Arguments we thought were long-won have been re-opened, rights we thought were settled are under threat.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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What the Games Reveal and Conceal About China
China’s propagandists have studied the theories of ‘manufacturing consent’ by Lippmann and Bernays.
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Betancourt Freed
French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages have been rescued by government troops.
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American Family Assoc Dislikes the Word ‘Gay’
So it substitutes ‘homosexual’ in wire stories. Sprinter Tyson Gay becomes Tyson Homosexual.
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Seymour Hersh on Bush’s Covert Ops in Iran
The scale and scope of operations in Iran have been significantly expanded, according to officials.
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Administration Officials Deny Ops Inside Iran
Spokesmen for the intelligence committees declined to comment, as did the CIA.
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Anti-semitic Hate Speech in Germany
‘Schoolchildren berate their teachers, calling them Jew dogs, for not offering Sharia-compatible instruction.’
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Obama to Expand ‘Faith-Based’ Program
Acknowledges those who like to separate religion and state, then carries on regardless.
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Pascal Bruckner on the UN and Human Rights
At the 2001 UN Conference against Racism in Durban, anti-colonialism bared its anti-Semitic face.
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Stephen Law on the Odone Report
Over the past decade or so there has been a shift towards more extreme religious views being expressed by pupils.
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Freedom of Expression and Political Islam
A ‘moderate’ or ‘reformed’ religion is one that has been pushed back and reigned in by an enlightenment.
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The Tenets of Buddhist Modernism
Neural Buddhism as the next big thing.
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Alibhai-Brown Speaks up for Secularism
Cristina Odone’s new report on ‘faith’ schools for the Centre for Policy Studies is insufferable.
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Odone’s Insufferable Rhetoric
Cites ‘smear campaign, orchestrated by a strident secularist lobby that has long plagued this sector.’
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Odone Being Diplomatic
Witch-hunt…informants…inquisition…strident secularists…
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Two Points for Expletive, More With Punctuation
Wicked to give it zero; it does show some very basic skills: conveying some meaning and some spelling.
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BHA Calls Odone Report Totally Wrong
Report ignores evidence and studies, simply repeats old exploded claims.
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What ‘Strident Secularism’?
‘Since 1997 more new state-funded faith schools have opened than under any other government.’
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Philip Hensher on David Rieff on Susan Sontag
It seems like bad taste to ask of the disease: ‘Do you know who my mother is?’
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Happiness and Economics
The way rational choice theory developed suggested that self-interest was not just a fact but also an ideal.