Conservative men accuse them of indecency and being too outspoken, and out they go.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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New Play Exposes Domestic Violence
‘We have a platform to bring these issues into the open. It’s our responsibility to do so,’ says Inayet.
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Campaign Against Homeopathy on the NHS
Group of senior doctors and scientists renews campaign against NHS funding of homeopathic treatment.
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Full Text of Homeopathy Letter
Professor Gustav Born urges NHS managers to cut down on alternative and homeopathic medicine.
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Iran Charges Esfandiari with Attempt to Overthrow
Shirin Ebadi has tried to represent Esfandiari, but says Iran’s judiciary won’t let her.
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Some Sikhs Call a General Strike in Punjab
Blasphemy, insult, revered guru, ‘the Sikh community’; all the usual guff.
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Peter Singer on Decisions About Premature Infants
Parents’ views should play a major role when survival is uncertain and the risk of serious disability is high.
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Pakistan’s Minister of Tourism Resigns
Foul cleric called her hug of male instructor ‘obscene’; she finally gave in, and quit.
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Clerics Win; Minister, Pakistan, Women Lose
Clerics of Lal Masjid issued a fatwa against her, and they got their way.
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Swedish Government Minister Gets Death Threats
‘I will never accept that women and girls are oppressed in the name of religion,’ says Nyamko Sabuni.
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Meet the TV Psychic
Some claim he is a charlatan, an entertainer, a skilled employer of cold reading. Surely not!
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The Islamist Challenge to Secular Bangladesh
Many former socialists have refashioned their ideology to oppose everything the Islamists stand for.
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Was Zygmunt Bauman a Secret Stalinist?
Not really, because he hasn’t concealed his past.
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The Recycling of Academic Scandals
Arendt and Heidegger are not a newsflash; neither is Foucault’s questionable scholarship.
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Bishops Pitch Fit at BBC Film Accusing Pope
Front page article in the daily Avvenire said the producers ‘should bow their heads and ask forgiveness.’
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Ben Goldacre on New Age, MMR and ‘Healers’
We got our advice on complex immunological and epidemiological issues from lifestyle columnists.
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‘My Father Sold Me’ – to Pay Gambling Debt
She was 12, taken out of school; she dislikes her husband, his first wife; her life is trashed.
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On the Pill in Chile
Group of parliamentarians is seeking to derail Chile’s medical protocols regarding emergency contraception.
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Ben Goldacre on the QLink
A very sciencey looking pendant with electronicky looking stuff that connects to nothing.
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Giles Harvey on Hitchens on God
The book adds little to the case against God. This is the undoing of recent atheistic tracts.