In “Rand Paul Is Linked to Doctors’ Group That Supports Vaccination Challenges” the New York Times documented his long involvement with the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), but only scratched the surface of the strangeness. AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient and her associates run a tightly-coupled group of 501(c)(3) public charities. They seem to reject much modern science and spend their efforts to promote political views, perhaps beyond the 501(c) rules.

03/01/15 UPDATE: see more extensive, updated replacement version of this post.

Of course, organization membership does not imply acceptance of all positions, but Paul’s long-time association raises questions. Which of their views on science does he accept? Which of their policies does he support? Do their views seen in related organizations carry over into AAPS?

Jane Orient (or this or this) is the contact for at least 6 charities, some dormant.

AAPS Educational Foundation, IRS, apparently dormant.

Southwestern Institute of Science LTD IRS, apparently dormant.

Physicians for Civil Defense, IRS, still has active website, cuirrently featuring “The Good News About Nuclear Destruction.”

American Health Legal Foundation (AHLF), IRS, has $500K in assets and 2 officers/directors shared with AAPS, plus Orient.

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), IRS, has $800K assets,  paid Jane Orient $182,600 in 2012 (Form 990), has a few thousand members, website, and entries in Wikipedia, SourceWatch and RationalWiki, which has a good list of AAPS positions. (02/09/15: this is 501(c)(06), rest are (03).)

AAPS publishes the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS), not an indexed, peer-reviewed journal, discussed in 2007, or in 2009.  JPandS published “Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide” in 2007 by Art Robinson, Noah Robinson, and Willie Soon.

Doctors for Disaster Preparedness INC (DDP), IRS, has a website, a SourceWatch entry, has about $90K in assets and seems a joint effort between Jane Orient and Art Robinson.  Howard Hayden is a director (SourceWatch entry.) Claud Boyd is an officer/director of both DDP and AAPS. Robert J. Cihak is also a Director for both DDP and AAPS, SourceWatch, writes for NewsMax and is a Board Member and Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute. DDP runs annual conferences, as described in Fakery 2 here, PDF pp.178-179, advertised by OISM, or in the 2014 meeting, many of whose speakers would be familiar to DeSmogBlog readers.

Weird Anti-Science PDF p.4 offers another social network graph including relevant people, and p.19 describes an annual award by DDP to honor Petr Beckman (SourceWatch), who devoted his later life to proving Einstein’s relativity wrong. Honorees have included Jane Orient, Robert Jastrow, Sallie Balliunas, Art Robinson, Fred Singer. Sherwood Idso, Willie Soon, and Marc Morano.

The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM), IRS, has about $5M in assets, a website (currently asking for urine samples), a SourceWatch entry. Two of its “faculty” are deceased. The Board consists of Art Robinson, his sons Noah and Zachary, Jane Orient, and one more person. OISM is famed for the Oregon Petition, an activity that seems far outside its 501(c)(3) charter and whose funding is still unknown, but might well be connected with the George Marshall Institute, as they were involved.

Art Robinson (Wikipedia, RationalWiki, SourceWatch) has run for US Representative several times, endorsed by Rand Paul’s father Ron Paul. In 2010, Rachel Maddow’s interview may offer some insight into his views and followed with a 5-minute version in 2014 covering his 3rd run, and requests for urine samples from Oregonians.

George Gilder (Wikipedia, SourceWatch) cofounded the Discovery Instute (Wikipedia, RationalWiki), which hosts the video “The Global Warming Myth – Dr Noah Robinson – Telecosm 2007.”  In the first few minutes, Gilder explained that “Arthur Robinson was the man who first alerted me to the possible flaws in the case for human-caused global warming” and then introduced chemist/veternarian Noah to speak.  In Fantasy Fears, Steve Forbes relied on George’s med student daughter Mary Ellen Tiffany Gilder, with a paper at OISM.

Anti-science exists in a tangle of organizations, of which AAPS is just one part, but perhaps representative.

Questions

The people who run AAPS and its intertangled organizations have many positions on science, medicine and politics, of which a good summary can be found at RationalWiki.  Perhaps someone will check such lists, enumerate the positions and ask Rand Paul which he supports and which he rejects.

Image Credit: Sergey Nivens  / Shutterstock.