He tries to drag in Bush era torture when, by now, most people understand that cutting off people's heads is torture; making them wear women's underwear isn't.
He gets off the snappy one-liner that "people aren't illegal" and thinks he's really got us. Of course, he's referring to illegal... I think the term is "aliens" and in fact, yes, people can be aliens and when they are trespassing in someone else's territory they would be "illegal aliens". Aliens, you see, who are trespassing and hence, illegally so.
Is it totalitarian to ask foreign visitors to show their identification? Maybe it is in his on-line Civ simu-world, but in the real world, in every country in the world foreigners are required to carry their passports and produce them on demand. And in the countries most of our visitors come from, even citizens are required to carry their national ID and produce it on demand. The people he hates to call "illegal" know this because thats where they are from. Furthermore it doesn't hurt their feelings to call them illegal because they know they are illegal.
If he goes to visit the country of their birth he had better carry his papers with him while he's there.
Good points.
I only skimmed the article.
I did see the incident at hand and have read MANY tazer horror stories.
Tazers definitely have their purpose, it seems though that many are abusing that purpose.
It's not snappy it's moronic. If there is a law banning you from a place without authorization and you are in that place illegally you are illegally there. Hence if you are a person then you are an illegal person. Yes Sparky (author of article) people can be illegal.