Grapes of wrath, again
In Amigo, as of today, November 18, you will find:
Wild-caught oysters, 98 cents each.
Farm raised mussels, shell on, $3.88 a pound.
Chinese squid, wild-caught and cleaned out, but still speaking Squidese, $3.99 a pound.
Chicken breast, plucked, skinned, de-boned, $3.37 a pound, and fluent in Spanish.
Angus Ground Round — hamburger to you and me, and grumbling as Angus are wont to do, and only $3.87 a pound.
And of special interest today, Brazilian grapes, nearly $5 a pound ($4.57)—skin on, seedless, attached to their primordial branch, and gossiping all day long in Soccerese. Can you afford to eat them?
Can you afford not to?
Steven Greenia
from Río Piedras on Nov. 18

Inglourious basterd
I hadn’t seen Muammar al-Gaddafi in a while. The Butcher of Lockerbee. Who got away with the carnage because it was just after Gulf War I and Bush Sr. figured he had the Arabs in his shirt pocket and geopolitics trumped the honor of the nation and the right of the slaughtered to justice.
So there he was on TV at the UN, tackily attired and dithering senile, he took 96 minutes for what can be said in a few sentences. Mainly, that it’s hardly democratic for the big bad nations to wield veto power over everybody else on the Security Council — a valid point. Yet it’s a consequence of fiends like him that such imperialism still holds sway.
Andy Tyler
from Condado on Nov. 18

Fortuño’s clever shell game ...
Governor Luis Fortuño stressed the urgent need to lay off at least 27,000 employees in order to balance the budget. Is he playing a shell game with the people? In actuality, 27,000 are not ultimately being removed from those working for the government. Areas of government are being privatized. Theses privatized contractors will hire new employees. The contractors will not rehire those PDP employees laid off. It will be new hires who support the NPP.
When Fortuño says he laid off 27,000 employees and reduced the public payroll, it is a lie. Ask him about the shell game he is playing where all the thousands of new hired NPP employees are hidden on the contractors’ payrolls and do not show up on any list for public viewing of how many employees will actually be working for the government. Instead of 27,000 less employees, We may end up with more employees actually working for the government when the public payroll and the contractors’ payrolls are combined.
The new hires are buried on the contractors’ payrolls and not on any list for public viewing. Nothing like deceptive, nontransparent, trickle-down economic tricks to deceive the voters! Will Republican Luis Fortuño learn other shell games to deceived the people at the Republican Governors Conference he is now attending in Texas? Fortuño and these Republican governors still think the eight years of George W. was the best government we ever had and Fortuño wants this kind of “Bushie” government for Puerto Rico.
The rumor has been circulated by the NPP that former PDP Gov. Acevedo Vilá hired 30,000 new PDP public employees immediately after the election period legal cut-off date. If this is true, why come up with a special list of 27,000 employees — some with many years of seniority — to fire? Why not just fire the 30,000 hired after the cutoff date? It would have been easy, clean, simple and not controversial. In fact, if they were illegally hired, Fortuño would not have needed Law 7 to fire them. Or is this (30,000 illegally hired) a NPP-circulated rumor; another Fortuño clever shell game to avoid transparency?
Robert McCarroll
from Carolina on Nov. 19

Police Department ridicule
The prevalent ineptitude consistently displayed by this government extends dramatically to our Police Department: Tear gas was good enough for university students a few weeks ago, yet it was never used against armed criminals in the recent hold up at Mudafort Xtreme Sports, creating instead a commotion in all of Santurce, as well as among thousands following the story in the news media for more than six hours.
Resources fit for a war operative failed to capture the perpetrators hiding inside air conditioning ducts, whose greatest effort was probably to contain their laughter at the ridicule these police agents were exposed to by their superiors, all the way up to the police superintendent. Using air conditioning ducts as an ideal hideout is so obvious that we have seen it dozens of times in the most elemental movies and TV series.
This is indeed another example which illustrates the flawed strategy being applied to the rampant increase in criminal activity throughout the island.
As basic as it was, in my opinion, to have used tear gas in the Mudafort Xtreme Sports operation, it is also my opinion that another basic strategy is ignored to contain the drug and firearms in our residential complexes:
Establishing only one access to vehicular traffic in these crime ridden areas, with check points controlled by police officers, would most probably be the most effective deterrent to fight crime. Any arguments touching the aspect of discrimination in these neighborhoods can be challenged with the fact that if check points are constantly established to check blood alcohol levels in strategic points in our highways, inconveniencing thousands of law-abiding citizens, why not do the same to crime-ridden neighborhoods that have not been able to control their own, or are willing to testify or report offenders when they commit a crime?
It seems as if allowing criminal activity to foster is a way of justifying not only the existence of a bloated police force, but also of the mushrooming growth of security companies ...
Cuqui Santoni
from San Juan on Nov. 20

A word for all seasons
To William Leffingwell:
You’re the antiquarian. In today’s local parlance, all the terms you mention are subsumed under the rubric TERRORIST. Anybody who does or says anything you don’t like is a terrorist. George Washington, Simón Bolívar, Mohandas Ghandi, Muñoz Marín and Ernesto Guevara were all terrorists. My mother-in-law is a terrorist. Though she’ll tell you I’m the terrorist. Senator Melinda Romero pointed out that some young guitar-wielding independentistas, who on the sly serenaded some congressfolks with protest ballads, are terrorists. You can’t get any cleverer than that.
Rocco Sastre
from Ponce on Nov. 20

Servitude pure and simple
Do illegal immigrants deserve health care? Social security and unemployment insurance? Public education for their children? Police protection?
Yet the interlopers are left in place, a second-class citizenry to be ruthlessly exploited by the wealthy fat cats who own the farms and the factories. Madison and Jefferson wouldn’t be proud.
Danilo Alvarez
from Hato Rey on Nov. 20

Terrorists exist outside rule of law
As much as I appreciate the new president for his efforts to free our rear ends from the depredation of doctors, hospitals and insurers, I don’t fancy Constitutional protection for terrorists.
The U.S. Constitution rules within the nations’ borders. Enemy combatants — beholden to a government and wearing a uniform — are afforded the Geneva Convention. Pirates — that’s the term for them in precedent of law – by right may be exterminated like vermin, tortured, drugged, nuked even, anything the imagination might conjure. How can you fight fire with anything but fire?
Bob Harris
from Condado on Nov 20

Against House Bill 1890
We declare that under the protection of the 14th amendment, we have the right to maintain our dogs as personal property, which cannot be taken away without due process of law.
We declare that any attempt to criminalize the possession of a dog based on its breed, size, or physical characteristics is prejudicial and therefore unlawful.
Overzealous governmental regulations interfere in the workings of a true democracy. Therefore, it is my duty and privilege as a citizen of the United States to strongly oppose and vote against any and all forms of discriminatory legislation and government that threaten my freedom as a dog owner.
House Bill 1890 will stereotype many particular large dog breeds and types: Dobermans, German Shepherds, Chow Chows, Rottweilers, Dalmatians, Pit mixes, Staffordshire Terriers, Bull Terriers, boxers, etc.
This is an abuse of power, and on top of it, based on absolute ignorance of dog breeds!
While we recognize the need to protect the public from dangerous dogs and the need for public safety, the government must respect the rights of responsible and loving dog owners and not punish them for the actions of irresponsible and thoughtless ones.
The determination of whether or not a dog is dangerous needs to be based on the behavior that an individual dog exhibits. We believe that the actual behavior of an individual dog should be the sole responsibility of the owner not the dog breed.
We are responsible owners and are united with animal advocates and animal protection organizations who believe that what is required is education and the enforcement of present laws. Many of us are particularly qualified to assess and understand canine behavior and its impact on a community and its citizens.
The only dogs to be excluded from House Bill 1890 are Police dogs, not even service dogs. Do you realize what a travesty of justice this is?
You wonder how it is possible that legislator Eric Correa would draft and present such a twisted legislation and that it would have the enthusiastic approval and backing of Dr. Victor Oppenheimer, a former president of the School of Veterinary Doctors, and that it was approved in both the House an the Senate. What kind of legislators do we have?
Call Fortaleza and ask the governor to never sign this piece of unjust rubbish into law. Then remember to keep in mind the names of those who wrote it, backed it and approved it!
Delma S. Fleming, Ph.D.
on Nov. 21