This false connection between the Holocaust and the teaching of evolution is a gross twisting of reality.… Read the rest
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
Public Health Risk as Parents Reject Vaccines 
Mar 21st, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Personal-belief exemptions are potentially dangerous and bad public policy because not based on sound science.… Read the rest
Flemming Rose: bin Laden Wants My Blood
Mar 21st, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What kind of civilization are we if we refrain from mocking and ridiculing bin Laden and his followers? … Read the rest
Vatican Says Pope is no Cartoon Fan
Mar 21st, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The pope has condemned the cartoons several times and stressed that ‘religion must be respected.’… Read the rest
Thailand: 600 Protest Motoons
Mar 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Protesters claimed phrases on banners such as ‘Kill Them’ should not be considered a threat.… Read the rest
Reading the Memoirs of Ex-Islamists
Mar 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What is striking here is the utterly marginal place given to politics, to history and ideas. … Read the rest
Grayling on Gray
Mar 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Gray has merely iterated his views in the teeth of the severe drubbing given to their cogency and credentials.… Read the rest
Grayling on Civil Liberties
Mar 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The liberties of individuals are inconvenient for all states and their security services.… Read the rest
Look on This Advertisement, and on This
Mar 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Offence is emphatically not a reason for censorship; a violation of truthfulness is a fit subject for criticism.… Read the rest
Rabbi Says Jewish Law Forbids Employing Arabs
Mar 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Since this is a matter of endangering souls, it is clear that it is completely forbidden to employ them and rent houses to them.’… Read the rest
Religious Groups Want Cartoon Channel Closed
Mar 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Christian and Muslim groups demand shut down of Russia’s 2X2 because it airs anti-religious cartoons.… Read the rest
Abuse at a Jersey Industrial School
Mar 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Haut de la Garenne was a house of horrors.… Read the rest
Counselling Consisted of Prayer Readings
Mar 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mercy Ministries offers help with mental illness but hands patients over to Bible studies students.… Read the rest
Saudi Religious Cops Questioned in Deaths
Mar 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Religious police saw a man and a woman in a car and gave chase. The car crashed and the couple were killed.… Read the rest
Saudi Vice Cops Deny Humiliating Woman
Mar 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Director of Commission said the commission’s act merely protected the honor of the student and her family. … Read the rest
Cass Sunstein on the Obama He Knows
Mar 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Obama has a genuinely independent mind, he’s a terrific listener and he goes wherever reason takes him.’… Read the rest
David Bromwich on ‘Revolutionary Euphemism’
Mar 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Totalitarian minds are in part created by the ease and invisibility of euphemism.… Read the rest
Sage (or Satirical?) Advice From Kuwait Times
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘It is time for the politically correct Europe to come to its senses and stop defending its democratic principles at all costs.’… Read the rest
Megamosque Planned for East London
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What the BBC calls a ‘Muslim missionary group’ hopes to build a mosque big enough to hold 12,000.… Read the rest
Saudi Vice Police Bust Restaurant
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Some families left hurriedly, others chose to defy the religious police and ate the rest of their food on the floor.… Read the rest
