CH: “Not only did most people warm to the Holy Father but his opponents often seemed shrill and intolerant.” Discuss.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Soldiers punished for not attending Xian concert
Two soldiers said they felt pressured to attend the Christian rock concert as part of what was billed as the “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts.”
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NPR head resigns in wake of sting video
A different executive told people “posing as Muslim philanthropists” that Tea Party supporters were racist.
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Wendy Doniger on the real roots of yoga
Yoga is a rich, multi-cultural, constantly changing interdisciplinary construction, far from the pure line that its adherents often claim for it.
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BHA census campaign ads deemed too “offensive”
For railway stations, on the grounds that they could “cause widespread and serious offence.”
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12,000-year-old fishing tackle found off California
“This pushes back the chronology of New World seafaring to 12,000, maybe 13,000 years ago.”
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Maryam Namazie on International Women’s Day
Women in Iran and in many other countries today continue to be deprived of many very basic human rights.
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International Women’s Day
We need to understand and tackle social institutions, such as discriminatory family codes, son bias, and limited resource rights and entitlements.
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Jesus and Mo apply for a Templeton Prize
They have a winna.
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Liars don’t know when they’re lying to themselves
This tells us a little about the mindset of people who fake their research, who build careers on plagiarised work or who wave around spurious credentials.
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The difference between journalism and churnalism
Publishing other people’s press releases is not journalism.
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Hitchens on 60 Minutes
“But don’t let the word ‘intellectual’ scare you off.” I wasn’t going to.
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Alberta: parents fight for secular education
They say they want what other Canadians have: freedom of religion, or, in this case, freedom from religion.
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Aikin and Talisse on atheism and accommodationism 2
The aim of determining the truth of a statement is distinct from that of assigning epistemic blame or praise to a cognitive agent.
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Yoga is not as old as you think
Nor very Hindu, either. Meera Nanda takes on some nationalist myths.
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Pakistan becomes a country at war with its minorities
It is becoming a country at war with its individuals, with itself, with you and with me, with the human desire to be allowed to believe what we believe.
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“Pro-life” Republicans cut funding for poison control
Poison control centers actually save far more money than they cost.
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Jahanshah Rashidian on International Women’s Day
The world practically ignores the fate of hundreds of millions of Muslim women, who are victims of Islamic states or dominant Islamic traditions of misogyny.
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Iran appointed to UN commission for status of women
A nation where we can be arrested for getting a suntan, or wearing too much makeup, will opine on ways to safeguard our rights.
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Muslim physicist threatened for evolution lecture
“I seek Allah’s forgiveness for my mistakes and apologise for any offence caused,” physics lecturer Dr Usama Hasan said.