‘I wanted a chance at a life where I could shape my own future.’
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Report Says Reform Will Lead to Segregation
Research suggests selectivity in school admissions would increase social segregation.
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Daniel Dennett Answers a Lot of Silly Questions
The idea of a God that can answer prayers and intervenes in the world – that’s a hopeless idea.
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Alison Lurie on Narnia
‘It is no surprise that conservative Christians admire these books. They teach us to accept authority.’
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Scholars Resist Hindutva ‘Corrections’ in California
Vedic Foundation nearly pulled a fast one, but scholars raised the alarm.
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Julian Borger Talks to Michael Ignatieff
Demonstrators denounce Ignatieff as a cheerleader for torture.
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Science Journals and Scientific Fraud
‘Journals cannot be investigating prosecutors or detectives.’
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Forward Interviews Bernard-Henri Lévy
When a person thinks God is an old pal or helping to mow the lawn, this is idolatry and paganism.
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From Universalism to Identity
Brilliance of civil rights universalism was critique of racialised ways of viewing individuals.
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Nick Cohen on the Trouble With Trotsky Jokes
Ariel Dorfman tries out a quintuple tease, succumbs to Stockholm syndrome.
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Irshad Manji Asks Questions
Independent thinking and reasoning, ijtihad, was something Islam always prided itself on.
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Laurie Taylor Argues with John Gray
Gray’s pessimism rests on some sweeping generalizations and untestable ideas.
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The Emperor’s New Thong
The ‘new feminism’ of pornification looks very much like the old objectification.
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Grayling Reviews O’Hear and Browne
Nostalgists fail to see that everything is better than in the cold foggy bathroomless days of yore.
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Simon Jarvis Reviews Theory’s Empire
The philosophy of literary ‘form’ is still in its infancy.
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Seyla Benhabib on Changes in Turkish Society
The murder of more than one million Armenians in 1915 is now being discussed openly.
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Garry Wills on Jimmy Carter on Southern Baptists
Marks of new fundamentalism are rigidity, self-righteousness, eagerness to use compulsion.
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Sex Panic Wants to Have it Both Ways
‘How many more perverts?’ howls the Sun.
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Eve Garrard on Singling Out Israel
Why punish hypocrisy while ignoring tyranny and mass murder?
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Eve Garrard on a Motes and Beams Problem
The hunt for the real reasons for singling out Israel continues.