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The Obama administration said it would impose new sanctions in retaliation for Russia's efforts to hack the US election.

State launches campaign aimed at cracking down on stoned driving

A panel has delayed making a decision about whether to release a Charles Manson accomplice, Patricia Krenwinkel, who was previously denied parole 13 times.

Postal Service pays for seven new birds for Alabama woman

Researchers in Guangzhou, China are breeding millions of mosquitoes in a lab.

Christian extremist Theodore Shoebat went over-the-top once again in response to National Geographic's upcoming cover story featuring a transgender girl.

There were numerous think pieces written about General Organa when The Force Awakens was released last year. She was allowed to look her age, to be her age, and to be powerful, they noted. There was no need to add sex appeal or to dress her in clothing that might have made her look thinner. She was allowed to be middle aged, and passionate, and hard working, and listened to.

Click through to read more!

The post On Losing General Organa appeared first on Love, Joy, Feminism.

It’s not often that a religion can be demonstrably shown to cause a concrete example of harm, but this is one such case.

We've said this before, but all church signs should go through a teenager before getting a green light. This one in Memphis, Tennessee would've failed that test for obvious reasons.

Authorities said a man found running naked along a busy highway in Tampa has been taken to a hospital.

A West Virginia mayor resigned after commenting on Pamela Ramsey Taylor's post

The South Carolina man set up the fundraiser Tuesday

Deputies: Couple got into argument in Oroville backyard

California Highway Patrol stunned by use of zip ties in place of car chains

Celebrities took time Tuesday to stop and remember the legendary actress best known for her role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy: Carrie Fisher.

Police in Tasmania were busy this week dealing with a “sealebrity” on the loose and sitting on cars.

The 11-year-old was left speechless.

[Reposted in 2016 from 2013 to serve as a counterpoint to all the recent hullabaloo about the possibility/likelihood that Russia influenced the most recent U.S. presidential election.]

Excerpts from an article at the National Security Archive:

Washington, D.C., August 19, 2013 – Marking the sixtieth anniversary of the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, the National Security Archive is today posting recently declassified CIA documents on the United States' role in the controversial operation. American and British involvement in Mosaddeq's ouster has long been public knowledge, but today's posting includes what is believed to be the CIA's first formal acknowledgement that the agency helped to plan and execute the coup.

The explicit reference to the CIA's role appears in a copy of an internal history, The Battle for Iran, dating from the mid-1970s. The agency released a heavily excised version of the account in 1981 in response to an ACLU lawsuit, but it blacked out all references to TPAJAX, the code name for the U.S.-led operation. Those references appear in the latest release. Additional CIA materials posted today include working files from Kermit Roosevelt, the senior CIA officer on the ground in Iran during the coup. They provide new specifics as well as insights into the intelligence agency's actions before and after the operation...

The issue is more than academic. Political partisans on all sides, including the Iranian government, regularly invoke the coup to argue whether Iran or foreign powers are primarily responsible for the country's historical trajectory, whether the United States can be trusted to respect Iran's sovereignty, or whether Washington needs to apologize for its prior interference before better relations can occur...

While the National Security Archive applauds the CIA's decision to make these materials available, today's posting shows clearly that these materials could have been safely declassified many years ago without risk of damage to the national security...

But all 21 of the CIA items posted today (in addition to 14 previously unpublished British documents — see Sidebar), reinforce the conclusion that the United States, and the CIA in particular, devoted extensive resources and high-level policy attention toward bringing about Mosaddeq's overthrow, and smoothing over the aftermath.  

The aftermath included the return to power of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ("The Shah of Iran"), and the establishment of the SAVAK (secret police), whose torture methods included "electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails."

One can't emphasize enough that Mosaddeq had been democratically-elected by the people of Iran.  The U.S. and Britain had him overthrown in order to gain access to Iran's oil resources.

Does anyone still wonder why many Iranians distrust and/or dislike the U.S.?

Additional details in the relevant Wikipedia entry.  Via Reddit, where other relevant coups are listed.

Addendum:  An article this week in Salon emphasizes the same point -

None of this gives Vladimir Putin a pass. We don’t see enough reporting on the repression of religion and the media inside Putin’s Russia. But failing to acknowledge our own dark side when it comes to internal and external covert operations to twist political outcomes makes us look hypocritical in a world where so many nations have been victimized by our covert machinations, often with deadly consequences.

Evidently, this is the real-world meaning of “American exceptionalism,” where only we are exempt from the requirement to respect other nations’ sovereignty. There’s no better example of this than the 2014 Edward Snowden revelations that the U.S. had spied on many other countries, even allies like Germany, France, Italy and Japan...

For decades both Democrats and Republicans working for Washington law firms and global crisis management outfits like Hill & Knowlton or Black Manafort & Stone have helped the world’s most brutal and oppressive regimes hang on to power and marginalize their opponents, all while continuing to get U.S. military aid...

The U.S. has manipulated the internal domestic politics of other countries with escapades in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean and even in Europe...

We rarely get a glimpse behind that black curtain unless an Edward Snowden or a Daniel Ellsberg puts everything on the line to pull it back for us. None of that excuses the Russian attempt to meddle in an American election, but we should not feign innocence Trying to shape world events and our own politics through fake news, disinformation, deceit and deception are as American as apple pie.

Results of a recent Gallup poll.

I don't typically read comment threads for letters to the editor, but this one, telling us who the real backers are for American Atheists' recent "Skip Church" billboard campaign, caught my attention for obvious reasons:

Michael passed away at 53 on Sunday.

An Arizona animal shelter sparked social media backlash this week by spaying two pregnant dogs and euthanizing their 25 full-term unborn puppies.

Adam Mohsin Yehya Saleh, an American YouTube personality, vlogger, actor and rapper from New York City, says he was kicked off of a plane because he spoke Arabic to his mother over the phone.

The federal government has allowed four groups at the forefront of the white nationalist movement to register as charities and raise more than $7.8 million in tax-deductible donations over the past decade, according to an Associated Press review.

We lost Carl Sagan 20 years ago today, and his writing is as prescient as ever:

Reposted from 2016 to add this awesome marble run choreographed to music:


With a hat tip to Miss C at Neatorama.

Reposted from January to add this even better one:


 There is an explanation of some of the mechanics at Neatorama.

Get mugged.  Other possibilities discussed near the end of the video.

"In 2002, Jason Padgett was the victim of a vicious beating outside a karaoke bar in Tacoma, Washington. Upon regaining consciousness, Padgett’s sight was forever altered by a condition called acquired savant syndrome. The brain trauma opened his eyes to an entirely new world..."

Crash happened on Elk Grove Boulevard

Ride-hailing giant Uber is blaming a computer glitch for overcharging a "handful" of customers, including one Philadelphia woman whose bank blocked an attempt to charge her more than $28,000 for a ride.

That's the term that has been suggested regarding proposed legislation in South Carolina:

People buying computers in South Carolina would be limited in their access to porn online under newly proposed legislation.

A bill pre-filed this month by state Rep. Bill Chumley would require sellers to install digital blocking capabilities on computers and other devices that access the internet to prevent the viewing of obscene content...

Both sellers and buyers could get around the limitation, for a fee. The bill would fine manufacturers that sell a device without the blocking system, but they could opt out by paying $20 per device sold. Buyers could also verify their age and pay $20 to remove the filter...