One of the best pieces of advice I ever got regarding relationships was from a friend of mine who's back in Boston. He told me this years ago, but it stuck in my head, and I never forgot it -- or how valuable it is. He said, "If you're planning on moving in with someone, make sure you get a two-bedroom apartment. That way, if you're mad at each other or just need some alone time, there's somewhere else to go."

After reading through an article I wrote for inclusion in next week's issue of the magazine I work for, one of my editors said this: "I'm putting your name on this piece you wrote because I don't want people to think I'm gay for Phantom Planet."

So President Moron is putting together ads for his presidential campaign showing images of the World Trade Center and flag-draped coffins, saying it's a "reminder" of what the country's been through for the past three years. Understandably, families of the victims are pissed. First of all, as if we could forget? People all over the country can offhandedly say "September 11th," and it's instantly understood what they're referring to. Almost a year and a half after the event, people saw the date "1/16" written upside down and still freaked out. I don't think we need a reminder. Second of all, does he really want a reminder that the worst security breach in this country's history occurred under his stewardship? At least with Pearl Harbor, once the event happened, the country immediately geared up for war and we definitively won. However, there's been no definitive victory in this case. Osama bin Laden is still running around, our economy's in the toilet but we're sending millions of dollars to rebuild Iraq after we overran that country -- and by the way, why did we go to Iraq? Didn't they fail to find the WMD that we were promised Saddam was using to threaten us? And why, once we discovered the war in Afghanistan was bogging down and we couldn't find Osama, did Saddam Hussein suddenly become Public Enemy #1? And who's going to be the next target to mobilize our country for now that he's gone? We need to keep asking questions. We need to keep pushing our government for answers to these questions; otherwise, we just become mindless automatons, accepting what's being fed to us. Even if they are questions like, why do I love that Dizzee Rascal song so much, and who stole the frosting off Fran's Pop-Tarts? These are serious issues that must be dealt with, folks. I'm sure right now, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft are preparing a full-on assault of all the Pop-Tarts in the country, because if they don't get their hands on that frosting, the terrorists win.

Yes, I heard that Avril Lavigne is coming out with a second album. And I thought I was rid of her. She makes things complicated. So, Super Tuesday is upon us, and my thoughts again turn to politics. In recent days, I've been wondering about how our country's founders would view what's going on in our country today. I'm usually someone who follows the letter of the law (usually because I want to know exactly how I can apply it to my benefit), so when I read that the Declaration of Independence clearly states that all men are endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it made me wonder why, since this country was created, we've never enforced that. Since Day 1, this country permitted slavery, making an entire race of people inferior and subject to servitude. Once the servitude part was abolished, the inferiority remained for over 100 years (and in some places, still remains today). Women weren't given the right to vote for almost 150 years and it took a Constitutional amendment to put that in place. And now, gays are falling under that inferiority thing too. If all U.S. citizens are guaranteed the right to pursue happiness, then why can't they marry? Why are we imposing moral law as governmental law, and whose morals are we using to set those laws? Seems to me like we should rewrite the Declaration to say that all white, majority-denominated men are created equal.