Good rant, Burnie. You hit on something important here I do believe - there are many degrees of hunting difficulty. Although my weapon of choice is my trusty Hoyt compound, I have taken one deer with my recurve. Why only one? I simply don't have the time to keep up on being proficient enough with it to warrant taking it to the woods with me. For me, it is more of a challenge, just as if I were to be hunting with a spear, or with hand made deer skin moccasins running the deer down and fighting them to their death. Does a bait pile provide an advantage? Yes it does and as Burnie and others have pointed out for years, so does camo and calls and scents and setting up over food plots or well used trails.
Bottom line here is what a particular hunter uses to take game (legally) is up to them and also to decide the degree of difficulty they wish to place on the hunt. There is nothing wrong with that, at all.
All I am saying is the "hunting" methods described here would brand you a poacher and land you in jail without a hunting license for life in NY. It IS possible that your state legislators are poachers that created the baiting rule that has now passed on to state residents for years and years.
With all sarcasm and aggrivation aside, please answer this:
Why would you want to take any rights away from hunters?