Spam insults

Recently, I have been receiving highly critical spam comments. Here is one typical example:

What a waste of time. You’re [sic] poor english [sic] made this article hard to read. Learn to write.

I have to admit I am puzzled by the psychology of this. One form that spam comments take is to give an effusive but generic compliment (“Your blog is great!”), presumably to flatter me so that I won’t delete it. It never works but I can understand the strategy.

But I am totally baffled by what the spammer hopes to achieve with an insult.

Backhanded recommendations

This website highlights ambiguous sentences from letters of recommendation.

  • You will be lucky to get this person to work for you
  • I cannot recommend this person too highly
  • I recommend this candidate with no qualifications
  • Waste no time hiring this person
  • He was fired with enthusiasm
  • Nobody is better than this man
  • I found myself frequently raving about her work
  • I would place his research on the cutting edge
  • I would place this student in a class by herself
  • He has made immeasurable contributions to our firm

The Despicable John McCain

His disgusting weasel-worded campaign against giving gays their rights deservedly gets hammered on The Daily Show. The last bit It Gets Worse, based on Dan Savage’s It Gets Better campaign, is a thing of beauty because it is absolutely true. People who are on the wrong side of the fight for equal rights for marginalized groups always, always end up being despised.

<td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'It Gets Worse PSA
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Federal judge says OK is not ok

On election day, the state of Oklahoma passed by a whopping margin of 70-30 a referendum that amended the state constitution to prohibit courts from the consideration of Sharia or international law in their verdicts.

Stephen Colbert applauds this action.

<td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Stephen Colbert Gives You Props
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

But now a federal judge has placed a temporary restraining order preventing the amendment from taking effect pending a hearing on November 22.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that the devious jihadists have infiltrated the federal judiciary in Oklahoma as a first step in their plan to impose Sharia law on the entire US.

Talk about ingratitude

Apparently there is this church in Spain that has been under construction since 1882 and is not due to be finished until at least 2026. It looks to me like they are way overdue to find a new construction firm. Pope Ratzinger consecrated the church on his recent trip so now they can at least hold masses there.

Architect Antoni Gaudi was a devout Catholic and believed that the new church would be an expression of “the divine history of the salvation of man through Christ incarnate, given to the world by the Virgin Mary”. He was so dedicated to this project that he began work on it in 1883 and from 1911 onwards made it his only occupation, spending “the next 15 years living and working on site as a virtual recluse, supervising work”.

In return for all this selfless devotion, god caused a tram to run over and kill Gaudi in 1926.

We should not be surprised. God has a funny way of showing gratitude for the unquestioning faith he says he wants, like when he caused the deaths of all of Job’s ten children just for the hell of it, even though Job was even more faithful to him than Gaudi.

For those not familiar with the Job story, here’s a nice summary.