2083 Missing Finger

So I was reading the other day about the NFL suing M.I.A. because she flipped the bird at last year's superbowl. And about her saying she was going to fight because you know, grow up, flipping the bird is as harmless these days as saying fart. 

The NFL is suing her for $1.5 million, which seems like a lot for a single misplaced digit. But maybe the NFL thinks it's just a drop in the bucket sort of fine. What's $1.5 million to it's higher paid players? Those players, by the way, who when a field microphone picks them up, utter far fouler verbiage than the silent mime of Maya's bird.

Interesting, too, that I recently saw a Jack-in-the-Box commercial that features a squirrel flipping the bird to some kid who criticizes his tail. Oh, you don't actually see the squirrel finger, or paw, it's been pixilated, but you certainly get the point. 

And that's the question. Is it worse when you toss off a little finger flash when it's so obviously and thoughtlessly part of your standard act or when you actually intentionally write it into a script for everyone to know darn well what you mean and then pixilate it to sort of obscure it?

Is it what you did or what you mean? Premeditated. Malice aforethought. Those legal terms things.

Tough call. And it's a toss of the coin to determine who has the bigger goal here. M.I.A. for generating worldwide publicity by letting her finger do the walking or the NFL, doing an end run to divert attention from the negative story of them intentionally hiding information about scrambling players' brains for decades. 

Which, when you get down to it, is far more obscene than an extended middle finger.  

America, ya gotta love it.