“REPUBLICANS: PROTECT THIS CITY!” next to a smug, airbrushed photo of Gavin Newsom. Man, with a neck-to-neck mayoral race, it’s good to see printed hysteria (for once) from the other side.

[3/22/04 UPDATE: Newsom was elected mayor and has united liberals with his civil disobedience tactics on the same-sex marriage front. During this time, I demonized him without apology. Not a particularly original way of existing, but an altogether common one. This simplistic cave-in to emotional impulse is what happens when one gets caught up in political fervor. November, and election time in general, is the ultimate way for the mind to degenerate. We throw in the towel with the guy who can get elected and, months later, we demonize the victor, completely forgetting that we elected him. Now that I’m nearing 30, I’m beginning to understand why you shouldn’t trust anybody over that threshold. U.S. politics has become more Machiavellian and deceitful than anyone could have possibly predicted two centuries ago.]

[8/8/2005 UPDATE: And now that I’m over 30, I’m realizing how preposterous this last update reads. Strangely enough, politics has become something intermittent. Often I will avoid it for months, only to be dragged back into it against my will upon reading some horrifying development. Of course, I’m also a lot happier now too.]