While we're on the topic...

...of ethnicity in America, Justice Scalia is being whiny.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a scathing letter to the editor of the Boston Herald, accused the newspaper's staff of watching "too many episodes of 'The Sopranos'" for interpreting a hand gesture he made at a cathedral as obscene.

The Boston Herald reported Monday the justice made "an obscene gesture, flicking his hand under his chin" in response to a question about whether lawyers might question his impartiality in matters of church and state.

The incident occurred after Scalia attended Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. (Full story)

But Scalia said in his letter the gesture is not obscene at all, but dismissive. Scalia said he had explained the gesture's meaning to no avail to the reporter, whom he referred to as "an up-and-coming 'gotcha' star."

To back his interpretation of the gesture, Scalia in his letter quoted from Luigi Barzini's book, "The Italians:" "The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means 'I couldn't care less. It's no business of mine. Count me out."'

Scalia said in the letter, written to Executive Editor Kenneth Chandler, that the reporter leapt to conclusions that it was offensive because he initially explained his gesture by saying, 'That's Sicilian."'

"From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene -- especially when made by an 'Italian jurist.' (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)," he wrote, referring to the American television series about a fictional mob boss and his family.

The Herald had referred to him as an "Italian-American jurist."

I call Shenanigans. First off, he didn't make the gesture that the book describes. The book describes a gesture I call "nix" because of it's association with forties mob movies. Scalia did the brush from back of chin to front, which is in fact obscene. But this wouldn't be the first time Justice Scalia eroneously cited a text for self-serving political reasons instead of addressing the obvious issue (ha!). Second of all: When you make it a point of being all Italian-y all the damn time (and he does--just look at the incident itself, he starts this whole thing by making a point of his Sicilian-ness) you can't turn around and get pissed when someone then refers to the fact that you're Italian-American.
I seriously think that he's losing it. I mean, he's a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. What the hell does he care what the second most popular newspaper in Boston says? Why would you even issue a statement? I had already forgotten the incident after a couple of days and I follow the Supreme Court. The vast majority of people out there could give two shits, but now it's become a story.