Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.
- William Butler Yeats -
Your ubiquitous (O)CT(O)PUS is no prude, but I get annoyed when breast and penis enlargement spam invades my e-mail box. Why spam when spammers know nothing about me, least of all my gender, proclivities, or species?
Neither this nor that, I am not a transgender, cross-dressing cephalopod in need of both. I have no interest in privileging one appendage over another and no innate need to preen or primp myself in gaudiness to facilitate naughtiness. In this or that, it seems, human beings are more akin to birds.
Perhaps followers of this forum have noticed: Spam is no longer delivered via e-mail but posted in the comment threads of popular blogs. The logic is simple: Why spam a single reader when you can reach a wider audience; for instance, a forum followed by hundreds or thousands of readers; and spammers have learned to customize their message with charm and inventiveness.
Recently, for instance, I posted this article, A Preoccupation with Rubber Ducks. Last week, one enterprising spammer raised the ante duck for duck and left this comment beneath my post:
While most birds are phallus-free, ducks are oddly endowed - up to 8 inches. Using high-speed video they found that ducks could go from zero to happy in less than half a second … That endowment should give the males an advantage during forced mating but these [editorial note: I eliminated the embedded url address that originally appeared here] free males aren't out of the woods yet … Why Yale decided to study duck penises in the first place I will never know.The embedded url address links you to an online pharmacy that trades in generic versions of Viagra™, Cialis™, and Levitra™, among other prescription medications. Online pharmacies are illegal in the United States for good reasons.
Generic drugs manufactured offshore violate patents and trademarks, and consumers should be especially wary when purchasing drugs of dubious origin and quality. Furthermore, consumers should never self-administer any prescription drug, especially antibiotics and cardio-vascular drugs, without medical supervision.
Curiously, GeoTrust and McAfee have certified this obviously illegal enterprise as a secure e-commerce site. Furthermore, the horny duck accepts payment from American Express, Diners Club, Visa, MasterCard, and Western Union. American corporations, it seems, employ a double standard. They will litigate any infringements of their own rights yet sell anything to anyone for any purpose with impunity. These days, to make a buck is the most sublime of all virtues ... trumping laws, ethics, even hypocrisy. (O)CT(O)PUS intends to name them and shame them until they clean up their act.
I get lots of spam "comments" too. Nobody ever sees them because of the comment moderation.
ReplyDeleteThat endowment should give the males an advantage during forced mating
An odd point to mention. Are rapists actually a sought-after market niche now?
Curious that this is so pervasive but we still can't buy legal, properly-manufactures drugs from Canada.
On the other hand, Limbaugh alone may be enough to keep the illegal-Viagra guys in business.
Yes, Yes, Yes...I get a few of these emails on a daily basis...and now beside viagra and 'male tool enlargement' I am also getting spam in regards to getting a Russian wife....
ReplyDeleteBut you gotta love the internet....
The company that hosts my server has offered me superior spam detection service for an additional fee.
Then of course my favorite is a phone I received right before Christmas from some woman who we had sent an email to who called to ask us to quit spamming her because no one in her family is big and they never requested information from us...
I looked up her records and realized that she had requested a catalog via this website and I asked her why she requested we send her a catalog if she had no need for our products?
Well, the answer was very simple; she was offered a gift certificate to sign up for catalogs and so she did because she really wanted the catalog.
I asked her why she thought it was such a crime for us to clutter her email box with spam but she had no problem requesting a paper catalog that costs money to produce and mail?
Do you ever wonder where all the 'spam' comes from that fills up the mailbox of your home everyday?
We all understand the concept of direct mail and mailing lists but you do have to wonder where these spammers get your email address...
Maybe if we knew where and how spammers get our email address we could deal with the issue of spam a little better
Seems to be a slight myth of capitalistic practices, that they are fulfilling a need for the people.
ReplyDeleteThey are creating a need for the people. Good marketing and sales create a demand. Whether that's good, or not is debatable.
Does anyone need spray-on hair, a Chia pet, or an egg extractor?
A better case can be made for a pill that can help you sexually satisfy your mate, but only egotism allows that product to become the third largest selling drug in the nation. Since it is, the ad push is understandable, yet annoying.
From one who has never "measured" up, but always worked fine, I think the need is exaggerated.
Sexual performance is put on a pedestal like a rock star, and must be bowed to, emulated, and all efforts to reach that pedestal must be taken.
Vanity is an easy target for a good sales pitch.
Tom, the risk to the public is that the drugs sold by this online merchant are generic, not the actual ones sold legit by prescription. Who knows what their bio-equivalency really is or whether these are safe to use.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, it is illegal to sell prescription drugs in the U.S. without a doctor's prescription. Example: One of the generics sold by this merchant is Thorazine, a powerful tranquilizer that has tons of adverse reactions and contraindications.
These generics are probably manufactured in Asia, perhaps in China or India where lots of American goods are pirated. These generics mimic American products that are still under patent protection. Hence there are copyright infringement issues.
What gripes me is that other American companies, such as credit card companies and e-commerce providers are aiding and abetting an illegal operation. If notified, do you think these firms would cease doing business with the online pharmacy? Probably, not! That is my point.
Another example. The online pharmacy also sells antibiotics such as ethionamide (for tuberculosis), generic Cipro (for anthrax infections), generic Avelox, and generic Adoxa (doxycycline), among others.
ReplyDeleteMany of the antibiotics have dangerous side effects including allergic reactions, irregular heartbeat, nausea, blistering, pain, and seizures.
Many antibiotics cannot be used if a person has a heart condition, liver disease, a seizure disorder, or is pregnant or breast-feeding.
Many antibiobiotics have dangerous drug-drug interactions and cannot be used with certain foods.
A huge public health problem is the indiscriminate abuse and overuse of antibiotics that may cause certain diseases to become drug resistant. The next time you read about a new drug resistant strain of staphylococcus or tuberculosis, you will know why.
For all these reasons, no antibiotics should be self-administered without proper medical supervision.
Does American Express, Diners Club, Visa, MasterCard, McAfee, or Western Union give a rat’s ass whether you injure or kill yourself or create a public health menace? Of course not! As long as they get their revenue, who gives a damn.
It's about justification by profit - a popular idea amongst Randians.
ReplyDeleteLook at it this way, if someone stands outside my house banging a gong, or continually rings my doorbell despite my asking him to stop, he can be prosecuted. If he rings my phone all day however, trying to sell me sleazy loan reduction plans, it's legal under most circumstances and although I can demand that he stops, the demand is all but unenforceable. Why? because it's a business and a business has more rights than I do.