An apology

I concluded a post two days ago with a word that I meant to be derogatory:

Next to Sen. Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, with their Republican National Convention comments, showed themselves to be pygmies indeed.

Although the term “pygmies” is commonly used to refer to a member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 4 feet 11 inches in average height, especially tribal groups in Central Africa, I should be sensitive to how destructive my usage of the word is.

I am sorry and I apologize to everyone who read that expression.