The British polemicist Christopher Hitchens, perhaps best known in later years for his unwavering opposition to organized religion and for butting heads with his comrades on the Left over the Iraq war, died last night of pneumonia after a yearlong struggle with esophageal cancer. In his 62 years, Hitchens wrote more than a dozen books [...]

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From Politico, quoting Herman Cain’s campaign-suspension speech: “I believe these words came from the Pokemon movie,” Cain said. “Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you and me.” Cain finally [...]

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On Tuesday, Under the Golden Dome unearthed a gem about Terry Branstad. Last week, our protest-bashing governor told Iowa Public Radio, responding to questions about the Occupy Des Moines demonstrators, that he had never participated in a protest himself because he was “too busy working on the farm” and “didn’t have time for that.” Not [...]

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Courtesy of City Councilman Matthew Goodman’s Facebook wall, I present you with this survey to weigh in on the future of Campustown. Relatedly, check out all our great coverage/criticism of the stalled Lane4 development plans for Campustown here.

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What began, oddly enough, as a call to action from an anti-consumerist Canadian magazine to set up camp to protest financial corruption on Wall Street has spread from Manhattan across the United States and world. Occupations, as they’re being called, started in Iowa last week and quickly spread to Des Moines, where demonstrators faced arrest [...]

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I’m a few days late to the game on this one, but I think this is good vindication of my previous criticism of the city’s decision to blow $78,500 on a California marketing firm to rebrand Ames: The city of Ames has been advised to discard its newly adopted tagline, “The Heartland’s Leading Edge,” because [...]

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Last week, when I was back in Ames covering the straw poll, a friend introduced me to the uninspired proposal for the new city logo: Not surprisingly, the design failed to impress Ames residents. As the Tribune reported, the city council “tabled discussion of the new logo at its meeting Aug. 9, after concerns were [...]

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By now, Bob Vander Plaats’ ill-fated marriage pledge is old news. More on that in a minute, but last week, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), another group pushing the incomprehensible argument that allowing same-sex marriage somehow infringes on religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, issued a pledge of its own. The NOM pledge [...]

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Bad news for those of us who hoped to see a Varsity Theatre revival: the 73-year-old former home of Campustown movies is turning into a consignment shop called Random Goods, Ames News Online reports. On the plus side, this is just the sort of thing that needs to happen to renovate Campustown. And the business [...]

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Mother Jones has a good review of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s prayerfest last Saturday. Of importance: The Iowa Independent speculation I wrote about that Gov. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) would skip out was wrong — he was the only other governor to show up. Right Wing Watch has a good rundown of some of the crazies [...]

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