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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Latest News
Damian Thompson Defends the Pope
Yes really.
Date filed: 19-03-2010
Hans Kung Says Pope Should Stop Whining
Ratzinger himself warned the bishops, under threat of ecclesiastical punishment, to observe 'papal secrecy.'
Date filed: 19-03-2010
Catholic Church Has Done Better Than Blair
At least it says it's sorry...now that it's been caught.
Date filed: 19-03-2010
Johann Hari on Religious Support for Evil
Enforced 'respect' extends beyond religious ideas to religious institutions – even when they commit horrendous crimes.
Date filed: 19-03-2010
Dennett and LaScola Study of Nonbelieving Clergy
'Don’t you think a God could come up with a better plan than that?' Why yes, as a matter of fact.
Date filed: 19-03-2010
The Unseen Unknowable Has No Place in Science
When reason gets uncomfortably close, that’s when the desperate appeal to fuzzy thinking starts.
Date filed: 19-03-2010
Russell Blackford on Evolution and Morality
Our evolved psychology may impose limits on what real-world moral systems can realistically demand of us.
Date filed: 18-03-2010
'The Decent People of Armagh' Applaud Brady
'It was a different era back then and a lot of things happened that shouldn’t.' Eh? But morality is absolute!
Date filed: 18-03-2010
Pope Promised Purification of the Church
But events of recent weeks suggest that corruption is rooted close to its heart.
Date filed: 18-03-2010
Race Relations at UC San Diego
First there was the 'Compton Cookout' to mock Black History Month - then there was the noose...
Date filed: 18-03-2010
Johann Hari on Rape-Marriage in Ethiopia
She was 8. A stranger raped her, then married her the next day. She ran away but was sent back. Multiply.
Date filed: 18-03-2010
No Foreign Sperm for Turkish Women
Women who seek sperm or egg transplant abroad can face one to three years in prison.
Date filed: 17-03-2010
Turkey Threatens to Expel 100,000 Armenians
Nobody accuses us of genocide and gets away with it. Just ask Hrant Dink.
Date filed: 17-03-2010
Victims React to Brady's Apology
'The notion of careful reflection is nonsense - he's had 35 years to reflect on what he did then.'
Date filed: 17-03-2010
Barney Zwartz Gives Atheists Some Free Advice
Be less strident, less dogmatic, more humble.
Date filed: 17-03-2010
Brady Apologizes for 'Asking' Children to Shut Up
BBC keeps saying children were 'asked' to sign vow of silence. Victims say they were made to sign.
Date filed: 17-03-2010
Religious Belief Cannot Trump Gender Equality
Tension between gender equality and religious rights in rulings by Quebec's human rights commission.
Date filed: 17-03-2010
Andrew Brown on Why Brady Must Go
It's moral luck. He was a small cog at the time, but justice demands that he go now.
Date filed: 17-03-2010
Irish Catholic Church Runs Everything
Ninety-two percent of primary schools are still run by the Catholic Church. There's no escape.
Date filed: 16-03-2010
The Catholic Church in Ireland is Staggering
A culture of religious deference has been eroded by one scandalous story after another.
Date filed: 16-03-2010
Maryam Namazie on Religious Tribunals
'Human rights are non-negotiatble and religious tribunals put religion before people's rights and freedoms.'
Date filed: 16-03-2010
Damian Thompson Fumes Some More
'How can Lord Rees-Mogg stand by as the paper he loves traduces the Holy Father?'
Date filed: 16-03-2010
Damian Thompson Shocked at Pope-coverage
International outrage, Catholic circles, biased coverage, vicious cartoons, universally admired Catholic journalist.
Date filed: 16-03-2010
Sean Brady Being Sued by Victim of Priest
Victims were made to sign oaths saying they would not discuss meetings with anyone other than authorised clergy.
Date filed: 15-03-2010
Nawlins Hotelier Offers to Host Cancelled Prom
'New Orleans, we're a joyful culture and a creative culture here.' Take that, Itawamba County School District!
Date filed: 14-03-2010
UK: Islamism in Prisons
'Muslims run the prisons and there’s nothing the screws can do about it. For a Muslim you’d say it’s good but for a non-Muslim, it’s very, very bad.'
Date filed: 14-03-2010
Ratzinger, Vatican Under Fire for Canonical Letter
Murphy report harshly criticized Vatican for mixed messages and insistence on secrecy in 2001 directive.
Date filed: 14-03-2010
Nick Cohen on the ICA and Postmodernism
Is the Taliban so bad, really?
Date filed: 14-03-2010
Vatican Says How Right It Is About Everything
It was secretive about the sexual abuse of children to protect the good name of...the children.
Date filed: 13-03-2010
The Queen Invented the Telephone
Luke Skywalker was the first human to walk on the moon. Another droll quiz.
Date filed: 13-03-2010
Julian Baggini on '36 Arguments for the Existence of God'
'In Britain, cleverness is regarded as at once praiseworthy and not wholly admirable.'
Date filed: 13-03-2010
The Texas Freedom Network Reports
Debate over new social studies curriculum has spiraled into another culture war pushed by far-right pressure groups.
Date filed: 13-03-2010
The New Texas Social Studies
The source.
Date filed: 13-03-2010
Texas Reactionaries Change Curriculum
There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings.
Date filed: 13-03-2010
Humanists to Hold Inclusive Prom in Mississippi
Itawamba County School District canceled their prom rather than let a lesbian student bring her girlfriend.
Date filed: 13-03-2010
Hitchens on Stupid Nasty Threats
'I have just finished reading one of the most astoundingly stupid and nasty documents ever to have landed on my desk.'
Date filed: 13-03-2010
Hindu 'Activists' Protest Wendy Doniger's Book
Cite 'persistent verbal violence against Hindus.' Doniger is a finalist for National Book Critics Circle awards.
Date filed: 12-03-2010
ABC Blogs on Global Atheist Convention
More in sorrow than in anger.
Date filed: 12-03-2010
Andrew Brown on Catholic Child Abuse
'Whether it is more vile than the record of any other profession is not obvious.'
Date filed: 12-03-2010
Bob from Brockley on Apologists for Iran
Looking at Press TV's Iran news, one would have no idea there is anything going on, let alone an uprising.
Date filed: 12-03-2010
Mo is in Full Rebellion Mode
The first step is to apply for a grant.
Date filed: 12-03-2010
German Man on What Catholic Church Did to Him
Abuse victim asked JPII for help, got letter from official: no apology, said pope would pray for him.
Date filed: 12-03-2010
BBC Sneers at Melbourne Atheist Convention
'A religious gathering at the same venue in December attracted three times as many delegates.'
Date filed: 12-03-2010
Supreme Court Refuses Lillian Ladele's Appeal
'In my case, one set of rights was trampled by another set of rights,' she says.
Date filed: 12-03-2010
Chris Hallquist on the Perils of Multiculturalism
The point isn't that everyone agrees that forced marriages are bad, the point is that they are bad.
Date filed: 12-03-2010
Edmund Standing on Mehdi Hasan on Animals
Peter Singer he ain't.
Date filed: 11-03-2010
Vatican's Chief Exorcist: Devil is in the Vatican
The evil influence of Satan is evident in the highest ranks of the Catholic hierarchy, he said.
Date filed: 11-03-2010
Lars Vilks Aimed to Mock All Religions
Has no regrets about his cartoon, 'which deeply offended many Muslims,' says NY Times piously.
Date filed: 11-03-2010
Creationist Home-schoolers Respond
'It would depress my children to no end if they even thought they were evolved from an animal.'
Date filed: 11-03-2010
NWFP: Terrorists Murder Six Aid Workers
World Vision said the office was targeted because it was running programs to help women.
Date filed: 11-03-2010
Paula Kirby on Catholics Dictating Terms
Democracy is not one person, one vote plus however many extra votes you'd like on behalf of your invisible friend.
Date filed: 10-03-2010
Germany: Reformers Want Pope to Speak Up
The pope should say exactly what he knew about widespread allegations of abuse by clerics in Regensburg.
Date filed: 10-03-2010
Irish Arrests Over Plot to Kill Lars Vilks
The usual thuggish bullying stupidity.
Date filed: 10-03-2010
Muslim Woman Councillor Defies Death Threats
Shiria Khatun says, 'We live in a democratic society and I have the right to dress how I like.'
Date filed: 10-03-2010
Massimo Pigliucci on Pseudo-metaphysics
'Ingeniously put together? By whom? And by what criterion of “ingenuity?”'
Date filed: 10-03-2010
Barney Zwartz on the Global Atheist Convention
Self-indulgent, disdain, blinkered self-congratulation, militant, noisy, inexorable sense of superiority.
Date filed: 10-03-2010
Taner Edis: Theocracy is not the Issue
Oh but it is.
Date filed: 09-03-2010
Living Proof of the Armenian Genocide
An orphanage of terror in which Armenian children were systematically deprived of their Armenian identity.
Date filed: 09-03-2010
Michael Ruse on Philosophers on Darwin
An increasingly vocal cadre of eminent philosophers has doubts about Darwin - but they ignore biology.
Date filed: 09-03-2010
Leo Igwe on the Crisis in Jos
What we have in Plateau state is a situation where militant Islam has led to the emergence of militant Christianity.
Date filed: 09-03-2010
Terry Sanderson on Religious Influence on Politics
The constant nagging from 'faith leaders' about their neglect does seem to be having an effect on politicians.
Date filed: 08-03-2010
Australia: Muslim 'Leader' Wants a Bit of Sharia
'We are not calling for the introduction of the penal system which calls for cutting off hands.' Ah.
Date filed: 08-03-2010
Pope Faces New Pressure to Meet Victims
Bishop cites public anger at pomp and ceremony when the Irish bishops knelt to kiss the Pope's ring.
Date filed: 08-03-2010
More Religious Slaughter in Jos, Nigeria
Over 500 dead, most of them women and children hacked to death by machete wielding gangs.
Date filed: 08-03-2010
How Templeton Works: the Rod Dreher Example
Templeton creates a climate in which journalists who take a certain line can expect sizable rewards.
Date filed: 08-03-2010
Virginia: Public Colleges Cannot Ban Anti-gay Bias
Most of the state’s public universities have policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Date filed: 07-03-2010
The Home-schoolers Respond
Some of it is ugly stuff.
Date filed: 07-03-2010
Home-schoolers Respond to Jerry Coyne
Thou shalt not say that creationist textbooks are garbage.
Date filed: 07-03-2010
Home-school Textbooks Dismiss Evolution
'If this is the way kids are home-schooled then they're being shortchanged, both rationally and in terms of biology.'
Date filed: 07-03-2010
Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse
The church says defectors are 'apostates.'
Date filed: 07-03-2010
Liverpool Post on Airportoons Trial
Chaplain was 'insulted, deeply offended, alarmed, concerned.' Oh well then, there's no more to say!
Date filed: 06-03-2010
Academic Challenges Priest's Homophbic Rant
'To justify its persecution of homosexual people the Catholic Church draws on just three brief texts.'
Date filed: 06-03-2010
Hitchens on the Ten Commandments
When you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed, always ask which set.
Date filed: 06-03-2010
Catholic School Expels Toddler: Parents are Gay
Denver Archdiocese posted a statement: the parents are 'living in open discord with Catholic teaching.'
Date filed: 06-03-2010
Russell Blackford on Gary Bouma on Secularists
Contrary to Bouma, attempts to use political power to impose religious views are highly divisive.
Date filed: 06-03-2010
Atheists Are the Source of Conflict in Society
Monash University Professor Gary Bouma says people without a specific faith fuel sectarian conflict.
Date filed: 05-03-2010
George Carey Says Politicians Bully Christians
It's the other way around.
Date filed: 05-03-2010
No Freedom of Expression for UK, Thank You
Atheist convicted of 'religiously aggravated intentional harassment' for cartoons; maximum sentence 7 years in prison.
Date filed: 05-03-2010
No Venus de Milo for Rahway NJ, Thank You
Neighbor complained of naked snow statue, police told sculptor to cover it up.
Date filed: 05-03-2010
Atheism is Illegitimate and Evil, Act LXXXVII
Ken Miller is good. Atheists are bad.
Date filed: 05-03-2010
What We Celebrate When We Mark March 8th
Feminism has a compelling lens through which to understand marginalisation, as women have long occupied the margins.
Date filed: 04-03-2010
Meera Nanda on 'The God Market'
Markets are said to be exorcising the demons of religiously inspired fanaticism, patriarchy and oppression.
Date filed: 04-03-2010
Douglas Murray on Homophobia in Mosques
'Only in a mosque in Britain could routine hatred like this pass by unnoticed and largely unobjected to.'
Date filed: 04-03-2010
Teach the Controversy, on Everything
If somebody somewhere contradicts a scientific claim, that's a controversy, so add it to the curriculum.
Date filed: 04-03-2010
The Origin of Atheism
If theistic belief comes naturally, then it is atheism that needs to be explained.
Date filed: 04-03-2010
Lawyers' Fees in Libel Cases Reduced
Scientists and journalists will be able to write in the public interest without giant legal bills.
Date filed: 04-03-2010
Madrid: Israel Protests Anti-Semitic Postcards
The Israeli embassy received postcards from schoolchildren accusing it of killing Palestinian babies.
Date filed: 04-03-2010
Australian Xian Schools Find Science 'Strident'
School board requires 'teaching of science as an empirical discipline' - oh yes, that is pretty strident.
Date filed: 03-03-2010
Religion-based Homophobia Spreading in Africa
Christian and Muslim clerics have publicly condemned homosexuality for years, calling it a sin.
Date filed: 03-03-2010
How Culture Affects Genes and Vice Versa
Any species that can change the environment can be viewed through the lens of 'niche construction.'
Date filed: 03-03-2010
UK: Catholic Church Issues Report on Morality
'The Church says society will rediscover its ability to trust by practising virtue.' Yes, really.
Date filed: 03-03-2010
Caste Discrimination May Exist in the UK
House of Lords is discussing an amendment to Equalities Bill to make such discrimination illegal.
Date filed: 03-03-2010
Saudi Woman Sentenced to 300 Lashes
And 1.5 years in jail, for filing harassment complaints without a male guardian present.
Date filed: 02-03-2010
Louis Menand: Can Psychiatry be a Science?
The epistemology of depression is confusing.
Date filed: 02-03-2010
HRW: Egypt Should Drop Charges Against Blogger
Ahmad Mostafa, a student charged with blogging about corruption, is being prosecuted in a military court.
Date filed: 02-03-2010
Ninjas in Birmingham
'Islamic dress is partly an assertion of a challenged identity.'
Date filed: 02-03-2010
The Many Theories of Evolution
There are currently twelve, including Madame Blavatsky's.
Date filed: 02-03-2010
Flogged for Drinking a Beer While Female
In Malaysia caning is not permitted under civil law, but it is allowed under the Shariah Criminal Code.
Date filed: 01-03-2010
Islamists 'Infiltrate' the Labour Party
Muslims in London say IFE are enforcing hardline views, curbing behaviour they deem 'un-Islamic.'
Date filed: 01-03-2010
Maintaining Scholarly Standards in Feminist Literature
If feminism is to be effective, it must subject to serious scrutiny even notions in accord with its societal perceptions.
Date filed: 01-03-2010
DR Congo: Children Accused of Witchcraft
'She tried to kill me with a knife. It really hurt and I cannot understand why my mother did it.'
Date filed: 01-03-2010
Iowa: Pregnant Woman Arrested for Falling Down
The slut.
Date filed: 01-03-2010
How Ireland Lost its Faith
All those dressed-up men in an opulent palace, kissing the pope's ring, sent the Irish over the edge.
Date filed: 28-02-2010
Martha Nussbaum on the Politics of Disgust
'You can see the role of disgust in racism, anti-Semitism, the subordination of women.'
Date filed: 28-02-2010
'I Should Have Read My Islamic Marriage Contract'
She tried to read it, but her grandmother, mother and father persuaded her not to. It's all about 'trust.'
Date filed: 28-02-2010
Catholics and Mormons Unite Against Secularism
And a Stanley Fish shall lead them.
Date filed: 28-02-2010
Fundamentalists Pitch Fit at Atheists in White House
'The fact that this meeting is happening at all is an affront to the vast majority of people of all faiths.'
Date filed: 27-02-2010
Fox News Accuses Obama of Favoring Atheists
Sean Hannity claims religious leaders have not been invited to the White House. Oh please.
Date filed: 27-02-2010
Mooney Congratulates Himself
On his Templeton 'Fellowship.'
Date filed: 27-02-2010
Jerry Coyne on the Templeton Bribe
Templeton pays journalists to examine 'the region where science and theology overlap' and the journalists oblige.
Date filed: 27-02-2010
Chris Mooney is Named a Templeton Fellow [pdf]
What a surprise!
Date filed: 26-02-2010
A Festering Problem in Internet Culture
Anonymous flaming. Richard Dawkins has had enough of it, and he's not the only one.
Date filed: 26-02-2010
Simon Singh and the Silencing of the Scientists
'It is what is not published or has to be omitted because of a lawyer's letter,' notes Evan Harris.
Date filed: 26-02-2010
Russell Blackford on Stanley Fish
Fish thinks the classical liberal tradition of Locke, Mill, and Rawls leads to an impoverishment of politics.
Date filed: 26-02-2010
Allen Esterson on Alana Cash on Mileva Marić
Evidence lacking, evidence pointing the other way, evidence twisted then twisted again.
Date filed: 26-02-2010
Timothy Egan on the Missionary Impulse
Laura Silsby owed her former employees unpaid wages, so she thought she would be useful in Haiti.
Date filed: 25-02-2010
'Saving the Sacred in a Secular Age' Conference
Templeton Foundation co-sponsors conference presenting 'religious responses to contemporary secularism.'
Date filed: 25-02-2010
Senior Saudi Cleric Orders Killing of Muslims Who
Who allow the sexes to mix freely in the workplace or in educational institutions.
Date filed: 25-02-2010
Intelligent People Have Evolutionarily Novel Values
Intelligence does not correlate with values old enough to have been shaped by evolution.
Date filed: 25-02-2010
Rushdie is Writing a Book on the Fatwa
What it's like to have theocrats in charge of your life.
Date filed: 25-02-2010
Religious Schools Allowed to Teach Nonsense
There's no subject other than sex that schools can teach with their own version of the truth.
Date filed: 24-02-2010
Pope Should Come Clean About Magdalenes
The church that revered Mary the Mother of God, yet treated all mortal women as sinners and whores.
Date filed: 24-02-2010
No Anti-Hate Banners for Wyoming!
Not if they include no hate for gay people. All very well to oppose hate, but there is a limit.
Date filed: 24-02-2010
Francis Collins 'Proves the Rationality of Faith'
And he does it once and for all, at that.
Date filed: 24-02-2010
Stanley Fish Has Read Another Book
This one by Steven Smith, who says there are no secular reasons. Fish is impressed.
Date filed: 24-02-2010
The Freethinker Talks to A C Grayling
About life the universe and everything.
Date filed: 24-02-2010
Pregnant Nicaraguan Woman Denied Treatment
For metastatic cancer. If she wanted cancer treatment, she shouldn't have gotten pregnant!
Date filed: 24-02-2010
Fact-checking Bjørn Lomborg
His extensive references make him look careful and authoritative, but Howard Friel checked them, and...
Date filed: 23-02-2010
PZ on Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini
They get everything wrong.
Date filed: 23-02-2010
Boston Review on Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini
Ned Block and Philip Kitcher on what What Darwin Got Wrong gets wrong.
Date filed: 23-02-2010
Murder Trial of Alleged Cult Members Begins
They are accused of starving a 1-year-old after the boy would not say 'Amen' before a meal.
Date filed: 23-02-2010
Tariq Ramadan Says 'Islam Has Much to Offer'
'Islamic literature is full of injunctions...Neither is it introducing dogmatism into the debate.'
Date filed: 23-02-2010
Evolution and Science Education in Nigeria
Leo Igwe says the teaching of evolution is not encouraged in Nigeria's schools.
Date filed: 22-02-2010
Another Tiny Miniature Step for Saudi Women
They will be allowed to argue family law cases in court. Golly.
Date filed: 22-02-2010
Two Important Events for Libel Reform Campaign
Simon Singh’s libel case is before the Court of Appeal in London Feb 23; MPs release report Feb 24.
Date filed: 22-02-2010
Major New Report on British Neo-Nazis
Edmund Standing and Alexander Hitchens examine the ‘Blood and Honour’ international neo-Nazi movement.
Date filed: 22-02-2010
Andrew Copson on Another Exemption for Faith
The Catholic Education Service of England and Wales have proudly announced that their lobbying worked.
Date filed: 22-02-2010
Salman Rushdie on Amnesty and Gita Sahgal
Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction; people like her are the true voices of the human rights movement.
Date filed: 21-02-2010
Ireland: 'Symphysiotomy' Performed into the '80s
Women's pelvises were 'widened' to faciliate childbirth; the women were left crippled and in pain.
Date filed: 21-02-2010
David Gorski on Facilitated Communication
When the facilitator did not know the questions, Houben's answers were all completely wrong.
Date filed: 21-02-2010
The Checks Were Not Quite Thorough Enough
The tests determined that Houben doesn't have enough strength and muscle control to operate the keyboard.
Date filed: 21-02-2010
Steven Novella on FC Failure
Once again pseudoscience fails under properly designed scientific testing.
Date filed: 21-02-2010
The 'Facilitated Communication' Wasn't
As skeptics thought, Rom Houben wasn't typing on that computer.
Date filed: 21-02-2010
My Contribution to CisF Belief Question [link fixed]
The gods are jealous, and if we don't have any suffering, they'll see that we get some.
Date filed: 21-02-2010
Islam Online in Praise of Caning Women
'The women say that their penalty would help fight illicit behaviour in the Muslim-majority country.'
Date filed: 20-02-2010
Women's Groups Outraged by Caning
But various men said it's fine if 'carried out properly in accordance with Syariah law.'
Date filed: 20-02-2010
Malaysia: 3 Women Whipped for 'Syariah Offences'
'They expressed their repentance as they felt the punishment will rid them of their sin and guilt to Allah.'
Date filed: 20-02-2010
Complications of 'Faith-based' Government Work
Can the Salvation Army get federal funds and still do whatever it wants to?
Date filed: 20-02-2010
Orac on Andreas Moritz
What is it with cranks and trying to shut down criticism?
Date filed: 19-02-2010
'Medical Intuitive' Threatens to Sue Bloggers
Says his friend Deepak Chopra is considering suing too.
Date filed: 19-02-2010
Jesus and Mo Are Offended by Elton John
For different reasons.
Date filed: 19-02-2010
Photographer Busted for 'Insulting the Uzbek People'
Umida Akhmedova was accused of denigrating her country in her work on poverty and the condition of women.
Date filed: 19-02-2010
Mary Midgley Reviews 'What Darwin Got Wrong'
There is now no need to 'privilege' natural selection over 'a crowd of other possible causes.'
Date filed: 19-02-2010
Michael Ruse Reviews 'What Darwin Got Wrong'
'A whole book putting in the boot and absolutely no serious understanding of where the boot is aimed.'
Date filed: 19-02-2010
BBC Totally Excited: Pope Might Do TFD
'A papal broadcast would delight BBC executives and the country’s four million Catholics.'
Date filed: 18-02-2010
The Vatican Itself Helped Spawn the Problem
By hushing upclerical abuse and putting its own prestige above the welfare of millions of children.
Date filed: 18-02-2010
Does the US Need a Special Envoy to the OIC?
The OIC is dedicated to supplementing the UDHR with a sharia-compliant version.
Date filed: 18-02-2010
MSF Cites Bangladesh for Rohingya Crackdown
'We have treated many victims of violent attacks, who tell us they have been beaten by police.'
Date filed: 18-02-2010
Martin Ssempa Screens Gay Porn Film in Church
In attempt to gain support for vicious new legislation.
Date filed: 18-02-2010
BBC on Pope's Meeting With Irish Bishops
Pope invited bishops 'to explain why so many cases had been systematically covered up.'
Date filed: 18-02-2010
Why Did UK Not Ban 'Bomb Detectors' Sooner?
The British government imposed an export ban on the devices only after the BBC investigation.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
WLUML Statement in Support of Gita Sahgal
Sahgal has devoted her career to exposing rights violations in Britain, South Asia and internationally.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
North Carolina: Xian Students Harrass Teacher
Science teacher was given Bible, postcard of Jesus; students sang 'Jesus Loves Me' in class.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
Scotland: Violence Against Women is Justified
Most students said it was justified if the woman had an affair, or if she was late in making the tea.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
Poland: 22d Exorcists’ Congress Meets
Participants argued that demonology lessons should be treated more seriously in seminaries.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
Women in Philosophy
They are scarce. Why?
Date filed: 17-02-2010
Guilty Plea in Chinese Herbal 'Cancer' Case
The sale of 'traditional Chinese medicines' is entirely unregulated, so no one is to blame.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
BBC Presenter Arrested in Assisted Suicide
'We had a pact - he said if the pain gets bad and if nothing can be done, don't let him linger on.'
Date filed: 17-02-2010
Papal Nuncio Refuses to Testify on Child Abuse
People in Ireland find this annoying; meanwhile, the pope continues to shed crocodile tears.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
Reversing Female Genital Mutilation
At least 77,000 women and girls in the UK have been mutilated; around 24,000 girls are at risk.
Date filed: 17-02-2010
'Faith' and Science Used to Be Cuddly
Says an Oxford professor of science and religion in a lecture at the Templeton Foundation's 'Faraday Institute.'
Date filed: 16-02-2010
Women Against Fundamentalism on Sahgal
We know from global experience that women’s rights are the first to be traded in political settlements.
Date filed: 16-02-2010
Algerian Survivors of Islamist Violence on Sahgal
We, Algerains, thank Gita Sahgal for keeping up with the ideal and mission of human rights.
Date filed: 16-02-2010
Vatican Continues to Blame Irish Bishops
While ignoring its own role.
Date filed: 16-02-2010
Exciting Plans for Hijab Sculpture in Brick Lane
Let's celebrate the subordination of women!
Date filed: 16-02-2010
Vicar Insists That Women Are Subordinate
It is 'an eternal principle that women are physically weaker than men' so men are the boss.
Date filed: 16-02-2010
'The Muslim Brotherhood is Young at Heart'
Comment is Free sends another love letter to darling Islamism.
Date filed: 16-02-2010
Kevin Rudd Rebukes Women Who Don't Breed
All young women say they can't, they're getting a PhD. No really, he said that.
Date filed: 16-02-2010
Pope Scolds Irish Bishops Over Child Abuse
No mention of Ratzinger's 2001 letter to all Catholic bishops telling them abuse was Church business.
Date filed: 15-02-2010
Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World
New evidence that part of the history of radical Islamism was written in Berlin in WW II.
Date filed: 15-02-2010
Hitchens on Amnesty and Gita Sahgal
Amnesty did not defend IRA bombers and Khmer Rouge killers and Gens. Pinochet and Videla.
Date filed: 15-02-2010
54% of Girls in Deprived Areas Getting Pregnant!
Oops, make that 5.4%!
Date filed: 15-02-2010
Jerry Coyne on Templetonian Activities
Shaping explanations to fit inconvenient facts.
Date filed: 15-02-2010
Amnesty's Sam Zarifi Backs Gita Sahgal
Amnesty’s decision to suspend Sahgal while continuing its support for Begg has provoked criticism.
Date filed: 15-02-2010
Moazzam Begg Calls Gita Sahgal a Fundamentalist
'A victim can also be a perpetrator,' Sahgal says. 'It’s a very simple thought.'
Date filed: 15-02-2010
Global Petition to Amnesty International
We extend our solidarity and support to Gita Sahgal, who is widely respected for her principled activism.
Date filed: 14-02-2010
Take the Moral Sense Test
A series of moral dilemmas to probe the psychological mechanisms underlying our moral judgments.
Date filed: 14-02-2010
Do Humans Have an Innate 'Moral Grammar'?
Ilkka Pyysiäinen and Marc Hauser discuss the evolution of religion and morality.
Date filed: 14-02-2010
The Case for Human Rights is not Utilitarian
Neither is the case for not torturing people.
Date filed: 14-02-2010
Southall Black Sisters: Secularist of the Year
SBS can provide women with some time away from the all-powerful religious patriarchy.
Date filed: 14-02-2010
Freethinker Offers a Caption Competition
First prize is a copy of Does God Hate Women?
Date filed: 14-02-2010
Spain: Woman Threatened for Removing Hijab
She got a master's degree and began to live like an adult person. That won't do.
Date filed: 13-02-2010
Muttawa Out Patrolling for Valentine Badness
No roses or chocolates for you!
Date filed: 13-02-2010
Rape in DR Congo, Civilians Attacked in Uganda
Over 8,000 women raped last year by fighters in DR Congo; LRA killed 849 civilians, abducted 1,486.
Date filed: 13-02-2010
DR Congo: Girls Less Likely to be Freed
'Used as combatants, labour and sex slaves, girls are rarely freed by the armed forces and groups.'
Date filed: 13-02-2010
A Religious but not Righteous Judge
AC Grayling on special lenience for criminals who are religious.
Date filed: 13-02-2010
Vicar Tells Women to Submit to Husbands
Wives are to submit to husbands in everything cos husbands are head of family as Christ is head of church.
Date filed: 12-02-2010
Kenya: Police Arrest 5 Men for Being 'Gay'
Kenyan gay rights organisation condemned the arrests; Christian and Muslim clerics threw usual fit.
Date filed: 12-02-2010
Jesus and Mo Resort to Kuhnian Paradigms
It's a question of differing epistemological frameworks, you see.
Date filed: 12-02-2010
God and Science Are Too So Compatible!
Dr Capon says atheists mislead the public when they claim science and religion are incompatible.
Date filed: 12-02-2010
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