Ben Carson is simply a horrible human being


I think we all know that already, but his latest interview clinches it. He wants Roe v. Wade overturned, and he compares abortion to slavery.

Think about this. During slavery — and I know that one of those words you’re not supposed to say — but I’m saying it. During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose to do. And what if the abolitionists had said, ‘You know, I don’t believe in slavery, I think it’s wrong. But you guys do whatever you want to do.’ Where would we be?

You know, you could talk to the slaves, they could express themselves, they could speak about their anger and pain. A blastula or a fetus are not comparable to Frederick Douglass. And more, slaves were forced against their will to live in shackles — if you’re going to compare slavery to anything, it ought to be the women who are compelled to bear children against their will.

Rape or incest, I would not be for killing a baby because the baby came about in that way. And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who are the result of rape or incest.

Shouldn’t the women have a voice here? All you have to do is go and look up the many stories of women who had abortions and lived useful, happy, productive lives afterwards, in careers that would have been cut short if they’d been forced into motherhood.

But oh, right, the women don’t matter in Ben Carson’s head.

He’s such a horrible person, without a thought in his head.

Comments

  1. says

    Oddly, the right wing aren’t super concerned about the parents’ rights over the child after it’s born. Like, if the child isn’t straight, or religious, or whatever – that’s wrong. Its rights only matter when it’s just a clump of cells, apparently. Raising a child inflicted with the parents’ religion or politics isn’t like slavery at all, Ben, no no no.

    Frederick Douglass was a better orator than a typical blastula. A better orator than Ben Carson, too, but that’s setting the bar very low indeed.

  2. says

    Carson:

    Think about this. During slavery

    Oh, I’ve thought about it. You want women enslaved, but of course, that would be different, right? It wouldn’t really be slavery, just putting women back in their natural place, eh, Ben?

    Rape or incest, I would not be for killing a baby because the baby came about in that way. And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who are the result of rape or incest.

    How sweet. I don’t suppose you bothered to find out just how fucked up those people might be, being a result of rape or rape (yeah, incest is rape, doctor). If I had gotten pregnant from the childhood rapes or the later rape, I would have ripped myself open to get rid of it. You might want to stop thinking you know what all those “results” think and feel about the situation.

  3. says

    Timguegen @ 3:

    Carson says he needs Secret Service protection because he’s an “existential threat” to secularists

    :Snort: Someone is awfully insecure.

  4. David Rutten says

    We can only hope he gets the Rep. nomination, because there’s no way in hell that republicans will turn out in big enough numbers to vote *for* a black guy.

  5. says

    David Rutten @ 6:

    We can only hope he gets the Rep. nomination, because there’s no way in hell that republicans will turn out in big enough numbers to vote *for* a black guy.

    Y’know, I wish I could nod along with this statement, but as a woman, even the idea of Carson getting the nomination fills me with a deep chill of fear.

  6. wcorvi says

    The foetus is god’s punishment for ‘that’ behavior. Abortion thwarts god’s punishment. Having to raise one’s child without support is why we don’t care about them after they’re born. This is all in the bible, if you just read it.

  7. malleusscientificarum says

    He is the republicans token black guy, if he can redirect the slavery discussion to abortion he will enforce his constituents that they are not the racist ones. And that its really the left who are these radicalist trying to reform society. It doesn’t matter if what he says is true, his base will agree with him no matter what.

  8. says

    One thing that pisses me off is hearing so many people say that he’s a reasonable person and a great candidate. Then I come along and mention that I think he’s a horrible human being and a right scumbag and people think there’s something wrong with *me*. I’m like “you people must not be listening to his words and comprehending what he’s saying”. I hadn’t heard Dr. Carson make comments of this nature regarding abortion until this morning, but I have heard him say other things like “Planned Parenthood was deliberately put in black neighborhoods” (which is false) and that “Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist who wanted to eliminate black people” (she was supporter of eugenics, yes, but she didn’t want to eliminate black people, and the quote he has used at least 3 times in the last 4 years is taken out of context). Then there are his views of gay people and homosexuality which, despite saying he’d quit talking about, he continues to share his opinions on.

    Really, the man is a piece of shit. If you can’t tell that from listening to what he says, that says a lot about you as a person. And it tells me I want nothing to do with you.

  9. opposablethumbs says

    Presumably in Carson’s world all the unjustly enslaved people were men. He certainly doesn’t seem to have any problem at all with enslaving women, and disposing of women’s bodies and lives as he sees fit.

  10. emergence says

    Do you think that it’s actually possible that Carson or Trump could actually win the election? They’ve probably alienated a good number of voters with what they’ve been saying, but do you think that’s enough to tip the scales in favor of the other candidates?

  11. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    It’s also baffling how mumbly a neurosurgeon can be. Remember the interview with the CNBC guy (John Harwood), who asked him about his opposition to gay marriage. Carson then just mumbled phrases repetitively with no coherence, to which Harwood replied, “I honestly can say, I don’t know what you just said.”
    With this, let me accuse his popularity on tone trolls. Meaning tone trolls only care about his tone of voice, regardless of what he actually says. The fact he talks slowly, with huge pauses, and sleepy eyes, is the deciding factor in preferring him 2nd to the loudmouth Trump.

  12. says

    emergence @ 12:

    Do you think that it’s actually possible that Carson or Trump could actually win the election?

    Been hanging out under a rock lately? A lot of people agree with them. For example.

  13. Joey Maloney says

    Lately I find myself wondering if Carson was always a wingnut and only recently got a platform, or if this is some progressive dementia.

  14. applehead says

    Pfft, “President Trump”. Joke candidates like him and Carson routinely had moderate success in the first stages of the campaign cycle before they inevitably faded into obscurity.

  15. Dreaming of an Atheistic Newtopia says

    I honestly think he is worse than Trump…as a human being, that is…which is saying A LOT.
    You know, as an outsider, i remember the contempt, the laughter, the stunned unbelief at those atrocious bush years. He was so goofy, so unqualified, so ignorant…dangerous, yes, but somehow you could still laugh despite all the horrible shit. But now….this….this is just terrifying…

  16. emergence says

    Caine @ 14:

    I’m just saying that it seems like they’ve alienated a ton of voters with the crap they’ve been spewing. Do you think that women or minorities are going to seriously consider voting for either of these guys?

  17. says

    Dreaming of an Atheistic Newtopia @18:

    I honestly think he is worse than Trump…as a human being, that is…which is saying A LOT.

    They’re neck and neck for me. In fact, it seems like every time one of them says something that would make them worse (in my book), the other comes out and says something that puts them on equal (and awful) footing again.

  18. says

    emergence @19:

    Do you think that women or minorities are going to seriously consider voting for either of these guys?

    ::chiming in even though this wasn’t addressed to me::
    I don’t know how many will vote for them, but yes. Absolutely, there are women and PoC who support these two asswipes.

  19. magistramarla says

    Slithey Tove @ 13
    Yes, I can understand quite well how neurosurgeons can be highly skilled, but not good communicators.
    The one who did my back surgery is a smug SOB. He doesn’t listen to me, especially if my husband is with me.
    He doesn’t answer my questions and never acknowledges that I might be right about something.
    He’s a good surgeon, but people skills are not there.

  20. says

    emergence @ 19:

    Do you think that women or minorities are going to seriously consider voting for either of these guys?

    Of course they will. There are women and POC working on their campaigns. You seem to be very naive about politics, and people in general. The majority of various anti-abortion groups are women. Going by your way of thinking, women should be automatically pro-choice, because vagina. People don’t work that way.

    magistramarla @ 22:

    Yes, I can understand quite well how neurosurgeons can be highly skilled, but not good communicators.

    The first one I consulted with was a fucking idiot. Oh, more than competent with a scalpel, but everything else? I couldn’t get away from that one quick enough.

  21. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    Seems to me, the only rationalization I can imagine for Carson’s “metaphor”, was lack of considering full implications of the analogy. Just picked the most horrific thing from history as analogous to something recent he considers horrific. He did not imagine people considering the analogy more deeply, and continuing with inferences. (like we’re doing here).
    ugh, my brain hurts

  22. says

    slithey tove @24:

    Just picked the most horrific thing from history as analogous to something recent he considers horrific.

    Similar to his comparison of the Affordable Care Act to slavery.

  23. Chosen name says

    @6 “We can only hope he gets the Rep. nomination, because there’s no way in hell that republicans will turn out in big enough numbers to vote *for* a black guy.”

    Actually, I think you’re wrong. One of the things we whites love more than anything else is proving how Not Racist we are. If Carson were to actually be the Republican nomination, I bet right-wing whites would turn out in record number to vote for him if for no other reason than to prove how Not Racist they are. It would be a preemptive strategic play to deflect any future criticism of the party’s inherent racism.

    (And, I’m not saying that the only reason to vote for the black person would be to prove that one isn’t racist; but, it’s pretty clear that Carson’s popularity is due to the fact that he makes whites feel good about their racism. And men about their sexism. And…)

  24. numerobis says

    What’s terrifying about these clowns is that there *is* a chance they’ll win. If the Benghazi panel or (more likely) someone else discovers that Clinton likes to strangle kittens at daybreak, or Clinton (or Sanders or whoever) has a heart attack a month before the election, the other guy can win!

  25. Gregory Greenwood says

    “Think about this. During slavery — and I know that one of those words you’re not supposed to say — but I’m saying it,” Carson said. “During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose to do. And what if the abolitionists had said, ‘You know, I don’t believe in slavery, I think it’s wrong. But you guys do whatever you want to do.’ Where would we be?”

    The cluelessness of it all is staggering; he compares abortion to slavery while ignoring the fact that slavery was problematic because it denied autonomy to its victims and treated them as a class of property, and the forced birther ideology he espouses… denies women their bodily autonomy and essentially acts as if they and their uteri are the property of the state or society at large, at least as soon as they become pregnant. The only way his mindset even begins to make sense is if he considers foetuses to be people with the full rights and standing that this status implies including an absolute right to life, and if he doesn’t consider women to be people, but rather sees them as a class of subhuman and considers it acceptable to treat them as nothing more than living incubators.

    He is actually using the historical horrors of the slave trade in order to argue in favour of the contemporary procreative slavery of women. It is utterly horrifying, and I still can’t decide if his posture is the product of idiocy and ignorance or outright misogynistic malice, not that it makes much difference in terms of its practical effects.

  26. brucegee1962 says

    @26 Chosen name followup

    Actually, I think you’re wrong. One of the things we whites love more than anything else is proving how Not Racist we are. If Carson were to actually be the Republican nomination, I bet right-wing whites would turn out in record number to vote for him if for no other reason than to prove how Not Racist they are. It would be a preemptive strategic play to deflect any future criticism of the party’s inherent racism.

    If we’re being honest about ourselves, I think that probably most of us who are white, and who campaigned actively for Obama, indulged in a bit of this “at least this proves I’m not a racist” feel-good self-congratulation. That makes it easier for us to recognize it now that many Republicans are doing the same thing.

    And to tell the truth, to a large extent, I’m afraid Ben Carson is our fault. Over the last eight years, many of us liberals have been a touch too quick to accuse all of his critics of being racists. That was made easier by the fact that so many Republicans obviously ARE. But I felt at the time that some were probably getting tarred by two broad a brush.

    Obviously the criticism stung, and now they’re super motivated to try to prove to the world that they aren’t, and at the same time get that little self-righteous glow with which we are familiar.

    (I should add here the caveat that, yes, of course, supporting a candidate doesn’t really work as a badge that you have managed to shed the many pervasive ways in which racism infuses our culture. My point is that to many people, especially young people, it FEELS as if it does.)

    So the next time I talk to a Carson supporter, I plan to say “OK, OK, I’ll admit that, if you’re a Carson supporter, that probably means that you aren’t opposed to Obama for racist reasons. If I admit that, will you please please please take another serious look at this guy’s capacity to run our country?”

  27. Dreaming of an Atheistic Newtopia says

    I think Carson is just trying to get in on the action of getting publicity and votes through shock and outrage, a la Trump, but failing misserably because he doesn’t have the charisma that Trump, despite what an arsehole he is, does have, for certain demographics. He is deliberately choosing to compare abortion to slavery, Obama to Hitler, etc, because he wants to shock, he wants to be “that guy who says extraordinary things”, he wants the attention and he knows you have to be sensationalistic to get it. He is just really, really fucking bad at it. Plus, you know, he is also an arsehole with odious and disgusting views on pretty much everything…

  28. Gregory Greenwood says

    Carson really is terrible at hiding his agenda and disdain for women. His own words instantly betray him. From the linked article;

    I’m a reasonable person,” Carson remarked. “And if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, [I’ll listen].”

    (Emphasis added)

    He claims to be reasonable, and in his next breath characterises abortion as ‘killing a baby’ rather than ending a pregnancy by removing a foetus, which leads to the destruction of that foetus only if it has not yet reached the point of viability (otherwise the abortion is performed by C-section of induced birth). The language used demonstrates clearly that Carson is far from reasonable, but is not lacking for ignorance or bigotry.

    Other gems from the linked article;

    “The mother should not believe that the baby is her enemy and should not be looking to terminate the baby,” Carson opined to NBC host Chuck Todd. “We’ve allowed purveyors of division to think that baby is their enemy and they have a right to kill it. Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is?”

    It’s a foetus, not a ‘baby’, and it is not the mother’s enemy (how many women who seek abortions even think that way?), but is better compared to a parasite – one that a woman should have an absolute right to have removed from her body if she so chooses, and whenever she so chooses. That Carson thinks it is ‘perverted’ to allow women control of their own procreative capacity and bodily autonomy is very revealing indeed. It seems clear that he genuinely doesn’t think of women as human at all; just ambulatory sex toys/incubators with a heartbeat.

    The former neurosurgeon said that there was “room to discuss” abortions to save the life of the mother…

    You just know this misogynist arsehat thinks that this amounts to some grand concession on his part. It is so very generous of him to consider the lives of mere women after all…

    “Rape or incest, I would not be for killing a baby because the baby came about in that way,” he explained. “And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who are the result of rape or incest.”

    And what about the suffering of the rape survivor? This repugnant arsehole actually wants to compound rape using the law – rape survivors would effectively be raped twice. Not only is the woman’s body violated by the rapists, but then she is violated again by the state when she is forced to carry to term a foetus that was conceived in that rape. The utter disregard for the humanity of rape survivors on display here beggars belief.

    Caine said it better than IO ever can @ 4;

    How sweet. I don’t suppose you bothered to find out just how fucked up those people might be, being a result of rape or rape (yeah, incest is rape, doctor). If I had gotten pregnant from the childhood rapes or the later rape, I would have ripped myself open to get rid of it. You might want to stop thinking you know what all those “results” think and feel about the situation.

    Carson couldn’t care less about the lives his proposed laws would destroy or permanently mar, and is far too arrogant to ever listen to people like Caine who could actually inform him of the reality of what his proposals would mean for rape survivors and persons who have to live with the knowledge that they were conceived in rape.

    I would also like to say that I can’t begin to imagine what you have experienced Caine, but cyberhugs are available if you want them. I admire greatly your integrity and principles in being prepared to discuss what happened to you in order to tackle the idiocy of Carson and others like him with regard to this issue. In your place, I wouldn’t have enough strength of character and courage to do the same.

  29. says

    Brucegee1962 @ 29:

    If we’re being honest about ourselves, I think that probably most of us who are white, and who campaigned actively for Obama, indulged in a bit of this “at least this proves I’m not a racist” feel-good self-congratulation. That makes it easier for us to recognize it now that many Republicans are doing the same thing.

    The first time around, I wanted that win as much as I didn’t want the opposition, and I was also thinking that it would be good to show that yes, the U.S. can make progress. I imagine there’s a fair amount of that around Carson, too – repubs might be thinking along the lines of “wow, that would impress the world, having a PoC as president twice in a row!”

  30. zenlike says

    Caine

    repubs might be thinking along the lines of “wow, that would impress the world, having a PoC as president twice in a row!”

    As a non-USAnian, I can confidently say these repubs are wrong if they think that. Frankly, I try to block out the thought that it will only take one ill-timed highly political event just before election night to make one of the crop of GOP creepers the person with his or her finger on the button. At this point, I’m actually rooting for Trump, because he doesn’t believe half of what he blabbers about, and will probably be content with “just” screwing over the poor a bit more, and not with an additional crusade against the human rights of half of his or her constituents, like Carson.

  31. says

    Gregory Greenwood @31:

    The former neurosurgeon said that there was “room to discuss” abortions to save the life of the mother…

    You just know this misogynist arsehat thinks that this amounts to some grand concession on his part. It is so very generous of him to consider the lives of mere women after all…

    I “love” the save the life of the mother concession. Fools like Dr. Carson don’t even think about (or know) that pregnancy isn’t a walk in the park and that it can- and often does– result in health complications on the part of the pregnant person.

  32. kayden says

    Do any of the Republican candidates support a woman’s right to choose birth control or an abortion? They’re all awful when it comes to women’s reproductive rights. I don’t think Carson is anything special since his views reflect what most Republican candidates believe.

  33. says

    Zenlike @ 34:

    As a non-USAnian, I can confidently say these repubs are wrong if they think that.

    That’s a given. I think they put a great deal of importance on appearance, and assume it leads to others viewing them in a good light.

  34. emergence says

    @Caine

    But don’t you think that a lot of women and a lot of non-white people are going to be put off of Trump and Carson by what they’ve said?

    I’m not even remotely saying that all people who fall into those categories are automatically going to vote for the opposite side, just that I expect that a good chunk of them will.

  35. says

    emergence @ 38:

    But don’t you think that a lot of women and a lot of non-white people are going to be put off of Trump and Carson by what they’ve said?

    Possibly. I wouldn’t count on it.

  36. Alverant says

    Over the last eight years, many of us liberals have been a touch too quick to accuse all of his critics of being racists.

    I disagree. First not all the criticisms against him were racists. PZ and Ed Brayton were critical of some of Obama’s choices and I don’t remember charges of racism against them. Personally most of his critics on the conservative side have exhibited racist attitudes in the past. Remember Limbaugh singing “Obama the Magic Negro”? How about the whole birther movement? Then there were the little things like how he was going to plant watermelon in the White House front lawn or making him look like an African witch doctor from a bad B&W movie when going after the ACA.

    Meanwhile the left’s criticism of Carson does not have its origins in racism. Look at all the quotes in context that have been used against Carson. How many of them have to do with Carson’s race?

  37. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    Caine:

    repubs might be thinking along the lines of “wow, that would impress the world, having a PoC as president twice in a row!”

    Yes, probably. It would seem consistent for racists to project; that everyone is also racist. As in, that the whole world would be impressed by the race of the POTUS regardless of their policies.

  38. Felix says

    You know, I remember talking to family about US elections in the 80s. Balloons from the ceilings, campaigns in stadiums, billboards, ribbons, grins.
    I thought *that* was silly and weird.
    Boy was I wrong.

  39. kevinalexander says

    I’m waiting for the speech where he explains how he was so poor growing up that he had to practice neurosurgery on himself with a mirror and hedge clippers.
    It would explain a lot.

  40. Akira MacKenzie says

    Over the last eight years, many of us liberals have been a touch too quick to accuse all of his critics of being racists.

    Ummmm… Citations please?

  41. emergence says

    Caine @ 39

    I’m sorry if I came across as naive, I guess that I’d just heard from a few places, including this site, that democrats tend to get most of the votes from women and racial minorities. I’ve never thought that necessarily meant that literally all women and non-white people voted democratic, just that a lot more of them did. I could have sworn that I’d seen articles on Pharyngula itself that mentioned how republicans are having demographic issues, and that women and minorities tended to vote democratic. I don’t know if I was reading too much into those, and if I was, I’m sorry.

  42. gmacs says

    Tony

    Then I come along and mention that I think he’s a horrible human being and a right scumbag and people think there’s something wrong with *me*.

    If it makes you feel any better about the world, I know plenty of people, including Christians and neurologists, who would probably tell you you’re too generous to Carson.

    I personally despise him from a professional standpoint for his hypocrisy on stem cells and for the things he said about the PP videos, things he knew were beneath horseshit.

  43. says

    @#19, emergence

    I’m just saying that it seems like they’ve alienated a ton of voters with the crap they’ve been spewing. Do you think that women or minorities are going to seriously consider voting for either of these guys?

    Oh, yes. Maybe not in huge numbers, but enough to make the race “close”, meaning that it will once again come down to 1 or 2 percent of the popular vote. Some of their non-white-cis-male supporters will support them because “he’s not talking about people like me when he slams [group], he’s only complaining about the bad ones”. Some of them, on the other hand, are knee-jerk Republicans who will rationalize the vote by assuming that a loose cannon’s wilder excesses will be reined in by others in the party (because the Republican Party has been so good at that lately). Or else, as the Democrats are trying to train their base to be (with the whole “what if [Republican Candidate] got to choose the next Supreme Court Justice?! You have to vote for [Uninspiring Democratic Candidate]!!!” thing), they are more anti-Democrat than Republican, and aren’t really paying attention.

    Besides, the Democrats have alienated plenty of voters themselves. Polls based on issues suggest that Democrats — at least, presuming them to be legitimately to the left of Republicans — should be able to walk over the Republicans with multi-percentage majorities in presidential elections and in membership in Congress. Instead, the presidential elections come down to differences of less than 2 percent of the popular vote (which is still millions of people, granted…) and they actually lost both houses of Congress. They perform so badly because they’ve spent the last 30 years giving their base the finger, over and over again, until there are more people who assume there’s no point in electing a Democrat than there are people who vote for a Democrat. If they were wise, they would select Sanders and then use his record of actually standing up for things people want to push like hell for non-voters to vote this time.

    Instead, the Democrats are trying to get all voters under 35 to stay home, while motivating the opposition as much as possible, by having Hillary Clinton as a frontrunner. Given that the largest voting block by age, for the first time in decades, will no longer be Baby Boomers, a Clinton-vs.-Trump election would be train-wreck fascinating, and would help alienate a lot of younger people from the Democratic Party for the next few decades.

    Come to think of it, given the Republican field, any election featuring Clinton would be train-wreck fascinating, and probably best observed from an alternate timeline where she went into private industry instead.

  44. says

    Tony

    I “love” the save the life of the mother concession. Fools like Dr. Carson don’t even think about (or know) that pregnancy isn’t a walk in the park and that it can- and often does– result in health complications on the part of the pregnant person.

    Oh, oh, oh. He’s not saying he’d allow an abortion in that case. He’s just saying he’d be willing to discuss allowing an abortion in that case.
    The standard question I ask people when they discuss “life of the mother*” is “what risk do you consider acceptable”? Whatever number they give, I tell them that they just killed X out of 100 women. Because let’s face it, many people just have no clue what probability is. They think that anything less than 50% means everything is fine.

    +++
    Uhm, anyway. Carson is WRONG to compare abortion to slavery, but I’m also not comfortable with calling forced pregnancy slavery**. It has similarities, but it is not the same, especially since slavery quite often meant rape, selective breeding and forced pregnancy for slave women in combination with all the other shit, plus a denial of motherhood as they could be seperated from their children at any time. Let’s not go down that road. There’s plenty of arguments we can make and highlight how this denies full personhood to pregnant people.

    *a bullshit phrase anyway. Being pregnant makes you no more a mother than being an embryo makes you a baby.

    **and believe me, I’m fucking scared of an unintended pregnancy since I live in a country with almost no abortion rights

  45. Nick Gotts says

    I’m increasingly annoyed with all those who claim that Trump, or Carson, are “unelectable”, and specifically that Republicans will never vote for a black candidate. All but the most doctrinaire racists are capable of allowing “exceptions”; and not only do a considerable proportion of Americans clearly agree with their vilest spewings, there is a significant likelihood that we will see another financial crash before the election – which would naturally disadvantage the representatives of the party perceived as holding power – which would be the Democrats, despite the Republican hold on Congress.

  46. peterh says

    Google “questionable things Ben Carson has said” and you’ll get over 180,000 hits. Admittedly there will be duplication, but the sheer volume of stupid he’s churned out . . . . .

    On the broader front: I believe it was during the cultural revolution days in China when western politicos & American in particular were labelled “running dogs.” Now it’s “running clowns” and they’ve pretty much labelled themselves.

  47. evodevo says

    ” The fact he talks slowly, with huge pauses, and sleepy eyes ”

    Yes. I have been wondering about that. Anti-seizure meds? After all, he gave up the neurosurgeoning in 2013 – he was 61. Most thoracic/neuro guys are so egotistical they will continue practicing until long after they should have retired. Wonder why he quit?

  48. Intaglio says

    Surgeons; at least 5 of my close relatives were nurses. Their opinions of surgeons varied from “sweet but a lunatic with a terrible temper” to “raging, raving, sociopathic lunatic.”

    The best example was Mr Arthur Dickson-Wright’; surgeons were not gentlemen like clinicians, so only got the courtesy title “Mister” at the time. He was a brilliant surgeon and probably the last of the great General Surgeons, to a large extent Richard Gordon’s Sir Lancelot Spratt was a very watered down version of Dickson-Wright. He was also an unmitigated shit-weasel; Nurses were expected to get out of his way in corridors and he would knock them flying if they did not whilst housemen and registrars were sent on menial tasks during surgery or otherwise humiliated. He was also a drunkard, abused his wife and his children.

  49. says

    Cross-posted from the Moments of Poltical Madness thread.

    Ben Carson complains about the “welfare state” all the time. And he repeats the “personal responsibility” line that conservatives love. The “personal responsibility” line is a dog whistle telling conservatives that he agrees with them that dependence on help from government programs stifles the initiative of poor people. And, oh yeah, what a great excuse for cutting funding to so-called “entitlement” programs. Carson’s own background tells a different story:

    […] Carson, in his book, tells how his grades improved tremendously when a government program provided him with free eyeglasses because he could barely see. Not only that, in “Gifted Hands” we read this nugget: “By the time I reached ninth grade, mother had made such strides that she received nothing but food stamps. She couldn’t have provided for us and kept up the house without that subsidy.” He writes elsewhere, “As I’ve said, we received food stamps and couldn’t have made it without them.” […]

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/opinion/article24747304.html

  50. says

    Chauncey DeVega was fairly harsh when he recently explained the existence of black Republicans like Ben Carson:

    […] Black conservatives are highly prized by Republicans. As such, they are well compensated on the lecture circuit, by the right-wing media machine, and are coddled and protected by a network of well-funded conservative think tanks and public relations firms. Their designated role as the “best black friend” for Republicans, the “special” and “good one,” is ego gratifying. […]

    http://www.salon.com/2015/10/04/ben_carsons_destructive_lies_4_racist_assumptions_endorsed_magnified_by_black_conservatives/

    That rings true to me. We have a Republican Party whose candidates often run openly on a racist platform, and on a platform that reflects white resentment about whites no longer being unassailably special. So why would black voters and candidates chose to go along? Few do go along. Those who do have a host of explanations for their choice.

    […] there is the curious case of Ben Carson, who recently said that black people who support the Democrats are essentially stupid, unsophisticated, hyper-emotional, irrational, and incapable of thinking for themselves. In Carson’s delusional alternate reality, Republicans do not “see race,” and, unlike the Democrats, are the real advocates for racial justice and positive change along the color line in the United States.

    Ben Carson is not alone in his twisted fantasy land. He is joined by other black conservatives — a select group of racial mercenaries who are routinely trotted out on Fox News and elsewhere — who, to great approval from white conservatives, also repeat the same anti-black propaganda. […]
    1) Black people are on a Democratic or Liberal “Plantation” […]
    3) Black Americans vote Democrat because they want “free things” […]
    4) Black Americans are low-information voters who are ill-informed […]

  51. says

    More proof that Ben Carson is not that bright in many areas (as if more proof were needed).

    Here’s an account of an interview in which Ben Carson is terrifyingly incompetent.
    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/faced-commander-chief-test-ben-carson-flunks

    Carson seems to think that even Middle Eastern governments that kicked Osama Bin Laden out their country were loyal to Bin Laden, and that they would have turned the al Qaeda leader over to the USA if the the USA has threatened the middle east with petroleum independence.

    And then Carson went on to talk about Iraq, and invading Iraq while seeming to confuse Afghanistan and Iraq. It was all gibberish.

  52. says

    Ben Carson has often hinted that God backs him for president. His latest statement in this vein:

    […] Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson lashed out at critics who said that he would never have a chance to win the presidency.

    He said that instead of retiring, God opened the door for him to enter the presidential race “much to the consternation of all the professional class and all the pundits” who said it was “impossible” for a “political neophyte” like him to build a national campaign.

    “And yet, you see, it’s happening,” Carson said. “They don’t understand the power of God.”

  53. says

    Oh, Ben Carson, must you be so obnoxious so many times per day? Rhetorical question.

    Carson’s latest foray into stupid land:

    During an interview, Glenn Beck asked Carson if he would shut down the Education Department as president.

    “I actually have something I would use the Department of Education to do,” Carson responded. “It would be to monitor our institutions of higher education for extreme political bias and deny federal funding if it exists.”

    Uh, wait. This is the same Carson that made such a big deal out of not bowing to “political correctness” pressure when he talks in public, right?

    Yes, Carson said, “It’s time for people to stand up and proclaim for what they believe and stop being bullied.”
    Link

  54. says

    Why is Ben Carson leading in Iowa? The answer is so depressing. Iowans who vote in the primary agree with Ben Carson. They really do. They agree most when Carson says something really stupid and/or anti-Muslim. They agree most when Carson reveals himself to be worse than Donald Trump.

    […] Two years ago, at the Values Voter Summit, Carson said that the Affordable Care Act—designed to increase health coverage for millions of uninsured Americans—was the “worst thing that has happened in this country since slavery,” which trapped millions of people in brutal hereditary bondage for more than two centuries. American slavery was a disgraceful chapter in our history that still shapes the structure of our society. Obamacare, by contrast, has delivered insurance and health services to 17.6 million people.

    What do Iowa Republicans think? Eighty-one percent say this makes him a “mostly” or “very” attractive candidate.

    Last month, Carson voiced opposition to a hypothetical Muslim president. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,” he said. This, despite the Constitution’s clear dictate on religious tests—they’re verboten. What do Iowa Republicans think? Seventy-seven percent say this makes him a “mostly” or “very” attractive candidate.

    Two weeks ago, Carson said that guns—in the hands of German Jews—could have slowed Adolf Hitler and even stopped the Holocaust. […]

    What do Iowa Republicans think? A whopping 77 percent say that Carson’s statement makes him “very” or “mostly” attractive.[…]

    Carson speaks the language of Iowa Republicans. They like his rhetoric, whether it’s absurd, ignorant, or genuinely offensive. […]

    Slate link

    Cross-posted from Moments of Political Madness.

  55. says

    Now that Ben Carson is leading Donald Trump in Iowa polls, Trump has started the process of dissing Carson. Here’s what Trump had to say:

    I like Ben, but he cannot do with trade like I do with trade. He can’t do with a lot of things like I do. So we’ll have to see what happens.

    He’s very, very weak on immigration. And I’m very strong on immigration. He believes in amnesty strongly. He believes on citizenship. I mean he’s going to give citizenship to people that are here illegally. You can’t do that. And, you know, we disagree on other things, also.

    I think Ben Carson is a low energy person. I think Ben Carson is lower energy than Jeb if you want to know the truth.

    Mostly bluster, little substance. Carson has said lots of things to which a person could legitimately object, in detail, but that’s not how Trump rolls. Trump also fails when it comes to speaking English. Maybe he should object to candidates that are more articulate than he is on the grounds of “not fair!”

  56. says

    Another quote from Ben Carson: “As people get to know me, they know that I’m not a hateful, pathological person like some people try to make me out to be.”

  57. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    Trump and Carson’s appeal can be boiled down to their basic message being “Things that make you think are BAD. We won’t make you think.”

  58. says

    Ben Carson does not write all of his own stupid stuff, though he claims to. No, he plagiarizes some of it.

    Several sections of […] Dr. Ben Carson’s 2012 book “America the Beautiful” were plagiarized from various sources […]

    In many cases Carson cites the works that he plagiarizes in endnotes, though he makes no effort to indicate that not just the source, but the words themselves, had been taken from different authors. […]

    In one instance, Carson cites wholesale from an old website that has been online since at least 2002, Socialismsucks.net.

    In another example, he plagiarizes from two authors whose works he mentions in passing at earlier points in the book: Cleon Skousen, a conservative historian who died in 2006, and Bill Federer, another conservative historian […]

    Other sources taken nearly verbatim include a CBS News article, a Liberty Institute press release, a local newspaper article, and various internet sites.

    In Carson’s book, he writes about being caught plagiarizing in college and being given the chance to rewrite the paper after it was discovered. […]

    And here’s an example of some of the text Carson plagiarized:

    Anytime you give to government the responsibility and authority to provide government-made jobs, old-age financial security, “free” health care, and “free” education and indoctrination of children, it will control the lives of the people who live under its jurisdiction, and individual liberty and freedom of choice are sacrificed. […]

    Socialism is the ultimate exploitative monopoly. […]

    If government could give you everything you want, it must have the power to take everything you’ve got. This is the real agenda of socialism. It is the confiscation of property in the name of a “fairer” distribution of it. It is the total political institutionalization of violence and exploitation in the name of abolishing exploitation. […]

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/ben-carson-book#.huZ2VR1EJv

  59. says

    Lynna @56:

    Chauncey DeVega was fairly harsh when he recently explained the existence of black Republicans like Ben Carson:

    […] Black conservatives are highly prized by Republicans. As such, they are well compensated on the lecture circuit, by the right-wing media machine, and are coddled and protected by a network of well-funded conservative think tanks and public relations firms. Their designated role as the “best black friend” for Republicans, the “special” and “good one,” is ego gratifying. […]

    I’m going to click your link in a minute, bc I’m dying to see how harsh DeVega gets. The above quote seems pretty tame in my book.

  60. says

    Here’s another lovely quote from Ben Carson:

    “There is no war on women,” he said. “There may be a war on what’s inside of women, but there is no war on women in this country.”

    Uh, WTF?

    Carson thinks homosexuality is a choice, and he thinks he has proof: prisons.

    “[A lot] of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.” […]

    Link

  61. says

    The latest polls show Ben Carson rising even more, and they show that evangelical women, and non-evangelical women love him.

    […] In the latest from Monmouth University, Trump is at 18 percent to Carson’s 32 percent [in Iowa]. Back in August, they were tied at 23 percent apiece, so Trump’s support has fallen by five points while Carson’s is up by nine points. […]

    Carson leads Trump among women and men, evangelical and non-evangelical voters […]

    Link to PDF of poll results

  62. Menyambal - torched by an angel says

    So many anti-abortionists base their beliefs on the Bible. Well, the Bible nowhere condemns abortion, except as a property loss for the man. But it does say that if a husband suspects his wife of being unfaithful, a priest is to administer an abortifacient as a test – if she is guilty, an abortion will occur. God’s priest will try to abort the fetus, based solely on the man’s suspicion, and an abortion is evidence, not the end of the inquiry.

  63. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    Gawker [no link from me, sorry] had an interesting OpEd about the Rethuglican candidate-fest being a version of The Producers, where the goal in that movie, was to produce a guaranteed flop of show to keep ll the invested money that were expecting huge returns (% wise) [e.g. 50 investors each expecting 50% of gross ticket sales]. The OpEd describes how each of the cands is doing everything they can to NOT get elected.
    Sorry to not provide link, should be easy to google…(exercise for the reader).
    ..
    hmmm to go all conspiracy nutty:
    the GOP is in cahoots to get Hillary elected, to show us how wrong we can be.
    hmmm

  64. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 69:
    inspired by the book I’m currently rereading…(Illuminatus Trilogy)
    @69 is clear evidense [sic] that the Illuminati control all politics of both parties. So whatever they want they’ll connive to get us to do. So they put all those Rethuglicans up there to get us to vote for the victim of her slimey husband. And siccing those know-nothings at her so we’ll cast our sympathy votes to her.
    me seem to be getting all Illuminiziated. hmmmm….

  65. says

    Ben Carson is currently on a book tour. He is using his status as a presidential candidate to sell books.

    The All-In show, hosted by Chris Hayes, had a brilliant idea: hire someone else to read books written by candidates and then produce a review of the book. They started with Ben Carson’s new book, A More Perfect Union. Jeb Lund, columnist for the Guardian and Rolling Stone, produced the review. This is hilarious.

    http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/all-ins-first-ever-candidate-book-report-550868035954