“Truth is overrated.”
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Prosecutor demands Ashtiani’s execution
The High Court will confirm whether the execution of Ms Ashtiani can go ahead next week.
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Victim groups want Cardinal Law dismissed
Law resigned as Boston archbishop in 2002 – and fled prosecution, though the AP story doesn’t mention that.
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The touching aspirations of students
“I had so much anger. I wanted to be heard. I thought I could do that by becoming the country’s first female suicide bomber.”
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Ashtiani’s lawyer arrested in Turkey
International Committee against Stoning has received information from Iran that the Islamic regime is trying to bring Mostafaei into disrepute.
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Lawrence Krauss on faith and foolishness
Religious beliefs force some people to choose between knowledge and myth, while pointing out how religion can purvey ignorance is taboo.
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Abortion ad angers exactly the right people
ASA received 1,054 angry complaints about Marie Stopes advert from precisely the sort of hectoring Christian freaks it was designed to piss off.
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The Daily Beast on Obama and the Saudi lobby
The desert kingdom remains a draconian dictatorship that prohibits even the most basic of liberties.
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Terry Glavin on liberalism’s long walk
Principled commitment to democracy, universal values and multilateralism will either define liberalism or be disavowed in favour of dead-end isolationism.
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Afghanistan is a great place for women
“The trendier option involves incorporating Afghans into modernity by teaching them to live in a globalised present.”
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Catholic church fighting sex education in Philippines
Bishop does not agree that a high birth rate traps people in poverty. Easy for him.
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Jason Rosenhouse on what the civility police really want
Which is rudeness directed at their enemies instead of at them and their friends.
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Hitchens on being a new citizen of the sick country
‘In whatever kind of a “race” life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.’
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Khamenei declares music not Islamic enough
Last month he “issued a fatwa” saying he’s like Mo and all Iranians have to do what he says.
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Only scientist MP alarmed at MPs’ ignorance
Julian Huppert says political leaders tend to come up with a stance and then try to make the evidence fit it.
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Government ignored advice on homeopathic “remedies”
On the grounds that refusal to fund homeopathy would limit patient choice.
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David Colquhoun on fake medicine at taxpayers’ expense
The Government said it is fine for doctors to give you pills that contain nothing whatsoever and charge them to the NHS.
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Julian Baggini on whether we can choose what we believe
You don’t choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.
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Some things deserve a sneer
Creationism, for example.
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Every hour two women are beaten in Pakistan
Yet the Domestic Violence Prevention Bill has not been passed; Islamist senator says it is not ‘male-friendly’ and is contradictory to Islamic law.