And on what to do when people ask probing questions. Don’t miss the comments.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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“This Paper Should Not Have Been Published”
Carl Zimmer reports that scientists see fatal flaws in the NASA study of arsenic-based life.
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Clay Shirky on Wikileaks
Wikileaks shouldn’t be able to operate as a law unto itself anymore than the US should be able to, and vice versa.
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The “war on Christmas” gets thinner by the minute
The American Family Association is furious because Radio Shack, Office Depot and Staples use the word “holiday” in some of their advertising.
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A win for the Louisiana Coalition for Science
Students in Louisiana public schools get to have quality biology textbooks.
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Rush Limbaugh asks
“If people cannot even feed and clothe themselves [because they are too poor], should they be allowed to vote?”
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Conference on Apostasy, Sharia and Human Rights
London, December 11. Mina Ahadi, Maryam Namazie, Roy Brown, Peter Tatchell, Marieme Helie Lucas, Gita Sahgal, Joan Smith…
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Hitchens on Assange
The moral “other half” of civil disobedience is that you stoically accept the consequences that come with it.
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Secularism in Pakistan
The country is in an uproar over the controversial ‘blasphemy laws’ imposed by military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq in the early 1980s.
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California buys execution drug from UK
UK last month said it planned to limits exports of the drug, thiopental sodium, because of the UK’s “moral opposition to the death penalty.”
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HRW calls on PA to free Walid Hasayin
Palestinian Intelligence agents arrested Hasayin on suspicion of posting messages on Facebook and blogs that criticized Islam and other religions.
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Ratzinger is such a lovely fella
“The Pope recognises that not all Catholics follow the teachings of the church” so it’s fine that he tells people with AIDS not to use condoms.
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Yay billionaires get to be even richer even longer!
Obama gives it all up.
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Date for Rapture has been settled
It will be May 21, 2011. Plenty of time to pack carefully.
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Another biblical museum for Kentucky
Hey it will create jobs! Jobs in the exciting field of telling people that the bible is a historical document.
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German Catholic Church systematically hid abuse
The available records point to huge gaps in the documentation between 1945 and 2009.
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Jesus and Mo and Joe
Joseph Smith gots magic powers. He says so himself.
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Leicester: woman’s family kidnapped her
She was living with a man, they disapproved, so they grabbed her. She helped police convict them.
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Blackford on Clark on Harris on free will
Interesting extended discussion.
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Andrew Anthony on Bibi Aisha and Afghanistan
National liberation always trumps female emancipation…or does it?