Tuesday, September 17, 2013

When Drones Could Be of Real Use, the Feds Ground Them?

Picture courtesy of RT - Sill from Youtube Video

Colorado Flood Areas:  Apparently FEMA has grounded volunteer drone operators working the floods in Colorado.  I wonder what genius bureaucrat came up with that idea? 

Well that makes sense in a government reverse parallel universe kind of way.  When lives are at stake and drones could actually be useful in helping find stranded people and save livestock and property, FEMA wants them all grounded. Isn't that what happened in New Orleans after Katrina?  The government actually tried to block volunteers from bringing relief into New Orleans days before the government got around to doing it themselves.

You know I hate conspiracy theories, but you just know somebody's going to find a way to blame the flooding on some secret government project that FEMA is trying to hide from prying eyes. I can hear them now.

Conspiracy theorists give the government credit for a lot of intelligence. To me this grounding of drones by FEMA smacks, not of some brilliant conspiracy so much as it does of bureaucratic stupidity and turf protection.  The last thing FEMA bureaucrats want people to know is that we can do things as citizens to rescue ourselves and our neighbors without including them and often better than they do it.

Which brings us back to why I think government should be smaller and less intrusive.  We're big boys and girls.  We can do things for ourselves.

© 2013 by Tom King

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