And refuses international food aid, citing desire not to be choked.… Read the rest
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
Is Islam Gay-friendly? 
May 23rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Not quite as friendly as the Vatican.… Read the rest
Atheist Roots of Hindu Philosophy
May 23rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Disagreement among schools is over the authority of the Vedas, not a deity.… Read the rest
Round up the Albanian Suspects
May 23rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Macedonian government staged a shootout with pretend ‘terrorists’.… Read the rest
Kuldip Nayar on Indian Secularism
May 23rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The fight between secularism and chauvinism is nothing new.’… Read the rest
Hari on Galloway on Saddam
May 22nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Describing mass murder as civil war.… Read the rest
David Aaronovitch on ‘Honour’ Killlings
May 22nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And facile moral equivalency.… Read the rest
What Has Theology to do With Homosexuality?
May 22nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nothing, but theologians weigh in all the same.… Read the rest
What Has a Bad Survey to do With Paleontology?
May 22nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nothing, but paleontology sounds impressive, so stick on the label.… Read the rest
Ideas via Import-Export, not Creation
May 22nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
People with cohesive social networks tend to think and act the same.… Read the rest
The Hot Air Never Stops
May 21st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Carlin Romano reviews a stiflingly ethnocentric take on Pushkin.… Read the rest
The Nation on The New York Review of Books
May 21st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Radicals and liberals, politics and literature, dangerous and safe, trends and ends.… Read the rest
Christie’s Should Have Been Less Certain
May 20th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Questions about evidence and doubt arise even at art auction houses.… Read the rest
Probability not Worth Two Million Pounds.
May 20th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Epistemology at the auction house.… Read the rest
GM Food Could Help Poor If
May 20th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If biotetech focused on staple crops rather than cash crops.… Read the rest
Can We Do Anything Without a Cause?
May 19th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tom Clark considers David Brooks a moral levitationist.… Read the rest
A New Way to Annoy
May 19th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Turner Prize abandons rubbish for the sake of dull virtue.… Read the rest
The Use of Intellectual Obsessives
May 19th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Teachers should forget being nice, and be opinionated instead.… Read the rest
Scientific ‘Proof’ of Astrology?
May 18th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But if cell phones have stronger magnetic fields than Mars does, then…?… Read the rest
Elliott Abrams Meets With Apostolic Congress
May 18th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Rapture Christians have that precious commodity: access.… Read the rest
