The Justice and Development Party is a “moderate” Islamist party, according to the BBC.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Should religion trump laws mandating humane slaughter?
The Federation of Veterinarians of Europe took the position in 2002 that “the practice of
slaughtering animals without prior stunning is unacceptable under any circumstances.” -
Jailed Afghan rape victim “freed” to marry rapist
Gulnaz’s lawyer told the BBC she hoped the government would allow Gulnaz the freedom to choose whom to marry.
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Padraig Reidy on instant outrage
The sheer volume of righteousness becomes off-putting.
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David Colquhoun on the cruelty of the Burzynski Clinic
The offering of quack cancer treatments at an exorbitant price is simple cruelty.
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Julian Baggini offers a minimalist religion
Will many believers sign up to it? If not, it might appear that the “crude and simplistic” new atheists aren’t all that crude and simplistic.
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Rhys Morgan at Comment is Free
It seems that instead of dealing with criticisms about his treatments, Stanislaw Burzynski is only interested in silencing those with opinions contrary to his by using libel laws.
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More damning revelations about Burzynski’s “research”
Review papers do not include new, peer-reviewed data. The only published paper he has itself states that it is inconclusive without a larger study to confirm the results.
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Jen McCreight looks at the Burzynski clinic’s publications
Abstracts presented at conferences; no peer review. The one peer-reviewed article is in an alt med journal.
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UK: Muslim students boycott lectures on evolution
Steve Jones says increasing numbers of his undergraduates refuse to attend his lectures on evolution and say the subject should not be taught on their course.
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The schoolboy blogger who took on a US clinic
The Burszynski clinic has since suggested Marc Stephens is a web marketing contractor and that no one approved sending Rhys Morgan the picture of his house.
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Sense About Science on libel threats
“It is appalling that threats of libel action are being used to try to intimidate people into silence. We have to be free to ask questions and raise concerns.”
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QED’s Geoff Whelan interviews OB
On: B&W, being strident, are atheists mean scrooges, are we a movement, where are we going, what is new about new/gnu atheists, and more.
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Houston Press blogger on Burzynski and Stephens
“Giving the false impression he was an attorney representing the Burzynski Clinic, Stephens demanded Morgan ‘immediately cease and desist in your actions’.”
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Carl Zimmer profiles Steven Pinker
Pinker argues that evolutionary psychology offers the best explanation for why things have gotten better, and how to make them even better.
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School bullies student who dissed Sam Brownback
She wrote a disparaging tweet, he complained to her school. Srsly?!
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Orac on new threats from Burzynski Clinic
Sending legal threats to a teenager for having criticized the pseudoscience of antineoplastons is not the act of someone who has the evidence to back him up.
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David Gorski on Stanislaw Burzynski and bad medicine
The short version of the story behind antineoplastons is that there is no good clinical evidence to suggest that they have any significant activity against cancer.
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Burzynski Clinic threatens a school boy
Complete with sending him a screenshot of his house.
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Mona Eltahawy talks to Democracy Now
“People have lost eyes. People have been killed, people have lost loved ones. What happened to me is minuscule compared to that. I have a voice in the media — they don’t.”