Let’s shake it up

Ok, what are you doing today? Are you shopping for a new tv? Going to dinner with friends? Getting ready to go golfing or boating this weekend, or something else that seems normal activity for ones life in our economically sound, crime free, inflation proof country.

I’m sure you see where I’m going so if you want to stop reading now, go ahead. My point is, yes, we have to live life, we can’t live everyday in constant fear of the World falling apart, I get that. But on the other hand, wouldn’t it be prudent to take one day a week, or even 2 or 3 hours a week, to prepare yourself for hard times ahead. This could be the loss of a job, a major illness, a terrorist attack or a trucker strike. I could get really detailed here and post up some government studies that show scenarios of what they think is going to happen this year, or next or the year after. My point is, the govt. is preparing (that’s such a bad word as it conjure up thoughts of crazy survivalists) so why aren’t you?

Many people smarter than you or I are taking the threat, whatever it may be (economic, terrorism, climate change, food safety, etc.) very seriously. We’re getting to the point where you just can’t ignore where we’re headed anymore. Some of you are maybe older and think “well, nothing’s going to happen here or to me, the govt will take care of things”. Well guess again. The other day I mentioned the 67 year old veteran who was arrested for asking city council members to speak up at a meeting, are you kidding me? Oh well, if you’re still reading, maybe there’s a little hope for you as most people in our country just stick their head in the sand at this kind of talk. If you feel you can’t do anything or don’t know what to do, give us a call. Something as simple as having 4 five gallons of water in your basement and a half a dozen bags of rice and a few cases of canned food along with 3 months worth of pet food, can go a long long way. Alright, I’ll stop now, but do yourself a favor and just think for yourself for a minute. Who will take care of you when everyone needs help.

Now to the day, the boys played hard while I spent most of the day at the phone store getting a new phone. Mom made it home around 6:30 and was straight off to bunko as the neighborhood girls started a club last night. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her to see how it went but I’m sure she had fun.

This morning I have a sales meeting and then this afternoon I’m taking the boys to a VIP event at the football stadium where they get to meet and play soccer with the players from Manchester United Football Club (soccer) from England. Now the Denver Broncos have 3 million face book like and these guys have like 60 million! They are the most popular sports team in the World. The sales manager at the chevrolet dealer gave me the tickets along with field passes. Tomorrow is the game against Roma (the team from Rome Italy) but I gave those tickets away as we’ll be in Aspen. It should be fun, I’ll try to take pictures.

Now before we go, read this, another example of our out of control whoever they are,

A Boy Scout troop from the nation’s heartland is demanding answers and a U.S. senator is expressing outrage after a group of scouts was detained by federal agents and one child allegedly was held at gunpoint.

Jim Fox, the leader of the Mid-Iowa Boy Scout Troop 111, said the incident occurred earlier this month at a checkpoint along the Alaska – Canada border. The scouts and their leaders were on a 21-day trek from Iowa to Alaska – a trip that had been three years in the planning.

As their vans were moving through a checkpoint into the United States, one of the scouts snapped a photograph. Agents stopped the van and ordered all the passengers to get out. They told the underage photographer that he had committed a federal crime.

“The agent immediately confiscated his camera, informed him he would be arrested, fined possibly $10,000 and ten years in prison,” Fox told Des Moines television station KCCI.

During the search, one of the scouts tried to retrieve a bag from the roof carrier. When he turned around, Fox said an agent had a loaded pistol pointed at the child.

“He heard a snap of the holster, turns around, and here’s this agent, both hands on a loaded pistol, pointing at the young man’s head,” Fox told the television station.

The scoutmaster wrote a detailed account of the incident on his Facebook page. He said he tried to watch the agents search the van but was ordered to return to his vehicle. An agent followed him and told the youngsters “that the next one to leave the van would be handcuffed and detained.”

“The agent in charge informed me of the potential charges against (the) scout and informed me it is a violation of federal law for any American to take a picture of a federal agent or any federal building,” Fox wrote.

Fox said he and another member of the troop were interrogated by agents – forced to answer questions about their background.

They also wanted to know why the Boy Scouts were hauling “excessive amounts of lighters, matches and knives.”

Oh, for goodness sake, people. (Sorry, I’ll try to refrain from further editorializing.)

After a lengthy delay, the scouts were released without any charges being filed.

“The boys were unnecessarily frightened and intimidated,” Fox wrote. “When do we Americans decide enough is enough? The TSA and border guards are a valuable asset to the safety of this country, but to have such Gestapo tactics against a teenage scout is uncalled for.”

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, agrees.

“It’s outrageous that a border patrol agent would point a gun at a boy scout just for taking a picture,” he told the television station. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

The senator’s office said they are looking into the matter.

Robert Hooper, the scout executive for the Mid-Iowa  Council of the BSA, told me they, too, are upset and disturbed by the allegations.

“The guys were in scout uniforms,” he said. “I would like to know what caused this to happen. It does sound pretty extreme.”

Indeed, it does. It’s not like they were attempting to cross into the United States illegally.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they’ve had a chance to investigate – and they can’t find anything out of the ordinary.

“CBP takes any allegations of wrongdoing very seriously,” read their official statement. “CBP’s review of this group’s inspection, including video footage review indicates that our officer did not un-holster or handle his weapon as stated in the allegation. The review revealed nothing out of the ordinary.  We have reached out to the Boy Scout troop for additional information in reference to the allegation.  The video footage has been referred to CBP Internal Affairs for further review.”

So, what we have here is an old-fashioned case of he said, he said – or to be more accurate – the Boys Scouts said, the feds said.

In cases like this, the quickest way to determine who is being truthful is to look at the video. So I emailed U.S. Customs and Border Protection and officially requested a copy of the video.

My request was denied.

I also asked for a copy of the statute that criminalizes Photography 101. I’ve yet to receive a reply.

Fox is still fired up over how his scouts were treated – and I can’t say I blame him.

“This was an illegal search and intimidation of Americans returning to their home country,” he said.

So let’s review, good readers.

While hordes of illegals are stampeding across our southern border unimpeded, federal agents along our northern border detained and harassed a group of law-abiding American Boy Scouts.

I wonder what kind of merit badge they’ll get for that?

It’s now 5am, see what you get when I get up at 4:30 (thanks Mojo!) so guess I’ll head to the gym. Hope all’s well, God Bless.