" when in the Rome, one must do as the Romanians do"

This is a real funny from The Pajamas Media's The Manolo. Poor Nancy Pelosi, who tried to curry favour with a tyrant and turned herself into of object of ridicule and resentment in the process.

Indeed, it is the rule of the Manolo that when one is the visitor one should try to show sensitivity to the customs and beliefs of the hosts, especially when the personal cost is so very low.

All the Speaker Nancy did was put on the scarf. It is not as if she was showing her cultural sensitivity to Islam by helping to stone the adultress, or giving the fifty
lashes of vigor to the woman driver.

Yes, a bit of an unfair jibe but still quite incisive. There is some truth there about the craven inclination to avert one's gaze when in the service of public relations.

Compare and contrast with that other petty-minded, self-aggrandising buffoon, the perpetually sullen Imus, with his gratuitous slur "nappy-headed hos".

And having touched upon this subject, let me state that I support his being ejected from his CBS spot. Here is why, courtesy of Oliver Kamm's argument pertaining to another debate about freedom of speech:

"My rationale drew on a story given by the late philosopher Sidney Hook about a conversation he once had with Bertolt Brecht. Hook was a socialist who did much to expose for American audiences the fraudulence of the Moscow Trials. When Brecht paid a visit to Hook's New York
apartment in 1935, the two men discussed the issue . Of Stalin's victims, Brecht said: "The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.” Having checked he had heard Brecht correctly (Hook was fluent in German), Hook brought the man his hat and coat and showed him the door. My attitude to an indefatigable Holocaust denier - and not only to him - who used to litter my blog with his comments is like that. I hold left-wing opinions and libertarian social views. I am close to being an absolutist on freedom of expression (I strongly opposed the gaoling in Austria of David Irving, for example). But I see no logic in the notion that defending freedom of speech requires me to extend a platform of my own - my home, my dinner table or my web site - to others to use as they will."