Ben and Joel Podcast: Dominic Tierney and 'How America Fights'

Joel is joined by Dominic Tierney. He is an assistant professor of political science at Swarthmore College here in Pennsylvania, and is the author of three books: The newest is "How We Fight: Crusades, Quagmires and the American Way of War." The book informed his recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, and it forms the foundation of his speech Friday at Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia -- check the FPRI website for details.

Topics discussed in this podcast:

• What are the "crusade" and "quagmire" traditions of American warfare?
• Isn't it pretty easy to get Americans to go to war? And isn't it easy to sour them on the experience of war?
• Is there a good reason for America to conduct "nation-building" missions in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq?
• What did the Founders see as the role of the American military?
• Would re-orienting the military to a nation-building role make us more vulnerable to peer competitors like Russia or China?
• Where will the U.S. be nation-building next?

Click here to listen.

TSA Backlash Week: One Hundred Naked Citizens

Gizmodo: "At the heart of the controversy over 'body scanners' is a promise: The images of our naked bodies will never be public. U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal courthouse saved 35,000 images on their scanner. These are those images." Click the link to see the images.

For what it's worth, these images might actually tamp down public concern about the scanners: You can barely tell that people are depicted. But it would be a shame if the response was a collective shrug. For one thing, some scanners can show a person's body in rather greater detail. And in any case, TSA Backlash Week is long overdue. It's time we had a conversation about the government's ability to presume we are all criminals once we decide to fly on a plane.

TSA Backlash Week : Josh Rosenau

My friend Josh is angry: "I'm not a criminal. There's no probable cause to search me. I've flown at least a couple times a year pretty much every year since I was born, and much more than that now that I get to travel for work. If I were a threat to aviation, I think it would've become clear by now. Before 9/11, I carried two pocket knives on every flight. I took a railroad spike onto a plane one time, with airport security's knowledge and permission. I am not a threat to American aviation, and feeling me up or looking at me naked will not make anyone safer. And it certainly shouldn't make anyone feel safer to know that the government can feel them up or strip them naked just because they want to come home from a business trip (let alone that they can be fined $10,000 for rejecting either option)."

TSA Backlash Week: Brendan Skwire On The Case

Brendan doesn't just blog about his complaints. He takes them directly to his senator!

TSA Backlash Week: How Much Is Too Much?

Let us now quote Michael Aguilar, chief of the TSA in San Diego. He says:

"“Let me paraphrase our new administrator, John Pistole,” said Aguilar. “It really is irresponsible to encourage anyone to opt out of a technology that is there in place specifically to protect the public.”"

Nobody disputes the TSA is intending to "protect the public" by putting the body scans in place. But here's a question: What level of intrusiveness is too intrusive to justify security measures? That's a question that hasn't been answered, but it certainly appears to the public as though there is no bright line the government won't cross in the name of making our airplanes safe. It's looking at us naked and feeling us up. What's left?

Cold Medicine Backlash Week: Coming Soon

Seems to me if you're going to require people to get a prescription for cold medicine, you might as well ban cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine outright. How many people are going to go to a doctor -- and incur the cost and lost work time -- just to pick up a package of Sudafed? If you're going to raise the bar that high, might as well raise it all the way.

The Party of Fiscal Conservatism

A chart at James Fallows' blog:

Now: Maybe the current crop of Republicans will end up walking the walk they've only ever talked. History doesn't bode well.