Pathetic

If anyone still believes that Madonna possesses any veritable wit or charm, one only had to witness her pathetic "bad girl" persona with David Letterman. She was not only unattractive physically but personally and intellectually as well. What is most pathetic, however, is that she apparently believes she is acting clever by using the F-word or licking her lips repeatedly in a ribald and banal fashion, or delivering (for 35 minutes) third-rate adolescent sexual humor. Even sixth-graders at recess or high school football players in the locker room would have been more inventive and entertaining.

Who's folding now? A day after Andrew Bynum foolishly predicted that the Lakers' potential close-out game in their first-round series with the Denver Nuggets would be "kinda easy," he was kinda wrong. A day after Bynum claimed that the Nuggets would probably "fold," it was Bynum's team that wound up bent at the waist and taking the hard breaths of humiliation. Believe it and weep. Despite having a chance to finish off the Nuggets on Tuesday, the Lakers elected to keep playing by not playing, keeping the battle alive by falling asleep.

This is the pathetic, pitiful little girl of T.J. Simers' Jan. 25 column. I have been vindicated by my first sports idol, John Elway. He has restored faith in all my sports idols, past and present. I now believe that Billy Joe Tolliver really could hit the Pacific Ocean if standing at the end of Crystal Pier. I now believe that Bill Hanzlik could coach the Denver Nuggets to a winning season. I now believe that Ron Powlus just might be the No. 1 draft pick this year. John Elway has restored my faith, but I will forever owe my father for exposing me to my idols.

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John A. Boehner has vividly stepped up his attacks on President Obama, calling the president's visits to college campuses a blatant campaign pitch for reelection -- and "pathetic. " "This is beneath the dignity of the White House," Boehner said Thursday, calling on the administration to reimburse the president for taxpayer-funded travel this week. "It doesn't even pass the straight test, are you kidding me?" Congress is preparing for a new fight against Obama over keeping student loan interest rates low. Rates are set to double to 6.8% on July 1 unless Congress acts.

Nothing is quite so pathetic as to be apathetic about apathy. I vote for a change. Any seconds? JOSEPH P. KRENGEL Santa Monica

I don't understand why Channel 7's "Three Three O" is still on the air. It's boring. The show's co-hosts are pathetic. Karen McGinnis, San Pedro

Although the Aug. 22 issue was devoted to fashion, couldn't you have found a more worthy and interesting person to interview than the shallow Lee Minnelli ("The Divine Mrs. M," by Robin Abcarian)? Minnelli's only accomplishments in life were finding and exploiting rich husbands and gluing on false eyelashes. Pathetic! Marylin Schultz Simi Valley

Shame on you for devoting so much valuable space to the sorry saga of Tom Sizemore ["Filled With Drama," by Robert W. Welkos, March 23]. He continues to play the victim in a pathetic drama of his own creation rather than accept responsibility for his actions. Barbara Tuss Glassell Park

When Abramson's client herds people into a freezer and shoots them to death, he's the one I can see wearing a swastika--not the state who sentenced him. These "adorable," "sweet," "tragic" and "pathetic" guys she's defending are the inhumane, the unjust, the dehumanizers. VALERIE A. CAMPBELL Upland

For all its supposedly great recruiting and national glory, the UCLA football program has taken a giant step backward this year. The Bruins' performance against Arizona was not just pathetic and embarrassing. It was inexcusable. To say the Bruins quit is giving them too much credit. They weren't trying to begin with. CHRIS OTT, Los Angeles

Newt Gingrich, with Herman Cain and Michael Reagan along to testify to his conservative credentials, tried to turn Mitt Romney's relentless negative television advertising against him a day before Floridians vote in a Republican presidential primary that could reshuffle the race. Gingrich, labeling Romney "a Massachusetts liberal," characterized the election as pitting "people power against money power" and dismissed the former governor as having no vision other than to spend millions of dollars on negative advertising to destroy his adversary.

House Speaker John A. Boehner called President Obama's upcoming State of the Union speech "pathetic" for rehashing stale Democratic priorities, even as Republicansare doubling-down on their own policy agenda that found little traction outside the GOP-led House. "It sounds to me like the same old policies that we've seen: more spending, higher taxes more regulation - the same policies that haven't helped our economy; they've made it worse," Boehner said on "Fox News Sunday. " "If that's what the president is going to talk about Tuesday night, I think it's pathetic.

Reporting from Sacramento -- John R. Bolton, the former ambassador to the United Nations who is weighing a presidential run in 2012, accused President Obama on Friday of failing to address threats to U.S. national security and called the administration's approach to the crisis in Libya "pathetic. " Hours after the president warned that the United Nations was ready to launch a military strike to defend the Libyan people if their leader Moammar Kadafi did not halt his attacks on civilians and pull back from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and three other cities, Bolton cast the president as indecisive, inconsistent and uninterested in foreign policy.

It was hard to argue with the accountant, John Shaw , recommending to Georgia Frontiere she move her Rams to St. Louis, where she would collect more than $25 million a year. A woman has to shop after all. The blunder of all blunders, though, belongs to Al Davis , who has become a blithering idiot with the passage of time and so many losing years, the Rams handing the Los Angeles market to him in 1994, and Davis fumbling the opportunity. A brand new stadium at Hollywood Park was waiting on his signature, luxury boxes and oodles of money to be made.

I understand the Aston Martin DBS Volante is not for everybody. Not everyone will care for a $300,000, 12-cylinder, open-top super car that looks like love feels and sounds like whiskey tastes. But if you are one of these people -- these nugatory finger-waggers, these buzz-killing harpies of righteous socialism -- please, sit next to someone else at dinner. I will stick a fork in your eye. Yes, of course it's a car for rich jackasses, preening showoffs and enviro-criminals.

Michael Jackson, we can hope, now rests in peace. Embarrassment over the way Los Angeles handled his memorial service may be with us for a while. It's not like the city is incapable of doing anything right. By all accounts, the Police Department and traffic officers handled their end of Tuesday's event flawlessly.

Last fall, during the Dodgers' annual "We're pathetic failures" news conference (disguised as Davey Johnson's dismissal announcement), Sheriff Malone said something like, "Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a good loser." Your humility moves me, Kevin. I mean, after witnessing your shrewd personnel moves, I'd say you're a very good loser. SYD SMITH Los Angeles

I was more interested in the story (one paragraph) of the little girl in Chicago who jumped out of a 10th floor window to avoid a spanking than the story of the bears' mauling the kid who stupidly invaded their pathetic little space. If readers are so interested in mauled children, why don't they go to any hospital and see the thousands of children mauled by their own parents? SUSAN FETTA Los Angeles

Re "Injured civilians battle to get care," April 17 At first, I was shocked and appalled to read about the civilian contractors' struggle to receive their much-deserved benefits. Now I'm no longer surprised -- just outraged. It makes no sense that companies like insurer American International Group can dole out bonuses, yet can't seem to pay for the horrendous injuries sustained by workers in Iraq. What makes it so tragic and pathetic is that these are seemingly commonplace stories in our time.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- After barely beating Ohio University, No. 3 Ohio State was not a happy football team. In fact, the sluggish win felt more like a loss. "That was pathetic. It was a pathetic performance," Buckeyes wide receiver Brian Hartline said after the Buckeyes rallied in the fourth quarter for a 26-14 win over Ohio, a 33 1/2 -point underdog. "OU should've won the game. I don't know how we came out with it." Maybe Ohio State (2-0) had next week's opponent -- No. 1 USC -- on its mind.