Did you know that blogs get spam? That is, the authors get spammed. I guess the idea is that lazy bloggers will automatically approve all comments to their posts and therefore provide free advertising for everything from politics (anti Bush!) to sex-related ads, gambling sites, and other such trash.

Sometimes the comments are hilarious. I’ve had this one in my ‘defer’ pile for a months or so now:

Pay Day Loans | pocjw@lycos.com | ontimepaydayloan.com | IP: 222.112.249.128

The Irish also worked on the railroads in the same time frame and have their own stories of being the sacrificial lambs to set the day before pay day, Pay Day Loans (site deleted)

Historical? sort of. Accurate? Maybe. Amusing? Definitely.

I guess this one hits a nerve because I am Irish (primarily, I’m really a Euro-Mutt, but that’s another post), and my grandfather made quite a nice living on the railroad. Not, as this post implies, as someone who laid tracks but as a conductor and manager. (That’s the ‘lace curtain’ side of the family.)

So, thanks for trying to point out the plight of my ancestors getting screwed, in a post advertising a new way to get screwed. (In Washington state there is currently a debate — an angry debate — about whether to pass a law limiting the interest charged for so-called ‘payday loans’ to 63%. Yes, sixty-three percent.)