First observations

Welcome to South Blogania. The name comes from being Slavic, plus where I live now, and from an overexposure to Marx. In college I was a dedicated Marxist/Lennonist, spending much time studying the works of Groucho and John.

On to blogging...

I'm always fascinated by the sender's names and subject lines in the email caught by the spam blocker my cable company supplies. It appears spammers are largely concerned about reducing the cost of prescription drugs, getting an erection, providing something to get an erection over, refinancing property, and keeping spam other people send you from installing spyware.

Who would be dumb enough to respond to this stuff? What reasonable person would buy a prescription drug from someone who can't spell? Why would a nubile woman without tan lines who became 18 just days ago while living in southern California be attracted to a middle-aged, paunchy, semi-employed guy on the opposite coast? Can one really get below market rates mortgaging property not owned? How come a major cable company supplying broadband service to millions doesn't know about this magnificent software that will make scumware history?

We know from spamologist's studies that enough people do respond to this crap to keep the spammers in business. It doesn't take much: only one or two percent of the total recipients responding keeps these deviants churning out garbage. The spammers, that is.

Who, in heavens name, might these foolish respondents be?

The answer came from CNN and Mark Shields. You may recognize Shields as the ersatz liberal commentator on the News Hour, the guy who pretends that David Brooks has something meaningful to say (as do the producers at PBS). Shields reported that Repubs sent letters to voters in Alabama and West Virginia informing them that if "the liberals" (aka John Kerry) won in November the bible would be banned. Simple -- Kerry in, scriptures out. Never mind all the Federal Law stuff and other realities that would get in the way of such a silly gesture. Satan would once again triumph in the face of an omnipotent God.

So now you know. Voters identified by the Republican Party in Alabama and West Virginia are putatively dumb enough to respond to spam. Spammers could save themselves thousands of dollars by getting a copy of the Repubs mailing list and concentrating on that. But we know they won't, because the Repubs will charge an arm and a leg for the list, so its cheaper to spam the rest of us.

Not that country folk are alone. Someone in my previous workplace kept leaving notices around that Madeline Murray O'Hare, the infamous atheist, had managed to get CBS to take "Touched by an Angel" off the air. The fact that O'Hare died years before "Touched" was ever broadcast didn't make a difference to the mysterious leaflet leaver. Add the leaflet leaver to the list, if for no other reason to demonstrate that the liberal northeastern states have at least some residual dumbness present. Touched, all right.

Senator Robert Byrd, one of the few people in the country who's actually read the Constitution, insisted that the Repubs issue an apology to the good folks of West Virginia. Nobody from Alabama said anything. The Repubs haven't responded either. Karl Goebbels probably said not to.

But wait, there's more. How about the warning that an Iraqi terrorist's captured computer had floor plans of schools in it, including two in New Jersey (home to a bunch of Muslims). Turns out there was no threat, according to the Homeland Insecurity types. The laptop was seized months before the "threat" was announced and its owner was involved as a volunteer in rebuilding schools in Iraq. Some of the school systems with floor plans in the computer were notified, some were not. Go figure. Hey, no harm, no foul. Even in an election year.

Comments: philoking-at-comcast-dot-net