Ben Carson: Bungling Surgeon

The National Enquirer. Nice.

 

A few years ago I got involved with some guys doing research work into RFID tagging. Was talking about it with a friend of mine who's a medical devices rep and he told me that more and more they are tagging sponges and then running a scanner over the patient before they close him/her up. The company that was marketing that back then would sell a kit with a single-use scanner and then an ample supply of sponges for something like $8,000. One hospital's accountants balked at the $2 to $3 million annual price tag, but then the legal team told them it'd save about $10 million a year in claims and insurance.

 

It beats the Conservative Treehouse.

 

Might as well have posted an Onion article.

 

That's brilliant. Did it go anywhere?

 

You doubt the Enquirer?

 

I think the average neurosurgeon has something like a 20-percent chance of getting sued in each year of practice.

 

Not sure where it is, now. A quick Google says a few years ago it'd been given FDA approval of some sort, but that's all I've got.

 

I liked these quotes from an honest self-aware brain surgeon:

“When people found out I was a brain surgeon they would always assume I was some kind of a genius,” said Harland Dorrinson, a neurosurgeon in Toledo, Ohio. “Now they are beginning to understand that you can know a lot about brain surgery and virtually nothing about anything else.”

Dorrinson said that acquaintances used to view him as a source of wisdom on a wide range of subjects, but added, “Ever since Ben Carson said that prisons make people gay, that’s really fallen off.”

This is a phenomenon I've noticed often over the years, nothing will dispel your preconceptions about a profession more than one of its best running for high office. I once thought being Admiral of the Navy and one of the most decorated officers ever meant one must be incredibly impressive, but then came Admiral Stockdale unable to complete a coherent sentence. I once thought conquering the business world meant one must be mighty impressive but then came (take your pick of so many alternatives). I once thought being a former Alaska beauty queen/small town mayor ....oops, forget that one ...but you get the idea. Guess it's ole Ben's turn to now debunk preconceptions about brain surgeons.

Suppose the lesson, as Dr. Dorrinson notes, is this: just because you know a shit-ton about one specific area does not mean you know a goddamn thing about anything else.

 

Could you actually do some research into Adm. Stockdale before spouting off? He wasn't some idiot, as you suggest.

 

What is it about politicians that makes them immune to this reality? I mean, lots and lots of otherwise brilliant people run up against an epistemic horizon every day. What is it about being able to convince people to vote for you that makes this reality disappear?

 

Yeah, Stockdale was a totally unimpressive guy.

This honestly ranks as one of the dumbest things written here -- and that's saying something.