How do we know pepper spray is awful?

Because no one is lining up volunteering to be pepper sprayed.

Back a few years ago when we were debating whether or not waterboarding was torture - people were volunteering to be waterboarded all over the place:

Charles Grodin: Would you consent to be waterboarded so we could get the truth out of you?

Sean Hannity: Yeah, sure.

Charles Grodin: We can waterboard you?

Sean Hannity: Sure.

Charles Grodin: Are you busy on Sunday?

Sean Hannity: I'll do it for charity.

Man: And Mancow is laying down on the table. It's about a seven-foot table. His feet are now on a box. His feet are elevated. His feet are being - what are you doing, sir?

Sergeant Clay South: I am tying his feet up...

Sergeant Clay South: Okay, one, two, I lied. (water pouring)

Steve Harrigan: Whoa!

Man: You OK, Steve?

Steve Harrigan: Yeah, the -- when you try and take a breath in, the cellophane goes in your mouth, and then it's lights out.

Conclusion: it's torture.

The same thing happened after police started employing tasers. Remember that?

There was a big debate over whether or not that was excessive force on the part of the police.

So - a bunch of reporters lined up to get tasered:

[videos of volunteers getting tasered, including:]

Andy Campbell: My name is Andy Campbell and I' the crime reporter for the Chronicle in Centralia and I'm about to get tased. I'm told that it hurts like hell.

Now - the new weapon of choice for police - as we're seeing so often used against peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters is pepper spray:

[UC Davis and OWS Pepper Spray videos]

And GOP TV, a.k.a. Fox so-called News, has been quick to defend pepper spray as...not being all that bad:

Charles Payne: All that pepper spray. They were just sitting there pretty calm like they must not make it the way they used to. They must have diluted it. Those kids should be rolling around in the grass, crying and running. I mean, are you kidding me? The image is obviously disturbing...

Sean Hannity: ...attack conservatives you have to have one of those big cannisters on your hip and spray it all across. Did they cross the line? I don't think so.

Bill O’Reilly: First of all pepper spray, that just burns your eyes, right?

Megyn Kelly: Right, I mean its like a derivative of actual pepper. It’s a food product essentially; but a lot of experts are looking at that and saying is that the real deal, has it been diluted?

Yeah, it's just a food product...no problem!

While Fox seems to be content defending the use of pepper spray - no one there is lining up to be pepper sprayed like Hannity was lining up to be waterboarded.

Maybe that's because pepper spray really IS THAT bad!

I had the inventor of pepper spray on my show this week - and I asked him - if pepper spray is a food product - can I put it on my burrito...he didn't exactly find it funny:

Thom Hartmann: Could I use weapons grade pepper spray to spice up a burrito?

Kamran Loghman: Pepper spray is so fortified and it is formulated to a point of gasses and propellants and the chemical itself has gone through such a mutation that's called it and evolved that you can;t eat it. It's impossible to eat it, it's not food any more...

Thousands of times stronger than any kind of hot pepper you ever put in your mouth.

Thom Hartmann: Wow. And I've had, I love hot peppers, I've had things.

Kamran Loghman: It's designed to immediately inflammation of mucous membranes. That means your eyes shut, you have difficulty in breathing...

What are the long term effects of this on individuals? I mean, each one of us responses to chemicals and diseases are different. We don't know what is going to happen to these eyes or these respiratory systems. I mean, we just entered the unknown world. That's why I was shocked.

Thom Hartmann: Yeah.

And this was the guy who invented pepper spray. The point of this ...pepper spray is a chemical weapon.

It is more painful than getting tasered - and has far more long lasting effects than waterboarding, at least physically.

Which might be why GOP TV talking heads are willing to praise its use from afar - but not willing to put their face in front of one of Lieutenant Pike's pepper spray cannisters.

And until they do - until Hannity - or Megyn Kelly - or O'Reilly walk the walk - and take in a face full of pepper spray - then they should hold off on making comments about how it's a legitimate use of force against peaceful protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

That's The Big Picture.