Flatterers.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Terry Sanderson on a Contradictory Report
‘It is clear that the authors of this report are listening only to those they want to hear.’
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Women as ‘Honour of Families and Communities’
Acts of ‘rescue’ of Hindu women from marriages with ‘other’ men are projected as acts of nationalism.
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Beatrix Potter, Botanist
The first person in Britain to speculate in a scientific paper that lichens are symbiotic life forms.
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Germaine Greer on Frankenstein
‘It’s a masterpiece, so PBS wrote it.’ It’s not a masterpiece, it’s not even very good.
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Rana Husseini and Others Speak Out
Muslim journalists and bloggers promoting civil society and women’s rights in Islamic societies.
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Man Slit His Daughter’s Throat
He thought she was no longer a virgin.
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Violence Against Women not at Top of Agenda
‘To deal with this problem you have to take the weapons out of the hands of the phallocrats.’
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Paradoxes of Single-sex Education
Girls do better with single-sex education, boys do worse.
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Quantum Feminist Mnemotechnics
David Thompson on the intersection of feminism, web browsing and space-time curvature.
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Bishop Distributes Condoms Despite Vatican
The papal nuncio soon informed him that his views were unacceptable and in conflict with church teaching.
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Bishop on Moral and Spiritual Traditions
Iran’s got them, UK ain’t. Sad.
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Libby Purves on Raving Bishops
Do they think that larding a religious gloss onto cruel, illegal, manipulative behaviour makes it all right?
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Assam’s Missing Women
Women in displaced peoples camps are offered jobs then never seen again.
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Serbian Death Squad Sentenced
First trial in Serbia to deal with massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys around Srebrenica.
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Norman Geras on Crimes Against Humanity
The actual state of international law is not the same as a philosophical underpinning.
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Gordon Wood on Inventing Human Rights
We forget how contemptible or nonexistent other people were in the eyes of many throughout history.
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Study Says Child Abuse is Common in India
Abuse of children is rarely admitted in India and activists have welcomed the study.
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Parents of Madrassa Students are Worried
Parents worried by recent events, but do not want to harm daughters’ education. What education?
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Lal Masjid Issues ‘Decree’ Against Minister
‘Who has authorised management of Lal Masjid to set up Qazi courts and issue edicts?’