Not so Gifted Hands. Ben Carson's history of lying.

So if you read my last few blogs you might have noticed, its getting hard out there for a Doctor with no political experience running for president.

Mostly because he keeps getting caught in lies. Previously I covered Ben Carson's lying about his getting robbed at gun point, or his 10% tax plan, there was also his lie about Mannatech, where his claim he didnt work for them was debunked by the infomericals he made for them. Oh and lets not forget his lie about needing to space out your vaccines.

Well it turns out, we are just getting started (or ending depending on your point of view) on Carson's lie's and at this point the wheels are totally off the bus on the Carson Campaign as he has just had another no good, very bad week.

Ok so, like most people of my Generation I had to read Ben Carson's book "Gifted Hands" when I was in school. Well now that he's running for President, that book, and many of his previous statements are receiving new scrutiny....and well it turns out, that book may actually be partly fiction.

Now the statement that is getting all the attention is this one:

“I felt so proud, my chest bursting with ribbons and braids of every kind. To make it more wonderful, we had important visitors that day. Two soldiers who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Viet Nam were present. More exciting to me, General William Westmoreland (very prominent in the Viet Nam war) attended with an impressive entourage. Afterward, Sgt. Hunt 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.”

A story he repeated in a later book (released last year)"You have a Brain"

That position allowed me the chance to meet four-star general William Westmoreland, who had commanded all American forces in Vietnam before being promoted to Army Chief of Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. I also represented the Junior ROTC at a dinner for Congressional Medal of Honor winners, marched at the front of Detroit’s Memorial Day parade as head of an ROTC contingent, and was offered a full scholarship to West Point.”

Well as it turns out, that story has a few major problems. The first, obvious is that West Point has free tuition.....meaning that a "scholarship" is pointless. Which is why they dont actually exist.

So yea, given that, its basically impossible Carson was offered one.

And thats not even the only lie in that statement. See the Army is a little OCD about record keeping for their higher ranking officers, including General Westmoreland, and according to his records, General Westmoreland was no where near Detroit at the time this encounter with Carson supposedly happened.

So yea, not only was Carson offered a non existent scholarship, he was offered it by a guy who could appear in two places at once.

Granted, as we learned under W. lying about military service, isnt a disqualifier to be president....if your a republican, so I lying about potential military service likely isnt either.

[EDIT] After publishing this originally I came across this from WTOP based on a press conference
Carson made this weekend over his supposed scholarship offer At his news conference Friday night, Carson said, “It was an offer to me. It was specifically made.” He said he could not recall specifically who made the offer. “It’s almost 50 years ago. I bet you don’t remember all the people you talked to 50 years ago,” he said.

Actually you probably do if it really was someone that famous as Gen Westmoreland....oh wait I forgot this explanation comes with a tacit admission you lied about that part....twice, in writing when you claimed you did remember. [END EDIT]

Problem is, those arnt the only lies or just flat out weird statements Carson's been caught making recently.

See Gifted Hands also makes the claim that unlike the calm, relaxed to the point of sounding like hes almost asleep person he is now, Young Ben Carson had some serious anger issues.

Specially the time he tried to stab a classmate of his named "Bob". The stabbing only failed because the knife broke on "Bob's" belt buckle. The attempted stabbing is laid out in his book as the event that caused him to find Jesus, and it was the faith in Jesus that relaxed him and helped him become the mellow guy he is today.

Now Ben Carson admits Bob isnot the guys real name, and changing names to protect the people involved in pretty common in Autobiographies, so he gets a full pass on this, this cant be held against him as a lie but it is why "Bob" is in quotes.

But the problem is, no one who knew Carson at the time ever heard about this story until it was published in Gifted Hands, none of them have any idea who "Bob" could be either.

 Which of course led to reporters asking questions....which in turn led to this tweet by FOX's Megyn Kelly after she taped an interview with Carson:

"BREAKING NEWS on #KellyFile: @RealBenCarson identifies person he tried to stab as a young man as a "close relative."

See thats why none of his friends remembered him stabbing them....turns out the guy was actually a relative, despite the story Carson's been telling for 13 years.

Incidentally, none of his close relatives remember Carson trying to stab them either.

Also, it does have to be asked.....who tries to stab someone in the belt buckle? Like most stabbings are in the chest or stomach.....those arnt covered by a belt buckle. Just saying. What person would aim for an area covered by a belt buckle. Also how shitty was your knife if it broke on the buckle? I own a knife I got for like $10, its cheap as hell, and it wouldnt break on a belt buckle.

If your going to lie, and it appears Carson clearly has here (just like he did about being robbed) you'd think youd make the lie sound remotely believable.

Speaking of events no one else can remember, Carson has recently started claiming that during race riots that occurred in Detroit following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, he helped shelter white students by hiding them in the school's biology lab.

Now the riot DID happen. So points there I guess. But as to Carson's role no one else at the school at the time remembers this/saw it/ or ever heard about it until he stared mentioning it on the campaign trail last month and no one has been able to identify or come forward as one of the white students he saved.....Carson for his part, also cant actually remember the names of the white students. But at least we know they werent named "Bob"

But look, like I said in most of these cases, its only the lack of other peoples memories of ANY of it that suggest Carson is a liar. And well the thing is, Carson's character is impeccable. No really, if you dont believe me, there is this story from "Gifted Hands"

"The day before I'd been informed that the final examination papers in a psychology class, Perceptions 301, 'were inadvertently burned'....So I, with about 150 other students, went to the designated auditorium for the repeat exam....[The questions] were incredibly difficult....Soon half the class was gone, and the exodus continued. Not one person turned in the examination before leaving.

"....Suddenly the door of the classroom opened....The professor came toward me. With her was a photographer for the Yale Daily News who paused and snapped my picture. 'What's going on?' I asked. 'A hoax,' the teacher said. 'We wanted to see who was the most honest student in the class.' She smiled again. 'And that's you.' "

See Carson was once "outed" as the most honest kid in his class. So clearly he would never lie, right?

Although really I'm not sure how sticking around to take a test makes you honest. Hard working, dedicated, sure....but honest?  I dont get that.  Especially since you'd think making a test much harder would be an act of dishonestly by the teacher, and the kids who left (and presumably went to complain) and wouldnt let the professor get away with in would be the more honest ones, and the ones less prone to accepting bullshit.

But then again, it doesnt have to make logical sense.....because like everything else that comes out of Carson's mouth....its not true,

Per a Wall Street Journal check of the Yale Daily News' records, they never once published a picture of Carson that they supposedly took for this story. Probably because, as the same investigation found out, the class doesnt exist. As in not only was there NEVER a class called "Perceptions" offered during Carson's years at Yale....at the time, Yale didnt even offer a Psychology 301 course.

Carson by the way, is standing by every single one of the lies I have mentioned as "fact" just as he's doing with the lies I mentioned at the start of the blog post. And honestly if you listen to him talk about them, he does in fact seem to believe them. He also likes to claim these events are eall "well documented"....although as I've pointed out, no one has been able to turn up documentation for any of them.

Which isnt surprising really, as I'm starting to suspect Ben Carson is delusional.

Ok, so one story that came up this week that wasnt directly about him lying was about the commencement address he gave in 1998 at Andrews University in which he said:

“My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain, Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big — when you stop and think about it, and I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time — to store that much grain.[...]"When you look at the way that the pyramids are made, with many chambers that are hermetically sealed, they'd have to be that way for various reasons. And various of scientists have said, 'Well, you know there were alien beings that came down and they have special knowledge and that's how--' you know, it doesn't require an alien being when God is with you."

Now when Ben Carson says this is his own personal theory, he aint kidding. With the possible exception of Sid Meier's Civilization video game series, no one else on the planet actually thinks this is remotely true

Furthermore, according to Carson, all scientists believe in Alien life, as that is apparently the only other possible explanation for building the pyramids. There is no possible way man could have done this....even though books written for 2nd and 3rd graders detail exactly how the pyramids were built

Now maybe you think he mispoke or was taking out of context, or even became more educated in the last 17 years....yea not so much. He was actually asked about it directly by CBS on Wednesday and he said "It's still my belief, yes."

Now to be fair, there is still one further possibility other than serve delusions that could explain this. Which is that I, along with all of you, are idiots and just cant understand this complex things.

See Carson was also asked on CNN about remarks he made last year, implying many Americans are stupid:

"They can twist and turn things as much as they want. But what they don't understand—and they miscalculated. They were doing a great job in terms of fundamentally changing this nation. In terms of infiltrating the school systems. In terms of infiltrating the media. All of this—they've done a great job. Everything was perfect. Except they underestimated the intelligence of the American people. The people are not as stupid as they think they are. Many of them are stupid. Okay. But I'm talking about overall.[...]Even if all the media tries to shut you down—which they have tried very much to do with me. But they can't because the good Lord has provided me with mechanisms like my syndicated column and like Fox News. We'd be Cuba if there were no Fox News."

And heres the exchange about that on CNN a couple of days ago

Camerota (the interviewer):It sounds like what you’re saying are liberals, You mean that if Fox News didn’t exist, we would be a communist country?”

Carson:“No. Again, there you go with sensationalism, That’s what you try to do. You hope somehow that will resonate with people who don’t think for themselves. I’ve got news for you, people are a lot smarter than you think they are, and they know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Camerota: “Dr. Carson, you said it! Dr. Carson, I’m quoting — I’m not even quoting you, I’m playing your words. You are the person who said there are a lot of people who are stupid and without Fox News, we would be Cuba.”

Carson: “I can’t believe that you used to work on Fox News!”

By the way, I love this line. Im not sure if Carson is suggesting he expected a softball interview because she worked at FOX and implicitly FOX goes easy on republicans, or if Carson is saying he expected her to agree with him because she worked at FOX before and they are all ideologically brainwashed. (note by the way for fairness, 3 of the lies I listed above were exposed by FOX or other News Corp owned companies so yea in either case it seems carson would still be wrong),

And now we get to the "money shot" of the exchange:

Carson: “Are you honestly telling me that you didn’t know what I was talking about when I said that? Are you honestly telling me? If you are, you might fit in that category,”

There you have it folks straight from the Horses ass. If you dont understand the crazy shit coming out of Ben Carson's mouth the problem is not that the good doctor may be out of his mind, the problem is you, and the other 99.02% of Americans who dont support Carson (per his most recent poll numbers, at 23% of the Republican vote, with Republicans being 39% of the electorate) YOU are an Idiot.

Or Ben Carson is a delusional liar......your choice.