Ben Carson's spends a tale of black overcoming "violent past", no one can find the "violence".

So more like Monica or the emails?

 

Are you arguing that Ben Carson is telling the truth or what is your point.

Again this is trivial matter, and shouldn't really matter too much.

If he had got into west point he would have had his tuition covered, and given he was a top student he probably would have got in, but he still lied about being offered a full scholarship.

 

Both of those were witch-hunts as well.

This isn't a scandal nor is it driven by political forces. This is Ben Carson telling tall tales and journalists doing their job in vetting candidates and finding that out.

 

I don't think this involved any taxpayer money or farcical congressional committees.

 

Sigh. This has been addressed many times.

Here's what Gore said that became "I invented the internet."

I worked on The Hill during the late 80's and I can remember Senator Gore coming over to the House (not a usual occurrence for a Senator) to talk with Congressmen, including the one I worked for, about technology and the democratization and distribution of information. Gore was absolutely the leader and most visionary of anyone with any power in government on issues that related to the Internet and what it was to become. That guy accomplished so much that we take for granted and most of us never heard mentioned. It's criminal that he was cheated out of the presidency. He was a flawed politician but a great legislator and while I have no doubt that he would have made mistakes in office, we would have a much better country today if he had taken office.

 

which is why this is so stupid.

It's not implausible that he was told he was a shoe in to get in by someone pretty senior....not a guarantee, or scholarship....but he probably coulda gone had he wanted to and was likely advised that by a knowledgeable person.

So an account, in a book written almost twenty years ago about his recollections of the late 60's that isn't spot on is a pretty mild embellishment. Especially in the context of his options and decisions at that time. Things these "new scandalous revelations" don't change.

With all the goofy things he's said in the last year/month/week....THIS is what's getting press??? Silly season.

 

What lib's say is true: environment makes you violent

and

What normal people say is true: you can overcome your environment if you're not lazy and shiftless, cf. Ben Carson.

So, by voting for Ben Carson, you're proving how all the lazy shiftless black people really are lazy and shiftless. Landslide! Eve was born from a man. Then Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel did a bunch of incest and America was born. Let's go USA!

 

He's apparently lying about all kinds of things that people that knew him say weren't the case. I don't know how you could remember having dinner with William Westmoreland when he wasn't even in the same city.

 

this,

 

This is all very true - but it's not just an account that he wrote in a book 20 years ago. It's something he talks about all the time, and has made it a central piece of his narrative to earn him votes. He makes a deal about being genuine/authentic and unlike all the other politicians out there - that's what's made this a story. That said, in itself, it's a one or two day silly season story, as you said. It only becomes more sustained news because it feeds into all the other things he's just making up on the fly.

 

It doesn't seem dissimilar to the stalker phone calls, visits and letters that coaches or boosters send to athletes to the point that the NCAA regulates it now.

 

Come on guys: isn't lying really just acknowledging the otherness of the truth?

 

There might be something to it. I'm skeptical in general.

However, in the US, with the characters of deceit (highly edited tapes) and unethical behaviors taking central stage and being supported by religious right tell me that for that segment, religion may make you less moral, or more acceptable of unethical behaviors, instead of the common view that religion make you more moral and more ethical.

And there is this recent pub:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2015/11/05/religion-morality/

This probably deserve a thread itself.

 

Don't worry I wasn't dissing Gore just comparing the level of what is going with Ben Carson in terms of ridicule for statements made. Gore did a lot to help enable the technology that created the internet but my point only was about putting what is happening to Ben Carson into context.

 

Yes, and it's so much of a pattern that the reaction of his supporters is really fascinating. I wish I was a doctor of sociology and could study that. I can't remember anything like it on the same scale.

Though, I'm sure there probably has been plenty of instances similar and I'm just blinded by this latest example.

 

I'm starting to think Carson is a bit of a sociopath - either he has no idea what the truth is or he simply doesn't care. Here's what he said today at a press conference:


“I never said that I received a full scholarship. Nowhere did I say that,” Carson said. “POLITICO as you know, told a bold-faced lie.”


Here's the excerpt from his book:


“More exciting to me, General William Westmoreland (very prominent in the Viet Nam war) attended with an impressive entourage. Afterward, Sgt. Hunt” — his high school ROTC director — “introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners. Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point.”

He continued: "I didn't refuse the scholarship outright, but I let them know that a military career wasn't where I saw myself going. As overjoyed as a felt to be offered such a scholarship, I wasn't really tempted. The scholarship would have obligated me to spend four years in military service after I finished college, precluding my chances to go on to medical school. I knew my direction — I wanted to be a doctor, and nothing would divert me or stand in the way.

"Of course, the offer of a full scholarship flattered me," he went on.


Here is his quote from a Charlie Rose interview last month:


In an October interview with TV host Charlie Rose, Carson said he "was offered full scholarship to West Point":

“I had a goal of achieving the office of city executive officer [in JROTC]. Well, no one had ever done that in that amount of time … Long story short, it worked, I did it,” Carson said. “I was offered full scholarship to West Point, got to meet General Westmoreland, go to Congressional Medal dinners, but decided really my pathway would be medicine.”

 

Why would a man slander himself if he wanted the conservative white/right wing vote? Even the hometown people says he was nothing like he mentioned...

 

And a plagiarist to boot.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/ben-carson-book#.eo83L5KqW