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Ben Carson: Bungling Surgeon

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Oct 7, 2015.

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  1. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Well, there is the fact that the admissions process for elite universities is radically different from that of the military academies.
     
  2. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I am pretty sure that you have to apply to all of them to offered admission.
     
  3. YorksArcades

    YorksArcades Active Member

    Are we seriously claiming that someone can say they were admitted to a school, even if they never applied?

    Well, then -- I got into all the Ivy League schools, Duke, Stanford, all the state universities, Northwestern, USC, UCLA, and a bunch of other private schools.
     
  4. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member

    Did he say he was admitted?
     
  5. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    For the academies you also have to be nominated by your Congressperson AND you have to pass a physical fitness test. Further, the admissions decision is not nearly as academic as, say, a Stanford (where, really, all you to do is be near-perfect and not-Asian).

    If Carson was told by Gen'l Westmoreland he'd be admitted, that's tantamount to being admitted. He didn't want to go there and thus never applied, but him remembering it as him being admitted is not at all off.
     
    YankeeFan likes this.
  6. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    No, it is not Stanford (why not say it isn't the academic equivalent of Harvard or Oxford or Yale, where he actually went?). But it is still a college education. It requires the SAT, requires an application and entails admission. It's pretty selective, too. It has one of the lowest acceptance rates.

    He embellished in his book. Why is it so hard to acknowledge that? It was fine when he was trying to sell books to church groups who ate up his "God delivered me" success story -- much of which is probably embellished. Bullshit doesn't fly as easily when you put yourself under the microscope of running for president.
     
  7. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    You didn't. And neither did I or anybody else on DW's, um, blacklist.

    It was simply one single aspect/suggested reason among MANY that were offered up by many here, who did it at DW's request, while he sat back and said nothing, so that now we all still have to wonder exactly why HE thinks blacks struggle in the U.S.
     
  8. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    There is no "tantamount to being admitted." You're either admitted/accepted, or not, and you can't be if you never apply. How could anyone think they were accepted somewhere if they never applied? That's creative license, and it does nothing but make me doubt much of the rest of Carson's story.
     
  9. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I was making a little joke.

    Oh, sure. I think the legal term is puffery. But this is some pretty low-level puffery.
     
  10. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Now I could be wrong here, but I suspect that on National Signing Day the vast majority of those kids have yet to apply to their "selected" school. But we all know they're getting in.
     
    YankeeFan likes this.
  11. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    That's at the time, though.

    In Carson's case, he made reference to it, and has repeated those references, long after what would have been the fact. Those athletes still have to go through the formal process of applying and being accepted. So would Carson have had to do so, in order to actually be accepted into West Point.

    By the time he wrote his books, he certainly knew he had not been accepted, and, in my opinion, why he would write that he was is inexcusable.
     
    SnarkShark likes this.
  12. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member

    Just read an article that said voters are used to politicians embellishing, but, as a non-politician, Carson could be in trouble if his story doesn't add up. So the lesson is, as long as you're a politician, people will be happy to eat up whatever shit you feed them. I suppose that explains Hillary's appeal and why American politics has become such a fucking joke.
     
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