But how many use massage compared to how many use acupuncture?… 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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
New atheists are bad newsflash 
Aug 29th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
New atheism is “an ideology that maintains that religion is not just flawed, but evil.” It’s strident and harmful. Tell everyone.… Read the rest
Skepticlawyer on the collapse of the DSK case
Aug 28th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The prosecutors would have been trying to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt of a witness they themselves did not believe beyond reasonable doubt.… Read the rest
Pakistan: man rapes girl age 2
Aug 28th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Farmer tells workers to convert to Islam, they refuse, his son age 18 kidnaps and rapes their daughter. Allah is merciful.… Read the rest
Ghana: gay rights coalition fights back
Aug 28th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Western Region Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, made an order for the ‘immediate arrest of all homosexuals in the (Western) region.’… Read the rest
Glenn Beck explains god’s way of messaging
Aug 28th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
God tells us things via earthquakes and hurricanes, like “look what I can do” and “be prepared.”… Read the rest
JREF offers challenge to celebrity “psychics”
Aug 28th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“James Van Praagh and Allison DuBois have turned the huckster art of ‘cold reading’ into a multi-million-dollar industry.”… Read the rest
Laurent Laveder
Aug 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The guy who did those amazing moon photos.… Read the rest
“Housewives, shut up”
Aug 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Study finds boys think talking about problems is unhelpful; media report this as girls talk too much. Brilliant.… Read the rest
James Wood on “the New Atheism”
Aug 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Aggressive, strident, simplistic, Terry Eagleton, practice, Wittgenstein, literalism, parasitic, militant, warfare, polemic, metaphor.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Libya
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It was particularly satisfying to see the use as real space of areas that had been reserved for that special kind of degradation – the rally for The Leader. … Read the rest
The wit and wisdom of Simon Jenkins
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When protecting civilians from crimes against humanity shades into the issue of removing the regime responsible, it arguably is our business.… Read the rest
Boko Haram says it bombed UN building in Abuja
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The car bomb killed at least 18 people. Boko Haram is fighting for the establishment of Sharia in Nigeria… Read the rest
Atos explains the threats to CarerWatch
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It was a five-month-old link on the CarerWatch forum.… Read the rest
Frank Schaeffer on Michele Bachmann
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She knows she signed up to a biblical teaching that is misogynistic to the core, and that she has to hide that fact.… Read the rest
Lesbian fired from son’s Boy Scout troop
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She told the scoutmaster her partner was a woman; no problem; but then a Christian zealot found out and pitched a fit.… Read the rest
Norwegian imam: behead those who don’t fast
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Imprison those who don’t pray 5 times a day. This guy wants to open a school.… Read the rest
Shahbaz Taseer kidnapped in Lahore
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His father, Salman Taseer, was murdered by an Islamist bodyguard last December.… Read the rest
Researching the minds of non-believers
Aug 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sociologist Phil Zuckerman says secularists tend to be more ethical than religious people. On average, they are more commonly opposed to the death penalty, war and discrimination.… Read the rest
PZ on more accommodationist woofle
Aug 25th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s a frightful mistake to say Rick Perry is ignorant. Frightful.… Read the rest
