It looks near wintry, but it was 70° (2 days ago).
Talk about anything you want in the comments.
November 7, 2015
A view of Madison, from the north.
It looks near wintry, but it was 70° (2 days ago).
Talk about anything you want in the comments.
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32 comments:
I don't often say this, but I'm really ready for some colder weather.
If anyone* here can hear "dog whistle" communications that other, not-as-special-as-the-dog-whistle-hearers cannot hear tonight from Trump's SNL media/medium no-shots-fired coup, kindly please inform the standard average-hearers post haste. Although I am presently not par-wise thinking of a proper offering of compensation in return, I trust with a tampered optimism those whose interests are served by thinking properly of that offering of compensation can do so without my interference.
*Mistakenly, I once thought I could.
The first days of November are nearly always warm (in the Northern hemisphere). The Italians call it St. Martin's Summer. We used to call it "Indian Summer."
Politico really tried to misrepresent things about Ben Carson (their own article did not back up their headline!) so it has to be a hit piece.
The implication of everything that Carson wrote is that you didn’t have to apply to get admitted to West Point, but instead Politico claims he said he applied and then disproves it.
This is the weakest of the four issues with his biographies.
Carson said and wrote he was offered a “full scholarship” at West Point as a possible result of meeting General William C. Westmoreland..
There are two things wrong with this:
1. Everyone who goes to West Point gets a “full scholarship” There’s no tuition.
2. He wasn’t “offered” anything by anybody. He was encouraged to apply, and told (by his JROTC Supervisors and/or maybe others too) that (in their opinion, of course) he was a cinch to get in, being the highest ranking ROTC student in Detroit.
He says he didn’t want to do it because he wanted to become a doctor. Instead, he went to Yale. And later to the University of Michigan Medical School, and had a residency in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
A point worth noting is that West Point actually describes the free tuition in its admissions materials as a "scholarship." Carson still used that word Friday when talking to the New York Times.
Also, in another spot in the book "Gifted Hands" he wrote that he had applied only to Yale because he couldn't afford the application fees. (not even applying to Harvard.)
But in the book "You Have a Brain" he says he still had that offer from West Point. And in a Facebook post in August 2015 - he goes on Facebook answering questsions from his 4 million followers and pledges to continue this even in the White House - he said he was "thrilled to get an offer from West Point"
Politico didn’t make the whole thing up. Somebody, probably a Democrat, “dropped the dime” on what Carson had written.
The other (stronger) issues with his books are:
1) The attempted stabbing, at age 14, of a friend named Bob because Bob wanted to change the station on a radio, whose stabbinbg was only prevented by a belt buckle.
CNN went and interviewed 9 people who knew Carson then, and nobody knows anything about this, nor did anyone remember him as violent. Carson says he changed the name, and "Bob" is not actually a friend, but a family member. He asked reporters if he told them the true name, would they sign an addidavit pledging to leave him alone?
2) The experimental truth test given in a psychology class at Yale called Perceptions 301 that Carson said he was the only person in the class who passed, and as a result of which, his picture got taken by the New York Daily News.
Yale says there was no course by that name (Perceptions) or any course in that department with the number 301 during the time Carson attended Yale, and the New York Daily News could not find a picture of Ben Carson from the early 1970s in its archives (this assumes that even if they didn't run the story, they'd keep the picture.
3) The robbery at a Popeyes restaurant in Baltimore in the 1980s where Carson says the robber stuck a gun into his ribs and Carson told him “I believe you want the guy behind the counter.”
The Baltimore Police said not enough information was given to locate any kind of police report of a robbery fitting that description. They released a 24-page report detailing their efforts to track down a redcord of such a robbery. Carson says his name was not taken down by police because he left the restaurant as soon as possible and was not interviewed as a witness.
However, I think, if it happened, he should be able to name the exact location of the restaurant, and probably the year or month in which it happened - at least narrow it down to within a 2-3 year period. It would have to be somewhere near where he lived and the same place he frequented other times. He said he was there to buy french fries for himself and his wife.
Is it possible he doesn't know the exact location of the restaurant, and if he did, why would he not mention it, and wouldn't that help track it down?
The New York Times notes other things that are difficult, if not impossible, to decisively corronborate or debunk.
That would be maybe other incidents during his childhood, or the claim that, in Boston, he lived in a tenement where rats roamed out in the weeds out back, and that he saw people lying in the street in that neighborhood in Boston, with bullet holes or stab wounds.
Maybe all that this shows is that a person should be careful when they use a ghostwriter. (if that's what happened)
It could be that there was a devious purpose in framing the accusation the way it was framed by Politico.
Maybe they were trying to get Carson to declare that a Democratic politician wanted to appoint him, and, once Carson volunteers that, it could then be argued that something is wrong, or even corrupt, with that.
It could be that somebody who later on went to jail was involved in this, or there were hints about pullings strings, and/or maybe Carson did some minor volunteer work for some Democrat(s)
Carson is unwilling to say now who actually told him he could get into West Point, claiming he can’t remember.
Carson's book also gets the date wrong when he could have met General Westmoreland, whose name Carson does not bring up in this now. It wasn’t a Memorial Day event – it was in February, 1969.
It certainly sounds like the fix was in for him to go to Yale. I mean he didn't apply anywhere else. Maybe West Point also?
@Sammy Finkelman: A Presidential candidate can lie to the entire nation (except to their own family) and still poll well. With Hillary, we're really in the post truth political era. It's more a question of how much lying will people write off for expedience. "it was worth it because of what was at stake."
Ben Carson has 4 million plus followers on Facebook and goes on Facebook almost every day answering questions and pledges to continue this even in the White House.
He says he was drafted to run for president, also:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/reading-carson_1055647.html
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/reading-carson_1055647.html?page=2
Perhaps most notable about Carson is how people warm to him, as evidenced by his high favorability ratings. “This whole presidential thing was not really my idea,” he told me. “It was the idea of the people. It was a draft movement, with petitions for me to run coming in boxes,” as many as 5,000 at a time. Carson distinguishes between “ordinary citizens [who] are out of place in Washington” and “professional politicians [who] rule the day” (the terms are from his book), and he pitches his message to the former while taking digs at the latter. He seems to enjoy his personal interactions on the trail and in bookstores (the tour ends November 6), which are capped off every evening when he goes on Facebook to answer questions from 4.3 million “friends” on a variety of topics. He told me that the daily sessions have been “tremendous help” to him in terms of understanding what people are thinking about. It’s “something I would continue as president.”
I wondr if it was Democrats who organized the draft-Carson campaign. They might think that Carson might be collapsible any time they want to do it.
54 degrees now in New York at 11 pm. It will be a bit cold (high in the 50s) tomorrow but will get into the 60s most of next week.
This is said to be average for this time of year.
Why aren't you live blogging SNL?
Mendota looks to be a bit choppy but that's better than frozen.
Service academy appointments are usually offered by Congressional members but the political nature of the beast puts the likes of General Westmoreland and other Defense Department dignitaries in a position of influence.
So when the General said you got one if you want one, he was one phone call from making it happen.
Trump was so, so tonight. He got better as he went along. There is a downside to looking like a silly person. And the SNL guys also got him by running over the top vulgarity in the smooth non Trump segments to offend the Evangelicals. But he stood in there and played it out strong.
The beginning sketch, with actress playing Hillary and {Larry David?] playing Bernard Sanders was also good. The language Hillary would choose to learn is "casual English" Bernie Sanders worries about crumbling infrastructure, so whenever he encounters a bridge or a tunnel, he uses a kayak. I was wondering if they had dropped Trump. I didn't see the very beginning.
Excet Carson now says it wasn't Westmoreland and he didn't even say that in his book.
His book has also:
...in the fall of 1968...most of the top colleges in the country had contacted me with offers and inducements. However, each college required a ten-dollar non-returnable entrance fee sent with the application [each college the same? Was this a price charged by a college or the price for getting his school school transcript or SAT scores sent?] I had exactly ten dollars [given to him by his mother, and he didn't want to ask for more?] so I could apply to only one.
These really do sound like the kind of mistakes that could be made by a ghostwriter.
Sammy Finkelman said...
These really do sound like the kind of mistakes that could be made by a ghostwriter.
So essentially you're suggesting that Carson didn't write his book, much like Althouse keeps intimating. Otherwise, you've done a nice job of cataloging Carson fibs. Tell me: are/were you so diligent at accruing Rodham's fibs?
I am always jealous of people like Mr Finkelman who are able to recall everything that occurred during their childhood, teen and early adult years with such clarity and accuracy. I myself, have trouble remembering the precise details of the really important events in my life, let alone the less significant ones from decades ago. Prehaps Dr Carson suffers from the same human frailty. Then, again, if he were to go back and ask his own family members and acquaintances about some specific event from his own teen years, Mr Finkelman would no doubt find that everyone with a recollection at all would have different memories from his own and from each other. So, it becomes not only a matter of determining who remembers what, but also which ones actually get the details right. Which is the nature of memory, especially of distant memories. Of course Mr Finkelman would have the luxury of knowing his own memories were the accurate version, but, perhaps, he should cut those without his gift of total recall some slack.
Yesterday morning the NPR news was that Carson had lied about Westpoint. Repeated every single lie the Politico piece had. Surely, Journolist is alive and well, no?
@Sydney
I heard several reports on WOR radio in NY mentioning the West Point hoax, but in a way that left the listener with the impression it was true.
"Yesterday morning the NPR news was that Carson had lied about Westpoint."
What, exactly, did NPR say? Was it less accurate than your calling it a "lie"?
What I want to talk about is how much I like Madison…
The pic of the flaming ginkgo tree 2 days ago,,,
The ritual of riding the Ironman bike course each summer and running from the Capitol out to Picnic Point along the lake
The fun of coming to Ironman Wisconsin to cheer every September…. my favorite sporting day of the year
The people-watching of those still trapped in the Sixties
Views like this one of the lakes…so much variety across the seasons
Blogger gadfly said...
Service academy appointments are usually offered by Congressional members but the political nature of the beast puts the likes of General Westmoreland and other Defense Department dignitaries in a position of influence.
So when the General said you got one if you want one, he was one phone call from making it happen.
Yep.
My military accadamy jr. ROTC could offer up one student for each service acadamy.
"Yesterday morning the NPR news was that Carson had lied about Westpoint."
What, exactly, did NPR say? Was it less accurate than your calling it a "lie"?
I was in the fog of waking up to the radio playing the news, but so I can't repeat it verbatim, but it was their on the hour news update. The story was that Carson asserted he had been offered a scholarship at West Point. The last sentence read by the reader was the West Point doesn't offer scholarships. Seems like they were accusing him of lying to me. (And they didn't mention that West Point has described what they give students as full scholarships.)
I am sure they did other, more in depth stories about it. They like to make mountains out of molehills when the story involves a conservative. Politicians of other persuasions? Not so much.
I don't know about NPR, but here's what Commentary Magazine (Mollie Hemmingway) said about Politico's hit piece on Dr Carson: "Politico's editorial staff on Friday conceded that entire basis of attack on Carson was invented out of whole cloth." I would say that's a nice way of saying they (Politico) lied. Didn't check the accuracy of the statement, but Ms Hemmingway is usually reliable.
Correction:
I wrote:
The experimental truth test given in a psychology class at Yale called Perceptions 301 that Carson said he was the only person in the class who passed, and as a result of which, his picture got taken by the New York Daily News.
Soehow I read and re-read the New York Times article too fats.
Iy was the Yale Daily News taht was supposed to have taken the picture.
Switching channels I caught Ben Carson saying in an interview recorded for face the Nation that theywere able to locate the course, and why couldn't [the media] have done it. I didn't get his explanation. It hasn't made it online yet. The story is stilll puzzling and what's in the book aqlso may not be being described correctly.
It sounds like suppposedly the professor told his sudents that their tests had been "burned." (Burned? In 1971 or so? Even if thrown into the garbage, and the garbage put into an incierator would someone say burned?] here seems to be some confusion about what is supposed to have happened. To be an honesty test, the students would be asked what was their grade. It would be something like I lost my record of what I marked you as. Anyway, theres somethig about taking a make-up exam then or later, and the immediate exam is more difficult, but students can say they missed the notice, and so a few students left and then everyone left, and only Carson was left to take the impossible make-up exam. Then the professor says it is a hoax, brings in the photographer from the Yale Daily News, ans gives Carson $10. I don't think it's clear what is in the book, but it can't even be in the book that way - it makes no sense. It sounds very garbled.
This is not being mentioned today, so maybe Carson does have a good answer, and I am also not hearing today about the Popeyes restaurant robbery. But that could just be media incompetence.
There's another story they are challenging now: that Carson protected some white students by hiding them in the biology lab, to which he had the key, during the riots after Martin Luther King was killed in 1968. No witnessess located.
One problem with some of these accusations is that some people seem to be also changing the claims that Ben Carson made. The first thing is, you ahve to verify what it is taht Carson claimed.
Donald Trump was milder today on Face the Nation but said a knife wouldn't be stopped by a belt buckle. The buckle would turn. Evidently, belt buckles (and Bibles) save people from bullets but not so much from knives.
Trump also gave an argument against Carson's pyramid hypothesis (which is not supported by the Bible or anything) Trump says the oyramids are rock solid - there's just a little room for the burial chambers and the passenges. It's not like modern skyscrapers made of steel.
Trump also made something of Carson evidently describing himself as having a pathology. He said you don't get cured.
There are two or three alleged other acts of violence Carson claimed he did in his childhood: raising a hammer to hit his mother, and hitting another kid with a lock. But the media have apparently resigned themselves to not being able to fact check those out. They focused on the attempted stabbing of "Bob" at age 14 (after which Carson supposedly got scared at what he had done, and resolved never again to lose his temper)
Carson is making fun of the possible attacks, like saying they'll say he had an affair with a nurse or urinated in his pants in kindergarten. (The first one we cab be virtually certain never happened, or Carson wouldn't mention it, he second is fairly common)
There's of course Mannatech, and what if anything he did to bolster false claims. The worst claims, anyway, were made before he was hired to give speeches.
And a 2012 book plagiarized something from a then 10-year old website.
New Politico story: The 2 (out of the random sample of 40) e-mails that the Inspector General of the Intelligence community said were classified, or should have been classified, weren't really classified and don't deserve to be classified.
This is not a joke. That's a real Politico story.
Soehow I read and re-read the New York Times article too fats.
I type too fast too, or don't check enough. It's too easy to miss.
jaydub said... 11/8/15, 4:52 AM
I am always jealous of people like Mr Finkelman who are able to recall everything that occurred during their childhood, teen and early adult years with such clarity and accuracy.
I can't really, although I used to remember them better.
What I said was that Carson would remember what restaurant he was in that was robbed. He was over 30 years old then. What reason is there for keeping that secret? If he named the restaurant and approximate date, it should be posisble to find a police report. (of course something police don't take or don't file reports, especially in very high crime areas) Youcouldalso track down the people who worked there. That shouldn't just hang.
As for who told him about how he could get admitted to West Point, that would be something he should remember better.
I think actually maybe the cause of all the problem with that story is that he used a ghostwriter, who didn't have all the facts straight. There are even signs of that. Because the book doesn't say that General Westmoreland offered him anything - it's just that the next sentence says he was offered one. It sounds like maybe Carson corrected his ghostwriter, but not enough.
Then, again, if he were to go back and ask his own family members and acquaintances about some specific event from his own teen years, Mr Finkelman would no doubt find that everyone with a recollection at all would have different memories from his own and from each other.
I think when you get corrected, it's not really different. You know when it's a mistake you could have made, or something you half forgot.
The issue here is with Carson claiming to have no recollection who told him about the "scholarship"
He should know this just like Scott Baker, Editor-in-Chief of The Blaze did.
Scott Baker
@bakerlink
I've been a reporter for almost 30 years. Politico's Ben Carson story is among the stupidest things I've even seen in print.
[sic - that should be "ever" seen in print. Although actually he only saw it online - does Politico have a print edition??]
Scott Baker
@bakerlink
2/ And I have my own story! When I was 18, I won a major speech contest sponsored by the VFW. The Voice of Democracy program.
3/ I was actually 17 when I won the contest. Let me be accurate! I got to go to the White House. I met Ronald Reagan
4/ That year I met many dignitaries an notable folks. I had to give my speech right after Charlton Heston at one event. Not fair.
5/ A few months after the competition, I was invited to the Pentagon to have lunch with the Secretary of the Army.
6/ During the lunch we talked about my college plans. He felt that I should go to West Point.
7/ Am I allowed to say that he "offered" me a "full scholarship" to West Point? That IS what happened...verbally.
8/ And there MAY have been a letter from his office too. I'll go dig through old boxes. I did think about it very seriously.
9/ I think my dad was strongly in favor. But I was also very interested in politics
10/ I wanted to work on 1984 Reagan campaign. Which I did. Do I need to find the pay stubs to prove that?
11/ So I politely declined the "offer" to go to West Point. Maybe I should have gone! I've been very happy with my career
12/ I rarely tell the West Point story. Not sure why. But I could in total truth describe it just like Ben Carson did.
13/ Even though I never filled out an application or received a "Welcome to West Point" letter.
14/ Maybe now I should just add it to my bio and put it on my Twitter description. "Once received offer to go to West Point."
I myself had something interesting happen to me.
When I took the SAT, you could name colelges to send the results to. I decided to add Columbia University.
Much later I received a letetr saying that my application (which I never made) needed an essay to be complete.
Nice scenery, It is very nice to see, If I could go there .. !!
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