The Road to Hell.

A recent posting at We The Armed explains some of the benefits of domestic drones from a law enforcement point of view.

There have been times when having an airborne FLIR system would have been very helpful. We can call the highway patrol, but sometimes their aircraft are down. We've chased burglars when it would have been very useful and we've had elderly walk away from their residence, especially in winter time, when that would have helped also.

Nothing but the purest of intentions. Right?

A few people still remember what good intentions are the paving stones for.

I'm sure the US Government had good intentions when it demanded Google build a backdoor to its Gmail accounts. The real world result was Chinese hackers breaking in and using Gmail to gather intelligence. I'm sure the restrictions on Sudafed are done with the purest of intentions, too. The real world results are an estimated $1.5 billion in higher costs to health insurance companies and more demands on the time of primary care physicians who are already in short supply.

So, next time you have to wait an extra hour to to see a doctor or your medical insurance premiums go up again, you can thank the pure as driven snow intentions of the bureaucracy. Don't expect the bureaucrats to care -- in the strange fantasy land that statists inhabit only the good intentions matter. Any bad result is just used as an excuse to lay down even more paving stones.

How will the domestic use of unmanned drones play out? I don't know -- I am an observer, not a prophet. My observation of history and the natural tendency of government power to increase prompts me to believe it will not work out in a manner that increases individual liberty.