The Unholy Finger

Most of you - at least, those of you here in America - are familiar with the gesture sometimes referred to as "flipping the bird" or "giving someone the finger." It refers to the extension of the upraised middle finger toward someone, and implies that they should do something both carnal and anatomically impossible.

It's not a gesture generally made by courteous and civil people.

It occurred to me the other day that there are a lot of people out there giving us all the finger every day. You may not have noticed it, but the upraised finger appears to be a gesture common to hectoring religious bigots. Consider the following ...

We have the late and unlamented Osama bin Laden ...

Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr bin Laden's successor as head of al Qaeda (a job with limited growth potential, thanks to our Special Forces) ...

American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Alawki ...

"Firebrand cleric" Muqtada al-Sadr of Iraq, the ayatollah wannabe ...

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first post-Shah Supreme Leader of Iran ...

And his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...

They're all giving us the finger! As the characters in the cornfield on the old Hee-Haw TV show used to shout ... SAAAA-LUTE!

Sauce for the gander, you know.

Have a good day. Keep those fingers to yourself. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo