“Our freedom is very restricted. I can’t move without permission, I can’t travel without permission, I can’t rent a flat without permission.”
Category: Latest News
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
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Best and worst places to be a mother
Norway, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands, France the best. The US is at # 31.
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The ten worst places to be a mother
Afghanistan, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Yemen, Chad, DRCongo, Eritrea, Mali, Sudan, Central African Republic.
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John Yoo tells Obama what’s what
“Mr. Obama would rather kill al Qaeda leaders—whether by drones or special ops teams—than wade through the difficult questions raised by their detention.”
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John Yoo says torture got bin Laden
He was right, Bush was right, torture was right, Obama owes them big time for all their rightness.
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Greg Laden does a meta-post on meta-atheism
The established religio-normative culture routinely tells atheists to quiet down in order to end the argument and let things get back to what the culture thinks is normal.
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David Barash asks: does god hate amputees?
If masturbation is the epitome of safe sex, beatification and canonization represent its theological equivalent.
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Michael Weiss on the suicide of Siamak Pourzand
Secular and cosmopolitan to the core, Pourzand had no time for the guardianship of the sadists and made a point of saying so.
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Salil Tripathi on Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore’s “nation” had no boundaries. Cultures changed a bit and became different along the flow of a river, but the borders didn’t have guards.
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Man kills stepdaughter for not honoring Islam
She had stopped wearing hijab and was becoming more “Westernized” blah blah blah.
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Praise for Rep Pete Stark’s Reason Day declaration
The National Day of Reason has been celebrated since 2003 as an alternative to the congressionally mandated National Day of Prayer.
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Palin tells Obama “no pussy-footing around”
Yes really.
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Andrew Potter on the treatment of Michael Ignatieff
His torment by Tory cynics and liars testifies to the suspicion Canadians have of leaders with a modicum of intelligence, accomplishment, and worldliness.
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Vicar accuses model of sacrilege
In the ITV programme “Ghosthunting With…”, Katie Price visited a church in Great Tew and tried to use a Ouija board to contact spirits. Vicar not pleased.
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Contaminated “holy water” from Mecca sold in UK
Zam Zam water is taken from a well in Mecca and is considered sacred to Muslims, but samples from the source suggested it held dangerous chemicals.
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Scott McLemee reviews “Atlas Shrugged”
In Atlas Shrugged, the greedy proletariat ruthlessly exploits the capitalists. The oppressed capitalists go on strike, then create a utopia run by John Galt.
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David Colquhoun on the A to Z of the wellbeing industry
Wellbeing is big business. And if it is no more than a branch of the multibillion dollar positive thinking industry, save your money and get on with your life.
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Precognition experiment replicated, no evidence found
But the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology rejected the paper.
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Christopher Lane says uncertainty is good
But, oddly, addresses his argument to atheists rather than theists.
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Shmuley Boteach on what atheists can’t say
They can’t tell a soldier, “Your friend is in a better place.” Shmuley neglects to mention why that is.