I’ve got to tell you…I am getting a little sick and tired of spam email. You know, all that “V!agra c.heap!”, “E.n.large your m&anhood”, and “E.xxtreme h&amster S.E.X.X!” crap that clutters your inbox.

 I have two different spam filters, and receive an average of 80 email messages a day…of which six pass through my filters, and four are legitimate email messages. The pathetic lowlifes who send this barrage of crap into my life are beneath any contempt. Lengthy sessions in jail with V!agra overdosed E.n.Larged cellmates would be appropriate. I also think there should be a special hell reserved for the businesses that fund these spammers, and the ISPs that turn a blind eye to their activities.

 But I think it is possible to go too far …

The gentleman in the linked story here who sent threats to the people who distributed his particular spam is probably a good example of a man pushed too far. Threatening terrorism (distribution of anthrax) or violence against specific spammers is not really the best course of action.

What can we do, then? Well, start with what I did: filter the heck out of the crap coming into your inbox. Then never respond to a single SPAM message, and certainly don’t click on any embedded links. And push your local legislator to make distribution of spam illegal, and to implement fines (and serious ones) against ISPs who permit their infrastructure to be used for spam distribution, and to businesses that contract for SPAM advertising.

To me, getting a little bit of advertising, wanted or not, in my inbox is tolerable- something like all the adverts I get in my postal mail, which account for maybe 20% of what is in my postal inbox each day. But when unwanted advertising accounts for 90% of what comes to my electronic inbox each day, and particularly when it borders between obscene and grotesquely disgusting…well, its time to look at laws to do something about it.