I find both incidents incredibly disturbing. I wonder if this too liberal use of pepper spray will cause law enforcement to think about their own use of the product and the image it is projecting to the nation. If police casually use this item (and they have been BEFORE the Occupy movements, let us not kid ourselves), why can't Tom, Dick, Jane, and Martha use it for our own purposes?

The fact that retail frenzy becomes indistinguishable from OWS (in pepper sprayed mob chaos) is a black irony that is too rich for actual use in fiction.

So don't. You choose the ones that work for you.

I'm not criticising either you or the program. I'm just talking about what motivates me or doesn't, just like people have been saying about GTD and the like. I'm good.

I'm missing the bit in that Porter Ranch article where they talk about the source of the pepper spray in any detail. They just toss off that it was a shopper, but for the rest of the article it has no source. It almost sounds like it's something the authorities did.

However, the crowd behaviour--what is WITH people? Why do they think they have a right to behave like that?

If police casually use this item (and they have been BEFORE the Occupy movements, let us not kid ourselves), why can't Tom, Dick, Jane, and Martha use it for our own purposes?

Because there are a lot of other things the cops get to do that I don't? I'm not sure why pepper spray should be an exception. I can see store security blurring the lines, but I also think they're incredibly wrong in doing so. They are civilians too. I used to want to be a security guard, because I thought it was all cool and official and shit, but...it's so not.

[doubled up...deleted]

mr. flea is at work today, and he has been dubbed the Acting Branch Chief; he is probably the only guy there. Please, nobody have an environmental disaster involving water in the midwest today, okay? Unless a whiz computer modeler can fix it.

We're watching the end of Avatar. Then I have to actually do something with these children.

I think that most of the recent uses of pepper spray are an illegitimate use of force. When it is done so casually, I think people feel they can do it too.

Pepper spray shouldn't be the first technique of crowd control when no one is injured or hurt or lives aren't threatened. I would support security guards using it judiciously if lives are at risk. But the youtube video does not show that.

I really want to write back but I am finding a sense of.... I don't know.. pleasure in being able to say, "Um. Don't need to engage the people in the box on every detail."

I almost got into a FB fight with a woman who INSISTED that paper coffee filters were NEVER compostable. I was armed with links and everything, and instead I just closed the FB window.

Wait the pepper spray thing happened in porter ranch? That used to be my scene, yo!

Wait the pepper spray thing happened in porter ranch?

No shit! Until they opened the mall in Simi (civilisation gets everywhere eventually, I guess), it was the most convenient one to my job. Freaky to think of that nutty meltdown at a place I've shopped.

When it is done so casually, I think people feel they can do it too.

I think police shoot too casually too, but I don't know if that's having a causal effect. I think what needs to be made clear are the horrible after effects. I think people go "oh! non lethal! thanks for reminding me!" and don't consider how horrible pretty much all of the non-lethal crowd control measures are.

I'm not criticising either you or the program. I'm just talking about what motivates me or doesn't, just like people have been saying about GTD and the like. I'm good.

Did not intend to sound defensive or dismissive. Was typing on iPhone so terse. Now on computer so I suppose I should start using pronouns again. Whatever you meant, I've seen people get hung up on doing the whole thing, and for me it was very freeing to be explicitly told that I don't have to.

Steph, let me validate you. YOU ARE RIGHT. You can absolutely compost coffee filters, whether in a backyard pile or a vermicomposting system. Same with tea bags. Any paper, really, though I've found that worms highly prefer newspaper as bedding to shredded office paper.

Pepper spray shouldn't be the first technique of crowd control when no one is injured or hurt or lives aren't threatened.

Indeed, especially since there's not a lot of data on the health effects of it when used in those circumstances.

I had leftover pie crust for breakfast. No, seriously: when I make a pie and have leftover pastry dough, I roll it out thin and brush it with milk, cinnamon & sugar, and then roll it into a tube and bake it with the pie. That's what I had for breakfast. It's a family thing: I don't know if anyone else does that.

I have walked the dog for an hour, and in a bit we'll go out to see my folks. Things are getting sticky recently: apparently my mother has started refusing to take her meds. ::facepalm::