Watcher’s Council Nominations – Selfie Edition

There’s nothing like a scandal involving celebrities, especially female ones to take the public’s mind off far more serious matters, eh?

Ordinarily I wouldn’t pay the least attention, but I admit that I find it a symptom of our age that fewer and fewer people ever want to take personal responsibility for anything they do. That leads to views expressed like this one, who apparently feel that the women involved are simply blameless victims of Evil Males. These women should be entitled to take naked photos of themselves, dammit!

Victims they are indeed, but with exception of a couple of the actresses involved who claim they’ve been Photoshopped or that they thought the photos were deleted, you can hardly say they were completely blameless. If I go for a leisurely stroll in certain neighborhoods late at night and then get robbed or worse, I’m definitely a victim, but you certainly can’t say I didn’t contribute to my own victimization by doing something foolish. Assaults on one’s person or privacy are criminal behavior and shouldn’t happen, but human nature being what it is, they do.

The always sensible Talmud teaches that a man who entices someone,even unknowingly, to become a thief by leaving money or valuables where they can easily be found to tempt him bears partial responsibility for the sin. That, by the way, does not mean that the perpetrators shouldn’t be punished.

But given our modern lack of traditional virtues and the technology available, I can’t help but feel that someone who takes intimate photos or videos of themselves and knowingly leaves the file on a computer or a camera or phone when the possibility of hacking always exists bears a certain responsibility if those photos go public.

Selah.

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

This week, Blazing Cat Fur, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, and The Pirate’s Cove earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (mandatory, but of course it won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out on Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have for you this week….

Council Submissions

• The Right Planet – The Growing ISIS Arsenal, Pt. 1
• Simply Jews – Boycotting Israeli circumcision rings? No worries.
• The Independent Sentinel – Operation Chokepoint, Operation Communism!
• The Noisy Room – ISIS barbarians At Our Gates
• Joshuapundit-It’s Time To Give Abbas What He’s Asking For
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Tannenberg
• VA Right! - Arm Yourselves Against ISIS Because Obama has No Plan and No Clue
• The Glittering Eye -Naming Evil
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Color the Opposing Team’s Locker Pink and … Risk a Lawsuit?
• Rhymes With Right – How Far May School Administrators And Law Enforcement Go In The Name Of “School Security”?
• The Razor – PC Authorities Silence Sex Abuse Victims in the UK
• Bookworm Room – Modern Art – rebelling against aesthetics, taste, God, America, and basic drafting standard
• Nice Deb – West Point Report: Obama Watched And Did Nothing As ISIS Threat Grew – Why?
• Ask Marion – Gluten, Celiac Disease and the Bigger Picture

Honorable Mentions

• Blazing Cat Fur – Islamic State bootcamp in Turkey along Syrian border
• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – How Hamas’ Casualty Figures Became News
• The Pirate’s Cove – Ricky Gervais Makes Common Sense Tweet On Hacked Celeb Nude Photos

Non-Council Submissions

• Raymond Ibrahim – The Siege of Constantinople submitted by The Right Planet
• Sultan Knish – Ferguson’s Media Problem submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Bill Gertz/Free Beacon – FBI National Domestic Threat Assessment Omits Islamist Terrorism submitted by The Noisy Room
• Bret Stephens/WSJ – Obama’s Curious Rage submitted by Joshuapundit
• Brookings Institute – 5 Myths About The Islamic State submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Western Journalism – MUST-READ: Angry Parents Of Fallen Seal Team Member Just Destroyed Obama In This Gutsy Letter
  submitted by VA Right!
• Ron Fournier/National Journal – The Summer of Obama’s Disconnect submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Douglas Ernst – Joe Scarborough: Obama’s ‘We don’t have a strategy’ remark comes from ‘The Art of War submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Texas Observer – Something’s Missing from Wendy Davis Ads—Wendy Davis submitted by Rhymes with Right
• The People’s Cube – The ISIS Bucket Challenge submitted by The Razor
• Richard A. Block/Tablet - Why I’m Unsubscribing to the New York Times submitted by Bookworm Room
• Ivy Mike Cafe - #Ferguson – When Assholes Collide submitted by Nice Deb
• Jay Cost/The Weekly Standard – What If There’s No There There? submitted by The Watcher
• Andrew McCarthy/NRO – Eric Holder, Racial Profiler submitted by The Watcher
• Mike Gonzalez/ The Federalist – The Making of “Latinos” submitted by The Watcher

Enjoy! Be sure to tune in Thursday AM to see which Weasel Of The Week nominee walks off with the statuette of Shame! Don’t forget to tune in Friday for this weeks’ Watcher’s Council results!

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