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Stage Setting For The Mark Of The Beast Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Beware of the New World...

Obscure agency working on technology to monitor all vehicles A little-known federal agency is planning a new monitoring program by which the government would track every car on the road by using onboard transceivers. The agency, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, is part of the Department of Transportation. According to an extensive report in the Charlotte, N.C., Creative Loafing, the agency doesn't respond to public inquiries about its activity. According to the report, cutting-edge tracking technology will be used by government transportation management centers to monitor every aspect of transportation. Under the plan, not only will movement be...

AUGUSTA (Sep 25, 2004): The Maine Revenue Service defended itself before a legislative committee last week against claims that it is getting heavy-handed about chasing down people who still have ties to the state -- through banks, churches or alumni associations -- but don't pay income taxes here.Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland, raised the issue for review by the Appropriations Committee after he had heard from a former resident that the state was targeting people making contributions to their alumni associations, churches or other charities. He also had heard others were targeted because they continued to use banks and investment firms...

Attention friends and acquaintances: Please stop sending me invitations to join your electronic social networks. I know Plaxo, Friendster, Tickle and other networking tools help you remember my address and phone number, but I'd prefer you hand-write them in your little black book. At least the data will belong to you alone and won't be shared with the world. It seems not a week passes that I don't get an invitation to join one of these social networks. So, being the skeptic that I am, I did a bit of research about them. What I found scared the heck out...

A man's home is his castle. To three Utahns, that means their sanctuary extends all the way to their doorknobs.    But they claim police are trespassing by wiping door handles with a cloth that collects traces of illegal drugs.   The men, in separate cases, are challenging the use of test results that allegedly revealed microscopic drug particles on their front doors - information officers used to bolster their requests for search warrants.   To the trio, the high-tech approach is a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches.   A person has a subjective expectation of privacy in their...

RICHMOND, Va. (Aug. 31) - Republicans selected state Del. Thelma Drake Tuesday to replace U.S. Rep. Edward L. Schrock on the November ballot, a day after he dropped out of the race amid claims that he is gay. The Republican Committee for Schrock's district gathered Tuesday to hastily vote for a nominee who could take on Democrat lawyer David B. Ashe in the Nov. 2 election. Drake, a real estate agent, is a reliable member of the state House's conservative GOP majority. Schrock, 63, a married retired Navy captain who was popular among conservatives, cited unspecified ''allegations'' for his surprise...

From your bank to your contractor to your telephone company, the eyes and ears are out.And increasingly, they're inspecting you on behalf of the federal government, says the American Civil Liberties Union."This is the next battle ground for civil liberties," said Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico.Most Americans have no idea that data is being collected on their shopping, banking and Internet browsing habits, Simonson said. More importantly, they don't know the data is being shared with the government and just about anyone else willing to buy it.In the ACLU's modest offices on Tulane Avenue Southeast,...

A couple who placed an anti-abortion sign on their Dauphin County home are refusing to heed borough officials' demand to remove the sign or risk a $500 fine and up to two months in jail. Paxtang officials say the sign violates the borough ordinance that permits "signs for public, religious and charitable institutions and uses such as parks, schools, churches and similar uses." Colman and Frances Wessel attached the sign to their front porch three weeks ago. "We're just exercising our freedom of speech and religion," said Colman Wessel said. "Is it the pro-life words or the picture of Jesus...

All those upset about the recent court decision that said Northwest Airlines' privacy policy doesn't count, raise your hand. And, while your hand is up there, use it to slap yourself upside the head. What, you thought vendors' privacy policies gave you even a little bit of protection?Although it's been almost two months, there still seems to be considerable consternation over a U.S. district court ruling that said it was OK for Northwest to violate its posted privacy policy in giving passenger records to NASA. As much as the case has upset people, though, it really isn't saying anything we...

LEBANON - Keith Emerich will spend at least the next two weeks hitching rides from friends while a judge decides whether he can get back his driver's license.Emerich, of Lebanon, had his license taken away April 1 after telling a doctor that he drank at least six beers a day. He would have had his driving privileges reinstated weeks ago if he had proven he does not have a substance abuse problem. But Emerich, 44, said he's trying to prove a point. He said the state Department of Transportation should never have invaded his privacy by using medical records to...

Keith Emerich says it's none of PennDOT's business what he does in the privacy of his home. We couldn't agree more. In fact, we'd like to nominate him as the poster boy for privacy rights. The 44-year-old northside Lebanon man was notified by the state transportation department in April that his driver's license was being revoked. Why? Somebody told us you had a drinking problem, the good people at PennDOT told Mr. Emerich. Who? We're not telling you, they said. We're not allowed to. Mr. Emerich thinks he knows who it was. He had been at the hospital a few...

Standoff in Passaic: Home stormed over code violations   Tuesday, July 20, 2004 PASSAIC - A crackdown on city housing violations escalated into a standoff Monday when a homeowner refused to cooperate, prompting authorities to call in a SWAT team, one that broke down a door and shot her with non-lethal weapons.Code enforcement officials arrived about noon, wanting to talk about, among other things, broken windows and a deteriorating porch - violations written three months ago, said Community Development Director Donald Van Rensalier.It just so happened that 109 Quincy St. was smack in the middle of an area targeted in...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

PITTSBURGH (AP) — As disposable radio tags replace bar codes for tracking goods, demand is expected to explode for plastics that conduct electricity. That's driving a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff, Plextronics Inc., which sees big potential in the conductive polymers it is developing. The state Department of Economic Development and Smithfield Trust Co., a private asset-management firm, are investing $3 million to help the Pittsburgh-based company. "It's very exciting because all at once your credit card becomes a little computer," said Timothy Swager, chemistry professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Things get pretty interesting when you start doing that and...

NEW YORK (AP) -- An odd-looking van sprouts 13 digital cameras that its builder wants to use to photograph 50 million buildings in the country while driving, taking pictures every 15 feet. The van's drive-by snaps would be matched against GPS satellite positioning data and aerial photographs in a database. Police, insurance agents and others then could call up overhead and street-level views simply by entering an address. The setup from Imageos Inc. was one of the security-related exhibits on display at this year's CeBIT America technology trade show, which opened here Tuesday. Other companies were showing software tools to...

If a man relieves his bladder in the deep woods in the dark of night, when he thinks there's no one around, is it still indecent exposure? And does it give law officers a reason to search his car? No, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson has thrown out evidence in a federal case against Donald Whitmore, 50, of Mio. The judge ruled that a forest ranger did not have just cause to search the vehicle Whitmore was driving even though she "observed the defendant answering an urgent call of nature, alfresco."

"I won’t go to jail." Bob Schulz announces this in late January to a rapt crowd of 200 gathered in an auditorium in Crystal City, Virginia. It’s the first national conference of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, a nonprofit advocacy group Schulz founded and runs. He delivers his declaration not with reckless bravado but with a dignified, quiet, middle-management-lifer assurance, in keeping with his general mien. Schulz is a serious white male in a nice conservative dark suit, a former environmental engineer for both General Electric and the Environmental Protection Agency. He’s been married for 38 years...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. hails its new e-mail service as a breakthrough in online communication, but consumer watchdogs are attacking it as a creepy invasion of privacy that threatens to set a troubling precedent. Although Google's free "Gmail" service isn't even available yet, critics already are pressuring the popular search engine maker to drop its plans to electronically scan e-mail content so it can distribute relevant ads alongside incoming messages. Privacy activists worry that Gmail will comb through e-mail more intensively than the filters widely used to weed out potential viruses and spam. Gmail opponents also want Google...

Filed at 5:19 p.m. ET NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The federal government is looking into putting video cameras on commercial flights so people on the ground could monitor pilots and passengers and get an early warning of hijackings or other trouble on board. The Boeing Co. demonstrated a satellite system to Federal Aviation Administration officials in two test flights early this year, showing how images could be sent from a plane to the ground, said John Loynes, an FAA program manager in Washington. A Boeing 737, equipped with seven cameras, transmitted images of the cockpit and cabin. Pilots have fiercely...

Computer Virus Cripples State Department's Visa-Checking System for About Nine Hours The Associated Press WASHINGTON Sept. 24 — A computer virus disrupted systems at the State Department for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history, leaving the U.S. government unable to issue visas for roughly nine hours. The virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more than 15 million records from the FBI, the State Department and U.S. immigration, drug-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Among the names are those of at least 78,000 suspected terrorists. In an internal message sent late Tuesday...