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This is why I don't write anymore.

Because women need to be desired to be aroused? No.

I don't write much because you have to manufacture an opinionated topic in order to gain any sort of interest.

This author could have written a more balanced piece about the role of external sexual interest in a persons sexual self-confidence, and contrasted some of the likely minor differences between men and women. But instead, she writes a heavily biased article with the tired tropes of support for "most real women" (read as not angry feminists) and revolution against "political correctness" (which doesn't exist anywhere, it's a strawman).

Of course you can't just write a piece stating that human sexuality is an almost infinitely complex thing, with as many different motives and responses as there are human beings. That would be accurate, intellectually useful, and likely not sensational enough to generate page views.

Instead, massive generalization is used to foster animosity, and reduce the level of the discourse to a point where the entire populace can find something to take a stand for or against. No real benefit can come from this discussion now, it's reduced to a political/religious type argument where people just opine angrly at one another, and no progress is made to finding out anything new about human nature. All we're doing now is reinforcing the most well known of human traits, generalization and discrimination in order to support one's own life choices and values.

And that's just the article structure. The subject itself is also offensive in more specific ways.

You, as a woman, are proporting to speak for the other 3.5 billion registered uterus-drivers on this planet? Really? You are saying that regardless of the obvious diversity of sexuality across continents and cultures, you've finally gotten to the heart of the matter with no scientific analysis or even so much as a web survey. I may be supposed to infer that the likely target of this article, and the one you are speaking on behalf of is the same 30-55 white female demographic that you are part of, but that isn't mentioned anywhere. After all, proper qualification and speciation of your point would dilute it's provocative intent.

So you've managed to establish yourself as the visionary for your gender. What do you do now? Reinforce traditional gender stereotypes which are specific to your own insecurities of course!

It really couldn't be any more transparent. It would be like me stating that ALL men inherently, genetically, and without any ability to self-moderate, really only want women who will have sex while watching Star Trek. And like it.

And then I'd claim that any men who claim this isn't specifically true for them are just fooling themselves. Just admit it. You want to do it while watching the saucer-section separate. I KNOW that you do, because I do, and I'm a normal man. You, also being a normal man, must also want this. Unless you're some kind of freak.

There is no doubt that the degree to which a person receives sexual attention will effect their sex drive, but so will an untold number of other things. And if you want to write an article about how, FOR YOU, this external validation is the primary driver of your libido, that's great.

But don't try give one of your own insecurities a higher level of perceived legitimacy by trying to tie it your entire gender as a whole.

And don't artificially polarize a subject just for page views. There are enough genuine problems that could use discussion, we don't need to make up new ones.

However a confluence of events has inspired me to revisit Laconic Reply.

#1 - Copying other people.

I always strive to be more like Mark Cluett. The one on the right. This guy.

In that vein I contemplated launching a Tumbr account in his model of short and quick musings. But then I realized that I already have a blog site I pay for and I'm too lazy to redirect this domain name to a new location. So the blogging will remain here.

Also, Kevin Naulls is kicking some ass with his blog to the point that people are giving him free stuff. So I think I should step it up considering I'm almost half the man he is, IN SPITE of my handicap of being unable to grow non-pedo facial hair.

#2 - I'm already writing.

I often write 90% of a blog post based on some random source of inspiration and then give up without posting it.

Also, Joey Nowak occasionally sends me emails composed entirely of a "Look at this" and a link. For some reason the content she sends me almost always illicits a 10-15 paragraph response, despite being nothing but a kitten video or poorly written copyright-related article.

Usually her response to my prose is nothing but a simple "Wow" or silence, either of which I assume signifies her being stunned dumb by the beauty and eloquence of my words. So I feel that I should not limit this valuable knowledge to only Joey's consumption, and instead share it with the world.

#3 - Living in Goldsboro, NC is boring and I have nothing else to do with my time.

So from now on I plan on posting things here more frequently.

But how am I going to do that if I wasn't able to maintain it before? By decreasing the quality of course! Previously the bulk of my blog-writing time was spent hunting photos for hours, or proof-reading my work to perfection. This new work will minimize both of those things.

This new work will largely be composed of big blocks of ranty text, quickly written, and poorly thought out. It's not intended to be perfect, or even good. It's intended to be a snapshot of my ideas and attitudes at a given moment. And if the rest of you get some entertainment out of it, even at my expense, all the better.

First new post to follow.

Trying, half-assidly (that's a word) to capture a water drop as it fell, and just got the splash instead. But I'm pretty happy with it.

Found these on Sunday while I was avoiding the kerfuffle downtown that some of you may have heard of.

I found these, and many other great pieces on Broadcast Lane, just east of Parliament on Carlton.

As I was shooting, a guy on a scooter came down the alley. I mentioned the nice street art, and he said he didn't appreciate the police bring "hooligans" in here to practice their "crime".

I guess he prefers more of an abstinence approach to artistic expression he doesn't approve of.

And on that note, I think I should mention that while I do have some photos and most of a post written about the G20 happy-fun-time, I'm a little tired of it at this point and I may not post it. At least not yet.

I want to think about the whole thing a little more before I shoot my mouth off.

I ran into Lisa last night after following some bike cops to Queen and Spadina. Despite only taking shots for about 30 minutes, I was getting tired of contributing to the crowds, so I went upstairs for some drinks.

But not before taking this shot of them unleashing their frustration.

Apparently the kitchen closes at 11pm at 3 Speed so we had to procure our own sustenance, in the form of pizza.

Steph eagerly awaits more beer, with thoughts of Fire Safety Plan on her mind.

Mark gets the drinks cause he's the only one with money.

Apparently photography makes their faces do this. Steph is concerned and Mark is experiencing a regression to early childhood.

This is King St at 1am on Friday night of the G20. Not many cars, in fact the only one I saw in this moment was the speeding minivan full of cops that almost hit me as it came around the corner.

This is about 12 hours late, but whatever.

Shot this on my way back from the protest march in Toronto today. On the whole it was an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it, but it was definitely a lot more calm and controlled than I expected. I'll blog about it in more detail later once I've finished shooting it.

Not the greatest quality shot technically speaking, but the content makes up for it.

I'm definitely looking forward to this weekend. It's going to be an interesting time taking shots of the action. With all the hundreds or thousands of people with DSLRs, I would not be surprised if this was one of the most heavily photographed G20's yet.

I crouched in an alley next to a dumpster taking shots of baby raccoons for about a half hour last night. But not a single photo turned out because the damn raccoons never stayed still long enough to be photographed without blur.

Raccoons these days have no patience. It's this Myspace generation. Always in a rush.