Robbins mixing religion and government

School Board Member David Robbins has an agenda he would like to force upon stakeholders. In apparent accordance with his religious views, he would like to ban the distribution of condoms to APS students.

The whether or not of condom distribution is worthy of discourse, but not based upon religious conviction. That question aside; his position is based on nonsense.

He grabbed a little press in the Journal this morning, link. He argued;

"... condoms do not stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases because there are pores in the latex that are larger than disease organisms."

His view is contradicted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, whose official position is;

"Even HIV, which is among the tiniest of STD (sexually transmitted disease) organisms, cannot pass through a latex condom."

Robbins, clearly not a scientist, argued;

"Folks, the AIDS virus can get through a condom very easily."

He pointed to studies, that he chose to not cite, claiming;

those "...studies have contradicted this claim",

and he said

" ... holes in latex are the reason balloons deflate over time."
(emphasis added)

O M G!

Forget for a moment the obvious flaw in his apples and oranges argument; the premise that balloons are the same as condoms, both in their materials and manufacture, and in the manufacturing standards that apply to them.

Robbins, clearly not a scientist, has not done the math;

An AIDS virus is 90 nanometers in diameter, link.
A nitrogen molecule is 300 picometers in diameter, link.
A nanometer is 1000 times larger than a picometer.
90 nanometers equals 90,000 picometers.
90,000 divided by 300 equals 300.

An aids virus is 300 times larger than a nitrogen molecule.

Robbins balloon "theory" denies the existence of holes in a balloon between .3 and 90 nanometers in diameter. I didn't bother to do the calculations for oxygen, carbon dioxide and other "air" molecules as nitrogen alone accounts for nearly 4 molecules of every 5 in air.

Since he did not cite a source that corroborates his ridiculous claim, we must assume it is substantiated only by his faith.

Faith, which he should not be introducing into the decision making process by the School Board.

He then went on to threaten the very existence of school based health clinics

" ... if APS cannot control what happens in its school-based health clinics, namely whether birth control is available to students, that the district should not have such clinics at all."

Never mind any other good they may be doing or services
they may be providing.

In a display of hypocrisy to pile upon his display of ignorance;

"Robbins e-mailed pro-life activists before Wednesday's meeting, telling them the issue would be discussed and that they could speak during public forum."

Robbins at least as often as any other board member, has routinely opposed the open expression of dissent during public forums; going so far as to arrest so called "dissidents".

He wants people to show up at the forum to back his abstinence position, but woe unto anyone who steps up to question his laughable math.

They will be dispatched in short order.

And so should Robbins by means of a voter recall.




photo Mark Bralley