The Oregon Republican Party has elected a new chairman and they got themselves a guy with a PhD and everything. He's Art Robinson and he's an idea man, big ideas - weird ideas.
On nuclear waste: "All we need do with nuclear waste is dilute it to a low radiation level and sprinkle it over the ocean—or even over America after hormesis is better understood and verified with respect to more diseases." And: "If we could use it to enhance our own drinking water here in Oregon, where background radiation is low, it would hormetically enhance our resistance to degenerative diseases. Alas, this would be against the law."
On public schools: "Public education (tax-financed socialism) has become the most widespread and devastating form of child abuse and racism in the United States. Moreover, people who have been cut off at the knees by public education are so mentally handicapped that they cannot be responsible custodians of the energy technology base or other advanced accomplishments of our civilization." (Robinson, a home-schooling activist, sells a DIY curriculum for $195.)
On AIDS: "There is a possibility that the entire 'war' on HIV and AIDS is in error. U.S. government AIDS programs are now receiving $6 billion per year and are based entirely upon the hypothesis that HIV virus causes AIDS. Yet, the articles referenced above and numerous additional publications by scientists who have become involved in this controversy state that: attempts to cause AIDS experimentally with HIV have completely failed; thousands of AIDS victims are HIV-free; and HIV shows none of the classical characteristics of a disease-producing organism. Moreover, AIDS is not a unique disease—it is an increased susceptibility to many ordinary diseases presumably as a result of depressed immune response. This depressed immunity can result from many other factors including those especially prevalent in the AIDS afflicted population—drug abuse and unhygienic exposure to very large numbers of different disease vectors. Moreover, large numbers of HIV carriers who are symptom-free are being treated by powerful life-threatening drugs that kill people in ways very similar to AIDS."
He is of "sound" mind.
ReplyDeleteHis ideas about nuclear waste does have merit. Studies indicate that low levels of radiation exposure can make you more resistant to genetic damage.
ReplyDeleteAfter all dilution is how we deal with the radioactivity released by burning coal and people don't seem to mind.
how in the world do people like him float to the top, without entering a facility to contain...their quirkiness:P
ReplyDeleteDeb, he's of a fairly extensive ideology that embraces and even rewards his way of thinking. Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, climate scientists are a global cult, the UN is a ploy to enslave Americans. This stuff sells.
ReplyDeletedoconnor, studies also indicate that there is no safe level of radiation exposure. Even background radiation does cause cancers.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how thrilled I'd be to be possessed of damage-resistant genes, but dead of cancer.
yeah its too bad the truth didnt have the same colourful plumage, it would sell much better, alas the truth is boring and therefore not lucrative nor digestable.
ReplyDeletethe media has to sell their product and no longer are an entity created to educate:P
doconnor, it doesn't make sense to sprinkle rad waste anywhere. Robinson's right that the dilution effect would render its cancer causing potential to be close to non-existant. But what is the point? Rad waste is stored safely right now. Whatever is eventually decided to do with it, the strong governmental mechanisms around waste storage will ensure a safe situation. There is no actual pressing problem. Some people (liberal-minded people, mainly, most unfortunately) have unwarranted fears about radioactive waste. This liberal fear-mongering attracts to the debate a certain type of conservative, like Mr Robinson, who will reason that since the liberal is "wrong" the exact opposite of the liberal's opinion must be "right". (Which is wrong-headed reasoning, of course.)
ReplyDeletePurpleLibraryGuy:
As for hormesis: it might exist in the living human body (certainly it exists in cell cultures). But it's helpful effect is surely small. Nothing in logic says small amounts of radiation can't harm (by breaking DNA bonds and having the body misrepair them, potentially increasing cancer risk), while as the same time help (by having the cell, prompted by small radiation damage, repair other DNA damage).
Purple Library Guy: the idea that one cannot show that there is a safe level of radiation exposure doesn't mean that,
a) such a level might exist
b) that low levels really harm.
The consensus seems to be that we just can't show that low levels don't harm. And given that we do positively know that high levels do harm, ergo, there is no point in unneeded exposure to radiation. (This is the precautionary principle.)
But it doesn't make sense to worry about the small stuff! If people want to go bath in the hot springs in Radium Hot springs, who cares? Nobody's ever going to allow deliberate releases of large amounts of radiation affecting everyone.