Free Republic

For Americans concerned about their privacy, the NSA data grabs are daunting, but what about the data grabs happening inside your own home, perpetrated not by the government, but by your coffee machine? Here are nine appliances and other systems inside your house that may be spying on you right now, or used to spy on you in the future. 1. Your Television 2. Your Cable Box 3. Your Dishwasher, Clothes Dryer, Toaster, Clock Radio and Remote Control 4. Your Lights 5. Your Heat and A/C 6. Security Alarms 7. Insulin Pumps and Pacemakers 8. Smartphones 9. Your Tablet and...

Federal prosecutors have documented at least 350 instances of faulty background investigations done by private contractors and special agents for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in recent years, illustrating what some lawmakers call systemic weaknesses in the granting of federal security clearances. Reuters calculated the total by reviewing court documents and press releases from prosecutors for 21 cases resulting in convictions that involved the making of false statements from December 2004 to March 2012. These are the cases government officials have cited to assert that action is taken against investigators who falsely claim to have reviewed records or done...

The money-losing U.S. Postal Service guessed that TV cartoon character Homer Simpson and his family were twice as popular as Elvis Presley when it came to sales of commemorative stamps. As Homer would say, “D’oh!” In a move that wasted $1.2 million in printing costs, the service produced 1 billion of “The Simpsons” stamps and sold 318 million.