This Week's Scarlet

I held off on posting my comics and commentary yesterday because I had other things I wanted to post (like the conclusion to my post about the California wildfires inquiry), and I wanted to pace myself. Then I wound up not posting any of those things. So here, a day late, are my contributions to the year's penultimate issue of the Scarlet:



My commentary is "Democrats Don't Need McCain To Win In '04," and its comic is here. The commentary is written in a more snarky and op-ed-ish style than I typically use. It also makes a passing reference to my growing suspicion that the Democratic leadership can be as centrist as it is because it can use "we need to defend Roe v. Wade! as a prod to keep the left wing in line. (Granted, I think the sans-abortion equilibrium point would be much farther to the right than a lot of left-wingers think, but the frequency with which abortion is brought out -- successfully -- as a justification for choosing the lesser of two evils is striking.)