This Wind Turbine Will Pay for Itself in 452 Years, Generates $8 a Month

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Government bureaucrats have just been given a sobering reminder that you can’t place a wind turbine just anywhere. Welsh officials have been chastised for building a wind turbine in a calm area that will only generate about $8 of electricity per month — a 452-year payback period.

The Welsh government claims that the turbine is generating a low return because of mechanical problems, reports the Daily Express, but the company that built it says it’s the poor location that’s causing the turbine to underperform.

“The problem is quite simple — it’s been put in the wrong place,” said Paul Burrell, a wind turbine expert. “It’s very important with any wind turbine to ensure it’s in the most exposed location possible. They need unobstructed access to wind from all directions.

“Unfortunately the Welsh Government’s one is located in a valley two miles from the sea and has quite a short tower,” he added.

The wind turbine was built near the headquarters of the Labour Party-controlled Welsh government in 2009, but its performance was not monitored until a year ago. The turbine has only generated 33 kilowatts of power per month in that year, meaning it only generates about $8 worth of electricity per month.

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US Sees 25 Percent Surge in Women Hunters Since 2006

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Photo Credit: Renee VThe number of American women spending time hunting has spiked 25 percent between 2006 and 2011.

According to Census Bureau statistics cited by National Geographic, while men still make up the majority of the 13.7 million hunters in the United States, 11 percent are women.

Many states, the magazine reports, are now hosting workshops, titled “Becoming An Outdoors-Woman” (BOW), which instruct participants in archery, shotgun and rifle shooting.

“There is definitely a high demand. We have over 3,000 women on our mailing list, and workshops fill up quickly,” Patricia Handy, information and education program manager at the Department of Natural Resources in Maryland, told National Geographic.

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Homeless Man’s Good Deed Punished When He Turns in $850 Found on Sidewalk

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Photo Credit: VIOREL FLORESCU/THE RECORD OF WOODLAND PARKOffers of support have been pouring in from around the nation for a formerly homeless New Jersey man whose good deed proved costly.

James Brady of Hackensack was notified recently that his government benefits were being suspended after he failed to report as income the $850 he had found on a sidewalk and turned over to police.

Brady, who was homeless when he found the money on a sidewalk in April after leaving a local homeless shelter, turned the cash over to police. He was allowed to keep it six months later after no one claimed it during a mandated waiting period.

But the Hackensack Human Services Department denied him General Assistance and Medicaid benefits through Dec. 31 because he failed to report the cash as new income. The director of human services said the agency was just following the rules.

The 59 year-old Brady is a former photographer and market data analyst who has suffered from depression since losing his job a decade ago, according to The Record of Woodland Park.

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Conspiracy Theorist: Kerry Says, ‘I Have Serious Doubts Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone’

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Photo Credit: APIn an interview with Tom Brokaw of NBC, Secretary of State John Kerry said he has “serious doubts” that Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy, acted alone.

The Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination, came to the opposite conclusion. The commission did suggest, however, that Oswald’s motive for murdering Kennedy might have arisen from Oswald’s “avowed commitment to Marxism and communism.”

“Where do you come down on the conspiracy theories?” Brokaw asked Kerry in a clip from the interview that was broadcast on CNN’s “Situation Room” on Friday.

“To this day, I have serious doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone,” said Kerry.

“Really,” said Brokaw.

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Most of Satellite Likely Incinerated as it Entered Atmosphere

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Photo Credit: My FOX NY Officials say they have confirmed a 2,000-pound European satellite that has been steadily sinking toward Earth after it ran out of fuel last month has re-entered the atmosphere Sunday, and say most of it likely incinerated.

In a status report posted on the European Space Agency’s website, scientists said tracking stations last made contact with the GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, at 5:42 p.m. GMT when it was 75 miles above Antarctica.

Spokesman Robert Meisner tells FoxNews.com the agency has confirmed the GOCE has fallen to Earth, but has not confirmed any other details.

The agency estimates on its website that about 25 percent of the spacecraft survived re-entry and has fallen into the ocean.

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NJ Biologists Remove Arrow from Deer’s Head (+video)

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Photo Credit: APWildlife officials have removed an arrow from a young deer’s head and released the animal back into the New Jersey woods.

The arrow that had completely pierced the 5-month-old male deer’s head was removed Saturday by biologists with the Department of Environmental Protection.

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Impeaching Himself, Period

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Photo Credit: APThe side-by-side comparisons of President Obama’s statements then and now are devastating. Especially the “period.” Period here is no punctuation mark. It’s a way of underscoring the word of the President of the United States.

“If you like your health care plan you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” – June 15, 2009

“And I am sorry that they, you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me.” – November 7, 2013

For him to have made such unqualified assurances to the American people — not once but dozens of times — and for us to learn that he always knew that promise could not be kept — will haunt his presidency. He has impeached himself.

The president’s word has been called “the coin of the realm.” Well, we don’t have a realm, and we have far fewer coins these days. But the point is made: His word has value. Or had value.

Of course, many opponents of this president will raise the specter of impeachment. The legislative process for enactment of ObamaCare was surely debauched by these knowingly false assurances. Of that there can be no doubt.

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If Obama Were a CEO in the Private Sector, He’d be Prosecuted for Fraud

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Photo Credit: National Review ‘If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan. Period.” How serious was this lie, repeated by Barack Obama with such beguiling regularity? Well, how would the Justice Department be dealing with it if it had been uttered by, say, the president of an insurance company rather than the president of the United States?

Fraud is a serious federal felony, usually punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment — with every repetition of a fraudulent communication chargeable as a separate crime. In computing sentences, federal sentencing guidelines factor in such considerations as the dollar value of the fraud, the number of victims, and the degree to which the offender’s treachery breaches any special fiduciary duties he owes. Cases of multi-million-dollar corporate frauds — to say nothing of multi-billion-dollar, Bernie Madoff–level scams that nevertheless pale beside Obamacare’s dimensions — often result in terms amounting to decades in the slammer.

Justice Department guidelines, set forth in the U.S. Attorneys Manual, recommend prosecution for fraud in situations involving “any scheme which in its nature is directed to defrauding a class of persons, or the general public, with a substantial pattern of conduct.” So, for example, if a schemer were intentionally to deceive all Americans, or a class of Americans (e.g., people who had health insurance purchased on the individual market), by repeating numerous times — over the airwaves, in mailings, and in electronic announcements — an assertion the schemer knew to be false and misleading, that would constitute an actionable fraud — particularly if the statements induced the victims to take action to their detriment, or lulled the victims into a false sense of security.

For a fraud prosecution to be valid, the fraudulent scheme need not have been successful. Nor is there any requirement that the schemer enrich himself personally. The prosecution must simply prove that some harm to the victim was contemplated by the schemer. If the victim actually was harmed, that is usually the best evidence that harm was what the schemer intended.

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Steyn: The Drift toward Despotism

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Photo Credit: National Review At a time when over 4 million people have had their health insurance canceled, it’s good to know that some Americans can still access prompt medical treatment, even if they don’t want it. David Eckert was pulled over by police in Deming, N.M., for failing to come to a complete halt at a stop sign in the Walmart parking lot. He was asked to step out of the vehicle, and waited on the sidewalk. Officers decided that they didn’t like the tight clench of his buttocks, a subject on which New Mexico’s constabulary is apparently expert, and determined that it was because he had illegal drugs secreted therein. So they arrested him, and took him to Gila Regional Medical Center in neighboring Hidalgo County, where Mr. Eckert was forced to undergo two abdominal X-rays, two rectal probes, three enemas, and defecate thrice in front of medical staff and representatives of two law-enforcement agencies, before being sedated and subjected to a colonoscopy — all procedures performed against his will and without a valid warrant.

Alas, Mr. Eckert’s body proved to be a drug-free zone, and so, after twelve hours of detention, he was released. If you’re wondering where his lawyer was during all this, no attorney was present, as police had not charged Mr. Eckert with anything, so they’re apparently free to frolic and gambol up his rectum to their hearts’ content. Deming police chief Brandon Gigante says his officers did everything “by the book.” That’s the problem, in New Mexico and beyond: “the book.”

Getting into the spirit of things, Gila Regional Medical Center subsequently sent Mr. Eckert a bill for $6,000. It appears he had one of what the president calls those “bad apple” plans that doesn’t cover anal rape. Doubtless, under the new regime, Obamacare navigators will be happy to take a trip up your northwest passage free of charge. That’s what it is, by the way: anal rape. The euphemisms with which the state dignifies the process — “cavity search” — are distinctions that exist only in the mind of the perpetrator, not the fellow on the receiving end. Fleet Street’s Daily Mail reports that this is at least the second anal fishing expedition mounted by local authorities. Timothy Young underwent a similar experience after being fingered by the same police dog, Leo, who may not be very good at sniffing drugs but certainly has an eye for a pert bottom. At the time of Mr. Young’s arrest, Leo’s police license had reportedly expired a year-and-a-half earlier, but why get hung up on technicalities?

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Jim DeMint: The Conservative Alternative to Obamacare (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube We’ve been very critical of Obamacare because it’s hurting Americans. But that has caused some to ask, “What’s your alternative?”

The truth is, we’ve always had alternatives, but our critics weren’t ready to listen. Now, the disastrous rollout of Obamacare has a lot of people asking for alternatives to government-run health care. And conservatives are ready.

With each passing day, it becomes clearer that Obamacare will not reduce premiums for average American families, bring down health care spending, or truly improve health care in this country. Instead, people are receiving notices from their insurance companies that their policies are being canceled or their premiums are skyrocketing.

At The Heritage Foundation, we are envisioning a health care system where you and your family come first.

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