All are welcome, all shall have prizes, right? Yes. No.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Dr Mehmet Oz completes journey to the dark side
Diet and exercise are part of science-based medicine, yet CAMsters appropriate them as “alternative,” the better to bring in the real woo along with them.
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Paula Kirby on religion as the ultimate tyranny
If you value freedom, you should flee from religion as the antelope flees the lion.
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Go ahead, call me soppy
James Croft has done an inspirational Humanist video. So I’m inspired, so sue me.
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S Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers
A bill under consideration in South Dakota would make murder to prevent an abortion a “justifiable homicide” in many cases.
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Chopra says “spirituality” and science are converging
Also says atheists are too noisy and loud. What is he, silent?
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News flash: the Taliban violate human rights
The next stage—may it come soon—will be the realization that the Taliban does not “violate” human rights, but entirely lacks the concept of their existence.
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Syria: continued detention of ‘Ali al-‘Abdullah
English PEN considers that the journalist is being targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression.
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Happy Valentine’s day Salman Rushdie
He’s working on a memoir of his decade in hiding. He’s flourishing, thank you.
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The fatwa was 22 years ago today
Salman Rushdie is still here, so yaboosucks!
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Irish church is tottering
Ireland has good hope of “becoming like other European countries” where religion is marginal to society. Woot!
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Mubarak used those 18 days to stash the money
“They can lose the homes and some of the bank accounts, but they will have wanted to get the gold bars and other investments to safe quarters.”
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Adam Gopnik on whither the internet books
Our trouble is not the absence of smartness but the power of pure stupidity, and no machine, or mind, seems extended enough to cure that. -
Priest rejoices at plane crash deaths
It’s horrid for the relatives but it’s a wonderful day for the stiffs.
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NY Times cheers prospect of political Islam in Egypt
“In Egypt, the uprising offers the possibility of an accommodation with political Islam rare in the Arab world.”
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An epidemic of woo at universities and museums
A “center for integrative medicine”; an obsession with Anthroposophy; a Center for Sprituality and Healing; the Science Museum…
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More on the science wooseum
Are science museums obliged to present only a scientific, empirical view of the world in their exhibitions? Yes.
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CBC Marketplace on superbugs on chicken
They tested 100 packages of chicken; 2/3 had bacteria, and most of those were antibiotic-resistant. Be afraid.
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Al Jazeera on the post-Mubarak dawn
Everyone cried, laughed and embraced in the hope of a new era.
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Ian McEwan: change the law to allow choice in dying
“Some of the hardest arguments are coming from religious quarters and I think they really have to be resisted.”