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February 2001 · The American Spectator
Tom Bethell is The American Spectator's senior editor.
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. Next to the piano is a huge home-made wood-burning stove. Twenty years ago, Art built a 30 kilowatt hydro-electric generator next to the creek near his house, but the Department of Fish and Game has yet to give its approval. The fish may be affected, they say. So the house is heated by burning wood, which of course releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This supposedly contributes to global warming, but it also helps the trees grow.
There are six Robinson children, all of them home-schooled. Matthew's older brother Joshua, 18, has pinned to the wall of his room the skin of a cougar that he trapped. His older brother Noah, 22, was the top chemistry graduate applicant to MIT, but chose instead to go to his father's school, Caltech. He is working for his Ph.D. in chemistry. Noah's older brother, Zachary, 24, is at Iowa State University studying to be a doctor of veterinary medicine, and also working for a chemistry Ph.D. Bethany, 18, is still at home, and her older sister Arynne, 20, has finished two years of college. On the piano Matthew is still on grade 1B, but his math is going well. He will be only 14 by the time he has finished calculus.