In response to the growing unrest in Iran and rising protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime and a possibly stolen election, the Iranian government tried a time-honored move that seems to be the default position of any authoritarian regime. It banned the media. Ahmadinejad's government kicked out foreign journalists, jailed national journalists who were critical of the election results and shut down communications networks. With only Iranian state-run television and newspapers available to report (and put government spin) on the tensions, it seemed Ahmadinejad had assured himself of keeping the international community in the dark.

“We regret that we are unable to offer you admission at this time.”

“I really see our relationship as more of a friendly one. Pal.”

“There are better candidates for this job. Thank you for your interest.”

Rejection stinks. As in, it almost literally has a smell: the aroma of dashed dreams and curtailed crushes. It’s not pleasant, and it lingers. And whether you’re rich or poor, handsome or homely, fortunate or persistently unlucky, we have one thing in common: we’ve all caught a whiff.

Immigration reform is often a sticky issue, especially in the Church. Last year alone, 724,000 illegal immigrants were caught at the border. While this was the lowest since 1973, it nonetheless represents a vast number of people with a desperate desire to enter the United States. The issue of immigration is highly politicized, with opponents of legalizing those who entered the country illegally saying that the economy cannot sustain the influx of undocumented workers, while proponents say that legalization would increase the government's net revenue by $65 billion over the next decade.

What do you get when you combine a folk musician/painter, a baseball historian/jazz bassist and a NASA technician/classical composer? It sounds like the setup for a very esoteric joke, but it’s actually the lineup for very esoteric indie folk outfit, The Low Anthem. With freak-folk gaining a solid following in the indie scene, The Low Anthem’s third album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, sees the group really hitting its stride. RELEVANT talked to frontman Ben Knox Miller about the eclectic mix that makes for The Low Anthem’s unique sound.

The big story shaping the news this week was the growing tension between the administration of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian people. Thus far, mass demonstrations have erupted in the wake of a highly suspicious election, and have led to widespread violence and oppression by forces loyal to Ahmadinejad. As the story unfolds, the international community watches in anticipation of what may be one of the most historic moments in Iran.

I have an old faded black-and-white photograph of a tall, imposing, full-blooded Italian young man dressed in combat gear leaning against a three-ton World War II Sherman tank. On the back of the picture a date is scribbled out: 4/6/45. The young man is my father who arrived at Omaha Beach fresh with bodies of American soldiers still floating off shore 13 days after D-Day. He fought in Patton’s 3rd Army on the 712 Tank Battalion in the 90th Infantry Division.

Last year, Adbusters magazine ran a scathing rebuke of the hipster culture, in which they promised that hipsterdom signaled the death knell of Western civilization. Because hipster fashion has appropriated items of deep symbolic meaning (i.e., keffiyehs and Che Guevara shirts) into their mainstream aesthetic, the piece argued that they have robbed them of all meaning and made them one more piece of trivial bric-a-brac in the collage that has come to define the subculture. Essentially, hipsters have taken irony to such a breaking point as to make the ironic mundane again.

This past April, President Barack Obama released several memos detailing enhanced interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects during the Bush administration. Originally issued by the Office of Legal Counsel from 2002 to 2005, the memos state that C.I.A. operatives used such techniques as keeping terrorism suspects awake for eleven days straight, forced nudity, slamming detainees against a wall and waterboarding. While Obama has decided not to press any charges, the debate over torture rages on in America.