Let Me Pick Your Brain, Surgeon

[Joe Guy]

[wesw]

could you support a Nazi for pres ?

no I don t think Nazism is consistent with our constitution

I would not advocate it.

of course it is constitutional to elect a Nazi, but I d never vote for one because their views are not consistent with the constitution...

of course he understands the constitution, he also has free thought, no?

...tempest in a teapot.

[Guinevere]

Apples and oranges, anyway. What you're saying, Wes, is that you'd never elect a German because of the actions of the Nazis.

The real question ain't whether the Prez is a Muslim, or whether he needs defending, but the condemnation of an entire religion and its members based on the actions of extremists. Clearly the vast majority of Muslims are not members of or supporters of extremists groups. As LJ mentioned in a different thread, even Bush II made that point in the post-9/11 discussions. Apparently, however, much of the Republican Party (and a group of people who post here), fail to understand that point.

[Econoline]

I meant to say this in that other thread: Credit where due. George W. Bush did indeed say that...and he was right to do so.

[wesw]

I don t have any problem with a german. as long as he is a natural born citizen. er, wait, that would make him an American...

I don t have any problem with a muslim, as long as he recognizes that the constitution is the law here, not subject to Sharia. if the king of Jordan was eligible I might consider him

I don t have any problem with a jew, as long as he doesn t advocate the laws of moses being the law of the land. we can t be putting peoples eyes out and yanking their teeth.....

I wouldn t support a Nazi or a fascist or a communist or an islamist, I don t think their ideologies are consistent with the laws of our nation, or with the spirit of our nation.

and I can think whatever I want, just as dr carson can. I know that freedom of thought is popular with democrats...,
as long as you think the right way (or the left way), that is....

fucking Saudis.....

[Joe Guy]

I could support an American born Muslim for president but I would not support someone who thinks going to prison makes you gay and that Muslims should not be allowed to run for president.

[wesw]

he never said that they should not be able to run,

and a prison would make almost anyone gay..., orange is the new pink....

[Joe Guy]

Ben Carson said, ""I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that."

With that statement I believe that you could assume that Carson doesn't want a Muslim to be able to run for president.

[Lord Jim]

I believe that you could assume that Carson doesn't want a Muslim to be able to run for president.

I am certainly no fan of Dr. Carson's as a Presidential candidate, (he's not remotely qualified for the job, and I'd be delighted if he dropped out of the race) but I don't really think that's a fair take away from what he said...

A fair take away is bad enough:

Asked whether his faith or the faith of a president should matter, Carson said, "It depends on what that faith is."

"If it's inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter. But if it fits within the realm of America and consistent with the constitution, no problem," he explained, according to a transcript.

Todd then asked Carson, whose rise in the polls has been powered in large part by Christian conservatives, if he believed that "Islam is consistent with the Constitution."

"No, I don't, I do not," he responded, adding, "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/b ... z3mQn37gNo


Asking whether in his personal opinion a Presidential candidate's religious faith "should matter" is a very different question from asking whether or not a person should be legally prohibited from seeking the Presidency based on their religious faith...

His broad brush position may be ignorant and bigoted (personally I would vote for a low tax, strong national defense supporting Muslim over a high tax weak national defense supporting Christian every time) but I really don't think he was saying that Muslims should be somehow prohibited from running...

To draw an analogy:

I would never vote for a completely unqualified person given to saying ignorant things for President, (a person like, well, Dr. Carson) and I would "absolutely not agree" with the idea of such a person being elected President...

That does not however mean that I think that someone as unqualified and poorly informed as Dr. Carson should be prohibited from running...

(Though I dearly wish he wasn't, and I'll be quite happy when he stops...)

[rubato]

He doubled down on stupid way back up the trail:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/0 ... 63508.html

Carson also refused to walk back comments he made in October last year in which he described Obamacare as the "worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery."

"Slavery was a horrible thing and affected many people in horrible ways, some of those effects still present today. So, no, it is not the same as slavery," he said of Obamacare on Wednesday. "However, what needs to be understood here is that the way this country was set up, the people -- we the people were set up at the pinnacle of power in this nation.

yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

Saw this post on Facebook today:

I've been thinking about getting some brain surgery. You know, just for fun. Thing is, I don't really trust brain surgeons. I've heard that most of them are incompetent, and some are corrupt. So in selecting a brain surgeon, I've decided to go with someone who never went to medical school, has absolutely no experience practicing medicine, and has never conducted brain surgery before--but who also shares my frustration with brain surgeons and gives powerful voice to my anxiety. I feel that's the best solution to my frustration with the general state of brain surgery these days. Experience, education, and skills count for absolutely nothing. There's no one I rather have conducting a difficult and dangerous job in which my personal safety is directly implicated than someone whose shared sense of frustration outweighs their complete lack of knowledge about brain surgery. This can't go wrong.

[BoSoxGal]

oops, double post!

[Econoline]

errr....posts?

[liberty]

Are you guys a bunch of racist? The guy is smart enough to be a brain surgeon; don’t you think he is smart enough to learn the presidency in short order. If Obama is qualified to be president so is Carson. I would bet that Carson is smarter than Obama.

I would like to a Russian as president especially one who is a good friend with Putin: Russia is our future.

You liberal should be happy; what you always wanted is gong to happen, except it just won’t be communist.

[wesw]

yes bigsky, the idea of believing that people are capable of deciding things for themselves is so un American..., oh wait....

we need an elite, of people like You, to guide us. you are the best and the brightest. please help us see the right way to think.

we are not worthy.

then the elite will not be smart all the time, so we need YOU to assume more power, because You know best, MS STALIN.....

We the People are obsolete. You are better and wiser...., why if you evolve a bit more you may even qualify to be a Chinese leader....

we need You to guide us, oh great and wise elitists.....

we poor dumb inbred white people are not even worthy to live. people that hate as much as us should be exterminated....

rise up and end white supremacy! slaughter the barbarian white male Christians in the name of tolerance!!!! they are evil!

Christians are enslaving women! they are cruel! we should behead them and burn them until they see how evil they are and submit to Our will!!!!!

exterminate!!!! exterminate!!!!!

[Lord Jim]

Actually, it's worth repeating a third time:

I've been thinking about getting some brain surgery. You know, just for fun. Thing is, I don't really trust brain surgeons. I've heard that most of them are incompetent, and some are corrupt. So in selecting a brain surgeon, I've decided to go with someone who never went to medical school, has absolutely no experience practicing medicine, and has never conducted brain surgery before--but who also shares my frustration with brain surgeons and gives powerful voice to my anxiety. I feel that's the best solution to my frustration with the general state of brain surgery these days. Experience, education, and skills count for absolutely nothing. There's no one I rather have conducting a difficult and dangerous job in which my personal safety is directly implicated than someone whose shared sense of frustration outweighs their complete lack of knowledge about brain surgery. This can't go wrong.

Very similar to the comments here recently, made by one of our most insightful posters:

The question that folks who think it would be a spiffy idea to elect a President who has absolutely no experience in politics ought to be asking themselves is this:

Would you hire anyone else to do anything else, if they had absolutely no experience with it?

If you needed an operation, would you seek out someone to perform it who said, "Well, I'd the perfect person to perform your operation. I've never performed an operation before, I've never been in an operating room, never spent a day studying surgery. Hell I've never even held a scalpel, but how tough can it be?"....

If your car needed work would you go to a guy who said, "I'm the man to fix your car. I've never fixed a car before, never spent a minute learning how to be an auto mechanic. In fact, I don't even know how to raise the hood. But I'm sure I can learn"...

Geez, you wouldn't even hire somebody to clean your gutters who started off by telling you, "Well, I've never even set foot on a ladder"...

But for some bizarre reason, there is a not insubstantial percentage of people in this country that "thinks" that "not knowing anything all about the job" is a splendid qualification for The Highest Office In The Land....

well jim, the career politicians are mostly corrupt, each in their own little, or big, ways.

Most of the auto mechanics I've dealt with over the years have been crooks wes...in little or big ways...

Doesn't mean that the next time I need to have my car looked at I'm going to take it to a pastry chef...

[oldr_n_wsr]

Much ado about nothing.
As usual what he said is blown out of proportion and twisted into ways he did not say.
Typical
And they wonder why people are tired of the status quo.

[Guinevere]

Plenty of ado, when said by a man running for President. Don't like the heat, then get out of the kitchen.

[oldr_n_wsr]

What did he say that is so bad in your opinion?
The way I read it was he would not support someone who's faith would be at odds with the way our country is run/was originated. Sharia law is not consistent with our constitution nor with how our country is run today.
He (Carson) did not say a Muslim could not run for president, he said he would not support him.
Where's the heat? That the media and talking heads are going nuts about this? As usual, they are making a mountain out of a mole hill. And twisting it into anything THEY want it to be not what is actually is.

[Sue U]

Carson made a blanket statement that Islam is incompatible with American notions of constitutional government and that a Muslim should not be President of the United States.

And you don't see a problem with that?

Let's try it this way:

Christianity is obviously not consistent with the Constitution (as demonstrated recently in Kentucky, for example). I therefore cannot support any Christian for President, I cannot advocate that we put any Christian in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.

No problem, right?