So, Moody's has downgraded Puerto Rico's bonds to just two steps above junk bonds and stopped *this* short of declaring the island officialy broke.

Net tax- supported debt as a percentage of personal income is 56.7 percent in Puerto Rico. In 2003, it was 51.2 percent. THE MEDIAN FOR THE STATES, is 2.4 percent.

This means that you are probably better off speculating on stocks than lending money to the government. It also means that to pay back the debt, every Puerto Rican would have to reach into their pockets and come up with almost $7,000. All the public works we do on our own two feet comes from the money of lenders. If we are downgraded we won't even appear in the basic bonds portfolio offerings at Wall Street and we will be dropped from the ones who already carry us. This means no more money for public works: no needed expansion for the urban train, an unfinished "Expreso", layoffs in the government payroll - the biggest employer in the island. What makes us "better" than other Latin American countries: this incredible American citizenship conceit that makes us believe that nothing can go wrong because Uncle Sam will always rescue our asses off. The funniest thing is that people on the street are not worried or do not understand that full fledged generalized poverty is knocking on our doors. Standard and Poor is preparing to publish their own very damaging report on the state of our economy.

As I always ask statehood supporters here in the island, what in hell do we have to offer the US to warm them up to the idea of making us part of the federation?

Joe Mysak's column at Bloomberg.com

One of the things I have always curiously noted about PC correctness in the US, is that the rest of the world is not at the same level of awareness. Homosexualism, racism, sexism and the like are very much every day joke material here in PR and I am sure in many places in Latin America and the rest of the world. Anyways, Vicente Fox, in an effort to praise and point out the importance of Mexican workers in the US, said something that triggered massive indignation from American black groups.

So, now Fox has apologized and nothing has happened. So the American public, be it black, white (white white as in British, or poor white Irish descent, or worse white Italian guido, etc and all these insane labels some people still attach to themselves after fifteen generations of living in continental US, ok, derailing rant here), Newyorican, Chicano, Jew or American Indian can pretend that the rest of the world is riding the same PC correct bus as them. Or that the PC correct bus will transport them to equality paradise, because what is not said in public is automatically erased from people's deep ingrained bias, and not passed on to children in the comfort of their own homes.

We go on our merry way and leave the PC people to their utopian dreams. I will stop my rant here, because just now they are showing Molotov's Frijolero video, and it is funny as hell:

"Don't call me Gringo, you f***ing beaner
Stay on your side of that goddamn river
Don't call me Gringo, you beaner."

Molotov - Frijolero lyrics

P.D.: My boyfriend is part of the African American community, so I understand the contributions people of African descent have made to the progress of humanity. I apologize for the condescending tone my offensive blog post has towards all these good multicolored, multisexed and multireligioned citizens of our Great Nation. It is God's will that we not fuck up erm, sorry, not waste this opportunity at the great glories of Babel. I disavow any unsavory. misguided comments that may offend you and not point out that maybe you have taken them to heart needlessly, or lost your grip on the reality of the size of the dot that marks your spot as seen from space. As always, your money is very welcome, thanks.

You scored as Satanism. Your beliefs most closely resemble those of Satanism! Before you scream, do a bit of research on it. To be a Satanist, you don't actually have to believe in Satan. Satanism generally focuses upon the spiritual advancement of the self, rather than upon submission to a deity or a set of moral codes. Do some research if you immediately think of the satanic cult stereotype. Your beliefs may also resemble those of earth-based religions such as paganism. Satanism 100% Buddhism 92% Paganism 83% agnosticism 83% Hinduism 71% atheism 50% Islam 50% Judaism 42% Christianity 17% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Well, in case you are all wondering where I am, I am having lots of fun. Like the following email I receive for my freelancing job (which is not my full time job at the newspaper nor the part time at Copymax, but another form of torture I inflict upon myself, besides studies of course):

Necesito este arte rush, es a 3 colores (igualito como
esta ahi) area de impresion es 20" x 36" para una
toalla.
formatos aceptados: Adobe Illustrator ver. 10.0 or
lower (eps file) or CorelDraw ver. 11.0 or lower (CDR
file).
All art must be in vector format. Verificate que sean
los mismo colores todo igualito.

Gracias, cuando lo tengas por favor enviamelo y hazlo
en cd.

For those who don't understand Spanish, well basically, she wants it rush (as in tomorrow) and identical to her original file. Ok, let's see the attachment:



What the fuck?! Just looking at the bubbles makes me want to post in the blog, play ten rounds of minesweeper, five of freecell and do this for maybe Tuesday. Will have fun. Talk to you all, later.