BloggeRhythms

Things around the globe haven’t really changed much since yesterday. However, actor Jon Voight, who according to Wikipedia is catholic, posted an open letter in the Hollywood Reporter linked to on Drudge.

 

It began, “My name is Jon Voight and I am more than angry, I am heartsick that people like Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem could incite anti-Semitism all over the world and are oblivious to the damage they have caused.”

He then provided some background via historical information, writing, “They are obviously ignorant of the whole story of Israel’s birth, when in 1948 the Jewish people were offered by the UN a portion of the land originally set aside for them in 1921, and the Arab Palestinians were offered the other half. The Arabs rejected the offer, and the Jews accepted, only to be attacked by five surrounding Arab countries committed to driving them into the sea. But the Israelis won.”

Farther on he wrote, “And yet Israel has always labored for a peaceful relation with its Arab neighbors. It voluntarily returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in return for peace, and gave the Palestinians all of Gaza as a peace gesture. What was the response? The Palestinians elected Hamas, a terrorist organization, and they immediately began firing thousands of rockets into Israel.”

He then chastised his targets by stating, “You have forgotten how this war started. Did Hamas not kidnap and kill three young teenagers for the sake of killing, and celebrated after the killing?  What a travesty of justice. I am asking all my peers who signed that poison letter against Israel to examine their motives. Can you take back the fire of anti-Semitism that is raging all over the world now?”

And finally he brilliantly posed the basic premise underscoring the lives the Israeli critics lead, by setting up the following question. 

“You have been able to become famous and have all your monetary gains because you are in a democratic country: America.  Do you think you would have been able to accomplish this in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, et cetera?  You had a great responsibility to use your celebrity for good.  Instead, you have defamed the only democratic country of goodwill in the Middle East: Israel.”

 

It should be interesting to see how Cruz and Bardem answer that one.

In the meanwhile, as the incumbent touts a decreasing unemployment rate, what he doesn’t mention is why the numbers shrinking. Which has far more to do with arithmetical calculations and changing criteria in the way that the statistic is formulated than it does with an economy that's still doing very poorly.   

Ali Meyer of CNSNews.com reports that “11.4 million Americans age 16 and over have left the workforce since President Obama took office in January 2009, according to data released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In July 2014, there were 92,001,000 Americans, 16 and over, who were classified as “not in the labor force,” meaning they not only did not have a job, but they didn’t actively seek one in the last four weeks.”

 

Therefore, a significant reason for the unemployment rate’s reduction is simply due to the fact that more than 92 million people, a third of the total U.S. population, are not presently looking for jobs at all.

 

That statistic is confirmed by the fact that, “The participation rate, which measures the percentage of the civilian non-institutional population that participated in the labor force by either having a job or actively seeking one, increased from 62.8 percent in June to 62.9 percent in July.” Which mean that 37% of the labor force is currently idle.

On the other side of the coin, CNSNews.com also notes that “According to the 2014 version of a report that the Department of Health and Human Services is required by law to issue annually, the percentage of Americans on welfare in 2011 was the highest yet calculated. The data for 2011 is the most recent in the report.

As of the fourth quarter of 2011 there were 108,592,000 people living in households in the United States that received benefits from one or more “means-tested” government programs, according to the Census Bureau’s estimate. Those 108,592,000 “means-tested” government benefit recipients, according to the bureau, equaled 35.4 percent of 306,804,000 people in the United States at that time.”

However, to really discern the full impact of how badly things in the nation have turned under the incumbent’s economic policies the following data clearly illustrates what socialism does to destroy personal productivity and accomplishment.

“When recipients of non-means-tested government programs (such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and veterans benefits) were added to those receiving benefits from means-tested programs, the total number receiving benefits in the fourth quarter of 2011 was 151,014,000, according to the Census Bureau. That equaled 49.2 percent of the total population.”

Therefore, the damage that’s been done to the greatest free market society and land of “opportunity” in the past five years is truly incredible.

And finally, today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife.

This one involves Rand Paul, who although a Republican doesn’t know very much about economics and certainly, the military or foreign policy either. In fact, he’s pretty much a very well-educated but also very misguided empty suit. Yet, nonetheless, he was right on the mark in barbs directed at Bubba’s wife.

Shane Goldmacher of National Journal reports that, “Sen. Rand Paul delivered an unusually harsh rebuke of Hillary Clinton in Kentucky on Friday night, declaring that his potential 2016 rival is not "fit to lead the country."

Mr. Goldmacher explained, “In Benghazi, Paul blamed Clinton for ignoring requests for a plane and additional security, citing all the other things the State Department had purchased during that time: "$100,000 for an electrical charging station" in Vienna, "$650,000 on Facebook ads," and "$700,000 on landscaping for the Brussels embassy" among them.”

Which illustrates that the Clinton’s are very consistent where money’s concerned. Because while the family amasses a truly huge fortune for themselves, they spend millions of taxpayer dollars without a thought or worry. 

 

And further proving the point of how clueless Bill’s wife actually is, while spending $1,350,000 on Facebook ads and landscaping in Brussels, she wouldn’t come up with the funds for a couple of critically needed weapons and protective sandbags in Benghazi, thereby costing four American lives and the loss of a diplomatic mission.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios