Much older men force girls to ‘marry’ them; the girls flee, are caught; much older men team up to flog them as hard as they can with a leather strap.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Mark Vernon reports on Hay Festival
Specifically a debate on the motion ‘Reason is always right.’
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David Sloan Wilson promoting ‘evolutionary religious studies’
He is ‘infuriated’ about ‘the newest crop of angry atheists.’
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CJR reviews Hitchens’s memoir
For three decades he’s been showing US journalists how to write.
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Paragraph after paragraph of solemn nonsense
All to justify the Catholic church’s dominance over education in Ireland.
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Aspies tend not to think teleologically
No theory of mind means no attribution of mind to cosmos. [Warning: Templeton pop up ad]
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The vulgarity of George Pitcher
There is just no end to it.
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Steiner Waldorf School ‘guidelines for child study’
Not a parody, not a joke; they mean it.
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Nigel Warburton on freedom of ‘offensive’ speech
Too often our politicians tell us they believe in free speech, but that with this comes the responsibility not to offend others. This is bunkum.
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Ukpabio replies
“Mark Oppenheimer what about your wife? What is she hunting after? She hunts after monkeys and dogs, no wonder she has only one child.”
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Mark Oppenheimer meets Helen Ukpabio
Ukpabio sued Igwe, Foxcroft and others, saying state law against accusing children of witchcraft infringes on her religious freedom.
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NY Times profiles Helen Ukpabio
The Nigerian Pentecostal minister at the centre of the child-witchcraft hysteria in Akwa Ibom State.
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Zimbabwe: gay activists released after alleged torture
They had a letter in their office from former San Francisco mayor criticising Mugabe’s opposition to homosexuality.
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Malawi: Ban Ki-moon urges change to laws
38 out of 53 African countries criminalise consensual gay sex; in some it’s a capital crime.
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Malawi pardons jailed gay couple
Their lawyers say the two men are likely to be freed by Monday.
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Archbish of Cant tries to stamp out dissent
Dissent continues to ignore archbish.
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Violence in Latin America’s cities
Fear of street harassment prevents women from freely moving around and hinders their studies, work or recreation.
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Aceh: Islamic cops forcing women to wear long skirts
No jeans allowed; women wearing jeans are arrested, forced to put on long skirt and forfeit their jeans.
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Kristof on the excommunicated nun
Priests who rape children are not excommunicated, but a nun who assents to an abortion to save the woman’s life is.
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House votes to allow repeal of ‘don’t ask don’t tell’
The provision would allow military commanders to repeal the ban.