Who says the federal government doesn’t have a sense of humor. Well me, for one.
This blaring headline showed up in the Albuquerque Journal last week:
“Officials: ‘Nothing funny” about bologna smuggling.”
The story quoted an official of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol from El Paso as saying that smuggled balogna could bring in diseases from Mexico “which can be detrimental to our nation’s agricultural industry.”
“People will sometimes make light of these seizures but there is nothing funny about these failed smuggling attempts,” the agent said.
As my dwindling but somewhat dedicated pool of readers may recall, I made light of balogna smuggling in three recent posts. I mean really, how can you not chuckle at someone trying to smuggle the dregs of processed meat inside a spare tire, next to someone’s underwear in a suitcase, and stinking up the interior of a car by stashing it under the back seat?
Apparently, others have been making jokes about it too, since I doubt anyone from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has any idea that my blog exists and read my penetrating investigative journalistic report. Maybe I’ll start searching the web for other funny comments about Mexican bologna.
As you recall, I even gave Mexican bologna that I purchased legally in Las Cruces a taste test. I did not seem to have any vile reaction to it, other than concluding it wasn’t nearly as tasty as the gold standard “Oscar Mayer” American brand.
I guess my thought is that with much more seriously dangerous stuff being brought across the border, shouldn’t agents be focusing on that instead?
And now that gasoline prices have shot up dramatically, people in El Paso are zipping across the border to buy cheaper Mexican gasoline. Is there some inherent danger in Mexican gasoline that that our agents should be investigating? So what’s next, draining fuel tanks of every car that crosses into El Paso from Juarez?
Seriously, I do appreciate the efforts of our Customs and Border Patrol agents to keep our border secure from bad things.
But still, bologna?
aero-cordero.com 