Tag Archives: offbeat

Obama-Hating Oath Keepers Aim to Form Paramilitary Units

Mother Jones

Oath Keepers, the anti-government group profiled by Justine Sharrock in our March/April 2010 issue, just got a little creepier. The group recruits active and former military members, cops, and other law-enforcement types who claim they are worried about government tyranny, but seem to be equally driven by a deep loathing of President Obama. At their gatherings, members take an oath that they will disobey “unconstitutional” orders. What’s unconstitutional is pretty much left up to the individual—even if, like it or not, this isn’t how our democracy operates.

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Obama-Hating Oath Keepers Aim to Form Paramilitary Units

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These Preppers Are Ready for Zombies, Nukes…and the Debt Ceiling

Mother Jones

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At least someone on the Right is taking the debt ceiling seriously: preppers. With the federal government seven days away from reaching its borrowing limit, survivalists—and the $500-million-a-year industry that caters to them—are on high alert, taking to message boards, podcasts, and YouTube to urge their countrymen to stock up on freeze-dried food and ammunition, absent fast congressional action.

Mac Slavo, writing at SHTF Plan, short for the prepper mantra “Shit Hits the Fan,” put it bluntly in a post on October 4: “The end result is going to widespread financial and economy destruction, a meltdown of the U.S. dollar, and a collapse of our very way of life as tens of millions of Americans will be instantly impoverished.”

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These Preppers Are Ready for Zombies, Nukes…and the Debt Ceiling

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The Collected Poems of the Affordable Care Act

Mother Jones

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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2010, was an attempt by Democratic lawmakers to reform the health care system by creating an individual mandate to purchase insurance. But since then, the law has morphed into a specter seemingly larger. It is alternatively an abomination and a document worthy of adulation; the death of the Democratic party and the yoke by which it will cling to power; the socialization of medicine and a gift-basket to private insurers.

Do these pundits contradict themselves? Very well then, they contradict themselves—Obamcare is fractal; it contains multitudes. As a service to our readers, we have rearranged the most vivid and hyperbolic descriptions of the Affordable Care Act below as a collection of short poems. Read them in your best Donald Berwick voice:

I.

Obamacare is barreling down on us,

like a jet landing into San Francisco,

or a cat with nine lives—

neither alive nor completely dead.

Obamacare is a zombie,

it will nationalize our soul.

Obamacare is a big fucking deal.

II.

Obamacare is a crack pipe.

Obamacare is addictive.

Obamacare is the Titanic.

Obamacare is the iceberg.

Obamacare is the DMV.

Obamacare is slavery.

III.

Obamacare is fascism.

like the Jews boarding the trains to concentration camps,

like a failed rental car reservation,

like pressing the button for the elevator and stepping forward before the car arrives;

Obamacare is a locomotive.

It is a trainwreck.

IV.

Obamacare is Apple.

Obamacare is an iPad.

Obamacare is a broken iPhone app.

Obamacare is a Ford Pinto.

Obamacare is New Coke.

Obamacare is Alex Rodriguez.

Obamacare is a sharknado.

V.

It is an ugly, socially awkward kid who transfers into grade school at mid-year,

and then spends the rest of the semester eating alone in the cafeteria while being giggled about,

by all the other pupils.

Obamacare will question your sex life.

Revolutionary wars have been fought over less.

VI.

Obamacare is like a box of chocolates.

Obamacare is Waterloo.

Obamacare is the Iraq War,

or its domestic equivalent.

Obamacare will kill more people than 9/11.

Obamacare is the War of Yankee Aggression,

Obamacare is the hill to die on,

Obamacare is Gettysburg.

Obamacare is the Fourth of July.

Obamacare is Christmas,

like being forced to purchase a book of cowboy poetry,

or a Barry Manilow album.

Obamcare is like this health insurance/medical aid kind of thing,

like a military draft.

Obamacare is the best bill you could have passed.

Obamacare is here to stay.

Obamacare will survive.

Obamacare is the moon.

VII.

Obamacare is like the inside of a clock.

Obamacare is a malignant tumor.

Obamacare is an abscessed tooth.

Obamacare is like getting teeth pulled without novocain.

Obamacare is 17th-century Britain.

Obamacare is the first thing Hitler did.

Obamacare is a civil rights struggle.

Obamacare is a lemon.

Obamacare is the law of the land.

VIII.

Obamacare is the Right’s worst nightmare.

Obamacare will live in infamy.

Obamacare is like kale.

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The Collected Poems of the Affordable Care Act

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10 Non-Violent Video Games that Kick (Metaphorical) Butt

Mother Jones

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Still from the acclaimed game Journey Thatgamecompany

A bunch of us here at MoJo play games, love games, and cringe at the publicity that a few shoot em’ up games like Call of Duty receive every time another terrible mass shooting hits the news. Despite three decades of research, we’re still far from a definitive answer on whether violent video games are linked to IRL violence, as Erik Kain has noted here before. But like any art form—and yes, video games are art—there’s as broad a range of expression in games as the space between Kill Bill and Amelie and well beyond. Games can be emotionally moving, intellectually challenging, deeply political, and straight-up good quirky fun.

Here’s our buyers guide to perhaps lesser known but thoroughly excellent titles we think you might love and are almost entirely devoid of physical combat, whether fantastical or realistic. We figured you’ve already heard of the big sports titles like Madden and the FIFA series, music games like Guitar Hero, and movement games like Dance Dance Revolution or Wii Sportsâ&#128;&#139;; our list focuses on immersive narratives, physics-based games (think Angry Birds but way better), and “sandbox” games that let you build your own worlds.

Use the comments to yell at us about everything we missed.

Portal

If the last time you touched a game controller involved a spastic blue hedgehog, Portal is a great gateway into modern gaming. You’re an unwitting subject who’s just been mysteriously dropped into the test chambers of the dimly lit Aperture Science Enrichment Center. You’re not exactly sure why you’re there, but a droll artificial intelligence being named GLaDOS informs you there’s cake at the end of all the lab trials if you make it through. It so happens that you possess a blaster gun that can open portals in walls, and soon enough you’re popping out of floors and zooming through ceilings, leaping and hurling yourself around the lab, timing jumps for maximum velocity. It’s mind-bending gameplay that works your puzzle-solving skills and memories of 8th grade physics, so much so that the sequel, Portal 2, is popular with K-12 physics teachers as a teaching tool.

Available on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation 3, $9.99

Journey

Frankly, this stunningly beautiful game is impossible to describe. Take our word for it, or the fact that leading the Gawker gaming site Kotaku named Journey Game of the Year in 2012, it earned a profile from the New Yorker, and has even been likened to a “nondenominational religious experience.” The game itself is utterly devoid of dialogue: its characters never utter a single word. So let’s wrap this review up with just two: play it.

Available on PlayStation 3

â&#128;&#139;Minecraft

Ever wanted to build your own personal USS Starship Enterprise? A giant terrarium in the shape like R2D2? Landscape your own Westeros from Game of Thrones? The massively popular Minecraft was initially conceived as a straightforward game where players used the game’s Lego-like building blocks to build shelters from menacing creatures and so on. But even before the game made it out of its beta version, gamers began working together across multiplayer servers to construct ambitious and elaborate new lands and scenarios. You might build a digital replica of your house, down to the plumbing and light switches, and why not relocate the Arc de Triomph to your backyard while you’re at it? Slash your way through zombies and other creepy creatures if you so choose, but violence is entirely avoidable. In Minecraft, you create the world you want to live in.

Available on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, GNU/Linux, $26.95

â&#128;&#139;Dear Esther

Game scholarship (yes, that’s a thing) hasn’t decided whether this “poetic ghost story” is a bona-fide video game or an interactive film. The workaday gamer doesn’t care—this 90-minute game turned a profit just five and a half hours after being released. You’re a shipwrecked man wandering around a beautifully realized island, exploring cliffs, caves, and beach as a narrator reveals bits of letters that eventually coalesce into a haunting story. Some may find the gameplay constraining—our protagonist doesn’t fight anyone or solve puzzles to advance. “Stripped down to its constituent parts, there’s very little game here at all,” PC Gamer’s Chris Thursten writes. “But at the same time, it’s a story that only games give us the freedom to hear.”

Available on Windows and Mac computers $9.99

â&#128;&#139;Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing moves you into a town populated by anthropomorphic raccoons, penguins, and goats, and simply lets you live your new fauna-fabulous life. Make friends with the hippo next door, stitch yourself a new animal-print wardrobe, hang out with a guitar-playing dog named K.K. Slider—it’s all up to you. While the game observes the changing of the seasons and the passing of time, its world is constantly changing, from the species of fish you can catch in its rivers to the goods available in village shops, with plenty of hidden surprises (including classic Nintendo games) to find. Critics have praised the simplicity and addictiveness of the game, even the parts that are essentially chores. “Some of the things you can do in Animal Crossing wouldn’t be considered fun at all were they to take place in real life,” IGN’s Peer Schneider wrote. “But that’s the beauty of the game.”

â&#128;&#139;Available on Gamecube, Wii, 3DS $30 (New Leaf)

â&#128;&#139;LittleBigPlanet

Like Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet is all about creating and sharing your own worlds. You’re a cheery little yarn-knit sackperson attempting to make your way across stylized levels inspired by locations like New York City streetscapes or the African savannah. Get though, and you can fire up the game’s DIY universe-building kit and build new stages and games to your heart’s desire. Fans have built everything from a bunny-themed version of Super Mario to a nearly hourlong feature film. You can buy and download extra themes like Toy Story, The Muppets, and Marvel Comics from developer Media Molecule. “Like the most prolific creators in the series’ community,” Gamespot reviewer Justin Calvert said about the most recent PS3 edition, it’s “a game that just keeps on giving.”

Available on PS3, PSP, Vita, $20 (LittleBigPlanet 2)

â&#128;&#139;

â&#128;&#139;Slender: The Eight Pages

In a mood for a good scare, but don’t care for blood and guts? Slender shares its fear factor with the Blair Witch Project: the scariest monster is the one you can’t see. You play from the first-person perspective of a regular person lost in the woods at night. You traipse around with only a flashlight in hand, doing your best to avoid the Slender Man, an loomingly tall, faceless figure who might have crawled out of the deepest recesses of your nightmare. This character was spawned from a real Internet meme in which people Photoshopped a tall man in black into the backgrounds of otherwise unremarkable photos, a sort of creeper photobomb writ large. Among the game’s many deliciously eery elements: there’s no music. You hear only the sound of own footfalls snapping twigs, the occasional cricket, your flashlight clicking on and off, and a pulsing, ominous beat that grows louder every time you find one of eight mysterious notebook pages scattered around the woods. This is one to play with headphones on and lights off.

Microsoft, Mac, free download —Maggie Caldwell

â&#128;&#139;Gone Home

You are 18-year-old Katie Greenbriar, just returned home from a long trip to Europe. Your family moved homes while you were gone, and you show up at the new address for the first time late one thunderstorm-soaked night only to find your family has disappeared. You slowly piece together what happened to your parents and lovestruck little sister Sam as you search the house, combing for clues in the magazines, ticket stubs, and letters they left behind. What you find is knowingly realistic (the food items in the fridge have ingredients on the back), funny (check your dad’s box of magazines at your own peril), and eventually extremely poignant. The game is heavy on 90s nostalgia, with a soundtrack by riot grrrl-era favorites Bratmobile and Heavens to Betsy. With its deeply realized coming-of-age storyline and themes of gender identity and sexuality, this indie game proves you don’t need big bucks to tell a great story. “Even though they weren’t mine, it still evoked the memories of my own time as a teenage riot grrrl with a secret love,” wrote one fan. “That’s something I thought I would never get back.”

Available on PC, Mac, Linux $19.99

â&#128;&#139;Katamari Damacy

The King of the Cosmos got loose one night and knocked all the stars and planets out of the sky. Your job, as the star prince, is to clean up the mess and replace the missing celestial bodies with whatever you can. First stop: Earth. Using a magical sticky ball that rolls up anything in its path, you travel around picking up smaller and then larger and larger objects, from ants to thumbtacks to cities and mountains, lumping them all into a big ball that will be thrown back into the sky. The title loosely translates from the Japanese to “clump spirit,” resulting in one wonderfully wierd, quirky, and oddly joyful game.

Available on PlayStation 2 (sequels available on PS3), $14.99 (pre-owned)

â&#128;&#139;Braid

Another brain-stretcher, this game allows you to rewind time and redo actions, even if your character dies. With some art nods to old school Nintendo games, Wired described its aesthetics as if “Mario’s art director had been Van Gogh.” But don’t let the dreamy palette and the tranquil music lull you, you’ll be facing difficult challenges and must collect pieces of different puzzles that will eventually explain the main character’s affecting backstory and motivations. This strange and beautiful game will leave you feeling both challenged and haunted.

Available Xbox 360, Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 3, Cloud, $9.99

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10 Non-Violent Video Games that Kick (Metaphorical) Butt

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Rand Paul Slams John McCain Over…MoJo Map?

Mother Jones

Last week my colleague Tasneem Raja and I published a map highlighting Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s long, loud history of proposing American military interventions in foreign countries. (His 2000 “rogue-state rollback” strategy, for instance, called for American-backed regime change in North Korea, Iraq, and Libya.) Apparently, it struck a nerve with McCain’s colleagues. On Friday, in an interview with Buzzfeed‘s McKay Coppins, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of the party’s loudest anti-war voices, highlighted our guide while taking a dig at McCain’s push for military intervention in Syria:

“There was a funny article the other day in Mother Jones—did you see it? About one of my colleagues?” he asked.

He was trying to do the polite, senatorial thing by not mentioning his “colleague” by name. But when his vague prompt was met with a blank look during an interview with BuzzFeed, he scrapped the pretense of diplomacy and charged forward.

“It ranked the different countries on how eager Sen. John McCain wanted to be involved militarily,” he explained, not even attempting to contain his amusement. “So, like, for getting involved in Syria, there’s five Angry McCains. For getting involved in the Sudan, there’s two Angry McCains. And there’s a little picture of him. You know, he was for getting involved to support former Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi before he was for overthrowing Gaddafi. He was for supporting former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak before he was for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood before he was for supporting the generals.”

You can read Coppins’ full piece here.

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Rand Paul Slams John McCain Over…MoJo Map?

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Quiz: All The Words That Aren’t Fit to Print in the New York Times

Mother Jones

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(function($)

$.quiz = function(quiz_data, options)
var container_elem;
var self;
var answer_tracking = [];
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right_answer_placement.sort();

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build_possible_answer_elements_from_row : function(question, question_index)
var answers_container = jQuery(”);
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possible_answer.bind(‘click’, function()
// was it the right answer?
var was_correct = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index.correct;

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);

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self.update_correct_answers_element();
cover.find(‘.question_’ + question_index).addClass(
‘first_guess_’
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: ‘wrong’
)
);

//show new slide
self.display_answer(self.quiz_dataquestion_index, question_index, self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index);

// track that this was selected last
self.quiz_dataquestion_index.previously_selected = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index;
});
})(question_index, i, possible_answer);
answers_container.append(possible_answer);
}
return answers_container;
},
add_display_in_correct_place: function(container, place_in_display_elements, slide)
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return;

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container.prepend(
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,
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The Gray Lady has her standards, at least. For as long as anyone has kept track, the New York Times has enforced a strict policy of avoiding language it deems offensive while jumping through hoops to explain why. While cursing is permitted in excerpted works of fiction, in the paper’s news sections, f-bombs, s-words, racial slurs, and off-color terms such as “screw,” are strictly non grata. (The one exception: The 1998 publication of the NSFW Starr Report.)

No one—even Joe Biden—is exempt. In the hands of the Times copy desk, “cocksuckers” becomes “Offensive Adjective Inappropriate for Family Newspaper“; “fuck you money” is “forget you money“; and “slutbag” is euphemized as just one of “several vulgar and sexist terms” uttered by New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s spokeswoman. If—to borrow a trope that really ought to be banned—the Eskimos have 100 words for snow, the New York Times has at least 100 ways to say “fuck.” None of them use the word “fuck.”

Can you read between the lines to figure out which words the Times copy desk considered unfit to print in the quotes below? Give it your best fucking shot:

var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘0AswaDV9q95oZdDlmanhkZDd0TVhVcGRSQjlqdzQwNUE’); //your published spreadsheet key or URL goes here
Like this quiz? Wanna build your own? Check out our open-source quiz builder here!

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Quiz: All The Words That Aren’t Fit to Print in the New York Times

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No, the New York Times Didn’t Change Its "Fuck" Policy

Mother Jones

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On Monday, Salon’s Laura Miller reported on an almost mythical creature—an actual F-bomb in the pages of the New York Times. According to Miller, the use of the word “fuck,” in an excerpt from Jonathan Lethem’s new novel Dissident Gardens, constituted the paper of record’s “first ever use of the word.” As she put it, “With the discretion of a well-bred debutante, the Times has just lost its F-bomb virginity, so to speak.” Lethem, reached for comment, told Miller he was “delighted.”

But it’s not the first time the paper has used “fuck” or one of its variants. The Times‘ anti-profanity editorial policy is, as Salon has chronicled before, often absurd, leading to the awkward censorship of band names, book titles, and, at least once, the vice president of the United States. But it only applies to nonfiction. A quick search through the paper’s archives reveals dozens of instances of F-bombs casually inserted in fiction excerpts. Most of the time those are online-only features that supplement print reviews, but occasionally the word makes its way into the paper itself. And in some extenuating circumstances, such as the publication of the 1998 Starr Report, the paper’s news desk has consented to publish the F-word as it appears in quotes.

And there’s this, which was excerpted in the September 21, 2003, edition of the Times: “He might even be truly sick, fucked up, in pain, who knew? Your only option was to say dang, white boy, what’s your problem? I didn’t even touch you. And move on.” A few paragraphs later: “Play that fucking music, white boy! Stretching the last two words to a groaning, derisive, Bugs-Bunnyesque whyyyyyyyboy!”

The author? Jonathan Lethem.

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No, the New York Times Didn’t Change Its "Fuck" Policy

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America’s Elderly Really Love the ’50s

Mother Jones

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The Economist asked people, “Which decade would you like to go back to?” and Matt Yglesias chides respondents for preferring the 40s (big war! carpet bombing! nukes!) to the 90s (great economy! jobs for all!). But there’s no surprise about this. Why would you want to go back to a decade that you’ve not only already experienced, but experienced recently? There’s not even nostalgia to draw you back.

What’s more interesting, I think, is looking at the poll by age. The most popular choice of seniors by far was the 1950s. In fact, if you discount the ’20s, which probably just seem like an interesting, faraway decade, the most popular choice of nearly every age group is a decade of their youth. millennials like the ’90s, when they were growing up. My generation likes the ’80s, when we were just out of college. Only the thirtysomethings seem not to care, showing no particular preference for any decade between the ’50s and ’90s.

But it’s the nostalgia of seniors for the ’50s that intrigues me the most. I’d love to see a demographic breakdown of that. I assume that nonwhites aren’t pining away for that era, which means that white seniors must really be in love with it to produce such a high overall number. Likewise, I’d guess that women might not be too thrilled with it. If that’s true, it means that white male seniors must be nostalgic for the ’50s in fantastic numbers. In one sense that’s easy to understand, but in another it’s not. If it’s just nostalgia for their youth, that’s one thing. But what about older seniors? Are they really that eager to go back to the era of Joe McCarthy, suburban lawns, and duck-and-cover drills? Apparently so.

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America’s Elderly Really Love the ’50s

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I Am the Ghost of Barry Eichengreen

Mother Jones

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Today’s nerd game of the moment is “Which Economist Are You?” This involves answering questions that have previously been posed as part of the IGM Economic Experts Panel and then seeing which economist your answers match best. I got bored after 19 questions, and then skipped around and answered a few more randomly. The machine appears to think I am most like Barry Eichengreen, which is pretty good company, I think, so I’m happy. You can try it out yourself here.

FUN NOTE: If you go down the list and blindly agree (“strongly agree,” actually) with the first 20 questions, then you are Hyun Song Shin. If you strongly disagree with the first 20 questions, you are Hyun Song Shin. If you are uncertain about all 20, you are Hyun Song Shin. Apparently Hyun Song Shin is the ideal median economist.

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I Am the Ghost of Barry Eichengreen

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Oregon’s GOP Chair Wants to Sprinkle Nuclear Waste From Airplanes

Mother Jones

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After months of in-fighting, the beleaguered Oregon Republican Party elected a new chairman last weekend. His name is Art Robinson, and he wants to sprinkle radioactive waste from airplanes to build up our resistance to degenerative illnesses. Robinson, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress against progressive Rep. Peter DeFazio in 2010 and 2012, took over after the previous chair resigned in advance of a recall campaign over her alleged financial mismanagement.

Robinson, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry, has marketed himself for the last three decades as an expert on everything from nuclear fallout, to AIDS, to climate science in the pages of a monthly newsletter, Access to Technology, which he published from his compound in the small town of Cave Junction. A quick glance at his writings, which were publicized during his ill-fated challenges to DeFazio, suggest that whatever the failings of the previous party leadership—Democrats now hold all statewide elected offices and control both houses of the state legislature—Robinson brings with him a new set of challenges entirely.

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.”

(His conclusion on the AIDS epidemic: homosexuality might be a natural consequence of the gay lifestyle, and the federal government had cooked the books “as an excuse for all sorts of social engineering, especially in the public schools.”)

On climate change: “There is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

On diversity: The white-male imbalance at his alma mater, Cal Tech, Robinson argued, was due to the fact that “its applicants are weighted toward those who seek severe, difficult, total-immersion training in science—an experience few women and blacks desire.”

During his campaigns, Robinson distanced himself from his past writings—without overtly rejeting them. He conceded that the nuclear waste proposal was “politically impossible” and a “complicated scientific subject“, and on the subject of public education, admitted that “Had I known I would ever run for office, I’d have said it differently.” In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, he justified his AIDS theory by noting that “15 years ago, the scientific debate was different than it is today,” before attempting to change the subject to taxes.

Still, Robinson’s questionable scientific theories could make him some bipartisan allies; the deep-blue voters of Portland recently voted to ban fluoride from the city’s drinking water.

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Oregon’s GOP Chair Wants to Sprinkle Nuclear Waste From Airplanes

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