ProfessorBainbridge.com

Looking for advice on accessing work documents via my iPad

I'm going to be traveling a lot this spring (grumble, grumble) and I'm planning on taking my iPad instead of a laptop on some of the trips. This poses the question of how to easily access my work files using an iPad. Unfortunately, I don't have room on my iPad for all the files and, of course, there's the little problem of not having a useful file manager. (BTW, any advice on choosing a file manager app?)

I'm guessing the easiest thing to do would be to open a Dropbox account, sync my work files with Dropbox, and use the Dropbox app to access the files I need on the road. I understand you can download the files to edit on your iPad although not upload them back to Dropbox. Right? In any case, I'm open to alternate suggestions.

On a related note, I've been told that TSA has changed its policy and is now making people remove the iPad from their briefcase when going through security. True?

And, yes, for those who know me well, I am dreading going back on the road. I hate flying. I hate hotels. It's going to suck.

Thanks.

TSA Photo Caption Contest

Have at it (HT: Mataconis):

The TSA Abuse Blog

Ted Frank of Point of Law and Overlawyered fame has started the TSA Abuse Blog. Fight the power!

TSA Won't Touch their Majesties' Junk

I think one difference between being ruled and being governed is that rulers exempt themselves from the rules that apply to their subjects. With that in mind:

Cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders and an exclusive group of senior U.S. officials are exempt from toughened new airport screening procedures when they fly commercially with government-approved federal security details.

Aviation security officials would not name those who can skip the controversial screening, but other officials said those VIPs range from top officials like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and FBI Director Robert Mueller to congressional leaders like incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who avoided security before a recent flight from Washington's Reagan National Airport.

It's not that I think Boehner is a security risk (<LAME ATTEMPT AT HUMOR>Of course, Pelosi's a different matter</LAME ATTEMPT AT HUMOR>). It's just the frakking principle of the thing.

Kevin Drum Defends TSA

Kevin Drum has posted what he calls an anti-rant about TSA. I have a lot of respect for Kevin. He's far to my left, but he's thoughtful and usually has to say besides just scoring political points. But not this time.

Kevin opens with:

I hate the TSA screening process. Everyone hates the TSA screening process. You'd be crazy not to. It's intrusive, annoying, and time-wasting. It treats us all like common criminals even though most of us are just ordinary schlubs trying to get on a plane and go somewhere.

But guess what? The fact that you personally are annoyed — you! an educated white-collar professional! — doesn't mean that the process is idiotic. I've heard it called "security theater" so many times I'd be rich if I had a nickel for each time it popped up in my browser, but although the anti-TSA rants are often cathartic and amusing, they've never made much sense to me. All the crap that TSA goes through actually seems pretty clearly directed at improving the security of air travel.

He then proceeds with a Q&A. For example:

Q: Why do we have to take our shoes off?
A: To prevent terrorists from packing explosives into their shoes and bringing down an airplane.

Q: Why do we have to go through those new body scanners?
A: To prevent terrorists from packing explosives around their bodies and bringing down an airplane. ...

Q: But other countries don't do all this stuff.
A: That's because Islamic terrorists mostly target American planes. It's fine for Switzerland to be a little less cautious, not so fine for us.

As Doug Mataconis observed, however:

Abdulmutallab boarded his flight to Detroit in Amsterdam, so these enhanced screening procedures would have done nothing to stop him from getting to the United States, and that remains true for vast numbers of foreign terrorists who could theoretically carry out an attack on an American airliner without ever stepping foot on American soil. Richard Reid boarded his flight to the United States in Paris, for example, and  the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 took place without a single terrorist entering the United States.  In that case, the explosives that brought the plane down over Lockerbie, Scotland were put on the plane in Germany. Neither the attempted attacks by Richard Reid or Adbulmultallab, nor the successful attack on the Pan Am airliner, would have been prevented by screening procedures in the United States. So,  forcing American travelers to undergo invasive security procedures doesn’t necessarily accomplish anything.

Then Kevin opines that:

Q: The Israelis don't do all this stuff either. Why not adopt their methods?
A: Because even experts don't think we could scale up the Israeli system for use in the United States. What's more, the Israeli system is only convenient for Israeli Jews. It's a huge pain in the ass for everyone else.

Crapdoodle. Everybody knows El Al security includes racial and ethnic profiling. So we can't use it in the USA because profiling would violate the civil liberties of those who get profiled. And that's how it should be, for both prudential and moral reasons. But instead we have a system that violates everybody's civil liberties. Excuse me for preferring a system in which nobody's civil liberties get violated.

Then Kevin decides to play politics:

For seven years, Republicans insisted that every security procedure ever conceived was absolutely essential to keeping the American public safe, and anyone who disagreed was practically rooting for an al-Qaeda victory. Now a Democrat is in office and suddenly they're outraged over some new scanners.

Just for the record, this Republican was blogging about how bad the TSA sucks as long ago as 2006. I'm guessing I'm not alone.

In sum, I expect better of Kevin. I'd have hoped that he would agree with those of us who believe that those who give up liberty to get a little safety deserve and ultimately will not get either. And I'd have hoped that he would have seen this as an opportunity for people on all sides of the political debate to stand up and say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." It's a chance to recover some liberty and basic human dignity in a modern world that constantly chips away at them.

Sadly, I find myself disappointed on both scores.

More Fun with the Airline Screening Playset: Body Imaging X-Ray Edition!

Daniel Solove's post is a must see.

Make the Obamas go through a TSA Pat-Down

Doug Mataconis thinks President Obama is "being incredibly non-responsive to the concerns that people have raised about procedures that many consider to be incredibly invasive":

In the face of outrage over Americans being groped by TSA agents, children being man-handled in a bizarre procedure that makes no logical sense, and people being exposed to the humiliation of having prosthetic breasts removed or being covered in their own urine, Obama’s “Too bad, you’ve gotta do it anyway” response is a sign of how far removed from reality the Presidency makes a person. If the President or members of his family had to subject themselves to TSA screening on a regular basis, one would think his opinion on the matter w0uld be quite different.

I continue to believe that the best way to handle the controversy would be for the Obamas--all of them, including the kids--to have to go through a public pat down.

Free Government Handjob Courtesy of the TSA

It's bad enough that our federal government spends so much on handouts, but now it's also providing free handjobs courtesy of the TSA:

Dear United: I'm Driving Whenever Possible

Megan McArdle posted a Dear John letter to her airlines:

But don't feel too bad.  It's not you, it's me.  Or rather, it's the TSA.

I'm not going to lie.  It's come between us.  If I have to let someone else see me naked in order to be with you--well, I'm just not that kinky.  And deep down, I don't think you are either.  I think it's the TSA making you act like this.  Frankly, you haven't been the same since you started running around together.

But I can't put all the blame on them.  I think you went along because you thought I had to have you--that I couldn't live without you.  That no matter what you did, I'd stay.  And it's true, you had a pretty strong hold on me.  Took away the food, and I still loved you--who wanted to eat a terrible, fattening meal anyway?  Narrowed the distance between the seats, and still I stayed, using my airline miles to upgrade to first class.  Charge me for baggage?  I'm an economics writer--I love unbundled products.  So I can see where you got the idea that I'd stick by you no matter what.

But the kinky stuff is just a bridge too far.  I'm not saying I'll never see you again:  we can still meet up for a drink, or even a quick weekend trip to California.  But our days are a regular item are through....

If it's under 500 miles, I'll do anything rather than hop on a plane.  And if it's over 500 miles, it had better be way over . . . or I'd better be carrying a cooler with a still-beating heart in it.

I just agreed to give a speech at a convention in Las vegas in February ... and I'm going to drive. Partly because flying really aggravates my back problems, but also because I'm going to opt out of flying whenever possible until the TSA backs off the x-ray or grope choice.

TSA "security measures amount to state-sponsored sexual harassment"

Great column by Jennifer Abel is a must read

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri is an Idiot

She's describing the TSA pat downs as "love taps." Fine. Let's see her go on national TV and get patted down in public. BTW, I'm still waiting to hear when the Obamas are going to do so.

If the TSA's going to grope citizens, let them start with the Obamas

Mark Hemingway has an excellent idea:

If the President’s Homeland Security department is so adamant that [pat downs are] the absolute best way to prevent terrorism, I think the President and his family should voluntarily submit to one of the new invasive pat down procedures. I know the Obamas don’t fly commercial at all these days, so they should probably get a pretty good idea what the rest of us are putting up with.

The President and his family — preferably with DHS Secretary Janet “The system worked” Napolitano — should show up at Dulles or Reagan airport on a weekday with a camera crew in tow, as airport pat downs are typically done in full view of hundreds of travelers. All of America will to see the TSA handling the President’s crown jewels. Then a rubber-gloved federal agent will run his hands all over his wife and daughter’s privates while he watches. Then I want him to turn to the camera and tell all of America that this is no big deal and we should all be good citizens and comply with the necessary security procedures.

It only seems fair.

Will the New GOP House Majority Address TSA Screening Abuse?

Maybe somebody in Washington is listening to the growing outcry:

In addition to being large, impersonal, and top-heavy, what really worries critics is that the TSA has become dangerously ineffective. Its specialty is what those critics call "security theater" -- that is, a show of what appear to be stringent security measures designed to make passengers feel more secure without providing real security. "That's exactly what it is," says [Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure." "It's a big Kabuki dance."

Now, the dance has gotten completely out of hand. And like lots of fliers -- I spoke to him as he waited for a flight at the Orlando airport -- Mica sees TSA's new "naked scanner" machines and groping, grossly invasive passenger pat-downs as just part of a larger problem. TSA, he says, is relying more on passenger humiliation than on practices that are proven staples of airport security.

TSA to "Probe" John Tyner

San Diego news:

The Transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who left Lindbergh Field under duress on Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan.

Tyner recorded the half-hour long encounter on his cell phone and later posted it to his personal blog, along with an extensive account of the incident. The blog went viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers and thousands of comments.

Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a news conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe. He said the investigation could lead to prosecution and civil penalties of up to $11,000.

Althouse:

Love the use of the word "probe."

Me too.

Those of us of a sixties and seventies vintage will recall The Monkey Wrench Gang. It's time we threw a new monkey wrench into the TSA security theater machinery.

November 24 is National Opt Out Day. Don't forget your kilt.

Acrotomophilia at the TSA

The stories about the TSA's appalling new travel "security" policies just keep getting worse and worse. Here's one where a government groper apparently has an amputee fetish of some sort:

It all started normally. A young kid was the “officer” doing the screening. I knew something was up when he did the pat down like he was considering it a vertical deep tissue massage session. He had me shaking and baking as he massaged leg, arms, back, and then even buttocks. His pat down of the crotch was something I don’t want to think about much less write here about. And then he said he needed to see the top of the prosthesis. I said firmly that he most certainly did not. He insisted and offered the private screening. Here is where I draw the line.

I understand their job is safety of the traveling public. And if they are nervous about something they have to investigate. But there is a risk that they miss something in each and every person they let through. Amputees do not have a different risk profile. Maybe they have a lower one but I have no data on that. But standing out there in public we already are getting this embarrassing man-handling and now they wanted me to pull down my pants. I refused to go to the private screening because a) I know the policy for amputees and they were out of line, and b) I needed to make a statement that this is not respectful treatment of people who have done nothing wrong. I would actually like them to stop and think that every amputee has already been through a lot in just becoming an amputee and has to put up with a lot of extra hassle through security anyway and this insistence on seeing the whole prosthesis to me was the straw that broke the camels back. ...

Finally Mr. David Baron showed up. He was the most senior TSA agent there. And he started to lecture me on safety and their mission. ... I kept very calm but I was getting really pissed. But if this was the most senior guy I had really no recourse but to do the private screening or I risked not going home at all.

... I went off to the private screening. Once there Mr. Baron suggested I try to pull my pants leg *up* as high as I could which is pretty high. They could then see above the computer knee and a couple of inches of the socket. And they suddenly decided that was enough. I don’t know if it was because they could now see there were no storage compartments for knives, guns or bombs or if it was because they had “won” and now they felt like I must not be a terrorist. But I am rip-shit that this is how we are going to treat very responsible innocent people who happen to have a metallic artificial body part.

I hope Mr. David Baron at the Dulles airport who is responsible for training these agents does a whole lot better job at that from now on. He should be ashamed of yesterday’s performance and how this reflects on an agency that is critical to public safety but has a role in public respect as well. In that role they failed miserably yesterday.

It's time we let the TSA know that we aren't going to stand for this crap anymore.