Macho Italiano

Fresh from his sex-scandals, Silvio Berlusconi insults a middle-aged female MP live on TV.

Enough has been written about the unexpected display of mettle from Italy's Constitutional Court as they overruled Emperor Berlusconi's most controversial immunity law.

If you feel unfamiliar with the subject, we're on about the first thing that the pervy multi-millionaire Italian Prime Minister did the moment he was voted in. In essence, an immunity law that exempts the country's top four office holders from prosecution.

This has now been declared unconstitutional as it breaches the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.

Nonetheless, not used to being contradicted, Berlusconi has reacted by literally lashing out like a rabid dog who had his bone snatched from right under his nose.

Not content with his reputation as a slimy Lothario suffering from incurable sex-addiction (his own lawyer defined him as "the end user" of a prostitution racket), and borderline tourettes (he called Barack Obama "tanned"), today the 73-year-old right-winger grabbed a few headlines with some spectacularly misogynist comments.

Attacking Rosy Bindi, a 60-year-old female MP who was guilty of disagreeing with him on TV, Berlusconi slammed: "I've always thought you are more beautiful than intelligent". He was later joined by one of his coalition's most far-right (and senior) ministers, Roberto Castelli, who called Ms Bindi "a petulant spinster" live on state television.

Pure Macho Italiano-style, a mindset where the woman is either:
a) a tarty barelegged ornament in a mini-dress whose only duty is to spice up the night or cook;
or:
b) an old hag - in the event she dares to contradict the patriarch.

Which makes me terribly ashamed of carrying Italian blood in my body.