Scalia's hat is a reference to Sir Thomas More

[Enrique]

I guess he sees Obama as Henry VIII, which would be a nice break from the Mao, Stalin comparisons.

http://walshslaw.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/about-justice-scalias-headgear/

The twitterverse is alive with tweets about Justice Scalia’s headgear for today’s inauguration. At the risk of putting all the fun speculation to an end . . . The hat is a custom-made replica of the hat depicted in Holbein’s famous portrait of St. Thomas More. It was a gift from the St. Thomas More Society of Richmond, Virginia. We presented it to him in November 2010 as a memento of his participation in our 27th annual Red Mass and dinner.

[Dawson Leery]

1. Better Henry VIII than the Pope.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Scalia has delusions of grandeur; he's no Thomas More.

The one thing he does have in common with More is a fifteenth-century world view.

This is the painting:

[redwitch]

3. I want to rec your reply.

and give you a DUZY too!

[JNelson6563]

4. Well said!

[longship]

20. Nice! Except More lived in the 16th century

But Scalia would probably liked the 1st century better.

[yurbud]

22. He reminds me of the judge in THE LAST DAYS OF SOPHIE SCHOLL

[HiPointDem]

23. +1

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I commented previously that what Scalia has in common with Thomas More

is a fifteenth-century world view. Upon further research, however, I discovered that Scalia is a whole lot less enightened and modern than More was, for his time:

More took a serious interest in the education of women, an attitude that was highly unusual at the time. Believing women to be just as capable of academic accomplishment as men, More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education given to his son. The academic star of the family was More's eldest daughter Margaret, who attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin. More recounted a moment of such admiration in a letter to Margaret in September 1522, when the Bishop of Exeter was shown a letter written by Margaret to More:

When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly... he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms... for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague (A Portuguese gold coin)... to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.

The success More enjoyed in educating his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable towards the idea once he witnessed the accomplishments of More's daughters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More

[Kalidurga]

9. I read that and all I could think is

Fat Tony is unworthy. Completely and totally unworthy. It is sad despite all the obstacles More faced to become a decent person, he managed. And he paid the price with his life. It seems the king didn't appreciate a man of convictions,

[elleng]

26. AND:

'He also helped originate the phrase "grasp at straws" to mean "desperately trying even useless things", in Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation.[5]

Intellectuals and statesmen across Europe were stunned by More's execution. Erasmus saluted him as one "whose soul was more pure than any snow, whose genius was such that England never had and never again will have its like".[6] Two centuries later Jonathan Swift said he was "the person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced,"[7] a sentiment with which Samuel Johnson agreed. Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper said in 1977 that More was "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance."[8]'

[DonCoquixote]

6. If he wants to play Thomas More

I would gladly see him lose his head at a London Tower, he is guilty of treason after all.

[meow2u3]

7. DUzy of the week! Touche!

[malaise]

32. I'd settle for impeachment

[WinkyDink]

8. Not fit even to carry the Saint's chamber-pot.

[marybourg]

10. I just went and looked at my law school graduation picture

(from a Catholic University, although I don't know if that matters) and yup, I was wearing one pretty much like that.

[RB TexLa]

11. A Jesuit school? Yes that matters and is the reason for it.

[marybourg]

12. No, not Jesuit.

[RB TexLa]

27. Oh, guess the other orders do it too. Lot's of graduation things are silly

[LeftInTX]

13. I thought it looked like he was graduating from somewhere

I was thinking, "Is there some academic thing going on here"?

[WolverineDG]

29. It looks like the hat they gave us to wear at mine too

http://capsandgownsdirect.com/doctoralregalia/jd.html

Ours didn't have the yellow tassel though.

[backscatter712]

14. I thought he was using it to hide his horns!

[Cha]

16. Zing!

[Whovian]

15. No, it's a reference to a Catholic theocracy that he so misses.

[MADem]

18. It is a reference to a Catholic, Thomas More (since he got it from that society),

but it was a fairly common headgear back in the day.

Here's a Protestant wearing the same hat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cromwell

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (c. 1485 – 28 July 1540), was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister of King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540.

Cromwell was one of the strongest advocates of the English Reformation. He helped engineer an annulment of the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, so that Henry could marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. Supremacy over the Church of England was officially declared by Parliament in 1534, and Cromwell supervised the Church from the unique posts of vicegerent for spirituals and vicar general.

Henry got rid of him, too...

[Bucky]

17. Strange. Scalia reminds me more of Dennis Moore than Thomas Moore.

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore
Riding through the land
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore
Without a merry band
He steals from the poor
And gives to the rich
Stupid bitch

[musette_sf]

19. i had that thought too

[longship]

21. Give me all your lupins!

[Tom Ripley]

24. Yep, it was a learned "fuck you" to Obama

Fat Tony can delude himself with:
"If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates..."

but he is still just a thug with a law degree.

[Princess Turandot]

25. Here's the Holbein in situ at the Frick in NYC...

http://www.googleartproject.com/collection/the-frick-collection/artwork/sir-thomas-more-hans-holbein-the-younger/324243/museumview/

On the other side of the fireplace is Thomas Cromwell, who helped engineer More's beheading in 1535. (Cromwell also helped engineer Anne Boleyn's execution on a trumped-up charge of adultery. But he served a fickle master: Henry had him beheaded in 1540.)

[Paladin]

28. I Expect Scalia To Be Wearing This Goofy Hat In Future Editorial Cartoons. (nt)

[Ikonoklast]

30. Look for just the hat to show up in Trudeau's depictions of him.

[Paladin]

31. Yeah---Just The Hat, Speaking Right-Wing Gibberish. Perfect! (nt)

[libtodeath]

33. He is a disgusting piece of shit and unfit for the court.