Randy Kaplan continues with the Quaserman Dialogues: "I hate to disappoint Quasarman, not to mention everyone who thinks that I am incapable of admitting error or inadequacy, but the simple fact is that I reached the limits of my knowledge. I just can't refute Mike's last posting [Friday May 7].
In fact, I agree with a number of points in it, especially the various diseases endemic in Africa, and the fact that conditions and politics there and here make it nearly impossible to judge whether all the alleged "new" infections are in fact reliably identified as discrete and different, and the telling point that a significant though undetermined percentage of illnesses identified as AIDS may well not be AIDS, particularly the so-called "AZT-resistant" heterosexually-transmitted strains. But the main things I hope your readers take away from the debate I am "conceding" are these: 1) Quasarman is a classy guy; and 2) even people who disagree about the nature and extent of the AIDS/STD problem agree on a prudent approach in regard to a testing and recordkeeping regimen.
I would like to stir some shit, though. In my book, Mike Albo is a funny and honest guy, and Brandon Iron's whining is pathetic. Let's all be card-carrying members of his new NAACP -- the National Association for the Advancement of Canadian Pornsters, that much-maligned, much-discriminated against group. Look, Brandon, you just don't get it. The reason that Andrew Dice Clay's act got old pretty quick is that he attacked groups in general, which is only funny maybe once.
Mike Albo [not to mention many of the other people who post items to this site] has a virtually endless supply of actual, specific, individual lies and other acts of general stupidity on which to riff, all-too-willingly provided by the all-too-dopey population of the weird world of porn. I don't share Mike's views on Peter North; mine are closer to yours. But he does weasel endlessly about his gay porn past, and each prevarication is fresh and legitimate fodder for Albo. Is this important? Yes, it is. There's little enough truth in the adult biz, and whether you are journalist, entertainer, or some combination of the two, you owe it to yourself and to your profession to blow the whistle and throw the flag when you think the line has been crossed and a lie has been told. [You know, Gene, the only problem with that metaphor is the mental visual of Albo in the vertical stripes of a referee's uniform...]
