| Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty September 3, 2014 Yet Another Morning of Ominous Terrorism-Related News I don't want to alarm anyone, but . . . "If neglected, I am certain that after a month [the Islamic State] will reach Europe and, after another month, America," Saudi King Abdullah said at a reception for foreign ambassadors Friday. Friday was in August, so this month, Europe, next month, America? Then there's this from Bill Gertz: Islamist militias in Libya took control of nearly a dozen commercial jetliners last month, and western intelligence agencies recently issued a warning that the jets could be used in terrorist attacks across North Africa. Intelligence reports of the stolen jetliners were distributed within the U.S. government over the past two weeks and included a warning that one or more of the aircraft could be used in an attack later this month on the date marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, said U.S. officials familiar with the reports. "There are a number of commercial airliners in Libya that are missing," said one official. "We found out on September 11 what can happen with hijacked planes." LHeal: "CNN freaked out for a month over one missing airliner. Now there are 11." Peace in Eastern Ukraine? Here's Hoping . . . Remember those perpetual false-start ceasefires between Israel and Hamas? Soon we'll get to see if the Ukrainians and Russian-backed separatists are any better at keeping ceasefires in place. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday that he has reached a permanent cease-fire agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the conflict in eastern Ukraine. But Poroshenko's office later seemed to back away from its statement, and Moscow said no specific deal was in place. Poroshenko made the brief comments initially in a post on Twitter. A subsequent statement released by his office said "mutual understanding was reached regarding the steps that will contribute to the establishment of peace." However, the Kremlin said that while Poroshenko and Putin did discuss how to resolve the conflict, no cease-fire agreement has yet been agreed, thus injecting uncertainty to a development that could potentially bring to a halt months of fighting that the United Nations says has led to over 2,600 deaths. Before anyone gets too excited . . . Significantly, Vladimir Antyfeyev, a senior leader of the Russia-backed rebels whom Ukrainian forces have been fighting since April, told the Associated Press he could not say whether the separatists would adhere to a cease-fire because he was not commanding the forces. "But I definitely welcome this," he said. Rebel fighters ignored a previous truce called for in June. ("Here's hoping" is indeed in the dictionary.) Friends Don't Look at Friends' Private Nude Pictures Pretend for a moment that you know Kate Upton personally. [Many male readers of the Morning Jolt are suddenly distracted.]
This is the most modest photo of Kate Upton I could find. Correction, pretend for a moment that you know Kate Upton personally and the two of you are just friends. If you knew Kate Upton personally . . . you wouldn't look at the pictures that were copied from her private account, depicting her nude, right? The pictures hacked off her phone are a violation of her privacy — and while you may not be a criminal for looking at them -- although some people want it to be a crime — looking at someone else's private photographs that were not meant for your eyes is not a nice thing to do. Oh, you might be tempted . . . but you wouldn't. You wouldn't, because Kate Upton is your friend in this imaginary scenario, and that would be a terrible thing to do to a friend. Also, the world really doesn't have a shortage of pictures of Kate Upton almost nude -- say, the July 2012 cover of GQ — and she didn't have any problem with anyone looking at any of those. Here's why you should avoid looking at those hacked Kate Upton pictures: Someday, you may meet Kate Upton! Sure, it's not particularly likely, but it's possible. If you do meet her, and she brings up how awful it was back in September 2014 when her personal pictures were hacked and spread all over the Internet, wouldn't you want to say, with a clean conscience, "Yes, that was awful, I can't believe someone would do that to you" and not have a nervous twitch indicating that you looked at them? Really, gentlemen, hasn't Kate given us enough happiness? Doesn't she deserve this little bit of decency on our part? SM notes that our international media sure have picked a convenient time to become adamant about the right to privacy online: We live in a time where everyone's private data is compromised daily. People are well aware of the NSA program named Prism that listens in on their dirty phone chat or has access to their webcams broadcasting intimate moments. The celebrity obsessed culture that produces the same curiosity over their nude bodies is run by a media complex more interested in Barack Obama's tan suit than this massive invasion of privacy or war breaking out all over the world. Yet no one notices these great offenses when it's done to the public at large or people they ideologically agree with, or just happen to really like their movie. Why is Jennifer Lawrence's private data any more important than say Donald Sterling, or Mitt Romney, or more importantly, yours or mine? Here's the thing, and the moral betters in the media at large are really going to hate this; People are going to look at the leaked pictures. There's no grandiose explanation of a larger culture of sexism or war on women and "rape culture" at work here. People are going to look at the pictures because it's a familiar face, they're free and it's one or two clicks. Real issues of sexual abuse however are more complicated than one image of breasts and can't be explained in listicles or gifs. To contrast, currently in Rotherham, England, there is an actual culture of rape. But because that doesn't involve the actress from The Hunger Games, the media ignores it. Who has less say in their rights being violated? An actress uploading nude pictures with technology they're unfamiliar with or a child repeatedly and physically brutalized in unimaginable ways while the world at large ignores it because of political correctness?
Our Tim Cavanaugh with some good wisdom for these good-looking celebrities: "Only [former IRS official] Lois Lerner can truly make data vanish." S.E. Cupp: "I'm very sorry we don't live in a world where celebrity nude photos are un-hackable. But until we have technology that is 100 percent impenetrable, doesn't it only make sense to say that if you don't want your nude photos stolen, don't take nude photos with technology that makes their dissemination easy or store them on technology that can be hacked?" ADDENDA: NR Publisher Jack Fowler chatted with "Bourbon On the Rocks" podcast host Thomas LaDuke and the pair made some kind comments about the Morning Jolt and myself. LaDuke summarized, "Some days he makes me laugh, some days he makes me not want to get out of bed." Jack let slip that the Morning Jolt readership is now around 350,000 subscribers. . . . Laura K. Fillault, a Texas conservative activist, one of those tireless and under-appreciated campaign volunteers, writes over at Red State about these various conservative conventions and other gatherings in the past year: I went to CPAC 2014 as an "Individual" which meant I was a nobody and I was in awe. At first, I went to the speeches, like you do, and I got frustrated quickly. This wasn't the movement I was learning about and wanting to get involved in. The speeches were moving and smart but frankly, a lot of hot air. At one point, in the morning of the first day, I went back to my room feeling defeated. I didn't know how to join this movement. Being a Christian, I prayed. I said "Okay, God, you brought me here — so what am I supposed to be doing?" I resolved, as I left my room, to just say yes to whatever came my way. I was in the lobby-ish area and saw Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, and got giddy. I got to meet RICH LOWRY! And then I was off. I hung out at Radio Row and just talked to anyone who would talk to me. That's how people react to Rich! She also writes: At one point, Jim Geraghty, as he scanned the porch of the bar where we were ending our day, looked at me and said, "You know what? I like us." All these people, these "Happy Warriors" as Andrew calls us (I'll throw myself in the 'us' category), sitting around enjoying each other's company, debating topics, sharing wisdom, disagreeing. I swelled with pride for my newly adopted family. That may have been the booze talking. But the activist and blogger crowd that dives into these causes with such passion and joy, even when the news is grim, is pretty special. . . . Speaking of special, remember that mysterious upcoming project I told you about? I can give you three hints. It covers tattoos, what's in Sarah Silverman's purse, and the alleged marital role models of Beyoncé and Jay-Z. . . . Finally, I'm slated to appear on the panel on Greta's program tonight. Fox News Channel, sometime in the 7 p.m. hour Eastern.
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