Blue Crab Boulevard

Well, at least one person in Britain has had more that enough of the wind power scams being run by folks trying to get rich off government subsidies. Edward Heathcoat Amory has a scathing column up over at the Daily Mail about what is going on.

My electricity company has just sent me a handwringing letter, explaining why, despite its best efforts to keep costs down, my bill is set to soar again this year.

The reason - apart from the usual rapacious profits enjoyed by our power suppliers - is a hidden subsidy paid towards the development of wind farms.

In the last financial year, electricity consumers were forced to pay a total of £600million in subsidy to the owners of wind turbines.

This figure is due to rise to £3billion a year by 2020 as vast areas of the most beautiful parts of the country will be pockmarked with 500fthigh windmills.

The sudden growth in this area of energy supply is because the green lobby has convinced many that this renewable power source is the answer to our looming energy crisis.

But the truth is that not only do renewables provide a mere 1.3 per cent of the country's energy needs but also that this money is being wasted.

The subsidy system works on the principle of encouraging the development of new wind farms by forcing traditional energy companies to pay producers of renewable energy. The firms then recoup the money by charging consumers higher bills.

After an initial surge in the number of new wind farms, few are currently being built. The most obvious sites, far from human habitation, have already been filled and energy firms are now facing delays in obtaining planning permission to build in more environmentally sensitive locations.

As a result, the huge subsidy is concentrated in a small number of hands. There is a rising amount of money for renewable energy and if less is produced each turbine gets more of the pot.

At current subsidy rates, anyone who constructs a wind farm, which is expected to last for a minimum of 20 years, will have paid off their investment in only five years. From then on, its profit all the way to the bank.

John Constable, director of policy at the Renewable Energy Foundation, says that the system "has encouraged underperforming onshore wind turbines in low wind areas. Though of little engineering value, such plants attract speculators because they require little capital investment".

As a result, consumers will soon be paying billions in unnecessary subsidy to a bunch of sharp-suited businessmen who have spotted an opportunity for easy money.

The number one hogs at the trough? Well, according to another article in the same newspaper, it would be the power companies in Britain themselves. It is so bad that the regulators themselves are calling for the system to be scrapped.:

Inflation-busting increases in electricity prices - which were supposed to pay for a massive expansion of wind power - have boosted the profits of power companies instead, it emerged yesterday.

Under a controversial Government scheme, British consumers pay £1billion a year in their fuel bills to subsidise the drive towards renewable energy.

The cash is supposed to act as an incentive to companies wanting to build green generators such as wind farms or hydro-electric dams.

However, because of a loophole in the system - and the vocal opposition to new turbines in the countryside - the scheme has failed to produce the expected surge in wind power. Instead, most of the money has lined the pockets of energy companies.

Energy experts yesterday warned that the "Renewable Obligation" subsidy system is "hugely flawed" and places a unfair burden on families at a time when household bills are soaring. Last year the energy watchdog Ofgem called for the

Renewables Obligation to be scrapped. "It is a very expensive way of providing support for renewables," said regulator Andrew Wright.

I've pointed out before why wind energy is a very bad idea . The best data I have seen is that the turbines are actually available and producing power about 30% of the time. Compounding that is that they can drop offline at any moment, because the wind dies or increases to too high a velocity. When they do, fossil plants have to be ready to take the load. The savings are illusory. But the profits - made up of our tax money - that are handed to those sharp-suited businessmen are quite real.

Maybe just a difference in venue, maybe nothing at all. Or maybe the reason Hillary Clinton turned on the waterworks today. She appeared at a campaign event at a Minneapolis college and spoke to 4,000 people. 

Barack Obama had just appeared at an event in the same city with 20,000 people in attendance .

Clinton spoke to a crowd of nearly 4,000 in a gymnasium, hoarse from a multi-state campaign blitz the weekend before Tuesday's crucial series of primaries and caucuses.

"I think about the next generation," she said. "I think every American generation has the choice to be great." But, she said, the nation is at "a critical turning point" and "there is no guarantee that we will remain a great nation" without sound leadership.

Her appearance came a day after Barack Obama drew 20,000 to Target Center and about 25 minutes before the Super Bowl kickoff. But the timing didn't deter her supporters.

Her poll numbers are shrinking and Obama's are rising rapidly. Again, not to read too much into the numbers. But it sure seems odd that her crowd was so small - and that a larger venue was not selected if the demand was there. 

Thanks to NortonPete for sending me the link to this story. A Vietnam veteran and a Civil War re-enactor from New Jersey have spent years documenting the graves of Civil War veterans from that state. They published a history of those resting places in 2006. Now,  Bob MacAvoy and Chuck Eckhardt have found another Civil War veteran. One named Restless.

 Their research has taken them from High Point to Cape May, to more than 1,500 Garden State cemeteries where they've identified 41,000 graves so far, including 2,500 of Confederate soldiers. They've piece together threads of history carved on tombstones, many fading from age and exposure to the elements. In 2006, they published a two-volume tome on their research titled "Our Brothers Gone Before."

But one burial plot MacAvoy recently stumbled upon — at least on paper — was a bit out of the ordinary. It was an 1889 New York Times obituary for an old war horse from Sussex County named Restless.

MacAvoy learned of the article from a friend and was fascinated. Horses had played a pivotal role in the Civil War, carrying supplies and officers, and early on, the odds were against horses, as they were dying in greater numbers than soldiers.

"When we think of war, we think of Jeeps, tanks, trucks, ships and planes," said MacAvoy, whose great-grandfather was a Civil War veteran. "They didn't have that. Everything moved by horse, pretty much. Many cavalry regiments were so short on horses that they fought on foot as infantry."

Restless survived the war. He was "of noble strain, having been sired by Rysdyk's Hambletonian," the horse after which the Meadowlands race is named. Already known for style and speed at age 6, Restless went to war under Col. Samuel Fowler of Port Jervis, N.Y., who led the 15th New Jersey Infantry Regiment comprised of soldiers from neighboring Sussex County, the obituary stated. Fowler rode Restless in battles of Virginia campaigns in 1862, until Fowler had to step down due to ill health, the obituary said.

The horse then was passed on to Chaplain Alanson A. Haines of Hamburg, and rode with him or was loaned to other officers for battle until the end of the war, the article stated. Restless was under fire in more than 30 battles, including "the seven days bloody struggle in the Wilderness … and bore on his body the honorable scars of wounds received at Gettysburg," the obituary stated.

After the war, Haines, who was the son of former two-time New Jersey Gov. Daniel Haines of Hamburg, brought Restless home to the family farmstead in Hamburg, where the horse lived until his death on Nov. 2, 1889, at age 33.

What a remarkable story. Obviously, Haines thought quite highly of the horse, enough to go to the trouble of bringing him all the way back from the war with him. The high regard is obvious, Restless was buried on the family farm, wrapped in the American flag and was given military honors. 

My wife sent me a link to this today. Do not have a mouthful of liquid when you look. Consider yourself warned . 

Every post I have put up today has been done with my Dell laptop running Ubuntu 7.10. And it is running like a tank. I can "see" all the computers on my home network, can read all of their shared files and can print through a printer attached to another network computer. I have two desktops to use right out of the box, which is, I am finding, incredibly handy. Every peripheral I have tried plugging in has worked, including a tablet I had laying around.

In other words, this operating system is up and running - and running very well indeed. This one could give Windows a real run - a complete tyro could run this right out of the box. 

Tom Bevan over at the Real Clear Politics Blog has a very sharp observation on Hillary Clinton's latest crying jag. I was pretty well disgusted by it , a lot of others are amused, attributing it toClinton seeing her poll results. Bevan, I think, nails it with his observation:

Furthermore, it's a bit of a contradiction for Clinton to be constantly misting up and getting verklempt while simultaneously deploying the argument that she's tougher than Barack Obama and can handle whatever the Republicans come at her with in the general election.

Meanwhile, Obama seems to be holding up just fine, thank you very much. And not just because the winds are blowing his direction at the moment. This summer when the polls had him 20 points down and the folks around him began to panic, Obama stayed incredibly cool. After a shocking, even disappointing loss in New Hampshire followed by a hard fought defeat in Nevada, Obama kept his emotions in check, a feat made even more remarkable given that he was under daily attack by the former President as well.

Bevan points out that if a primary is good for anything at all, it is to give us a sense of how the candidate copes under pressure. In that respect, Obama has acquitted himself quite a lot better than Clinton has to date. The Clintons have used every dirty trick they could and Obama has shrugged them off.

Clinton is leaking. Says a lot, really. 

Find out what it means to…. PETA. The preeminent vermin rights group has spoken, demanding that China respect rats. Rats, they say, have dreams. No, I am not making this up.

BEIJING - An animal rights group called Monday for China to treat rats with kindness and respect, as millions across the nation begin to celebrate the coming Year of the Rat.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said it has asked the Chinese government to consider animal welfare laws for rats used in laboratory experiments. The group also recommended a series of guidelines for animals used in science.

"Rats sing, they dream, and they express empathy for others," Coco Yu of PETA's Asia-Pacific branch said in a statement.

One too many viewings of Ratatouille, one presumes. Rats spread at least 70 known diseases to humans with even more suspected. They are extremely destructive creatures that reproduce like wildfire. In other words, they are vermin. 

Jake Tapper notes that both Mitt Romney and - especially - Barack Obama have serious problems with their positions on guns and gun ownership.

Asked Tim Russert: "So the assault ban that expired here because Congress didn’t act on it, you would support?"

"Just as the president said, he would have, he would have signed that bill if it came to his desk, and so would have I," said Romney.

In the last few hours, Romney contradicted that in a podcast interview with Glenn Reynolds and Helen Smith of Instapundit fame.

"I know that a lot of the gun rights folks aren’t sure about your position on gun rights," asked Smith. "Would you pledge to veto any new gun control bills that come across your desk as President?"

"Yeah," Romney said. "Yeah, I don’t support any gun control legislation, the effort for a new assault weapons ban, with a ban on semi-automatic weapons, is something I would oppose. There’s no new legislation that I’m aware of or have heard of that I would support. In regards to guns, I think we have enough legislation and should enforce the laws as they exist. I was pleased that when I ran for Governor that I received the endorsement of the NRA and I hope to receive their support now."

In addition to that apparent flip flop, it should be noted that the NRA did NOT endorse Romney when he ran for governor, as his campaign acknowledged when he said it last December.

This is a rank untruth Mr. Romney continues to peddle.

Said Mr. Reynolds: "I'm beginning to question his sincerity."

On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, campaigning in Idaho over the weekend said "there are people who say, `Well, he doesn't believe in the Second Amendment,' even though I come from a state — we've got a lot of hunters in downstate Illinois. And I have no intention of taking away folks' guns."

In 1996, however, Obama said in a questionnaire that he "supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns" — a fairly extreme position.

Romney signed an "assault weapon" ban in Massachusetts. Hillary Clinton's husband signed an "assault weapon" ban while in office. Barack Obama said in the past that he favors taking handguns away.

Kind of tends to focus the mind - or darn well should.

Hey, it worked in New Hampshire, right? Well, Hillary sprang a leak again today at an appearance in Connecticut.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Sen. Hillary Clinton teared up this morning at an event at the Yale Child Study Center, where she worked while in law school in the early 1970s.

Penn Rhodeen, who was introducing Clinton, began to choke up, leading Clinton's eyes to fill with tears, which she wiped out of her left eye. At the time, Rhodeen was saying how proud he was that sheepskin-coat, bell-bottom-wearing young woman he met in 1972 was now running for president.

"Well, I said I would not tear up; already we're not exactly on the path," Clinton said with emotion after the introduction.

Oh, please. This is so transparent. Bubba does the puppy eyes and now Hillary turns on the waterworks to scam votes.

Yuck. 

Songwriters have used the words 'blue roses' to describes sad, lost love or something impossible. All those lyrics are now obsolete. The Suntory company of Japan, a major whiskey distiller, is branching out. They will begin selling blue roses sometime next year in Japan . The US and Australia are also targeted for the genetically modified flowers at a future date yet to be determined. 

TOKYO (AFP) - Think that red roses are predictable? In Japan, gift-givers soon will also have the option of blue roses.

The Japanese company that created the world's first genetically modified blue roses said Monday it will start selling them next year.

Suntory Ltd., also a major whisky distiller, hopes to sell several hundred thousand blue roses a year, company spokesman Kazumasa Nishizaki said.

"As its price may be a bit high, we are targeting demand for luxurious cut flowers, such as for gifts," he said. The exact price and commercial name for the blue rose have not been decided.

The company is also growing the rose experimentally in Australia and the United States to get approval for sales, but no timing has been set for commercial launches in the two countries.

Here's some information on how the roses were created. What we here at Blue Crab Boulevard can't figure out is why a distiller was even interested in this. 

We'd have thought they'd be more interested in pink elephants.

UPDATE: One of the fun things about blogging is finding the huge amount of knowledge that is out there in the world. Via email, I have been informed - by someone who (as a corporate guest) went on a tour of Suntory's original distillary. The place is a garden spot, apparently. It seems that the founder of the company was a huge fan of flowers and that Suntory has been involved in breeding and modifying flowers for some time. I am also informed that their whiskey is very, very good. Thanks for the info, Terry!