Despite the greatest challenge yet to his power, Gaddafi remained pugnacious, congratulating his followers for defeating the “rats”.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Joe Hoffmann on women and atheism
The video suggests that big top modern atheism may have developed along hierarchical lines not unlike the religious structures it condemns.
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James Wood reviews The Joy of Secularism
Using secularism to fill the enchantment void runs the risk of making it at best religiose and at worst merely upbeat and vacuously “positive.”
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Another good idea: Dirty Girls Ministries
Do girls not hate themselves enough? Dirty Girls Ministries is there to help.
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The Authenticity Hoax reviewed
The new form of one-upmanship is proving your individualism and authenticity through ecotourism and competitive environmentalism.
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Steiner group plans “spiritual” free schools
“We have had a vision for some time of Steiner provision becoming more mainstream,” and getting the state to fund it would be just the ticket.
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Perp claims murder was a hate crime
Kashif Parvaiz told police some guys shouted ethnic slurs as they killed his wife. That story fell apart.
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Halal capitalism
Get halal Lays potato chips. Get halal Novartis meningitis vaccine before you go on the hajj.
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Peter Singer on Nim’s troubled life
Fortunately, the idea that great apes should not be treated as tools for research has made some progress since the time when Nim was sent back to Oklahoma.
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It’s just Moonplay
Fantastic. Look.
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Robert Bellah on the evolution of religion
The idea of utopia is always a kind of play, because we know it’s not real – it’s just what we can imagine.
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Postmodernism is now a museum piece
But when it was young it invented everything and corrected everything and overthrew everything. Srsly.
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Terry Glavin on jettisoning Afghan democracy
There’s nothing like lowering your standards to make them easier to uphold.
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Take back the liberal arts
Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus argue that undergraduate humanities courses should not be esoteric and specialized.
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Yale Journal of Medicine & Law blows it on alt med
Chiropractic was once viewed as “quackery,” but now it’s become “mainstream.” It’s popular! Therefore there must be something to it!
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William Raillant-Clark’s article on Dennis Markuze
The one that finally convinced the Montreal police to take Markuze’s threats seriously.
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Tim Farley gives the history of “David Mabus”
In five weeks he went through over 330 Twitter accounts.
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Montreal police arrest “David Mabus”
Montreal police would not reveal the identity of the suspect, saying only that he would undergo a psychiatric evaluation shortly.
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Abuse in Christian reform schools
“We have laws to protect people from illegal incarceration,” says one alum. “But apparently not if you’re a teenage girl.”
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£205k to NHS for “spiritual healing therapies”
The “therapy” involves the running of hands over the patient’s body (without touching) to radiate “healing energy.”