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In Bushzarro world, it’s okay for a Supreme Court judge to give
a dismissive gesture like an Italian Mob boss. But if a photograph of the gesture
is published it stands to reason the photographer will be fired after twenty
years of service. “A freelance photographer has been fired by
the Archdiocese of Boston’s newspaper for releasing a picture of U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia making a controversial gesture in the Cathedral
of the Holy Cross on Sunday,” reports the Boston
Herald. “Peter Smith, who had freelanced for The Pilot newspaper for
a decade, lost the job yesterday after the Herald ran his photo on its front
page…. Smith snapped the photo of Scalia flicking his hand under his chin
after a Herald reporter asked the conservative jurist his response to people
who question his impartiality on matters of church and state.”
In 1779, Thomas Jefferson believed religious freedom would counter the influence
of the Church of England in Virginia and wrote the Act for Establishing Religious
Freedom. “Strongly guarded as is the separation between religion and Government
in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical
Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history,”
James Madison wrote a few years later. The First Amendment not only prohibits
government from adopting a particular denomination or religion as official,
but also requires government to avoid excessive involvement in religion.
Scalia’s hand gesture is sincerely apropos, considering his view that
the Constitution simply “sets minimums” and most “of the rights
that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires.” Under the
reign of Bush and the neocons, those “minimums” are becoming quite
stark—after all, according to our ruler, the Constitution is nothing more
or less than a “goddamn piece of paper,” sort of like toilet paper.
Or maybe butcher’s paper.
Bush and his crew of Machiavellian miscreants have attacked the First Amendment
(no anti-Bush placards or t-shirts allowed when our installed potentate comes
to town), the Second Amendment (ask the people of New Orleans about gun-grabbing),
the Fourth Amendment (we are increasingly subject to “unreasonable searches
and seizures,” from so-called “sobriety” checkpoints to NSA
mega-snooping), the Fifth Amendment (ask thousands of individuals detained after
nine eleven about this one), the Sixth Amendment (consult Jose Padilla), and
the Ninth Amendment (intended to protect rights unremunerated—think about
this one when you end up on a no-fly list at the airport). But then of course
the Straussian neocons have nothing but contempt for the Constitution, as their
guru, Leo Strauss, was a fan of dictatorial government as was his mentor and
patron, the Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt.
Scalia is a member of Opus Dei, the Catholic order that “received massive
political support after the fascist victory in the Spanish Civil War. Generalissimo
Francisco Franco protected and fostered conservative elements within Opus Dei
by appointing eight ministers to powerful positions in his government,”
according to Michael
Carmichael. “Opus Dei purports to be apolitical, but its members have
been associated with right-wing political causes since its inception.”
It is believed the late Propaganda Due (the Italian Freemasonic lodge) member
and Mafia banker Michele Sindona was close to Opus Dei. Sindona was a friend
of Licio Gelli, the neofascist masonic Grand Master of Propaganda Due (also
a member of the Knights of Malta) involved in the Operation Gladio “strategy
of tension,” i.e., the terrorist slaughter of innocents in Italy. Opus
Dei is often described as “God’s Mafia” and “the Cult
of Christ.”
Let us consider Scalia as the Mafia don of the Supremes and the highest
court, responsible for appointing our would-be dictator, George W. Bush. It
makes perfect sense he would dismiss the media with a contemptuous Sicilian
hand gesture. It also makes perfect sense a photographer would get sacked for
taking a picture of Don Vito Corleone caught in a spontaneous act of contempt.
On the other hand, I guess Peter Smith should consider himself fortunate—he
is not sleeping with the fishes.
