Photo That Flipped MSM, Leftyblogs

So here at last is documentation of the famous gesture -- Scalia's the flip of the open hand from under the chin.

Anyone who's spent anytime around pasta-grazers knows this gesture, and knows it's not "the finger."

UPI apparently doesn't know the gesture. It blared Scalia "startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics."

Raw Story reported: "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."

Do a Google Blog search of "scalia finger" and you'll find hundreds of leftyblog references to the incident, mostly linked to one of the two stories above. Here's a particularly pompous one, from an official Dem site, Hamdems, blog of the Hamilton County, TN, Democratic Party:

SCOTUS & Opus Dei Fanatic Antonin Scalia gives the "Middle Finger" to Reporters - Wow! That's some honor for our Court

Time was when a Supreme Court Justice, or any Justice for that matter, was a person of a high ethics, morals, and intelligience. SCOTUS judges were the elite in wisdom and temperance. Evidently, those days are gone. Once again, Scalia goes public with his contempt and prejudiced opinions for all to witness. On the positive side, at least he is not a Christian Hypocrite, he did his f*ck off gesture in Church.

The difference between Scalia's gesture and the bird is all the difference in the world. They might both have the same meaning, but the language is Italian, and as such is culturally humorous, not obscene.

Betsy, as usual, was a voice of reason: "I guess that the UPI doesn't speak Italian." That was on March 27, the day of the UPI story and one day before Hamdems went off on Scalia. Leftyblogs should either watch more Soprano episodes, or read more Betsy.