The Gadfly

New Posts on Other Pages

Just in case some readers are only notified of posts to this page of my site, I thought it best to inform them/you that new posts are occurring on the Bird Log and the new home page for ChuckBaldwin.com.

So please make sure you look at those pages and adjust your bookmarks to one or the other, or both. This page is going out of service. In fact it should be already.

-chuck

No Excuse

Every time I look at this page I feel guilt for having not updated it in so long. Therefore, the best solution, I think, is to banish the page to the archives and start from scratch. Shortly a new page will grace the halls of ChuckBaldwin.com.

Stay tuned. Or rather, since I've likely lost any visitors, Get ready to tune in!

Writer's Block

Well that's the excuse I'm going with. I think the upcoming holidays slowed me down back in November, but that's no excuse for not posting.

We moved. We're about 12 miles from the center of town but now just a few feet from the coast. It's lovely here. A bit damp and foggy, but with the mighty Pacific in full listen at all times you tend to get over that. The neighbors are delightful people, all of them. Life can go on after San Francisco!

An unexpected and delicious benefit of living by the sea is the crab. Dungenness and Red Rock Crabs are plentiful here and if lucky enough to have neighbors like ours will end up on your plate if they catch more than they can eat.

I'm not yet a sea gull aficionado, but I am more curious in learning the differences is in our most numerous and homogeneous bird. But fret not, there are raptors aplenty and a decent smattering of other bird groups. But you'll have to look at the Bird Log for the low-down on that.

Stop the Drilling in Alaska Before it Starts

Please call or write your US Congressman and Senator today and urge them to vote against the Budget Reconciliation bill as it begins moving through Congress and the Senate tomorrow. This budget bill contains the language that will open up speculative drilling for oil in one of America's last pristine wild areas, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This bill does not represent the will of the people of the US, but only the small but powerful oil interests. The vote is very close, just a couple of votes -- which should show you just how much the will of the people is contrary to the will of the party pushing it through, otherwise it would be along party lines. As it is, the moderate Republicans are against this too. Urge them all to keep the ANWR language out of the budget.

Additionally, the wording would end the 25-year moratorium on oil drilling off the east and west coasts which has protected our beaches from oil spills similar to that caused by the Exxon/Valdez wreck. The reason many of us have not experienced or seen such devastation in our lives is because of that moratorium. The bill also contains $19 billion of cuts to Medicaid too, which should also justify voting against it.

You may recall how much it costs to fill your gas tank. Meanwhile Exxon posted record profits of $9.9 billion this quarter -- that's just 3 months, and that's profit, not revenue. And that's just Exxon. All of the oil companies profit while you suffer. The same thing is about to be allowed to happen in Alaska -- the environment suffers drastically, while Big Oil continues to make huge profits. And the amount of oil reputed to be in ANWR is trivial. It's hardly even worth drilling for except out of arrogant contempt and principle.

Right now in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the oil companies are blaming environmentalists for blocking the construction of new refineries and facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. It is simply untrue. The oil companies do not want to build them. New proposed legislation that will strip the environmental impact studies from the requirements for construction is a smokescreen to blame environmentalists for the lack of supply. In reality, the oil companies are reaping huge profits from the current supply-and-demand balance. They do not want to see it change, so they are trying to drill in Alaska and play the victim in the Gulf as publicity stunts to blame environmentalists for the status quo of high gas prices.

Please urge your congressmen and senators to represent your values instead of corporate oil's interests. It is imperative that those of you in more conservative areas of the country make it known to your representatives that you do not support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or just a few miles from our nation's beaches. Please do so.

Special Election Endorsements

Chuck Baldwin's 2005 California Special Election Endorsements:

Prop 73 - Teen abortion - NO
State laws cannot force healthy family communication.

Prop 74 - Teacher tenure - YES
There are a lot of bad teachers teaching our children. If they don't perform, they should be let go. Two years is not long enough to make tenure anyway. And once tenured, they should still be accountable for their performance. New teachers should know this and not expect to slack off.

Prop 75 - Silence public employee unions - NO
The unions are one of the last big voices for those without great wealth to stand up to those with infinite means to get their message out. While this silences only the unions for publicly employed workers, the unions that have indeed put a stranglehold on some government activities, it is not the solution needed for real progress.

Prop 76 - Unilateral education cuts - NO
If the state cannot run itself properly and gets itself far overextended, it won't be the first time. The solution is not in cutting money from our children's education. California already has one of the worst public education systems. Let's not make it worse. Make cuts elsewhere.

Prop 77 - Redistricting - YES
I originally said NO on this because it is one The Arnold's propositions. But truth be told, a panel of judges chosen by a fair and balanced picking procedure is a far better alternative to the legislators picking their own districts. This Prop. has the Dems and Repubs shaking in their boots.

Prop 78 - Phony drug benefits - NO
A drug proposition drafted by the pharmaceutical corporations is not in the best interest of the citizens of California.

Prop 79 - Real drug coverage - YES
This is a real stab at fairly lowering drug costs to un- and under-insured Californians by using volume purchasing power. And no one will lose low-cost access to any drug required for their treatment.

Prop 80 - YES/NO
I'm undecided on this. Those against it say "never say never" when it comes to permanent laws. I just don't know what will happen with deregulation if this is voted down. I should do more research.

Or, vote NO on all of them to send the message to future governors that we do not want our tax dollars wasted on special elections for their pet initiatives.

Bush on Board with Solar Power

"I had an interesting opportunity to go see some research and development being done on solar energy. I'm convinced, someday in the relative near future we'll be able to have units on our houses that will be able to power electronics within our houses, and hopefully, with excess energy, be able to feed them back in the system. That's possible. We're not there yet, but it's coming."
--GW Bush, October 4, 2005, The Rose Garden

The Theory of Relativity might help explain why Bush thinks that we're close to being able to power electronics in our houses with solar power. It may not explain to him the difference between an adjective and an adverb though.

I know that when I'm hungry, I like to feed them energies into the microwave and nuke me a leftover. But I wonder if I had more energy than I could use, could I feed them back into the wall and maybe even get paid for it? What if I made them energies myself or harvested them from our GOD, Apollo. Who would get the money? Me? The church? The state? The energy company? The oil company?

So many questions. It's a good thing we have time to figure it out before them units are developed.