After reading one hosanna after another to the TSA on the editorial pages of the New York Times, it is refreshing to read Roger Cohen’s good sense on the TSA and its porn scanners. On the flip side, however, reading the comments (which mostly come from the MSNBC/The Nation-type “Progressives”) are utterly discouraging.

From what I can tell, Americans have become utterly bureaucratized and cowed, and Cohen agrees, stating:

I don’t doubt the patriotism of the Americans involved in keeping the country safe, nor do I discount the threat, but I am sure of this: The unfettered growth of the Department of Homeland Security and the T.S.A. represent a greater long-term threat to the prosperity, character and wellbeing [sic] of the United States than a few madmen in the valleys of Waziristan or the voids of Yemen.

America is a nation of openness, boldness and risk-taking. Close this nation, cow it, constrict it and you unravel its magic.

Well said, indeed.