Let's set aside that CNN's rascally headliners actually aped the Oscar Meyer commerical and inside focus on the fact that smuggling bologna isn't just for men's rooms in interstate rest stops anymore.

Sure, it's a funny little story, but consider these implications:

First, American standards for bologna, that least pure of processed roll meats, differ from those of Mexico significantly enough that only certain plants have been approved to export to the US. What I'm trying to get at is that we don't demand much from bologna; Mexico demands even less. Do they actually take doodies directly into the bologna machines there?

Second, bologna sells for "$7 or $8 a roll" in Mexico, and "three to four times that" in the US. It makes you wonder how they cut costs, and then consider again the first point. Can doodie be used to substitute for, say, the pig tails we use here in the US?

Third, the smuggler intended to sell it "at a flea market." That implies there's some demand for bologna at flea markets, which in turn implies that some American people buy their bologna at flea markets. Perhaps it's time to reconsider our fiscal priorities as a nation.

Fourth, that this happened at all says to me that Mexico is so horrible a place that a man is willing to set aside his pride, stuff bolognas into his suitcase, and try his luck in America. All is not lost.

Analogcabin @ 3:31 PM
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