stick with criticizing them for their policies, not judging them by relatively harmless actions.

Scalia doesn't have policies per se, but he does make decisions that we may critique. Nevertheless, I do think incidents like this are helpful in getting some insight into the temperament of an individual. Could you imagine any other Supreme Court Justice doing this? Maybe Thomas. I could probably see Alito doing it as well. I don't think it has to do with their conservative beliefs so much as their extremism.

/me shakes head. Man, that's SO damn Canadian.

Yeah those pro-life, strict constructionist, conservatives must all be extreme.

...

Bahahaha.

You have no idea... :lol:

I for one look forward to the reintroduction of fisticuffs to the floor of our once proud Congress! We need to take a lesson from the Taiwanese.

I’d be happy with an introduction of British style rabble rousing parliament functions.

“The Right Honourable Gentleman for Gloucester is neither right, honorable, gentle, or a man!”

i could call my interpretation of the consititution and the founders intent "strict constructionist" too, but just because i do doesn't make it so. they're interpreting the consititution just as much as anyone else, only from an extreme modern conservative view point.

Conservative justices and conservative findings don't implement new laws. Extreme liberal justices do, they impose their will on the country and bypass the constitution and legislative process, i.e. abortion and privacy, neither of which are mentioned anywhere in the constitution, yet are somehow fundamental American constitutional rights.

i beg to differ. 'Privacy' can rightfully be assumed with regards to the fourth amendment - The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. - however, including abortion (or Roe v. Wade) as an inherent right to privacy was a huge stretch of the amendment. I'd even go so far as to say it violated the 9th and 10th amendments. edit - should also include the 5th where it concerns private property. - end of edit.

Creating new law is nothing new to judicial activists anyway. The second amendment has been gutted numerous times via judicial activism with every major gun law thats been written.

Oh and from Yahoo...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327/...N5bnN1YmNhdA--

Mojo - that article describes the scene much more as I had envisioned it based on my extremely limited contact with the guy. Thanks for providing another view.

i love how folks are defending him because "he didn't flip the bird."

Yes, that's true. He made an Italian gesture that means <i>the exact same thing.</i>

It doesn't really matter one way or another, but the spin is entertaining.

i for one, wish for a return to hearing things like brooks vs sumner in the senate....

screw this bird stuff, bring on the beatings and duels.

wait for it...

I bite my thumb at you. do you bite your thumb at me sir....

any way you cut it, dude made obscene gesture in a church. While i don't like him and will probably never agree with his decisions, I don't feel that he should be overly lambasted or scrutinized unduly for making an obscene gesture in a church. I do feel it is in bad taste, but out of everything he can do wrong in his job...this is the least of my worries...