The following was published as a sidebar to “The Democratic Wave in Iowa” in our October issue. In his youth, Hubler said, he turned down what might have been an opportunity to become a rock star. When he moved to California with his parents in 1961, he met the Love brothers of Beach Boys fame [...]

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Ask an average group of twenty-somethings about the Ames music scene, and you’ll get a profusion of blank stares, followed by a long silence. Given a little more prompting, they might talk about our dearth of musical venues, the scarcity of all-ages shows, or the well-documented reluctance of promoters to book local bands. But if [...]

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Pareidolia is the clinical term for the detection of patterned images in random visual stimuli. Most humans demonstrate this tendency to some degree. It’s the perceptual phenomenon that transforms topographic contours into the so-called “face on mars,” turns the sear marks on a tortilla into a likeness of the Virgin Mary, and allows for the [...]

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Manipulated intelligence leading to devastation in the Middle East; a carefully crafted environment of perpetual fear; and extraordinary rendition, extrajudicial torture, and kangaroo courts, habeas corpus and international treaties be damned – such is the tragic legacy of the Bush administration’s “war on terror.” But after years of tortured logic by Republican lawmakers and administration [...]

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As a vegetarian of two years, I’ve always thrown around the idea of being vegan. Veganism, or the elimination of all animal products, including eggs and dairy, from one’s diet and lifestyle, isn’t exactly a familiar concept in small town Iowa. Living in a largely agricultural state, most people wouldn’t know how to live their [...]

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April 11, 2005. The day seemed like any ordinary Monday as a senior at Ankeny High School. I stumbled half-asleep through the crowded halls from class to class on autopilot, Pavlovian-conditioned to the muffled chimes of the artificial bell heard all-too infrequently over the PA. There was that inescapable fog of mild depression hovering about [...]

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“Let’s get the journalist up here!” The girls giggle as I climb onto the quiet stage. Of course, I’m wearing my reindeer sweater and argyle socks. It soon becomes apparent that pole dancing isn’t my forte. As instructed by the platinum blonde manager, Alex*, I wrap my right leg around the pole and brace myself [...]

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It’s more than a month into the Writers Guild of America strike now. More than a month, consequently, without the barbs of late night stand-ups and Jon Stewart’s insights into the “Clusterf@#k to the White House,” save for a stockroom of old tapes. Television is sorely lacking fresh comic relief from the absurdities of the [...]

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[Editor's note: Revised and updated for the Web.] Since the twin towers collapsed in flames on the 11th of September, 2001, a state of fear and unease has inundated America’s psyche as the nation has turned its ear to Washington’s power players and the national news media for the latest on the fight against terror, [...]

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