Insensitive

A home by any other name is still a home. When the hot winds blow here and the sparks fly from careless citizens, brush fires spawn like rabbits and homes are often burned. With the insensitive fires come insensitive statements from our media, I suspect, based on what we want to hear. A fire racing toward "expensive homes" is no worse than a fire racing toward lean-tos, or shacks, or tract homes of any price. If your home is in danger, the price of it is irrelevant. It's your home.

A longtime Orange County judge who said that a rape victim "didn't put up a fight" and that her sexual assault was only "technical" has been publicly admonished by a state agency that said his remarks seemed outdated, insensitive and possibly biased. The Commission on Judicial Performance said Superior Court Judge Derek G. Johnson's comments breached judicial ethics. At a sentencing in 2008, Johnson denied a prosecutor's call to impose a 16-year prison term on Metin Gurel, who had been convicted of rape, forcible oral copulation, domestic battery, stalking and making threats against his former live-in girlfriend.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's response to a senator's question regarding the disappointing economic recovery for the American worker was highly insensitive to workers' plight ("Fed Chief Warns on Mortgages," June 10). He said our standard of living was unmatched (untrue) and that workers should be content because their cars are technologically superior to those available 50 years ago. Good thing too. Many workers, unable to pay rent in the future, will be living in those cars.

It would be so easy for health insurers to avoid ill will if they'd just listen to what customers are saying and do their best to respond in a reasonable fashion. Unfortunately, that's just not how the industry seems to be programmed. Kevin Roberts, 36, has been battling insurance-industry insensitivity since last year on behalf of his 6-year-old daughter, Aubrey, who has autism. What should have been a relatively simple matter has ballooned into complaints to the California Department of Managed Health Care, failed attempts at arbitration and a seeming reluctance on the part of Roberts' insurer, Aetna, to simply sit down and hash things out. "We're basically in limbo," Roberts told me. "All we've wanted is for them to take care of treatment that's covered by our insurance policy.

An enormous illuminated cross, in the style of some latter-day conquistador, has recently been erected and looms above the southern approach to the Cahuenga Pass. In a city striving so hard to accommodate perhaps the richest ethnic mix on the planet, this domineering symbol of Christianity is grossly insensitive, and whatever its origins, is entirely inappropriate. The last thing we need is the deep anger such emblematic religious imperialism must provoke. As a Christian, I deeply resent my faith being hijacked for this purpose.

Mike Downey's article about Magic Johnson's horrible accident was incredibly tasteless, insensitive and reprehensible. Your placing Downey's article under the picture of Magic is inexcusable. MIKE CLARK, Beverly Hills

Several days before an article titled "Suddenly County Wears a 'Racist' Brand", was printed on May 3, I was interviewed and asked the question, "Do you believe that the citizens of Ventura County are insensitive to blacks?" At no time in my interview did I ever use the phrase or infer that Ventura County residents are insensitive to blacks or black issues. I spent some time drawing a clear distinction between my interpretation of insensitive and less sensitive. "Insensitive" would mean a deliberate disregard for the needs, "less sensitive" would mean a reduced understanding of the needs.

I can't believe what I have just read (Times, Feb. 12). The League of United Latin American Citizens in Bellflower is honoring Harold Ezell, (regional commissioner of the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service). Apparently the Bellflower LULAC members have never listened to Mr. Ezell's insensitive remarks on television. Far less have they witnessed or experienced the rude, insensitive and mean manner that people are confronted with at the Immigration and Naturalization Service offices in downtown Los Angeles.

I appreciate Del Olmo's resistance to the catch-all definition "Hispanic." Indeed, this is imprecise terminology. As an American, of Irish descent, I find equally imprecise and insensitive the term "Anglo" used to designate all non-Latin Caucasians. RONALD J. HARRIS Lakewood

First Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, now Prince Philip of Great Britain--who's next? It goes to show that insensitive remarks and ignorance are not limited by region or supposedly high-born individuals. And they are the elite! HECTOR B. PEREZ Montebello

  The India-China relationship, relatively well managed for years by the two governments, is under growing pressure in the face of insensitivity and nationalism on both sides, India's hyperactive broadcast media and the growing autonomy of Chinese ministries, analysts say. Irritants that have spurred distrust recently between the two Asian giants include a series of reported incursions along their disputed 2,500-mile border. In one case, an Indian warship off Vietnam received an apparent Chinese naval radio transmission in July telling it to "leave Chinese waters.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain waded into a new controversy involving rival Rick Perry, saying it was “very insensitive” to have a racially offensive term painted in stone at the entrance to a hunting camp the Texas governor and his family had leased in West Texas. The Washington Post reported Sunday that the word “Niggerhead” had been painted in block letters on a rock at the gated entrance to the ranch, but that the word was now painted over and the rock was lying flat.

A last-minute decision to serve fried chicken and waffles at a campus dining hall in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. was a regrettable choice and lacked sensitivity, UC Irvine officials acknowledged Wednesday. FOR THE RECORD: MLK Day menu: In the Jan. 27 LATExtra section, an article on complaints about a UC Irvine dining hall's menu of fried chicken and waffles on Martin Luther King Day incorrectly referred to "the late Dick Gregory. " Gregory, 78, remains active as a commentator and performer.

As BP oil spread across the Gulf of Mexico this summer, the company spent more than $93 million on advertisements to counter images of the mounting disaster. That was more than triple the amount the company spent on ads during the same period last year, from April through the end of July, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's spill investigation reported Wednesday. The company says the ads were intended to keep Gulf Coast residents informed on issues related to the oil spill and to ensure transparency about its actions.

In last Saturday's column, I relied on teenagers at Richmond High to help me understand how gang rape became a spectator sport on their San Francisco Bay area campus. They explained that bystanders who watched the assault on a 15-year-old girl outside their homecoming dance last month may have been too afraid to intervene. Or they didn't feel compelled to help because the victim wasn't in their clique. Or they were simply paralyzed by shock, fixated as if the violent scene was a snippet from a reality TV show.

One of the president's official planes and a supersonic fighter jet buzzed over Lower Manhattan just as the workday was beginning Monday. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11. For half an hour, the Boeing 747 and F-16 jet circled the Statue of Liberty and the Lower Manhattan skyline near the World Trade Center site. Offices evacuated. Dispatchers were inundated with calls.

I heartily support Hayden's idea for a memorial for Vietnam War protesters. They were a small prophetic minority who endured the wrath of an insensitive and apathetic citizenry as they tried to call attention to the folly of this country's Southeast Asian involvement. HARVEY LEVIN San Gabriel

House Democrats on Tuesday accused the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie L. Myers, of trying to cover up events related to a Halloween party last year where she gave a prize for "most original" costume to an employee in blackface and prison garb.

When it comes to political correctness, Robert Klane's "Where's Poppa?" based on the film of the same name, isn't going to win any awards. Now in its world premiere at the Falcon, the play concerns an exasperated son who dreams of murdering his senile old mother, a trying and indefatigably wacky individual who has wreaked havoc in his life -- particularly his love life.