A correspondent writes,
I see in your blog from March of this year that you called attention to Florida House member Dennis Baxley’s ridiculous idea to make sure students can “express their views” in the classroom. Unfortunately I live in his district. The good news is that he faces a challenger this year in November, a young democrat who is an Iraqi war veteran but now works at a women’s domestic violence center. His name is James Walker. I am not associated with his campaign, but have been trying to help him and have given him the maximum $500 myself.
Are you interested in doing something about Baxley and legislators who propose crazy ideas like his? I suggest you round up your friends who have an interest in this issue and each give James Walker $50 for his campaign. The only way to temper people with crazy ideas like Baxley is to try to throw them out of office. This is an excellent chance to do so. Baxley has no business serving in our legislature.
Here is a link to James Walker’s website:
P.S. Baxley’s legislation relates directly to religion and his disbelief in the theory evolution. What he really wants is for students to be able to argue in favor of creationism, and against evolution, and not be penalized in any way (i.e. meaning graded down). Baxley is a far right wing religious conservative.
Back in the beginning of the Iraq war, one of the Marion County Sheriff’s deputies was deployed to Iraq, I guess as a reservist. From Iraq, the deputy contacted the sheriff asking for old bullet-proof vests. Turns out that the vests have a shelf life, and after a certain amount of time they not considered usable/reliable. The deputy wanted the used vests to stuff into the unarmored Humvees, presumably on the theory that multiple layers of the vests packed into the Humvees and would be a lot better than nothing. The sheriff made it known to the local paper, the Ocala Star-Banner, that he was going to provide the used vests he had, and that he was contacting other sheriffs for additional vests. Baxter, who was apparently not asked for a comment, nevertheless was reported to have basically told the sheriff to shut up. The sheriff did shut up, although he waffled on the reason why, and I don’t know if he continued his efforts under the radar — hopefully, he did. There was no reason for Baxter to try to squelch the sheriff other than to protect the administration and/or the Pentagon, and for me, Baxter proved he’s a phony patriot and a religious hypocrite.