Arthur and the World

306   Linus wept at the mention: Thomas Hager, Linus Pauling and the Chemistry of Life, Oxford University Press, 1998. Chapter Seven, "Vitamin C," 130.

Lidia Wasowicz, “Linus Pauling at 84: Maverick in the Lab,” The Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1985.

 

306   vitamin C into his morning juice: Thomas Hager, Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling, Simon & Schuster, 1995. Chapter 24, “Resurrection,” 612.

 

He still talked to her, holding phantom conversations as he spooned his vitamin C powder into his juice in the morning. He still looked for her, expecting to see her in the doorway . . . Sitting in an airplane on his way to a meeting, he was surprised to note that he was moaning aloud. The same thing happened at home, he noticed, unexpected, unbidden periods of moaning. When someone asked about Ava Helen, he would begin to cry.

 

306   “From being a public figure”: R.J.P. Williams, “The Political Scientist,” Nature 342 135-6, November 9, 1989.

 

307   “vocal, perennial adversary”: Barbara Marinacci, Ed., Linus Pauling In His Own Words, Touchstone, 1995. 249.

 

307   “I do not know of any”: Arthur Robinson, “Arthur B. Robinson’s Introduction to Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John, by Isaac Newton,” Newton Vindicated, Foundation.org Website.

http://www.foundationwebsite.org/NewtonVindicated.htm#_Toc56010344

Accessed 7-5-22.

Leo Hickman, “Climate sceptics and fringe political groups are an unhealthy cocktail,” The Guardian, June 4, 2000.

 

307   Arthur drafted the civil defense plank: Ted Goertzel and Ben Goertzel, Linus Pauling—A Life in Science and Politics, 229.

Republican Party Platform of 1988

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1988

Accessed 7-10-22.

“Preparedness Today—Peace Tomorrow,” Arizona Newsletter, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, Vol 4 No 6, September 1988, 2. “Dr. Arthur Robinson, author of the Republican platform plank on civil defense, will prognosticate on ‘USA 2000: Remnant or Republic?’” 
 

307   a nation of fallout shelters: Linus Pauling, of course, occupied the diametric position: his blueprint would be shelter-free. “My own estimate is that all of the people in the United States would be killed in a nuclear war, if we do not build fallout shelters,” he wrote in 1961. “And that if we do build them and train the American people, all of the American people would be killed in a nuclear war.” Linus Pauling, “Why I am opposed to fallout shelters,” Liberation, November 6, 1961.

 

307   “That modern Christians never consider”: Gary North, The Sinai Strategy, Chapter Six, “God’s Monopoly of Execution,” Institute for Christian Economics 1994.
http://vftonline.org/VFTfiles/thesis/commentators/North/GNSS-chap6.htm

Accessed 7-11-22.

There’s also this reprint; for the subtitle. Gary North, “In Defense of Stoning; A Rock-Solid Argument,” Christian Reconstructionist, October 4, 2020.

https://christianreconstructionist.wordpress.com/tag/stoning/

Accessed 7-11-22.

 

307      Half a million copies: Tom Bethell, “A Scientist Finds Independence,” The American Spectator, February 2001.

 

307      “Heaven,” the Robinson and North study argues: Arthur Robinson, Gary North, Fighting Chance—Ten Feet To Survival, Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine 1986, 140.

 

307      “Our problem is not lack of hardware”: Arthur Robinson, Gary North, Fighting Chance—Ten Feet To Survival, Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine 1986, 194.

 

308      “A single-day fatal illness”: Bethel, American Spectator.

 

308      He became a columnist: A list of some columns, if that’s at all appealing.

https://www.home-school.com/Articles/columnists/dr-arthur-robinson.php

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

308      “Moral sewers”: Arthur Robinson, “The Decline of American Education,” Practical Homeschooling, #19 1997.

 

308      “socialist institutions”: Arthur Robinson, “The Decline of American Education,” Practical Homeschooling, #19 1997.

 

308      “institutionalized child abuse”: Arthur Robinson, “Education,” Access to Energy, February 2003.

 

308      “Sugar diminishes brain function”: Arthur Robinson, “Common Questions & Concerns,” Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/common-questions-concerns/

Accessed 7-10-22.

 

308      “I know one man”: Arthur Robinson, “State interference in family life. Languages,” Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/current-status-and-more/

Accessed 7-10-22.

 

308      “Home schooling is no more than a tool”: Arthur Robinson, “Home Schooling and Science,” Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/the-study-of-science/

Accessed 7-10-22.

 

308      “Traditions have become somewhat unusual”: Arthur Robinson, “The School Is Entirely Self Taught,” How the Robinson Children Are Faring, Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/how-the-robinson-children-fare/

Accessed 7-12-22.

Traditions had become a bit non-standard. From Tom Bethell’s 2001 American Spectator profile—a sympathetic piece, in a conservative publication.

 

Matthew Robinson, 13, has a Colt .45 strapped to his waist as he practices the piano in the living room. He lives on a 350-acre farm in southern Oregon, with his brothers and sisters, and his father, the scientist Art Robinson . . . Two years ago, agreeing with the title of his close friend Jeff Cooper’s book, To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth, firearms training was added to their home school . . . The family has reverted to earlier times in America when children were taught self-reliance, good judgment and practical skills—including the use of firearms—at an early age.

 

That is, an unusual spot with armed and piano-playing children. And not even grammatical: What the title of Jeff Cooper’s book means is: if you want to ride, you must first speak the truth and aim a firearm.

 

308      “immeasurably enriched”: Arthur Robinson, “Details and Procedures,” Current Status and More, Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/how-the-robinson-children-fare/

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

309      “I even moved him into bed”: Arthur Robinson, “Details and Procedures,” Current Status and More, Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/how-the-robinson-children-fare/

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

309      “Eventually, this threat”: Arthur Robinson, “College Preparation In the Homeschool,” Practical Homeschooling #15, 1997.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/college-preparation/

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

309      “I’m tired of wading”: Gary North, “Firestorm Chat—Homeschooling Alternative: An Interview With Art Robinson,” 1999.

 

309      “It is the foundational book”: “Curriculum Contents List,” Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/curriculum-contents-list/

Accessed 7-12-22.

Robinson Curriculum Book List, Whole Intentions, March 22, 2001.

https://www.wholeintentions.com/blog/robinson-curriculum-booklist%2F

Accessed 7-12-22.

“Robinson Curriculum Book List — Online Books, Printable RC Lists (including chronological order),” Rosegate Harbor

https://rosegate.dreamhosters.com/rc-books.html

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

309      Twenty thousand kits: Tom Bethell, “A Scientist Finds Independence,” The American Spectator, February 2001.

 

309      “the nation’s third most popular homeschool”: Richard L. Hill, “Iconoclastic researcher warms up the debate—Oregon’s Arthur B. Robinson attacks assumptions that are popular with other scientists,” The Oregonian, May 10, 1998.

Dr. Art Robinson Explains the Robinson Curriculum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTa5SgusO40

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

309      “the famous Robinson curriculum”: “Dr. Arthur Robinson & Kids in 2008 | Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.” Practical Housekeeping, #81, 2008.

https://www.home-school.com/Articles/dr-arthur-robinson-kids-in-2008.php

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

309      “The Robinson Curriculum is a product”: Great marketing. There was another ingenious hook. This warning, at the end of the sales pitch:

 

“One caution do not use this curriculum unless you are willing for your children to be academically more learned than you.”

 

The no-punctuation after “one caution” sort of belies the academic promise.

https://www.robinsonbooks.com/products/robinson-self-teaching-curriculum

Accessed 7-12-22.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/superb-educational-results/

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

For a long time, the purchase price specified “22 CD-Roms, deluxe softcover folding CD case.” The case is a nice touch.

You can still find it in odd corners of the Robinson online manor. http://www.oism.org/nwss/s73p28.htm 
Accessed 7-12-22.

 

309      “Taken together”: For whatever reason, Arthur’s kind endorsement has been expunged.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100326050345/http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/view/rc/s31p1439.htm

Accessed 7-12-22.

 

310      “The freed slaves soon discovered”: G. A. Henty, With Lee In Virginia, Blackie & Son 1890. 384.

 

310      “I did not think that the earth contained”: G. A. Henty, Beric the Briton, Blackie & Son 1892. 214.

 

310      the Republican Party would nominate: His campaign bio contains the 1988 GOP Platform plank stuff; I didn’t want to include it a few pages back so as not to spoil this gruesome electoral surprise: that Arthur became a GOP congressional nominee.

Art Robinson For Congress, Biography, 2010.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120310235045/http://artrobinson.voterspace.com/

Accessed 7-4-22.

 

Arthur Robinson, Common Sense (!) In 2012—Art Robinson For U.S. Congress, 2012.

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/7791702/common-sense-art-robinson-for-us-congress

Accessed 7-8-22.

 

I’m including the snippet for its sub-Top Gun headline.

 

Freedom’s Hope in the 1980s

 

Ronald Reagan is elected . . . Art writes a platform plank on civil defense at the 1988 Republican Convention.

 

310      The curriculum assisted his sinking: For example, DailyKos, “Viciously Racist Book Sold By GOP Candidate for OR 4 Congressional District,” June 29, 2010.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/6/29/880205/-

Accessed 7-8-22.

Camilla Mortensen, “Wingnut Is As Wingnut Does,” Eugene Weekly, August 12, 2010.

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2010/08/12/coverstory.html/

Accessed 7-8-22.

DailyKos, “Republican Suggested ‘Sprinkling’ Radioactive Waste on America,” September 19, 2012.

From the story:

 

Slavery is also a beneficial thing in some of the 19th Century George Alfred Henty boys novels that Art Robinson has exhumed, from their moldy grave of British colonialist racism, to print and sell to his Christian homeschooling curriculum customers.

Back in 2010, when Arthur Robinson was first running for Congress, I put out a little story which highlighted a racist passage from one of Robinson’s Henty novels, By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War . . . The issue came up during the 2010 election, in a debate between Art Robinson and Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio — whom Robinson was running against for Oregon’s Fourth District. DeFazio also found a more recent statement from Robinson, that suggested racism.

The suggestion of racism, it seems, troubled Arthur Robinson enough that he included a rebuttal in his 2012 book Common Sense, that, in advance of the 2012 election, Robinson has mailed to “158,0000 voting households” in the Fourth District according to Art Robinson’s website.

I was flattered, of course, that Robinson took it so seriously.

In turn, to repay the favor, I’ve just put out a 22-page report that documents an extensive pattern of racism in the G.A. Henty books that Arthur Robinson prints, sells, and promotes to his clients (the Henty books glorify slavery, and they present Africans as savage and childlike), as well as an apparent pattern of racism inherent to the Robinson Curriculum itself.

 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/19/1133750/-Republican-Suggested-Sprinkling-Radioactive-Waste-on-America#

Accessed 7-10-22.

 

310      “The SAT tests themselves”: Arthur Robinson, “More Than A Fighting Chance,” Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/more-than-a-fighting-chance/

Accessed 7-13-22.

Robinson doesn’t mean issues of zip code, school funding, private tutoring, and the resultant educational disparity. He means something opposite:

 

“Politically Correct” questions are being asked about “socially responsible” reading passages. In some cases the student must give an answer that he knows to be false or misguided in order to please the social engineers who designed the tests.

 

310      “This word has been brought to us”: Arthur Robinson, “Must Differences Be Compulsory?”, Practical Homeschooling #17, 1997.

 

310      “Shallow sources of propaganda”: Arthur Robinson, “Children Learn By Example,” Practical Homeschooling #22, 1998.

 

310      “The state of New Jersey”: Arthur Robinson, “State Interference In Family Life. Languages,” Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/current-status-and-more/

Accessed 7-10-22.

 

311      “When a child is seized”: Arthur Robinson, “The New Jersey Incident. What Motivates Bureaucrats,” Robinson Curriculum, Robinsoncurriculum.com.

https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/rc/current-status-and-more/

Accessed 7-10-22.

 

311      “AIDS may be little more”: Arthur Robinson, “AIDS,” Access to Energy, November 1994.

 

311      the leading cause of death: Lawrence K. Altman, “AIDS Is Now the Leading Killer of Americans From 25 to 44,” The New York Times, January 31, 1995.

 

311      “Only government reclassification of more”: Arthur Robinson, “AIDS,” Access to Energy, February 1995.

 

311      “International bureaucrats have”: Arthur Robinson, “Ozone and Ultraviolet Light,” Access to Energy, January 1994.

 

311      “There was a guy like Art Robinson”: One positive. Arthur Robinson, explained Rachel Maddow in 2014, “currently leads The Rachel Maddow Show hall of fame balloting for weirdest interview on this show ever.”

Daniel Engber, “The Grandfather of Alt-Science,” 538, October 12, 2017.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-grandfather-of-alt-science/

Accessed 7-4-22.

 

311      “evil and dishonest plans”: Arthur Robinson, “Winning,” Access to Energy, March 2007.

 

311      “For those of us who understand”: Goodell, Big Coal, 196-7.

A few paragraphs later, Dr. Robinson reveals to the Rolling Stone journalist the cold truth about climate change. “One of these days, people will see global warming for what it is—a thinly disguised scam by corporations, the U.N., and big environmental groups to reduce the world’s population.” That is, we’ve gone ankle deep, hip deep, collarbone deep into conspiracy.

 

312      “the most-read scientific article”: Arthur Robinson, “Send a Scientist to Congress!”, Access to Energy, March 2010.

Arthur tells us it is additionally the “most-referenced information” against climate science in the world. Arthur Robinson, “Winning,” Access to Energy, March 2007.

 

312      the most-shared climate data: Jane Mayer, “The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency,” The New Yorker, March 27, 2017.