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If you're a regular visitor to this little corner of Al Gore's Internet, then you are probably familiar with the "comment" section that you will find below each one of my particularly pithy posts, as well as my fondness for alliteration. Generally this is the place where I will find thoughts from others who have read what I had to say on any particular topic and felt the need to give some of their thoughts back. It is always a treat to receive some outward sign of my words being read by others, even when I don't happen to please or entertain in the way I had intended. Sometimes I need to be set straight.
So, thank you for all your kind and/or corrective feedback. That's not what I am concerned about today. Instead, I would like to take this opportunity to complain about the machines that can, periodically, wind their way through the modicum of security that is in place to protect this blog from random abuse. I have had a number of regular readers send me e-mail confessing their frustrations with the borderline arcane method of unscrambling "the letters you see below" in order to leave a comment. I understand the frustration of not being able to simply jot down your message and press send. That is precisely what keeps me from spending hours on other news or blog sites, offering my opinions on other people's opinions.
But there are machines that have nothing better to do than to spray their random bursts of decoding into cyberspace in order to leave links to Japanese porn sites. I am certain that somewhere this is considered a "service," and if you are willing to pay the fee you can have your web sites dropped into the comment section of any unsuspecting blog. If you've poked around a little on Blogspot, you have probably noticed a wide variety of cultures, languages, and points of view. That is the magic of, if I may toss the term around, the Blogosphere. I wonder how many other sites are plagued by this automated nuisance. I'm certain that there are bloggers from Malaysia who have to periodically scour their sites from offers to meet attractive American girls. It's not that hard to do, after all. It's easier than leaving a comment in the first place.
Which brings me to the point: It will always be worth leaving the comment button turned on even if it means I get some electro-smut now and then. I want to know what you think, too. And if you're writing from Saipan with a really sincere opportunity to meet some very nice but scantily clad young ladies, I promise to seek you out when that becomes my concern.