This is madness ...

The New York Times informs us that

Federal Customs and Border Protection authorities are preparing to launch unmanned aircraft patrols from [North Dakota], the first time such monitoring will occur along the nation’s northern border.

A Predator B aircraft, delivered to Grand Forks on Saturday, will make runs along the northern edge of North Dakota using sensors that can provide video and detect heat and changes to landscape, Customs and Border Protection officials said.

The $10 million drones will protect us -- from what, I have to ask? The head of "air security operations" was asked whether there was a significant problem with unauthorized border crossings or illegal drug shipments. He admitted he wasn't sure.

"We hope to actually use this aircraft to measure that," he said. "You don't know what you don't know."

Apparently a guy out of the Donald Rumsfeld school of explanatory prose.

It seems our rulers want to turn us into paranoid lunatics while bankrupting us so their cronies can sell the government high tech surveillance equipment. Can we change this? I remember being proud of living near "the world's longest undefended border" with Canada.