Spirited and informative, but neglects the arguments.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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John Gross Reviews Stanley Wells
Yes Shakespeare loved sexual jokes, but ‘lewd interpreters’ exaggerate.
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‘Stella Dallas’ and Nietzsche
Emerson and Hepburn, Thoreau and Bette Davis, Hollywood and Stanley Cavell.
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Ben Pimlott on Biography
Against biographies which combine hagiography with salacious exposure of sex lives.
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Visiting Colin Wilson
‘Humphrey fell asleep when I was explaining what I meant by non-pessimistic existentialism.’
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Freudians Duke it Out
College of Psychoanalysts versus British Psychoanalytical Society.
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Pinochet Stripped of Immunity
Chilean court ruling makes trial on charges of human rights abuses possible.
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Indian State Changes Textbooks
Delhi chief minister: ‘these books reinforce the secular traditions of India.’
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The Joy of Being a Woman (or Girl)
Raped and impregnated so a pariah so forced to sell self to UN peacekeepers for a banana to feed baby.
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Remember, Check Your Sources
A major newspaper wishes it had been more aggressive in re-examining some claims.
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List of New York Times Articles
Some later corrected, others casting doubt on reliability of some defectors.
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Good on Sparkle, Not so Good on Substance
Francis Wheen can seem to be taking potshots at easy targets.
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Law Authorizing Assisted Suicide Upheld
Federal Appeals Court rebukes Ashcroft for overstepping his authority.
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Amnesty International’s Annual Report
The human rights situation in 155 countries and territories in 2003.
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Pseudoscience Can Kill
Consider Candace Newmaker and ‘attachment therapy’ for example.
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Culture, Payment Method, Entitlement, Risk?
Why do US doctors prescribe antidepressants for children more than UK doctors?
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The Military Censor Sorry Liaison
Principal fires teacher for failure to censor students’ anti-war poetry. ACLU lawsuit pending.
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Never on Sontag?
David Aaronovitch reads Susan Sontag on Abu Ghraib, colonialism and violence.
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EU Constitution and the God Question
Italy, Poland, Vatican want Christianity in; France, UK, Spain, Scandinavia don’t.
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Credulous Sociology In Place of Aesthetics
James Wood reviews The Oxford English Literary History.