“New York’s authorities have not shirked from arresting the head of one of the world’s leading international bodies,” you point out in the last paragraph of your article about transatlantic differences in attitudes to sex, “nor from demanding that he be kept in jail on remand” (“Decoding DSK,” May 21, 2011). And you conclude with a revealing if damning question: “It is worth asking: would this have happened in Paris or Rome?” No, it would surely not, but not because of the cultural differences between the old and new worlds that you go on about. If cavorting politicians are tolerated in Europe, this is because Europe is far from what it used to be even a century ago. As a world power, it is entirely spent. Which is why European politicians, like the one you lovingly call “DSK,” should be eschewed when it comes to the leadership of the world’s leading international bodies. If rutting chimpanzees are still tolerated, or even appreciated, in Paris or Rome, all is fine and well. They cannot do much harm to the world with their asinine sexual escapades, anyway.