By the time Chinese authorities said they were investigating Ai for alleged tax evasion, over 140,000 people had signed Change.org’s online petition seeking his release.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Ghannouchi says Ennahda won’t squash women
And the BBC buys it.
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Ratzinger’s blood libel against atheists
Ratzinger knows he can’t aim his pious invective at the Jewish people as his predecessors did. So he takes aim at the next best enemy of his faith: atheists.
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Pakistan: more underage girls forced into marriage
In late September 2011, a 12-year-old girl was given in marriage to an 85-year-old man in Punjab. Her father sold her in lieu of five acres of land to resolve a dispute.
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High Court: Take down gender-separation barrier in J’lem
Justice Beinisch says minority groups cannot take over public spaces, says there should be no segregation in Mea Shearim.
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Israel: Court upholds ban on Sukkot gender segregation
Large billboards posted throughout Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods last week forbade women to enter Mea She’arim Street during the Sukkot celebration.
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Boxing governing body tells women to wear skirts
For boxing. Boxing in a skirt. Seriously.
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Tunisia: secular women fear rise of Islamism
“They say they want to be like Turkey but it could turn out like Iran.”
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Egypt imprisoning bloggers for “insulting the military”
Ayman Youssef Mansour also received three years, not for offending the demigods of the military but rather for “insulting” Islam” on Facebook.
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CBO report on income [pdf]
One body of research has focused on the very large pay increases for top corporate executives…
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US: income inequality increased sharply in last 30 years
The Congressional Budget Office said income had trebled for the richest 1% between 1979 and 2007.
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Vyckie Garrison reviews ‘Me? Obey Him?’
“Convinced as we were that I was more susceptible to Satanic deception, our family was deprived of my reasonable input in decision making.”
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Coming out as atheist is inherently oppositional
We are saying, implicitly, “If you believe in God, you’re mistaken.”
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Serious scientific claims belong in a serious science paper
Science has authority not because of white coats or titles, but because of precision and transparency, Ben Goldacre notes.
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Thomas and Scalia give a master class in human apathy
Only by willfully ignoring that entire trial record can Scalia and Thomas reduce the entire constitutional question to a single misdeed by a single bad actor.
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Why the West should not abandon Afghanistan
It is too easy to dismiss Afghanistan along with Iraq as yet another foreign policy mistake.
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Mark Vernon on Robert Bellah on religion
“A fundamental mistake, Bellah argues, is to conceive of religion as primarily a matter of propositional beliefs.” Uh huh.
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Ottoman empire’s secular history undermines sharia claims
Ottoman sultans, or caliphs, in the 18th and 19th centuries launched secular schools and promoted the education of women.
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What #HumanistCommunity?
Really – we don’t need a structure. We don’t want to be led by chaplains. Really – we don’t.
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Humanist church? No thanks
Goddy people like having a honcho to run things. Ungoddy people don’t. A humanist “chaplain” is not needed.