Here are some of the important news stories and opinions from recent days.
Scotland Stays: “Voters in Scotland have rejected independence, but leaders of Britain’s three largest parties have promised Scots more autonomy than they have won so far,” the Associated Press reports. I don’t have a good sense of what “autonomy” means in this context, but here’s a clue: Scotland may gain “the power to raise taxes if necessary to protect the National Health Service in Scotland.”
Ebola: Here’s an indication of one reason the Ebola crisis is spinning out of control: “At least eight Ebola aid workers and journalists were reportedly murdered and dumped in a latrine in a remote village in Guinea in a frightening example of the growing distrust locals have of foreigners coming to help stem the mushrooming health crisis,” Fox News reports.
Voter Fraud? If you try to ensure that voters aren’t voting fraudulently, obviously you’re a racist, or at least so charge the critics of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
Fossil Fuels: Read the first chapter of Alex Epstein’s book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.
Apple Security: Apple says it’s not “technically feasible” for the company to hand over their clients’ personal data to law enforcement, which has some police-state advocates in a tussle. Read the Fox News report.
Citizens United in CO: Read my Objective Standard essay about Citizens United’s fight for free speech (specifically, anonymous speech) in Colorado.
Iranian Fascism: In Iran, a “group of six young Iranians . . . were arrested in May for dancing to Pharrell Williams’ hit song ‘Happy.'” “[A]n Iranian court sentenced five of them to 6 months in prison and 91 lashes each, while another was sentenced to one year in prison and 91 lashes. . . . The sentences, however, are “‘suspended’ for three years, which means the six will remain free unless they are found guilty of a similar offense”; see the Mashable write-up.
Al Qaeda in Syria: “A group of Al Qaeda fighters in Syria [the Khorasan Group] is emerging as a rival terror threat to the Islamic State,” Fox News reports. So wait a minute. . . which rebels are we supposed to be arming, again?
Multiculturalism: As Walter Williams reports, several European leaders are coming to grips with the fact that multiculturalism is a failure. “The bottom line is that much of the Muslim world is at war with Western civilization,” Williams writes.