Site traffic continues to grow quickly, but the number of emails remains quite low.  On one hand this means I can read them all quickly, but on the other it doesn't lend a lot of fodder to pick the gems out of for the mail bags.  With those encouraging words, away we go.

Date: November 17, 2002
From: Philip
Subject: Castration

Hello,

Regarding your article about castration at, I think it doesn't adequately examine *why* someone would have a logical reason of being castrated.

You may want to add a link to this site:

It's the website of a man who had his penis and testicles surgically removed on an elective basis, doesn't take testosterone shots, and likes the way he is.

It is a very odd site.  Scientific and medical in many ways, and the man wasn't castrated, he was de-sexed.  He's got a tiny little hole now.  No penis, no scrotum, nothing.  There is one distressing close up photo near the top of the page that's linked to from the email.  It looks like a very small human blow hole.

The castration article the emailer mentions is mostly discussing castration weirdness by gay men, with fantasies of roman soldier rape and punishment and such.  It's elective nut-torture/removal, with lots of sexual S&M tones to it.  This guy's page is about a man who had physical problems with his genitals including birth defects and very little sensitivity, so it was almost like chopping off dead wood.  It seems odd that he didn't keep his penis and balls, even if he didn't get sexual joy from it, just to keep the testosterone going, and have an easy way to pee.  And yes, most of this is covered in the FAQ on the site.  He even likes women, and enjoys performing cunnilingus well enough to have a page with advice on the proper technique.

Here's a quote.

My surgery was done (at my request) with a local anesthetic, so I was aware of the process as it was happening. That's the way I wanted it. The surgeon would have preferred a general, but I insisted. :o)

(I wanted to know, really know and feel deep inside, that everything was gone - I didn't want to just go to sleep and wake up with it gone, I wanted to be there and aware when it happened. According to my wife (who's an RN, and was allowed in the OR) when the the surgeon made the final cuts to sever my penis and actually took it away from my body I got a huge smile on my face.)

Enjoy that image?  Sleep well.

___________

Date: November 22, 2002
From: Erik
Subject: Recoiling in disgust

T.V. commercials and radio advertisements (the vast majority of them) have become so incredibly insulting, degrading and irritating to me that I find myself actually, physically, recoiling in disgust when I see them or hear them, for the most part. Do they cater to the portion of society that HAS to have some kind of blabbering noise or music in the background to be comfortable? - But the constant onslaught of "do this NOW you moron" stupid ads also serves to pummel the rest of us to the point of desensitization. How is it that you can flip through TEN radio channels and sometimes hear ads on ALL TEN of them? I hate these ads with all of my body and soul. I loathe them. It is greed in one of it's most irritating, obnoxious and pervasive forms. I just cannot describe how much I hate them.

However, the occasional funny commercial is enjoyable, but I never get to see them anymore because I hate prime time TV and I change channels on the radio if I hear an ad of any kind coming on, so as to avoid nausea and/or involuntary convulsions.

And you thought you didn't like ads?  I assume this mail is motivated by my Truths in Advertising page, which I wrote months ago in a brief burst of interest, and have not touched since.  I dislike most ads, but I try to keep my loathing at a bit lower level than Erik here.

___________

Date: November 24, 2002
From: Contact@ChargePadilla.org
Subject: Jose Padilla

Hello-

I read your comments about the Padilla case in your blog. I'm thinking it's long past time for a ruckus to be raised about Padilla being denied due process, and so I'm hoping to gather some sympathetic people at www.chargepadilla.org.

I'd be grateful if you can look at the site, give me any feedback you have, and if you're willing, spread the word.

Thanks,

Timothy

Hard to say if this is a real mail or not.  I assumed at first glance that it was full on spam, but as he says "your blog" it's obviously individually targeted to some extent.  However the only time I can find a mention of Padilla on this site is from way back on June 15th, over five months before this email came in.  This would seem to indicate that the mailer spends a lot of time running Google searches for sites that mentioned anything less than condemning about Padilla, and then emails them trying to get linkage to his site.  I'll give him a bonus point for effort, but this is the only link or mention he's getting.

There are more mails from November, but none of them with anything particularly interesting. Perhaps December will offer up more than three good ones.

If you would like to be included in a future mail bag, give it a try.

<-- October 2002 -- December 2002 -->
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