Something in the air

Last week the United States warned the Assad regime not to use chemical weapons against Syrian revolutionaries.  At around the same time, police in Lansing, Michigan, were using chemical weapons to disperse unarmed demonstrators.  Hundreds of union members filled the state capitol to protest anti-union legislation being rammed through by the Mad Tea Party; since the new law shrewdly exempts police and firefighters' unions, the cops could deploy pepper spray without compunction.

Of course, pepper spray is not Sarin nerve gas, just as Michigan is not Syria.  Michigan is part of the United States, whose Constitution protects the rights of free speech and assembly.  It's the sort of constitution millions of people in Syria, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere admire and would probably give their lives for.  I wish they could see it in action.