Land of the Free to Get your Head Kicked In

And Home of the Brave Pepper-Spray Wielding Uniformed Thugs.

So this week Peter Watts, brilliant Canadian hard SF writer, marine biology PhD, good e-cquaintance of mine, and by all accounts all round nice guy in the flesh, was pepper-sprayed, beaten up, and imprisoned by US border guards as he tried to leave the US for Canada. His crime apparently consisted of having the temerity, when pulled over, to exit his vehicle and ask what was going on (twice, because they ignored him the first time h...