Today, in the middle of the afternoon, smack dab in the middle of the Steelers/Titans game, I got a phone call. It was from a Mortgage Home Loan company that apparently couldn't believe I haven't contacted them about using them for a home loan. Obviously, they don't read my blog.

Look, if you're gonna call me with some sales-pitch, you could at least do the trouble of making it seem like you have a clue as to who I am. It wouldn't take that long to find out that I am in absolutely no position whatsoever to buy a house. Or even think about owning a house. Or even care about owning a house. Among other things, I live in the Bay Area. Nobody can afford homes here. Then there's the whole being unemployed thing for a year. Hello?

The thing is that I can't really get that upset about the telemarketing company that made the call. Because it's not really the telemarketing company's doing. Now, it's not their fault that they're calling me in the middle of a Saturday afternoon pretending that I'd be a perfect person to apply for a home loan.

The person to blame for telemarketing, not to mention for junk mail and spam e-mail is you. No, not necessarily you, dear reader, but someone out there. It's the whole I've met the enemy and it's us type thing.

See, believe it or not, it actually does cost money to do telemarketing or junk-mail and spam-mail. There's got to be costs involved for a company to do it. Yeah, in the most cases the people who call you are either in prison or in Bangladesh or living in the middle of nowhere Alabama and getting paid minimum wage, but somehow, somewhere, there's people who are doing it. Somebody's compiling lists, somebody's designing and writing pitches and somebody's delivering the pitches. Not to mention renting space to do host the people and technology for these people to use. And all of this wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for the fact that somehow, in someway, it's actually paying off. In other words, there'd be no telemarketing, no junk mail, and no spam mail if it weren't for the fact that somebody, somewhere out there is actually going "huh, I do think I should talk to them about a home mortgage loan." Or somebody is saying "wow, a pre-approved credit-card, woo-hoo!" And even "gosh, I DO have a small penis." And so they actually take up the offer that they've been offered.

If nobody bought anything, none of these places would make any money. And if they weren't making money, they wouldn't afford to hire the people who call you right in the middle of Surreal Life or bombard you all day at work when your anxiously awaiting an important e-mail or jam up your mail box. But somebody, somewhere out there is buying it. And because of them, the rest of us have to put up with this crap.

So, to whomever is buying all this stuff- STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!