Ramadan starts next week; it’s always a time of tension in Turkey between the pious and the secular.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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FFRF will keep fighting Perry prayer rally
FFRF maintains that coercion into a religious practice is not required in order to bring suit under the Establishment Clause.
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Chris Hedges rants about Hitchens and Harris
Secular fundamentalists, bigoted, hateful, racist filth and intolerance, poisoned and degraded, blustering, utopian visions, infatuation with the apocalypse.
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Sam Harris replies to Chris Hedges
“The man is not only wrong in his convictions, but dishonest. I trust this is a consequence of his most conspicuous quality: sanctimony.”
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Judge dismisses FFRF suit against Perry’s prayers
If people don’t like Perry’s use of his governorship to promote religion they can just ignore it.
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UN body criticizes restrictions on free expression
UN Human Rights Committee says anti-blasphemy laws and restrictions on criticism of governments are incompatible with existing norms.
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Breivik wants a theocracy
In his manifesto, titled “2083 – A European Declaration of Independence”, Mr Breivik argues for the establishment of a strict, patriarchal society.
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Numerology and astrology booyah
Why rock stars dying at age 27 actually doesn’t mean a damn thing.
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Vatican is annoyed at reaction to Cloyne report
The Murphy commission asked the nuncio for documents; he did not reply. Twice. So the Vatican is annoyed about what exactly?
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Asking Dawkins to observe the evidence
The culture of subtle sexism can be altered when people have their attention drawn to it.
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Norway: the dead and missing
76 people.
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New Statesman asks atheists to say why
Maryam Namzie, Kenan Malik, Polly Toynbee, Susan Blackmore, A C Grayling, Ben Goldacre, Victor Stenger, P Z Myers, Andrew Copson, more.
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Jailed in Singapore for writing a book
Alan Sheldrake was convicted of “scandalising the judiciary” – writing a critical book that could undermine public faith in Singapore’s judicial system.
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Johann Hari in more and worse trouble
The Telegraph accuses him of inventing an atrocity in the story that won him the Orwell Prize.
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Johann Hari stripped of Orwell Prize
The organizers of the prize announced that they had reached a “clear and unanimous decision” on Monday.
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Church says “sorry” about “forced adoptions”
That is, taking women’s babies against their will, aka kidnapping. Australian Catholic church took at least 150,000 from 1950s to 70s.
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Church claims it is not liable for priests
Nothing to do with us, says compassionate Catholic church. It was the priests wot did it, not us.
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Raquel Nelson tells her story on Today
And Ken Edelstein of Green Building Chronicle shows just what a death-trap Austell Road is.
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Vatican whisks nuncio to safety
The Vatican did not say when he would return. Things are a bit hot for him in Ireland right now.
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The teen suicide epidemic in Bachmann’s District
Why critics blame the congresswoman’s anti-gay allies for contributing to a mental health crisis.