http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?Stor...27-100356-7854r

 

Justice Scalia flips the finger in church

 

BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

 

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

 

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."

 

The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper.

 

"Don't publish that," Scalia told the photographer, the Herald said.

 

He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and afterward was the keynote speaker at the Catholic Lawyers' Guild luncheon.

He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross

 

I think there's a joke or two in that sentence.

Personally, I think it's a much bigger deal that Scalia seems to have already made his decision on a case the Supreme Court hasn't yet heard, something which surely would seem to require a recusal (which of course, will never happen).

It does not say he did it IN CHURCH and actually the link you gave says nothing about flipping the bird or making an obscene gesture. It says a hand gesture. Did you change their text or did they get their story straight and change their article since you pasted it.

 

 

Either way, I had heard he gestured under his chin which basically means leave me the hell alone. I don't see a big deal....

 

This gesture, often called the "chin flick," is widely used among

Italians and persons of Italian ancestry. It is a gesture of contempt,

somewhat less rude than giving a person "the finger." When used in the

United States, it usually means "Bug off, I've had enough of you." Not

a polite gesture, but not a particularly hostile one, either.

Edited March 28, 200620 yr by Controlled Chaos

Group of Retired Generals and admirals (who already have submitted a brief to the court arguing against the military tribunals the Court is about to discuss) has submitted a letter asking Scalia to recuse himself from that case.

It does not say he did it IN CHURCH and actually the link you gave says nothing about flipping the bird or making an obscene gesture.  It says a hand gesture.  Did you change their text or did they get their story straight and change their article since you pasted it.

Either way, I had heard he gestured under his chin which basically means leave me the hell alone.  I don't see a big deal....

 

This gesture, often called the "chin flick," is widely used among

Italians and persons of Italian ancestry. It is a gesture of contempt,

somewhat less rude than giving a person "the finger." When used in the

United States, it usually means "Bug off, I've had enough of you." Not

a polite gesture, but not a particularly hostile one, either.

I think they call that...pwned!

It looks like the story was edited at about 9:30 last night. I just cut and pasted, honest.

The photographer has come forward with the original photo.

 

Amid a growing national controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with the picture.

 

“It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment,” said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who made the shot.

 

    Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.”

 

    Smith said the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ”

 

    Scalia’s office yesterday referred questions regarding the flap to Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg, who said a letter Scalia sent Tuesday to the Herald defending his gesture at the cathedral “speaks for itself.”

 

    “He has no further comment,” Arberg said.

 

    Smith was working as a freelance photographer for the Boston archdiocese’s weekly newspaper at a special Mass for lawyers Sunday when a Herald reporter asked the justice how he responds to critics who might question his impartiality as a judge given his public worship.

 

    “The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

 

    The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.”

(More at link which is worth your time before you comment).

 

Oh, and I still care vastly more about the fact that he didn't recuse himself in a case he clearly spoke on before hearing it.

 

Edit: Here's some more details about what exactly that translates as:

As for fangooloo (in my neighborhood we pronounced it fongool), I'm afraid you've heard the expurgated translation. According to Kevin Beary's Florentine Locutions (1991), it's properly spelled vaffanculo, a contraction of va a fare in culo, and literally means "go do [it] in the ass," i.e., bugger off, f*** off, f*** you. "Some Italians affirm that the ass referred to is that of one's interlocutor, while others assert that the orifice in question is not yours or mine or anyone's in particular, but rather the universal anus," Beary says.

Edited March 30, 200620 yr by Balta1701

The reporter who took the picture is getting fired.

It does not say he did it IN CHURCH and actually the link you gave says nothing about flipping the bird or making an obscene gesture. . .

 

And now that it has all come out it turns out he did all three - made the gesture AND told him to get f***ed in the ass in Italian IN the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.