Boosting the Signal

[nishatalitha]

I thought the US was supposed to be done with this shit. Let alone to friendly neighbouring countries! And here I was very vaguely considering taking it off my personal no-fly list.

Via commodorified:

Author Peter Watts attempts to cross border US/Canada border without incident, gets punched, kicked, thrown in jail cell overnight and has possessions confiscated.

Comments

[darthsappho.livejournal.com]

Ouch 8( Yes, that definitely reinforces its position on my no-fly list too. Also, Mr Watts is a very talented author, not that the border guards' behaviour would have been any more acceptable if he wasn't.

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

This is more a friend-of-a-friend situation for me. I've never read any of his books, but some of them are availabe under a Creative Commons Licence here (http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm). The short story I read was very interesting.

[laputain.livejournal.com]

What really disturbs me is all the comment saying "if the cops beat your ass, you must have deserved it". That kind of identification with power to the exclusion of justice or empathy is precisely the kind of "authoritarian personality" which Wilhelm Reich talked about which is the basis of all fascist movements.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

Having a new president unfortunately doesn't fix all the problems in the system or get rid of all the employees who enjoy abusing their power. The latter have pretty much always been around and it looks to me like that's the likely cause of this problem. What other reason could there be for abusing someone who is leaving the country?