Many of you know that Robert F Kennedy Jr. is my mortal enemy. Well, not really. He was the keynote speaker at a lecture on the environment at Xavier University in Cincinnati, and I challenged him during the Q&A after the speech. His response was not very kind.
I felt really bad about calling RFK Jr. out on his wild claims that autism has been caused by thimerosal in vaccines. His actual speech showed that he had an in-depth understanding of the failures of the Bush administration, and an innate intelligence about the direction the U.S. should take on environmental issues. But, when I challenged Kennedy to retract his comments about thimerosal, he parried the question and thrust back with the zinger that my head was “in a hole in the ground”.
Despite his ad hominem and general ignorance toward the evidence of vaccine safety, I was deeply impressed with the content of his speech, which is why I am not too concerned about the rumors of him being asked to head a high level cabinet position in Obama’s cabinet, such as Department of Interior or the Environmental Protection Agency. I know that RFK Jr., despite his flaws and manipulation of scientific facts, would roll back the damage done by Bush appointed lobbyists, many of whom had ties to the industries that they were meant to be regulating.
But does he deserve a high level position? I don’t believe he does. RFK Jr.’s appointment by Obama would legitimize Kennedy’s fringe conspiracies and dangerous beliefs. I wrote to the transition team to tell them about my experience challenging RFK Jr., and to tell them that he still believes that the CDC is part of a vast conspiracy with the pharmaceutical companies to cover up the link between vaccines and autism. Individuals who promote conspiracies do not belong in Obama’s administration, whether they would be well suited for the job or not.
Could you imagine a 9/11 conspiracy theorist as Chief of Staff? What about a JFK conspiracy theorist as Secretary of State? Not to slide too far down the slippery slope, but where does one draw the line on that sort of thing? Should I be apalled that Obama believes in a 2000 year old text that says that a man survived in the belly of a fish? The bible contradicts science multiple times, so does Obama’s christian belief make him anti-science? I think many of you would answer that RFK Jr.’s beliefs are anti-government, anti-health, and anti-science. Kennedy has been an outspoken antivaccine advocate, whereas Obama has tempered his belief with intelligent statements about the separation of church and state. Kennedy hasn’t once made a balanced or measured statement about vaccines; he blindly believes in his sacred cow without allowing for the likely possibility that he may be wrong, which is why I’ve decided to oppose his possible appointment by Obama.
I hope you do too.
November 10, 2008 at 12:36 am |
Colin,
Thanks for this post. I had no idea that RFK Jr. thought this way about vaccines and autism. Wish I could have witnessed your Q&A moment with him. Is there any video of the moment?
Hope all is well in Cincy. We miss your Nature Museum skepticism around here.
Cheers,
Jim
November 10, 2008 at 8:33 am |
Thanks Jim. There isn’t any video, and if there was, you probably wouldn’t understand him because he was doing the “Gish Gallup” on me (speed debating). I did get in a number of good retorts, but I didn’t have the benefit of properly debating since he was the A and I was the Q. Oh well.
November 10, 2008 at 11:53 am |
Read and investigate:
http://www.PutChildrenFirst.org
November 10, 2008 at 2:28 pm |
If they truly wanted to “put children first”, they would put aside their conspiracy theories and promote vaccines.
Read and investigate:
http://www.amazon.com/Autisms-False-Prophets-Science-Medicine/dp/0231146361/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226341413&sr=8-1
I took the time to check out your link from biased sources, so you can check out mine. Put Children First focuses entirely on thimerosal, which has been eliminated from all mandatory vaccines in several countries (including ours), despite the continued occurrence of autism in those countries. No explanation is given and the fact is not even addressed there.
November 11, 2008 at 2:04 pm |
You are saying that he should not be considered for a cabinet post which he would have no authority over the area for which you disagree with him on. Do you agree that there should be less pollutants in the air, drinking water and oceans? It seems you are using an issue for which you feel strongly to convince yourself that the person who has challenged you in person is not qualified. This seems like more of an emotional response rather than a logical response.
Kennedy has been a strong environmental leader and a sharp activist for a cleaner environment. In addition he has a strong legal background. I can think of no one I would prefer to protect my children from the dangers of coal burning emissions, toxic nuclear waste, carbon emissions from cars and so on. Now, if you’re talking about being Surgeon General, that’s another story.
November 11, 2008 at 3:19 pm |
I’m sorry that it comes across that I’m making my opinion based on personal emotions.
My first instinctual response to the RFK Jr. EPA rumor was that it shouldn’t matter if he is antivaccine, exactly as you have stated in your comment. However, I changed my mind, and I believe the content of my post explains exactly why. Since it’s not clear, let me restate…
RFK Jr. doesn’t DESERVE the position because he manipulated facts to support his anti-government, anti-health, and anti-scientific opinions.
The fact that RFK Jr. was a jerk when I questioned him was merely a way for me to frame the topic of my post, not to justify it. However, if Kennedy had acknowledged that my point was valid and backed away from his conspiracy rhetoric, I would have been more supportive of the EPA rumor. I wasn’t really offended by the way he answered me; I was more than expecting him to respond in exactly the way he did to my Q&A ambush. Just so nobody thinks that I’m seething with anger or something…
November 11, 2008 at 10:38 pm |
Keep RFK out of EPA
The job at the EPA calls for someone with a keen sense of both ethics and science. Kennedy is not that person.
The following letter was written in support of Robert H. Boyle (founder of Riverkeeper and author of “The Hudson River, A natural and unnatural history”) and others who resigned from Riverkeeper rather than support R. F. Kennedy, Jr.’s compromise of the principle that ethics must never be separate from science.
This letter was first published in the Putnam County News and Recorder, Cold Spring, New York, on August 30, 2000 and they have carried it on their website ever since for which they have my thanks. (AHS, 2008)
Letters:
Supports Former Riverkeeper Board Members’ Action
Editor,
The Fishkill Ridge Caretakers, Inc. supports Robert H. Boyle, former president of the Riverkeeper, Inc. and former Riverkeeper, Inc. board members John Fry, treasurer, Nancy Abraham, Kathryn Belous Boyle, Pat Crow, Theresa Hanczor, Robert Hodes, Ann Tonetti and Alexander Zagoreas in the action they have taken in resigning from Riverkeeper in opposition to the hiring of a convicted environmental felon to serve in the position of staff scientist on the staff of Riverkeeper.
In issuing this statement of support, The Fishkill Ridge Caretakers wishes to emphasize that ethics cannot be separated from science and that the environmental movement will prosper best in an atmosphere of demonstrated personal responsibility and earned mutual respect.
We encourage individuals as well as environmental organizations to join us in similar expressions of support for the principled stand taken by Boyle and fellow board members in their defense of the ethical integrity of the environmental movement here in the Hudson River Valley.
Boyle and 8 of the 22 Riverkeeper board members resigned from Riverkeeper, Inc. in protest of the hiring of William Wegner. For eight years Wegner operated a ring of smugglers who stole bird eggs directly from the nests of protected cockatoo species in Australia. Wegner and his ring then smuggled the eggs by air to the United States. Birds that hatched and survived were then sold for as much as $12,500.00 each. A federal judge accepted Wegner’s plea of guilty to charges of conspiracy and tax fraud and sentenced him to five years in prison. The judge also found that Wegner had attempted to obstruct justice by committing perjury at the trial of a co-defendant Wegner paid a $10,000.00 fine.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has stated that everyone deserves a second chance and notes that he himself had been given a second chance in that he had once been convicted of a drug offense.
We note, however, that Kennedy’s offense was essentially a victimless crime while Wegner’s offense was a crime against the environment, the people of Australia, the people of the United States and against the birds. In order to avoid detection during the flight, smugglers flushed newly hatched chicks down the plane’s toilet
Although Wegner has been convicted and served his sentence, nothing he or anyone else can do will correct the damage he has done or make his victims whole again.
Wegner’s prison sentence seems to have done little to improve his ethical sense. The resume Wegner submitted to Riverkeeper accounts for his period of incarceration without referring to the fact of the incarceration itself Wegner describes work he performed and omits the significant information that he performed this work while he was serving time as a prison inmate.
Kennedy overstepped his position as attorney for Riverkeeper when, in November of 1999, he hired Wegner. Boyle terminated Wegner after learning of the hiring and upon review of Wegner’s resume, court records and media accounts. The matter came to a climax at a board meeting on June 20th when Kennedy insisted that Wegner be rehired over Boyle’s objection.
While we hope Riverkeeper continues to work to produce changed human beings who think and act differently in regard to the Hudson River and all that pertains to it, we also recognize the primary mission of Riverkeeper is not the rehabilitation of Wegner or of those like him.
Sincerely,
Anthony Henry Smith
Fishkill
(for The Fishkill Ridge Caretakers)
(Fishkill Ridge Community Heritage, a separate organization, has also supported this letter from their beginning.)
November 14, 2008 at 11:01 am |
[...] as dangerous an EPA head as any completely unqualified anti-environmental hack Bush has appointed. Skeptic Dad chimes in too, as well as Steve Novella. Look around the blogosphere, you’ll find [...]