Most of the girls in beauty contests are quite popular, too. And equally incapable of answering a question coherently. Carson is going to make ISIS look like losers by destroying it. Seriously? THAT is presidential sounding?
No, he said he wasn’t interested in West Point so why would he find out the admission requirements?
The more effort spent on these weak sauce attacks on Carson, the more popular he becomes. I get that the media needs to spin something for ratings, but you gotta find something with some teeth. I wish someone would ask him about his belief in young earth or evolution or something that might actually make people think twice.
Junior ROTC can be a different beast than what’s hosted on college campuses that you are probably thinking of. Even those programs frequently span multiple college campuses these days There’s a main program with satellites. Even if they mostly operate dispersed there’s a chain of command for events that require them to get together.
I can’t say for sure but here’s the Detroit Public Schools JROTC page. They reference the Detroit Public Schools Department of JROTC hosting it’s 66th Annual military ball along with a new 5k event. Just the Ball sounds like a reason to have some coherent organization to involve the cadets in planning and execution and that’s been going on since before Carson was part of the program. A citywide organization over the individual school programs with at least one consolidated annual event… Carson’s statement is at least plausible.
Why would that make people think twice? Not-believing in science isn’t an outlier position for today’s leading Republicans; it is the default. To my knowledge, 2016 Republican candidates who have made pro-science statements are: Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Rand Paul, weakly. You see how well they’re doing.
I don’t think he was obligated to fix his alcoholic secretary’s problems, and I know he didn’t pray for God to disappear her, but there is something weird about him being grateful that she’s gone and he doesn’t have to deal with any unpleasantness. I’m curious to know the context around this story.
That seems almost exactly opposite from the sort of leadership you’d want in a President. “There was a situation that was potentially deadly for another person, and uncomfortable for me. Because I didn’t want to deal with the discomfort I simply ignored the problem, and eventually it went away.”
Putting the emphasis on the effect this experience had on him just continues to fill in the picture of Ben Carson as a rampaging egomaniac. You’d think there’d be at least a little bit of “I hope that that poor woman found the help that she needed.”
So there were two weeks between his prayer and her fortuitous disappearance. And in that time he did…nothing? And then wishes he’d had more time to help her? Did he approach her at all? Refer her to resources like an EAP or other counseling? Anything? Anything at all?
The President of the United States probably doesn’t encounter many problems where the best course of action is to sit on your hands and wait for God to fix it.
I’m going to be unfair and judgmental and say that this is kind of the Republican ideal of a divine intervention. The poor and sick magically disappear with no need for actual compassion and/or social safety nets. I’m a tad reluctant to believe in a deity that apparently has a woman whacked (or at least disappeared) to save Ben Carson some momentary guilt and emotional distress.
Several other of the divine interventions are also pretty problematic – Ben recounts stories of people miraculously recovering from horrible medical issues that, if you believe in an omnipotent god, wouldn’t have been issues if they hadn’t been inflicted on the people in the first place. I know this is one of those classic theological paradoxes that’s usually resolved as “It’s all part of God’s plan”, but, again, it’s kind of a brutal plan that puts someone in a coma just to renew Carson’s faith.
While Carson is free to believe whatever he wishes, this does strongly reinforce my feelings about have an evangelical leader in the White House – I really don’t want a President who says “This is a tough issue, let’s all pray about it and meet again in a couple of weeks to see if things turn out OK.”
If he were in the least bit curious or interested in the factual reality in which we live. Carson has need for two books. One on neurosurgery, and the bible. Everything else in the universe he susses out with gut intuition.
I don’t think he’s cynical. He’s just a victim of a shitty religion.
Carson is too humble to admit he wished his problematic secretary into the cornfield. That’s his plan for Putin, but he can’t come out and say it. Call him Dr. - Dr. Manhattan.
This is currently my favorite thread. It’s like reading about a complete lunatic. Everyday I learn something new about someone who should never have been admitted to medical school, based on his understanding of basic science, let alone run for president. Wow! Clown Car indeed.
Watching Republicans defend him is the other half of the fun. Thanks guys.
Y’know, I can very easily see that secretary story being a “conversion moment”, so to speak, in a person’s life. A more enlightened person might come out of that and think “I prayed really hard for her, and she still met some probably horrible fate. Prayer by itself isn’t enough. Next time I see someone in a situation like that, I need to spend that two weeks actually doing something to help them”. You know, exactly the sort of realization that Jesus said we all needed.
Except instead, Carson used it to reinforce his own egocentric worldview.
